The “fun” starts at about 11:00 in, where the former Car and Driver Editor reveals that Ziff-Davis fired him for not apologizing to Blaupunkt for dissing their products. Throwing his trademark deference to the wind, Autoline host John McElroy then asks Davis (11:43) if “they canned your ass too, another time?” Which inspires David E. to continue his tirade, chronicling the birth of Automobile, launching a no-holds-barred attack (14:55) on his “protege” (and former welder) Jean Jennings. Davis paints her as a back-stabbing nutcase, and wishes her well (15:47): “I sometimes dream of a FedEx flight on its way to Memphis flying over Parma where she lives and a grand piano falling out of the airplane and whistling down through the air, this enormous object, and lands on her and makes the damnedest chord anybody has ever heard; this sound of music that has never been heard by the human ear. And the next morning all they can find . . . [are] some shards of wood and a grease spot and no other trace of Mrs. Jennings.” Apparently, Davis’ splenetic venting proves that Autoline is about “getting to the unvarnished truth.” Never seen an unvarnished piano.
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I lost all respect for Jennings and Automobile when she pimped the Jeep line two years ago. Anyone who can recommend the Jeep Compass with a straight face (No matter how much they are paying you) obviously is an idiot who knows nothing about cars.
Seems as though DED gets his knickers in a wad every few years over some perceived slight by another member of the auto-journalist fraternity; the last time it happened, it was with Brock Yates. And it was over something that none of us gave a freakin’ care about.
I’ve long since grown tired of his tirades. Part of me believes the old guy has a short fuse, and another part of me wonders if he manufactures these conflicts to make things interesting…sort of like WWF does.
Runfromcheney
Actually, it wasn’t two years ago but she was pimping. Big style. And TTAC was there.
Is the host drinking beer?
Considering DED snapped at me when I gave him an old pen (that needed a little scribbling to get the ink flowing) I’m not surprised that he’d wish harm to Jennings. On camera.
FWIW: I tossed his autograph shortly after. So much for meeting someone you admired and expecting a positive reaction.
Robert Farago:
It was through TTAC’s entry about it that I learned of her pimping the Compass. I didn’t think it was just last March, I thought it was longer ago.
Sajeev Mehta :
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Considering DED snapped at me when I gave him an old pen (that needed a little scribbling to get the ink flowing) I’m not surprised that he’d wish harm to Jennings. On camera.
FWIW: I tossed his autograph shortly after. So much for meeting someone you admired and expecting a positive reaction.
LOL…reminds me of when I met William Shatner. I am a massive Trek fan (no, I do NOT dress up like Mr. Spock, show up to conventions, or know how to say “where is the nearest restroom” in Klingon), and he was speaking at a convention of horse breeders in St. Louis. My best friend, another Trekkie, finagled front row seats.
So, my best friend and I sat through his talk, which was drenched with ego, and waited in line to shake his hand afterwards. The moment came, and my friend shook Shatner’s hand. He told Shatner how much he enjoyed his work – nothing about Star Trek, no quips about how Kirk and Spock were secret gay lovers, no garbage about the hairpiece – just that he enjoyed his work, and Shatner literally rolled his eyes, made a dismissive gesture, and walked away.
Egomaniacs are egomaniacs, I guess. Besides, Davis always struck me as a pompous ass.
Three things I learned from dealing with nuts in the car business.
1) Their ‘confrontation’ styled personality usually comes from dealing with people who have no grasp or respect for the work they do.
2) If you keep it short during work hours, you’ll get a torrent of good insight after hours.
3) The worst thing you can ever do in those conversations is to take anything said seriously.
While corporate folk use warm fuzzies and verbal assuasion, guys like David will usually tell you about how they would like to hire some Mexicans to dismember and disembowel their worst enemies. I’ve heard worse… much, much worse when the competition for vehicles gets fierce.
I’m sure the ‘FedEx Package’ was just a PG-13 version of his real desire.
Ever notice that these much hyped feuds among automotive journos are always about personality clashes, not journalistic integrity. Could it be that there just isn’t all that much integrity among the car mags to begin with?
I understand that auto writers are dependent on the industry they cover for information, contacts and cars to drive, but c’mon, some of these guys/gals are way to cozy with the industry and practically wear it on their sleeves.
I’ve been reading car magazines since I was 12 but am finding myself less and less interested in any of the big three (C/D, M/T and Automobile). Autoweek and Road & Track still seem pretty decent, at least you aren’t stumbling over somebody’s ugly ego every time you turn a page.
