In addition to naming the iconic car, Scott created the All-American Soap Box Derby, which started in 1933 and was sponsored by Chevrolet from 1935 through 1972.
Scott, who worked for 22 years as chief photographer and art director at the Dayton Daily News, was looking for a Sunday picture page and found some boys racing homemade cars down a street in Oakwood. Scott thought this looked like a great idea for kids to build their own gravity-powered cars so he organized an event to be held in Dayton in 1933 on Burkhardt Hill.
The 1934 Derby attracted competitors from across the nation. It drew 50,000 spectators to the finals and had 413 participants.
Credit: Dayton Daily News Archive
Credit: Dayton Daily News Archive
The site of the race was eventually moved to Germantown Street in 1937 and was held either at the Germanton location or Wright-Patterson Air Force Base until 1971, when it returned to the original Burkhardt Ave. location.
Taking about the early days of the soap box derby, Scott said, “It was fun at the start. The boys used orange crates, any kind of box, in fact; they covered the box with cloth to imitate the fabric-covered wings on airplanes. The wheels came off baby buggies and push carts. There were wood rims and steel rims. Some of them used pneumatic tires. All we asked was for a kid to build it himself. He could get advice from experts, but the work had to be his.”
Chevrolet later hired Scott to join its advertising team as a manager and photographer. There, Scott worked on various advertising campaigns and led a team of photographers who shot the photos for advertising and sales brochures.
During his days at the Dayton Daily News, he was said to be the first photographer to catch a wheel flying of a race car at the Indianapolis 500.
After retiring from Chevrolet, Scott moved back to the area, living in Centerville and Kettering for the remainder of his life.
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