Auto Focus Lincolnville car lover crafts short play about key time in Henry Ford’s life

Rosey Gerry admits that he’s been “car crazy” since he first got a 1949 Buick convertible at the age of 7. He paid $30 for that car, which he earned by picking up bottles. At a slightly later age, he drove it around the back fields, long before it was legal for him to do so.

Years of working on cars to keep them on the road, along with voraciously reading about the history behind such vehicles, left the Lincolnville man uniquely qualified to script a play about the man who brought automobiles to the masses – Henry Ford.

Gerry’s one-act play, “Bow Tie Henry,” will be staged at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Owls Head Transportation Museum, with Gerry himself in the title role. It’s part of the museum’s Winter Education series.

The 45-minute play is set around the turn of the 20th century, in and around Detroit. It recounts Ford’s attempts to found and finance his own auto company. It also recounts the Grosse Point auto race of 1901, which proved to be a pivotal event for both Ford and his new company, which this year is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

It features such characters as Ford, Thomas Edison, Ford’s former employer and friend; Edward “Spider” Huff, Ford’s mechanic; Alexander Malcolmson, a Scottish immigrant turned coal baron who led the effort to finance Ford’s company; Alexander Winton, an inventor and early auto-racing champion; and Barney Oldfield, a leading bicycle-turned-auto racer.

Gerry, 54, called the play, which took him about three hours to write, a fictional account based on facts.

“I’ve done a lot of reading [about cars],” he said. “It came from books, but it all went together in my head.”

It’s long been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Gerry found that out when he unintentionally volunteered to write a play to be presented at the museum.

Gerry, who lectures and teaches at the museum, had been after administrators there to put on more transportation-related plays. A play about Ford was ordered from a New York theatrical company, but Gerry wasn’t impressed.

He made the mistake of saying, “I can write better than this,” and Ethan Yankura, the museum’s education director, took him up on his offer.

Gerry, who had previously written a comic play performed at the Lincolnville bicentennial, made a point to hide in the script little things for car buffs. Model names of cars, especially Fords, are sprinkled throughout the dialogue. The title refers to Ford’s penchant for wearing bow ties as a young man, but the bow tie is also the trademark of Ford’s then-chief competitor, Chevrolet.

The play has been in preparation since November, with rehearsal by the seven-member cast and the securing of period-appropriate props (Gerry had to order a bow tie on the Internet).

Cars are a big part of Gerry’s life. He runs his auto-restoration company in the afternoon and early evening, then goes home to work on his own antique cars (he has 11). He works on antique autos, street rods, custom jobs, “anything special interest.”

But cars aren’t all he does. From daybreak to noon, he works in the woods harvesting timber. He is also an auctioneer. As a hobby, he collects “Wizard of Oz” memorabilia.

Gerry has a garageful of car stories. There was his father’s pickup truck, Sputnik. It gained that name one winter morning, when his father placed a tray of coal embers under the truck to help warm it up. A short time later, there was a big explosion, destroying much of the engine. That’s when his father painted “Sputnik” on the front bumper.

Then there was the car with transmission problems, which would run only in reverse. Gerry would pick up his then-girlfriend in Rockport, drive in reverse to the movie theater in Camden, then turn around and take her home, driving backward. This continued until the local police caught up with him.

Gerry doesn’t see the popular cars of today becoming the antique autos of tomorrow.

“They’re basically like Bic lighters,” he explained. “They’re throwaways. Also, where are you going to find parts [especially for foreign cars]? Parts for older cars are tucked everywhere. People are pulling them out of the woodwork.”

He had another, less tangible, reason.

“Each [older car] is different; it has its own personality, good or bad,” Gerry said. “Cars today don’t have personalities, or any class.”

Admission to “Bow Tie Henry” is free. For more information, call the Owls Head Transportation Museum at 594-4418.