Sajeev Mehta: I think context has a lot to do with how things go down. I met D.E.D. on a car rally, had lunch with the guy, and truly enjoyed his company. I frankly had no clue who he was, other than just another car guy. Only later did somebody fill me in (I’ve never been a reader of car mags to be honest.)
FreedMike: Perhaps you’ll get a kick out of my Shatner Story.
–chuck
# Sajeev Mehta :
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Considering DED snapped at me when I gave him an old pen (that needed a little scribbling to get the ink flowing) I’m not surprised that he’d wish harm to Jennings. On camera.
FWIW: I tossed his autograph shortly after. So much for meeting someone you admired and expecting a positive reaction.
Sajeev, Sharpies are required equipment for autograph seekers. I learned that lesson at the NAIAS the year Ford showed the Cobra concept. I was asking the designer (Phil Martens, IIRC) to autograph a press kit and my roller ball pen wouldn’t write on the glossy stock. Martens said, to someone behind me, “Carroll, do you have a sharpie?”
I started getting autographs on one of the big canvas bags the NAIAS used to give out for the media previews. David Davis was pretty gracious when I asked him, but then it was at a pretty boring Porsche press conference (but that’s redundant, all Porsche press conferences are boring regardless of how exciting the cars may be).
Jennings has always struck me as being a bit impressed with herself. I’d rather ask Denise McCluggage for her autograph. I once thought I lost the bag (my son had it) and I was freaking out. I told McCluggage, who’d seen it before and she went, “Oh my, that’s irreplaceable”.
The best looking autograph I’ve gotten is Sir Jackie Stewart’s. Stewart carries his own Sharpies and has said it’s an honor to be asked for an autograph. Mario Andretti’s is the least legible. Stock car racers like to sign the side with Richard Petty’s and open wheelers go for Stewart’s side. The bag now has all sorts of champion racers, notable designers and execs, as well as a few celebrities and athletes who have been at the car shows or associated events. Most of the racers seem to be thrilled to put their name along with Shelby, Petty, Stewart et al. Even Danica. Mario was a bit of a jerk, but then he opened up when I asked him about Colin Chapman (“A very special man”).
My son and I were at Chrysler’s late, great Firehouse, and he was excited about Brandon Inge, the Tigers’ third baseman, tending bar. Dave Rozema of the ’84 Tigers was also there, so I motioned to his ring and asked Mo if he knew what that was. His eyes got real big when he realized it was a World Series ring.
He told Shatner how much he enjoyed his work – nothing about Star Trek, no quips about how Kirk and Spock were secret gay lovers, no garbage about the hairpiece – just that he enjoyed his work, and Shatner literally rolled his eyes, made a dismissive gesture, and walked away.
Maybe he was being honestly modest. He’s got to know that he’s not quite in Lawrence Olivier’s league. I’d have asked what it was like to work with Rod Serling on the Twilight Zone episode about the Korean war vet who kept seeing a Red Chinese soldier on the wing, tampering with the plane. Either that or when he was going to release another album of his “singing”.
I would love to ask Shatner how his marriage to Alan is going :). Uh, mandatory car content … thinking … and what kind of car they drove on the Honeymoon? (Hint: Boston Legal)
@mdensch :
I wouldn’t read Autoweek or Road and Track for free. Seriously, the print mags in the US are all bad. Every single last one of them. They just differ in degree of terribleness. These days if I pick up a mag at all, it’s EVO or TopGear.
Robert, any chance we’ll see you knocking back a couple of barley pops with McElroy, Sweet Pete, and DED?
I want to see one of McElroy’s “Road Mats” in action. I have to agree with them, though, when they say Michigan’s roads are terrible.
Chuck Goolsbee : Sajeev Mehta: I think context has a lot to do with how things go down… Only later did somebody fill me in (I’ve never been a reader of car mags to be honest.)
Agreed. Your enthusiast meet is far different than press days at the NYIAS. DED was livin’ it up over there, or so it seemed to this nobody writer from Blue Oval News.
Ronnie: sharpie sounds like a good idea, but from now on I’d prefer to not be an autograph hound at car shows. Me now thinks that us upstart internet/blogger guyz get treated differently than the print guys, and I’m not talking just about TTAC’s more controversial stance on things.
mattstairs :
Robert, any chance we’ll see you knocking back a couple of barley pops with McElroy, Sweet Pete, and DED?
Yes. Good idea. How about that Robert? We’d love to see you on this.
