From Silver Moons to the Silver Screen — Alma’s Travel Trailers
By Dianna Stampfler
In February 1954, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios released a 96-minute movie called “The Long, Long Trailer” with the beloved husband-and-wife duo Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. While the film became the highest grossing comedy at the time—earning just under five million dollars across the United States and Canada—the real star of the show was the luxurious 1953 36-foot New Moon camper made by the Redman Trailer Company in Alma, Michigan.
Humble Midwest Beginnings
Growing up in rural mid-Michigan at the turn of the twentieth century, William H. “Bill” and Harold F. “Harry” were the oldest of James and Lucy Redman’s five children, born in 1887 and 1889, respectively. During their early years, the family moved between Gratiot and Isabella counties where James worked as a farmer.
By 1914, James had ventured into the wholesale grocery market, constructing a 60-by-70-foot warehouse near East Superior Street and Gratiot Avenue in Alma, Michigan. Bill and Harry Redman joined the family business, which became known as Redman Brothers Wholesale Grocers. When World War I broke out, both Redman brothers completed their draft cards. While Bill Redman was not enlisted, Harold Redman became the first man in Gratiot County to be accepted by the Army after passing his examination “with flying colors.”
The Redman family wholesale grocery business thrived and expanded over the years, with James working alongside his sons until his death in 1930 at the age of 70. Six years later, operations moved to a larger location near the Michigan Central Railroad. Around this time, the ambitious brothers stumbled into a new venture that would take the country by storm and put Alma, Michigan on the map.
A Recreational Pastime
The two oldest Redman brothers were avid hunters. In the early 1930s, they envisioned a trailer that could be used for their hunting and camping expeditions, turning to engineering friend Allen Hathaway to bring the concept to life. However, before the brothers could even take their trailer for a test drive, they had an offer to buy it. They decided to build more trailers, knowing that purchasing bulk materials would help keep costs down and profits up. After constructing 30 trailers for others throughout the area, they were finally able to build trailers for themselves.
Recognizing the opportunity before them, Hathaway and the Redman brothers formed the Alma Trailer Company in 1934 and began mass production of their two-wheeled travel trailers. Hathaway filed a patent on December 28, 1935, for a “new, original, and ornamental Design for Trailers” called the Silvermoon House Trailer. A 1936 newspaper stated that the price started at $350, with deluxe models at $450-$500.
Demand for trailers swiftly rolled along and operations moved into the shuttered 86,000-square-foot Republic Motor Truck Company plant No. 1 building at 903 Michigan Street. Outfitted with two conveyor assembly lines to speed up production, business boomed and central Michigan became a hub for recreational vehicle manufacturing. James E. Ryan, a member of the Detroit Stock Exchange, stepped in as fiscal agent for the company in mid-1936, helping manage the orders, production schedule, and dealer relationships. Ryen eventually acquired 51% of the company, forcing out the founders.
Undeterred, the Redmans and Hathaway took their passion and ideas across the road to open another shop in the vacant Libby, McNeill and Libby pickle canning factory building at the intersection of Bridge and East Superior. By November 1937, the Redman Trailer Company was incorporated and its first 16-foot New Moon trailer was introduced. The population of Alma at this time was around 7,000 (about 31,000 throughout Gratiot County) and the region was on its way to becoming the “World’s Trailer Capital.”
Headlines in January 1940 touted “Trailer Firm Makes Gains” and “Redman Trailers Expect Big Year” with over 400 New Moon units sold the previous year, resulting in more than $220,000 in gross sales. With about 60 men on the payroll, RTC was producing 16-, 19-, and 23-foot models—including the first insulated trailers with made-up beds and double floors. RTC’s projections for 1940 were favorable, with goals of doubling the output. Marketing also amped up, with participation in the East Michigan Trailer Show at Port Austin County Park on Saginaw Bay, where RTC was one of twelve companies exhibited. The company also attended other consumer shows, traveling as far as Chicago, Illinois to reach potential customers. Around this time, RTC donated a specially equipped trailer to the Lansing Junior Chamber of Commerce to get the chamber delegation to the national convention in Washington D.C. in style. Along the way, the Michigan representatives, A.S. Peterson and Charles McLean, stopped in several other cities to show off the trailer and displays from other Alma area industries.
The War Effort
As America entered World War II, the Redman family banded together with other regional trailer manufacturers to fulfill other needs for the war effort. In August 1942, the Redmans parked a 45-foot trailer—the world’s largest at the time—outside the Alma City Hall for two days to help raise awareness and money by selling war savings stamps. Bill himself bought $1,000 worth as a patriotic gesture. The New Moon trailer was then off to the Gratiot Free Fair in Ithaca and then Flint, before heading to Massachusetts to further promote the cause.
Four trailer plants in central Michigan—including the Redman Trailer Company—rallied together to build trailers for 500,000 war workers. As such, Michigan became the leading state in the nation to provide such valuable resources. RTC also received government contracts to construct hospital units, ammunition trailers, and military equipment until a shortage of raw materials like rubber, copper, and steel halted production. After the war ended, RTC and the other trailer manufacturers found their units could help curb the housing shortage caused by the influx of soldiers returning home and an expanded mobile home industry began to take shape.
