Classic Refuse Trucks BOWLES DEALER ALBUM

S. Vincen Bowles Company
Advertising

This November, 1957 Econ-O-Packer ad from American City is a rare instance where Bowles equipment was shown in a national publication. This small text ad is the only one I have ever run across by Bowles in that magazine, and was likely placed by distributor J.E. McDonald. Bowles seemed to be targeting the southern California market exclusively in the early years, whereas rival Dempster ran full page ads nationally every month for years.

This is the same 28 yard tuck shown on the first page of this article. The text here would indicate that it was owned by the City of Glendale, although it bears no markings.

From 1959, an International tandem LCF with Bowles body owned by Culver City, California, home to three major movie studios. This is part of a new fleet purchased when the city took over refuse collection service earlier that year, and one of three Bowles packers used to service commercial accounts. It has the FL-4 lift arms (over-cab arms and side forks). One of these trucks is most likely the front loader seen in the Twilight Zone episode "Mr. Bevis".

See the CRT Films section for a picture of the Twilight Zone truck.

A list of customers from about 1957-58, prepared by Bowles' Rocky Mountain dealer H.M. Rattle of Denver, Colorado. At the top of the list is United Rubbish, whose owner Philip Gentile Jr. collaborated with Bowles on their early front loader designs.

An early printed advertising flyer for Bowles, circa 1960, showing the fleet of Best Disposal, one their bigger customers. Again we see a Bowles body with horizontal top brace along the top edge. The sheet boasts that "500 rubbish units" were in service, which probably includes non-compaction bodies built since 1952.

By contrast with their business partner, Converto Manufacturing advertised frequently when they began to sell the Bowles product line, starting with these ads from 1961 showing a Partial-Packer with the high lift telescopic hoist (above) and the full line (below) which includes front loader bodies, roll-off and the Load-N-Pack side loader.

9/3/06