Detroit-X
The last time I went on their show, I sounded hysterical. And I was. It was a gang bang, and not the good kind. Well, for me. Not that I participate in gang bangs. Or approve of anything other than a loving relationship between two parties who’ve given their mutual consent. To each other. Anyway . . .
Yes, Robert’s last appearance there was quite ugly. You had DeLorenzo refusing to speak at first, and then going off about how he doesn’t read “Tic-Tac” and how he doesn’t give a shit about what Robert thinks. Vines showed how much of a blowhard he is and went off on a jingoistic tirade where he made several references to World War 2. Meanwhile McElroy just smugly enjoyed what was going on while occasionally stating his delusional fantasy that the Big 3 are going to be storming back any time now.
I always thought Jean Jennings was a man. Shows how much I pay attention.
Have some sympathy. One day you are editor and publisher of a huge magazine, with press cars to order and fat, fat ad placements.
The internet shows up. Suddenly not only do you lose your exclusivity, your place in the stars, but you find yourself having to compete with the hoi polli who previously only was able to send you snail mail letters.
The advertisers go away. Press cars become “what we have to give you”, not “what you want”. The magazines get really thin.
Meanwhile, TTAC and others don’t have to worry about slagging a POS on the market, whereas you had to “write in code”.
Worse, video becomes easy, and poor behavior which may have worked in an office setting is now able to be seen by all and sundry. Editors are not TV presenters.
C/D was gold in the 80’s. I loved the DWI, The DWI-marijuana articles. How to speed. The only reliable radar detector tests prior to theguysoflidar.
Now that everyone has a printing press, life has changed.
I once met him, along with Jamie Kitman. JK is a gentleman, and DED was quite nice, although he spent most of the time talking to a friend who’d come with me (a scotch company sponsored a meet-up in NYC) about cooking schools. What I learned from this is still valuable. If you have the chance to meet someone famous for X, try to discuss Y, Z or A. You have a much better chance at getting to know the person.
// I always thought Jean Jennings was a man. Shows how much I pay attention. //
If you look at recent photos it’s not necessarily obvious…
As for DED… I really liked his work back when he was at the top of his game. I miss the old days of Car & Driver.
Thank goodness for TTAC…
I have not been impressed with DED’s recent editorials in C&D. They come off as out-of-touch and behind the times. I’m sure he was a big deal back in the 70s, but it is very obvious to me that this guy needed to retire already.
There’s also that Jerry Flint (Fortune?) that makes me cringe whenever I see his writing. I keep thinking “darn kids get off my lawn” whenever I read that guy’s editorials.
Ronnie: sharpie sounds like a good idea, but from now on I’d prefer to not be an autograph hound at car shows. Me now thinks that us upstart internet/blogger guyz get treated differently than the print guys, and I’m not talking just about TTAC’s more controversial stance on things.
Autograph hounds or not, there’s clearly a pecking order, though the smart companies are more solicitous of new media.
Dutch Mandell walks around like some kind of pasha, and Keith Crain is worse. They expect special treatment from the automakers and they get it. If there’s a divide between the fourth estate and the automakers, hereditarily privileged sorts like Mandell and Crain are on the other side. They’re clearly insiders. So are most of the buff book writers whose names you’d recognize. They have the equivalent of all-access passes, getting invited to the inner sanctum private parts of the displays where they keep the good booze.
For a member of the lucky sperm club, Crain is pretty arrogant, though I’ll concede he’s pretty knowledgeable about the car biz – automotive news is literally his family’s business. I once mentioned to him that I followed the Chinese and Indian auto industries online and he sniffed that he actually goes to China (and I’m sure he travels Business or First Class). I wonder if he ever found out that his longtime editor in charge of Automotive News China hated cars. I was talking with her at Chrysler’s Firehouse and mentioned Israel when talking about how successful former British colonies are. She said, “Israel is a terrorist state”. After that quintessentially stupid remark it was hard for me to take anything she wrote about cars and the car biz seriously.
Ronnie Schreiber :
September 4th, 2009 at 1:03 am
Maybe he was being honestly modest. He’s got to know that he’s not quite in Lawrence Olivier’s league. I’d have asked what it was like to work with Rod Serling on the Twilight Zone episode about the Korean war vet who kept seeing a Red Chinese soldier on the wing, tampering with the plane. Either that or when he was going to release another album of his “singing”.
Naw, he was just being a douche, which, by all accounts, is something he does quite well.