In September 1949, Harry Redman’s son, James, assumed the role of general manager and Redman Trailers was soon developing larger and fancier models for the growing middle class. With the war in the review mirror, this generation was anxious to hit the open road. This desire for adventure that led former radio personality and author Clinton “Buddy” Twiss and his wife, Merle, to embark on a two year, 41-state cross country excursion in the late 1940s. The trip centered around their 28-by-8-foot deluxe travel trailer, affectionally named “The Monster,” and led to the publication of his book The Long, Long Trailer in 1951.
Destination Hollywood
From the onset, there was talk of turning Twiss’s book into a motion picture and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) had acquired the rights with two of its key actors in mind for the lead roles: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, stars of the popular I Love Lucy Show which had premiered in October 1951.
MGM had sent queries to trailer manufacturers around the country searching for the perfect unit to star in their big screen comedy. The Alma Record later reported that 200 trailers were screened before MGM selected RTC’s yellow-and-white 36-foot New Moon trailer. The article went on to say that Ball “found that the New Moon Mobile Home’s all-steel kitchen with its modern stove, electric refrigerator and hot water tank, its roomy cupboards and well-planned work surfaces made cooking for Desi a very easy and delightful task.”
RTC provided MGM with ten custom-build New Moon trailers which were used for interior and exterior film shots, the movie versions “finished off to the specifications of the movie production” Another newspaper noted that “Desi and Lucy each got his or her own custom-made trailer, as did the movie producer. The remaining trailers were cut in sections for filming the movie.” Although the unit price settled upon as part of the deal wasn’t revealed, the standard cost for consumers for this model was $5,300 ($62,500 today).
The units were sent to the studio in Culver City, California where filming began on June 6, 1953. Ball had given birth to her second child just months prior and was also the mother of two-year-old. However, she tackled an aggressive production schedule and according to the Lansing State Journal, filming was completed by August 9, 1953.
The Long, Long Trailer centers around newlyweds and new camper owners Tacy and Nicholas “Nikky” Collini as they set out on their honeymoon trip through the Sierra Nevada mountains enroute to Colorado. Along the way, they encounter one challenge after another as they try to acclimate themselves to their home on wheels, while trying to keep their new marriage intact. In true Lucy and Desi fashion, the film is full of laughter at every turn.
A private screening of the movie was held for employees of New Moon Homes—the newly rebranded name for Redman Trailers— in February 1954 at Alma’s Strand Theater. Two days later, the whole town celebrated with a parade led by the high school band. Actresses Perry Sheehan and Kathryn Reed—who played Lucy’s maid of honor and bridesmaid, respectively—rode in an open convertible alongside Governor G. Mennen Williams and were presented with keys to the city from Mayor Everette Thompson. Later that day, the actresses toured the New Moon Homes plant as well as visiting the Michigan Mason Home.
Upon entering the Strand on Friday, February 26, the public found the ticket office had been converted into a miniature trailer front and in the lobby were a series of displays from local companies used in the manufacturing of the trailer including carpeting by Abbeys Floor Covering, interior décor by Doris Christensen of Alma Furniture, plumbing by Central Michigan Plumbing, and a Crosley refrigerator from Phillips’ Appliances.
MGM reported that The Long, Long Trailer, earned just under five million dollars throughout the United States and Canada, making it the highest grossing comedy at the time. As for New Moon, executives liked the Hollywood design so much they launched an ‘I Love Lucy” model to the public. The Alma Record even reported that “Desi presented Lucy with a replica of the trailer used in the film for their own home on wheels. It boasts roomy dining, sleeping and living quarters with a modern tiled complete bath.”
Closing Credits
In 1955, New Moon surpassed 18,000 trailers produced with annual sales of about $10 million and dealers in 46 of 48 states. The company employed 300 individuals in a variety of capacities, with an annual payroll of about $1.5 million. By the time the 1960s rolled around, big changes were felt throughout the industry. In late 1961, news broke that the original Alma Trailer Company had been acquired by Detroiter Mobile Homes, Inc., of St. Louis, with Ryan resigning his position as president. The next July, a paint-fed fire damaged one of the Alma factory buildings and by that fall, operations for the company had been liquidated.
Expansion for New Moon Homes continued with the addition of factories in South Dakota, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and California. In the early 1960s, James Redman relocated the company’s headquarters to Dallas, Texas, around the time New Moon Homes reincorporated as Redman Industries. By 1965, there is no reference to Redman Trailer, Alma Trailer or New Moon Trailer in the Polk City Directory for Alma. Some of the Alma buildings have been razed over the years, but the factory at 903 Michigan— which once produced Republic Trucks and later Alma Trailers—now manufactures Avalon and Tahoe pontoon boats. Redman Industries, which had become the second largest builder of manufactured housing the United States, was acquired in 1996 by Michigan-based Champion Enterprises—today known as Champion Homes, headquartered in Troy, Michigan.
Outside of the factory, the Redman brothers supported the local community wholeheartedly. Bill Redman served as Alma’s mayor from 1930 to 1934. He was a life member of the Alma Masonic Lodge and the Order of Odd Fellows, before passing away in December 1967. Harry Redman was Mason, a member of the Rotary, and an active in the United Methodist Church. He passed away in 1969.