Finally, some real hero news from New York, and no, it sure as f**k was not anything to do with NYPD, it was UPS and Spider-Man! Street sweeper rolled backwards down a street smashed cars, UPS driver saw it happening and drove into the truck to stop it. Spider-Man quick jumped in to direct traffic

https://www.tiktok.com/@whatisnewyorkofficial/video/7286151608151444767

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx_BKVYr2ZM/

best use of googly eyes, a street cleaning leaf vacuum machine

 

some kind of interesting early street sweeper

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2216000102000133/posts/3335346416732157

1956 street sweeper

https://photobygibson.com/archive/collections/archive/City-of-Hudson-1955---1959/

I had forgotten that Alex Tremulis designed a street sweeper... huh! I had forgotten until Dennis mentioned it, and I went to look it up. Thanks Dennis!

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2011/12/07/mobile-alabama-1940s

The one I posted yesterday didn't have the Austin Western lettering on it. But the two I posted in 2016 (and completely forgotten) did http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/05/austin-western-street-sweeper.html

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/461337555561706800/
https://www.adspast.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=40820

Austin-Western was the first road machinery company, with its origins dating back to the start of modern road building after the civil war. In the 1950's, as the Interstate highway commitment signaled the last of that great road infrastructure boom, Austin-Western was paired with Baldwin Locomotive, a holdover from the great age of steam.

https://www.worldsweeper.com/History/AustinWestern.html

In December 1943, Richmond Mayor Gordon Ambler broke in the city’s new street sweeper, which had been on order for months.

Wartime restrictions on manufacturing slowed production and delivery of the motorized sweeper, which city officials said was needed in light of the labor shortage in the streets unit of the Department of Public Works. The low bidder for the sweeper priced it at $4,325.

https://richmond.com/news/local/history/from-the-archives-250-photos-of-richmond-in-the-1940s/collection_3a97b2d3-eb3c-575b-8ba5-f6ddfa4de67f.html

LA begins using nation's first hybrid-electric street sweepers, and nicknamed them Angus and Malcolm

The plug-in hybrid Broom Bears, as they’re called, are the first in the nation to run on compressed natural gas and battery-electric power.

https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/environment/2022/02/15/la-begins-using-nation-s-first-hybrid-electric-street-sweepers

interesting small street sweeper in Philly in the mid 50s

 and Happy Belated birthday to Joe Sherlock! It was Aug 5th, last Thursday. 

http://www.joesherlock.com/Philly13.html#Street_Sweeper

I love cool old photos like this, with unusual vehicles (street sweeper) next to a cool airplane, with a delivery van in back, and then something interesting and with wheels, like the apu near the front tire

https://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5156036-Vintage-photos-Awesome!/page285

Coincidentally, it's the same type of street sweeper that Danny made http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2020/10/in-2013-danny-downs-of-topeka-kansas.html from copper and brass

brilliant advertising method. It's mobile and will be seen by a lot of various people, it's similarly shaped, and does the same function as the product it's advertising

Guerrilla marketing is quite different from traditional marketing efforts. It’s defined as: an advertisement strategy concept designed for businesses to promote their products or services in an unconventional way with little budget to spend. 

The original term was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book ‘Guerrilla Advertising’. Today there are 58 volumes in 62 languages, and more than 21 million copies have been sold worldwide. Levinson suggests that campaigns need to be shocking, unique, outrageous and clever. It needs to create buzz.

The main point of guerrilla marketing is that the activities are done exclusively on the streets or other public places, such as shopping centers, parks or beaches with maximum people access so as to attract a bigger audience.
https://www.liontreegroup.com/marketing/what-is-guerrilla-marketing/

https://www.oneclub.org/awards/theoneshow/-award/11577/street-sweeper

Honorary mayor of Beverly Hills in 1926, Will Rogers

Honorary Mayor Will Rogers demonstrates the city's brand new Elgin Street Sweeper in front of Beverly Hills’ original City Hall at the terminus of N Crescent Drive and Burton Way.

“Honorary” meant there was really nothing significant for him to do. But still, when the city acquired a new Elgin Street Sweeper, who better to demonstrate it with a drive to the original Beverly Hills city hall?