By the way, the Twilight Zone episode you refer to involved a gremlin on the wing, not a Chinese soldier. Best episode ever. Directed by Richard Donner, who went on to make “The Omen,” “Superman,” and the “Lethal Weapon” movies.
Chuck Goolsbee :
September 4th, 2009 at 12:02 am
FreedMike: Perhaps you’ll get a kick out of my Shatner Story.
Oh, my…good stuff.
Speaking of David E., “Thus Spake David. E.”, a hardcover collection of some of his best magazine pieces, is a very enjoyable read. The guy can write, he’s got pretty good taste in cars, guns and food, and doesn’t take himself too seriously (at least in his writing). Am I jealous of his toys? Sure, he has some great toys.
Besides, Davis always struck me as a pompous ass.
+1
Very interesting glimpse into the personalities we’re all familiar with, especially from the days before great internet auto journalism was available. +1 on the “Thank God for TTAC” comments.
I admit I do still have a subscription to Automobile. Of the “big three” (R&T, C&D, Automobile), they’re the one that still appeals to me on some level. It doesn’t hurt that I got three years’ worth of the magazine for $30, either. Although that makes me think they’re getting pretty desperate to keep circulation numbers up.
As speedlaw alluded to, I can remember when Automobile was a lot thicker than it is today. I can also remember reading aging early ’90s issues of C&D during my middle and high school years from ’98 to 2004 (I discovered Grandpa’s stash from when he had a subscription for a few years in the late ’80s and early ’90s), and thinking that those issues represented C&D at its zenith. It’s been downhill ever since.
For what it’s worth, Jennings’ columns seldom blow me away. Jamie Kittman, however, is just weird enough to keep me enthralled most months. Ezra Dyer has done some great work this year, too. So if Jennings’ columns aren’t that interesting principally because she’s busy keeping the other writers’ work sharp and exciting, I’d say she’s doing an okay job.
FreedMike: By the way, the Twilight Zone episode you refer to involved a gremlin on the wing, not a Chinese soldier. Best episode ever. Directed by Richard Donner, who went on to make “The Omen,” “Superman,” and the “Lethal Weapon” movies.
It was a good episode, but “Eye of the Beholder,” featuring a pre-Elly May Donna Douglas (who was quite a hottie in her day), is still THE best episode.
Twilight Zone: The Movie featured the gremlin episode (with John Lithgow in the William Shatner role), and it was one case where the remake was better than the original.
As for meeting “famous” people – I once attended an a very small event (about 25 people in attendance) where Csaba Csere spoke. He was a very good speaker and graciously answered our questions.
Banger: As speedlaw alluded to, I can remember when Automobile was a lot thicker than it is today.
All publications are getting smaller. Check out Time and Newsweek – they are both much thinner than they were 15 or 20 years ago. Content is much less impressive, too.
Davis has never been anything more than a whining, elitist, self-righteous, self-entitled hypocrite — a true Uh-mer’kin.
Falling pianos? Is this Toon Town?
Also, who Fedexes a piano?
I started subscribing to C&D in 1983, and have nearly all of the 1980s issues. Those were the good days. Amazing how much better the magazine was back then, before they hired everyone they used to ridicule at Motor Trend.
I honestly can’t decide if Jennings has become a sycophantic hack for her advertisers, or if she’s a true believer. Her op-ed about Detroit rising like a phoenix in the October issue is typical of her recent work. She actually states that GM must be shocked that they managed to change their culture so quickly in bankruptcy. Um, what exactly has changed in GM’s culture?
DED has always struck me as a gigantic ego in wannabe English peerage wrappings.
Anyone who can recommend the Jeep Compass with a straight face
funny you mention the Compass. One of the few vehicles I have encountered that are truly deserving of the all the scorn heaped on it. The bizarre misfire that made the car feel like it was about to stall (this occurred at random) was the worst of it…but there was plenty more.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz has it exactly right. I really miss the old C/D (I just got the current issue in the last couple of days, and I’ve already pitched it–it commits the ultimate sin of being boring.) But, as SLB also says, thank heavens for TTAC.
@tpandw
The October issue of C/D was pretty boring. So were the last four years of C/D. But John Phillips is still entertaining. Something about his writing style reminds me of John Kennedy Toole. He’s usually good for a laugh or two.
Jean Jennings lives in Parma? like in Italy Parma? geeze. I guess thats why she’s always smiling.
