VictorButler33: New Book On the Life of HOT ROD Magazine's Tom Medley

The expanse of racing and modified cars was built upon the shoulders of giants. So, too, was HOT ROD. Within that world of stories and information founded by Robert Petersen was a unique character that was Petersen's first employee: Tom Medley. Tom was a gifted writer and photographer who could build an entire car from scratch-even the upholstery-and show how to do it in the pages of HOT ROD. But he brought to HOT ROD something else truly unique. Listed as “Cartoon and Humor Editor” in only the second issue of HOT ROD in 1948, Tom presented funny one-liners to lighten and brighten HOT ROD's content, as well as a character who was the embodiment of hot rodding: Stroker McGurk. Stroker was a character in a monthly cartoon drawn by Tom, but he was also a philosopher and sage helping to both teach and tickle. Stroker represented hot rodding in Tom's make-believe world, and in many ways, Tom represented hot rodding in the real world.

From our 2017 perspective, it's hard to understand how important a simple monthly cartoon was to the 1948 world of hot rods. Hot rodders were considered deviants-hoodlums with dangerous machines. Even the term hot rod was code for a bunch of bad dudes. Tom's humor and cartoons significantly lightened that reputation on the outside while teaching lessons in building and expanding the modified and racing-car paradigm to hot rodders themselves. It brought laid-back entertainment to a magazine many depended on for information and also to define what a hot rod and hot rodder were.

Besides his activities at Petersen Publishing, Tom, along with his son, Gary, were involved in go-kart racing for decades-up into his 90s-and he loved college basketball. He had a full life with family and friends that gravitated around a mostly racing base of pursuits.

As HOT ROD expanded, so did Tom's responsibilities with the magazine and Petersen itself. He wore many hats during the 1960s that included advertising, marketing, and setting editorial content. By the late-1960s he had essentially taken over Petersen's Rod & Custom magazine, changing its direction to become the house organ for the coming street rod revolution. Older modified cars had been pushed to the sidelines with the popularity of muscle cars and increase in drag racing. Tom saw there was more than enough interest to focus R&C's content around pre-1948 hot rods. He, along with good friend and former HOT ROD staffer Tex Smith, and the R&C staff, helped create the National Street Rod Association (NSRA) and the Street Rod Nationals; both still going strong almost 50 years later.

Tom stayed with Petersen for almost 40 years before retiring in the 1980s to become a hot rodding ambassador of sorts. He also found time to build his 1940 Ford coupe with some help from builder Kent Fuller and a cast of friends, which spoke to Tom's advanced building talents. Around 2010 it was involved in a garage fire that damaged nearly every portion of the coupe. Many friends, acquaintances, and even strangers touched by Tom's many contributions over the decades pitched in to completely restore the Ford back to how it was when Tom first completed it. This was a tribute to Tom, but also a source of pride by the street rod family that allowed them to return something back for everything Tom did to touch their lives.

The fire threatened much of the art and design Tom fastidiously kept over the decades, stored in a shed attached to the burnt garage. Surprisingly, none of it was seriously damaged. Uncovering these forgotten treasures was the spark that started the book Tom had dreamed of doing for years. Says Gary, “When he saw that some of his art and photos could have been lost-and he had 10 photos for every one piece of art-he realized he should get started on the book he always wanted to do. So, ironically, the fire is what kicked him in gear.”

Gary and Tom spent months going through the boxes of hot rod history, right up to when Tom died in 2014 at almost 94 years young. Gary has compiled much of Tom's art and stories for the book that has become a tribute to the life of his father, and what he did to help establish, enhance, and define what we all do in our garages and on racetracks today. Now you'll be able to read about and see Tom's talented output in a new book published by his son, Gary.

Called “Stroker,” it covers more than 70 years of Tom's artistic and humor side, with familiar illustrations and rare sketches and artistic layouts that pointed the culture of hot rodding to very definite directions. It goes back further to his WWII infantry days with lavishly illustrated letters sent to home, to future wife Rosemary, and for Army publications depicting the good and bad of those years.

Today the staff will run across images of Tom Medley in the archives, and we've set aside a few, including this one from a Petersen Publishing fishing outing in the early 1960s that included advertisers. To the left, the guy with the Moon Equipment shirt and glasses is none other than Dean Moon.

Tom in his office at the Trend/Petersen building at 5959 Hollywood Blvd. Note the paintbrush in his ear, which he used to ink many a Stroker McGurk cartoon.

“Braver Than Dick Tracy” was one of many Stroker McGurk cartoons that were featured in HOT ROD in the 1950s and 1960s, but Stroker himself has endured right up to today.

This is backward because it was an “iron on” design for T-shirts that appeared in Cartoons magazine featuring Stroker in his highboy roadster.

In the mid-1960s HOT ROD followed along with the Mercury Comet team that competed in the East African Safari Rally. Medley contributed this art that became the team's logo for the grueling rally.