Who Tore Up the Tracks? · Episode 6 of 24 · 27 min
The Roger Rabbit Episode: National City Lines on Trial
Judge Doom of Roger Rabbit buys the Red Cars to kill them; the real story is stranger. National City Lines, funded by General Motors, Firestone, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum and Mack Trucks, bought transit systems in dozens of cities. A 1949 jury convicted them of rigging supplier sales but acquitted them of conspiring to monopolize transit, with fines of $5,000 per company.
Who's who
- E. Roy FitzgeraldMinnesota bus entrepreneur who built National City Lines
- H. C. GrossmanGeneral Motors treasurer fined one dollar in the 1949 verdict
- Edwin J. QuinbyRailway enthusiast whose 1946 pamphlet warned of a plot to scrap railways
- Bradford C. SnellAttorney whose 1974 Senate statement created the strong conspiracy legend
- George W. HiltonTransportation economist who rebutted Snell
- Cliff SlaterResearcher whose 1997 article rebutted Snell point by point
- Martha J. BiancoUrban studies scholar who analyzed why the conspiracy story persists
- Robert C. PostHistorian estimating the combine touched about ten percent of U.S. transit
Where it happens
- Los Angeles, California+13 more episodesHome of the Pacific Electric Red Cars, which the combine never owned
- Chicago, Illinois+15 more episodesFederal jury returned the split verdict in 1949
- Minnesota Iron RangeWhere the Fitzgerald brothers began running buses around 1920
Timeline
- 1936National City Lines reorganized as a holding company
- 1945American City Lines buys the Los Angeles Railway, the Yellow Cars
- April 1947Federal grand jury indicts nine corporations and seven individuals
- March 1949Chicago jury convicts on supplier conspiracy, acquits on conspiring to monopolize transit
- February 1974Snell testifies to a Senate subcommittee
- 1988Who Framed Roger Rabbit fixes the legend in popular memory
Still debated
Scholars dispute Snell's account: the combine never owned Pacific Electric, controlled about 46 systems rather than a hundred, and streetcar abandonment was industry-wide in cities it never entered. The conviction proves supplier capture, not a plot to destroy transit.