About DED, I thought the work he did with Automobile mag was no less then brilliant. That magazine was a paradym shifter. Before that, I didn’t read car mags, they were boring. Automobile grabbed my attention with excellent writing, and the idea that cars were more than the sum of their parts, and there was more to car culture than “how many horses”. I have differed with him occasionally, but in general, I find him a passionate man of excellent taste.
I met him a few times at car shows, we chatted, I found him an excellent conversationalist. Never snooty or preachy. Just as I suspected.
Jean Jennings, who I also respect tho not as much, seems to have reduced Automobile to just another car mag. It’s a shame, but at least it resulted in a place in Parma! I have also liked Kittman, who i read fairly regularly.
This site seems to have taken the place of the DED era Automobile mag for me. It is intellegent, thoughtful, and full of stuff that simply is not available elsewhere, at least not in the same way. I appreciate this.
I suppose I am not a “normal” car guy. I am not into NASCAR, not into horsepower wars, engine size, etc. I prefer my car to get me from A to B in reasonable comfort, perhaps being entertained along the way. If I were to write a piece on a car, I would refer to the experience of being in the thing as much as the dinner I ate when I got to where I was going. This is what DED did. I appreciated that, and still do. Some people find this approach snooty (I have been accused as well), however for me it lets me apprecaiate a wider range of vehicles, from the lowly to the lofty.
So, long live the king. Of course I will buy the book. Of course.
Automobile magazine’s design and writing were both “borrowed” from Car magazine in the UK, which is my favorite auto magazine, although I no longer read it since it’s so expensive ($10 an issue! Ouch).
Automobile looks like a slightly cut down imitation of Car and, at least when I read it, hired the same writers and published almost identical articles. Automobie was, however, less fearless than Car. I will never forget when Car, at about the same time GM’s A-bodies were being lauded, said right on the cover that the Rover 800 series, just as crucial for Rover as the A-bodies were to GM, was “not good enough”.
So I could criticize DED for plagiarism but I probably should praise him for having the good taste to take Car’s superb writing and photography across the pond.
D
jerseydevil:
“If I were to write a piece on a car, I would refer to the experience of being in the thing as much as the dinner I ate when I got to where I was going. This is what DED did. I appreciated that, and still do.”
Automobile still does this about once a month. At least one good article will be dedicated to a journey/road trip feature where the car is the star, and the destinations (cities, restaurants, landmarks, et al.) are the supporting cast. One of the best things Automobile does, in my opinion.
Ronnie Schreiber :
September 4th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Speaking of David E., “Thus Spake David. E.”, a hardcover collection of some of his best magazine pieces, is a very enjoyable read. The guy can write, he’s got pretty good taste in cars, guns and food, and doesn’t take himself too seriously (at least in his writing).
+1 on his writing ability, for sure. Ditto for Brock Yates.
of all the racers I’ve met over the years at Amelia Island, the two best were:
John Surtees: Genuine, humble, still full of wonder. He was excited that they were going to let him ride one of his TT bikes up the fairway to the podium. A really great guy to talk to.
Junior Johnson: may have been an “aw, shucks” act, but it was a damn good one. Funny, easygoing, loved talking about his 1964 Chevy Cup car. When you looked at how they built those old NASCAR cars, you know the meaning of brave.
Worst: Bobby Rahal. Maybe it was because he had just gotten sacked from Jaguar F1, but he was surly and short with everyone.
jerseydevil: “Jean Jennings lives in Parma? like in Italy Parma?”It was more likely Parma, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland).
rudiger :
September 4th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
jerseydevil: “Jean Jennings lives in Parma? like in Italy Parma?”
It was more likely Parma, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland).
Nope. Parma, Michigan. Town of 900 people. On I-94 about 45 miles due east of Automobile’s Ann Arbor, Michigan offices.
DED and Shatner sounds like the guys I see in Amazon.com reviews that buy some $500 gadget, find they are unhappy with it and declare in a review rant that they are going to smash it against the wall, or trash bin it, or whatever…
A little too dramatic…
You are a celebrity b/c people are interested in who you are and what you do. Show some interest in return.
That said, being a celebrity would get old.
Eventually… VBG.
I gotta ask – is this author the Bob Farago whom I knew when he was an RX-7 driving Tufts student, and I was living on Waterhouse Street not far from the campus, and he had a public access show on local cable, and . . .
If so, Bob, please email me at montague.gammon@gmail.com!
Mourning the loss of David E. But remembering the all the wonderful stories he told. The automotive world has lost a giant.