The Man behind the Pony
His
passion for music never ended until his final days.
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Marylin
Clark remembers
Phil Clark was born October
27, 1935 in Iowa. He moved to Nashville Tennessee not
long after PEARL HARBOR-- 1942. Phil's father was with the Civilian
Conservation Corps (Federal Government). The Nashville
move was a job change for the family for Mr. Clark to work on the
Air Base (Corps of Engineers) & then Avco ( making
planes for the World War II war effort). He sent
Phil to Peabody Demonstration (private)School where Phil already
had learned to play his first of many instruments--a ukulele.
(Editors
note: We will emphasize this later again, because it has a relation to a
Mustang study called ALLEGRO.)
I (Marilyn) met him, while he
worked with a construction site (Rogers Construction) near my house. He
saw me cutting our grass when he would drive by to the site, and he asked me
out. Phil and I dated for the following 7 years.
As a teenage he was on the Nol
Ball Show where he did Pan amine. He also played the
Piano there and for all the Talent Scouts. My greatest memory is
when he played "Rhapsody
and Blue" for me. Phil later went to Hillsboro High School, where
he was in many Talent shows, and won many awards.
He played a lot at our school(West End) and since we did not have a TV yet, so those things (talent shows at schools) were really popular. He also wore silk and satan shirts that his sister Barbara made for him. His outfits made him look like Elvis Presley so all the girls were attracted to him because Elvis was very popular. He even played with Pat Boone. I remember him beating Pat Boone at War Memorial in Downtown Nashville in a Talent contest. That was 1952, I think. He was given a scholarship to Vanderbilt University where he was planning to be a Doctor, but he could not keep the hours up, though he tried.
He also worked for
AVCO with his father and was apprenticed in aerodynamics of airplanes
engineering. His father wanted him to be an engineer like he was. He
soon turned to art and advertising. He even made commercials. While working
for Advertising in Sears Department Store.. That is when he
bought the 1953 Studebaker; his first car.
He became a real "layout
man", but he wanted what he considered a higher class job, so he
went to CAIN SLOAN Department Store, and that is.. is where he went to
FRANK
NICHOLS... and took the FAMOUS ART COURSE
(through mail). Because
of his love of cars, engineering and art he sent some of his auto drawings
to Chrysler Corporation, and received a letter from them that told him
to choose a Auto Design School, complete the course (with honors)
and then come back to them. They recommended two schools:
Pratt
in New York or Art
Center School of
Design in Los Angeles .
His mom and dad said
absolutely NO, you aren't going! (She knew he was very sick and didn't want
him so far away) Since his family wouldn't help him, I bought his
car and gave him $970.00 for the title and let him keep the car.
That ended in a family
joke--he married me just to get the car back. (Marilyn fades back into
time as she remembers) He really loved that Studebaker.
It was on the way to California in the Studebaker that we saw the
Wild Mustangs in Nevada and Phil decided to start drawing the
Stallion to represent his cars. He got the idea from the Ferrari horse
emblem. He had gone to California with big plans. He wanted to one day
have his own line of cars that you would step into like the body by Fisher
cars, but his cars would say, Body By Clark, and the Mustang Stallion
would represent the Clark cars.
He had already his health problems before we married. I remember meeting
Phil's Doctor, and he saw my engagement ring. He said, I need you to
come to my office, so I did. He said, "Do you realize what you are
doing? Phil isn't going to live very long. Make sure you have (life)
insurance, (and he just shook his head), what kind of path you
will have--I am not sure". I told him, "I love him and I am
going to marry him". His Mom said that he just wasn't physically
able to get married and she kept saying to him that
'you are sick'-'you CAN'T work- you are too
ill'. I dated
him the whole 7 years without meeting his mother. because he was scared his
mother would break us up--a sad story. His sister, Barbara
was the one who took care of us. She made beautiful clothes. I
remember a blue dress that made me look like a Southern Belle
with big puff sleeves--yes, she fought the family for us tooth and nail, even when
he told them we were going to England. Phil thought (1964)America didn't appreciate what
he had to offer since it wasn't football, baseball etc. He thought the English were
more educated and he could do more with his artistic talent (and be
appreciated for it). He loved the museums, ART and OPERA. He
appreciated culture, he felt like he was English. We always ate in the
dining room, at the table. He wanted candlelight dinners with fine
foods, like asparagus and veal. At one point he said he wanted to learn
to be a CHEF. In Rochester, New YORK at to FOUR SEASONS he
had a 7 course MEAL, and felt that is how one should always eat. He had his
own views on children too.
He used to say, 'It doesn't
matter if you only have a dime in your pocket, you can always look like a
rich man. You may have one pair of nice shoes, and one suit, .but you can
look nice, when you go out'. That is all he had, one
pair of each. We were not rich.
GM was a time when he
was being very creative, he started looking less suave, many said he began
to look like a slob. (When he was on an artistic roll, that was all he
could think about, was the art he was involved in, the rest of the world
stopped.) He couldn't get to work because our car was beat to
pieces since we had to park on the side walk. so we bought a 56
Chrysler---but that is another story.
In Detroit as long as we
lived with Elaine and Fred Hoadley(LINK HERE!!!) we could get to work..
.but when we had to depend on the Chrysler we couldn't get to work in the
SNOW, with no money and the car wouldn't run. We lived with Fred and
Elaine on the floor with just a mattress in Royal Oak, Mi
while I went to work for Wayne Oakland Bank. Phil was let go from GM,
for reasons I don't quite know, but I know that he was upset that he wasn't
getting credit for his own work. He had worked on the World's Fair Car's of
the Future for them, and also on the World's fair (1964) for Ford.
He worked with Ford with the promise of getting credit for his what he
did, and more money. We had hoped to get on our feet then. That was in 1962.
I think he was 27 and I was about 24. Little
did I know that I would have a baby in 3 years and he would be gone when he
was only 32.
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