Honorary Mayor Will Rogers and the Beverly Hills Fire Department standing outside the city's first City Hall and fire station.

https://patch.com/california/beverlyhills/this-day-in-beverly-hills-history-will-rogers-citys-f510efa200f
https://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_City_Views%20(1925%20+)_6_of_8.html


A new candidate for Pomona mayor appeared on the scene March 8, 1927.

He had everything you’d want in a mayor – good speaking skills, leadership ability and the ability to do rope tricks.

The only thing going against Will Rogers becoming the top man in Pomona was that he already was a mayor, though honorary, in Beverly Hills. Working some local flavor into his talk, Rogers said he would be a perfect alternative to the numerous candidates running in Pomona’s upcoming election.

He assured the audience that a year as honorary mayor of Beverly Hills had prepared him for leadership, and that he could easily take on another city – maybe even two.

“I will come and be mayor of your town, and it won’t cost you a cent,” he said. “Why, I can still be mayor of Beverly Hills and take on San Bernardino to boot. I could run San Bernardino nights and operate Pomona by telephone.”

He was asked how he could be mayor of Beverly Hills while always traveling around the world.

“He declared that therein lay the secret of his success,” said the newspaper account. He “advised that every other city would be a thousand fold better off if the mayor would get out of town and stay out during … their administration.”

Rogers came to Pomona at the height of his popularity. The frequent guest of the world’s elite, he took particular delight in poking fun at those in power.

He told the audience he had recently been in England during a strike by coal workers. There, the strikers collected $1 a day from a union strike fund.

“He explained to the authorities that this paying men when they did not work was all wrong,” reported the Pomona Bulletin the next day. “He knew because we had tried it here with the Senate and (House of) Representatives.”

Some other observations:

He said it was wrong for the United States to intervene in unrest in China: “He thinks things have come to a pretty mess when a country can’t have its own civil war without other nations butting in. China did not interfere when America had its Civil War, and why should we do so now?”

On assisting farmers: “It isn’t necessary for Congress to pass any more relief bills for the farmers as they have been relieved of about everything now.”

On his recent trip to Europe: “All nations in Europe hated Americans, but they did not hate Americans half as much as they hated each other, because they had just begun to hate Americans, whereas they had been hating each other for 2,000 years.”

On a plan to force New York City saloons to close at 3 a.m.: “He thinks that a town that isn’t drunk by 3 a.m. isn’t half trying.”

https://www.dailynews.com/2010/05/24/will-rogers-almost-roped-into-taking-mayors-reins/

But before Rogers left Beverly Hills, he was named the town's "Honorary Mayor" in December 1926. A popular resident, Rogers was also a generous financier to Beverly Hills, having personally paid for a gymnasium and handball court for the city's police force. However, just weeks after his inauguration, the California Legislature ruled that Rogers could not serve because Beverly Hills was obligated to make the president of the board of trustees its mayor.

street cleaner at work in 1910 appears to be at least a two man operation

https://onceuponatown.tumblr.com/post/76989870123/new-york-auto-street-cleaner-at-work-c1910

The Gaz-MM wheeled Pu-7 street cleaning vehicles during Moscow streets cleanup, 1938.

looks very Buck Rogers or Metropolis from the back...

https://ritkanlathatotortenelem.blog.hu/2017/02/05/napi_erdekes_184_eszbonto_szovjetunio

but very mundane from the front

http://prikol.bigmir.net/view/272630
http://visualrian.ru/en/site/photo/historic/1930/?startfrom=288

street sweeper, 1938 Vienna

http://frenchcurious.tumblr.com/post/126512332733/v%C3%A9hicule-de-nettoyage-vienne-1938-atomic-samba

Street sweepers in LA, 1957

https://calisphere.org/item/0caa98b6a7c38397adad6094a57c28ee/

a restored Renault street sweeper

http://www.lesrendezvousdelareine.com/2016/09/camion-poubelle-benne-a-ordure-menagere.html

interesting grin on this street sweeper truck

Austin Western street sweeper

https://www.facebook.com/All-Things-Vintage-1548902362053001/?fref=photo

Street cleaning a ninety years ago. Obviously, they did a better job then, they had to, lots of horses were using the streets for a toilet

https://www.facebook.com/weimarrepublic/?fref=photo

the Muir steam street sweeper, from the October 1903 issue of The Automobile

Found on http://aacalibrary.tumblr.com/post/139726109122/steam-street-sweeper-1903-from-the-october

Thanks Steve!