You’re the top; you’re a Brewster body,” wrote Cole Porter in 1934, to rhyme with “You’re the top; you’re a Ritz hot toddy.” The custom coachwork business at Brewster & Co. was waning, but the American public knew that a Brewster body was indeed “the top.”
The Brewsters began building carriages early in the nineteenth century. In 1905, Brewster built its first automobile body, and by 1911 was out of horse-drawn carriages entirely. Having imported the French Delaunay-Belleville for a time, in 1914 Brewster took on the Rolls-Royce franchise. Not surprisingly, American Rolls-Royce cars often wore Brewster bodies. In 1915, Brewster began to manufacture whole cars, with Knight sleeve valve engines and a distinctive oval radiator. Most were town cars, like this one built for Vernon C. Brown of New York City and now in the collection of The Henry Ford.
When Rolls-Royce opened a plant at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1919, they established a line of standard bodies for the American-built line, many of which were built by Brewster on Long Island. The relationship of the two firms grew closer, and in 1925 Rolls bought Brewster. Popular body styles were the Speedster tourer and the Newmarket convertible sedan on Phantom I chassis. For the Phantom II, Brewster built such models as the Dover sedan and Newport town car on imported chassis, as manufacture at Springfield had ceased.
All custom body houses were struggling by the early 1930s, and Brewster entered receivership in 1934. John Inskip, Rolls-Royce of America executive and dealer, took over the firm and started building some low-priced custom jobs on American chassis, mostly Fords but occasionally Buick and other large cars. Most of these bore distinctive flying fenders and heart-shaped grilles. They came as town cars, phaetons and even roadsters. A few, like a ’34 built for Edsel Ford, had conventional grilles. Some find the heart-shaped Brewsters lovable; others think they’re arresting, but everyone agrees they’re distinctive. You can read more about them at the Brewster Car Society web site.
It couldn’t last. In August 1937, Brewster’s assets were sold at auction. To put it Porterly, they were “just about to stop; But if, baby, I’m the bottom, You’re the top!”
