Cab drivers started to fight for “turf.” Local papers started to refer to the conflicts as the Taxi Wars. With many cabbies and few fares, competition was fierce. This meant that fares were few but paid well. At the time, taxis were usually taken by the well-to-do, while regular folks tended to take public transportation. The Chicago Taxi WarĬhecker Cab and Yellow Cab, owned by John Hertz, later of Hertz Rental fame, became Chicago’s two dominant cab service companies. Markin bought Commonwealth and merged it with Markin Auto Body to form Checker Cab Manufacturing. Commonwealth was short on funds and unable to complete the orders for Checker. Commonwealth had promised a number of completed taxicabs to the Checker Taxi company, which, at that time was a taxi service company, not a taxi manufacturer. The following year, Markin saw the opportunity to take control of another failing auto company, Commonwealth Motors. In lieu of loan repayment, Markin took over the company, in 1921, renaming it the Markin Auto Body Corporation. Lomberg was not as successful in his venture as Markin had been in his, and he was unable to keep the company afloat or pay back Markin’s loans. Using funds from his fashion business, he lent money to a fellow immigrant named Abraham Lomberg for Lomberg’s car manufacturing company. Markin’s first business was as a tailor, and a rather successful one. The story begins with a Russian immigrant to Chicago named Morris Markin. Prior to Checker’s heyday in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the company had a long and – pardon the pun – checkered past. Let’s look back at Checker’s past and into its potential future. As of 2016, though are attempts to revive the brand. Though the cars didn’t change, the taxi industry, and the car industry, as a whole, did. Lending to the cars nostalgic charm was the fact that it was hardly redesigned from the 1950s to 1982, the year when the last Checker was built. Checker produced the iconic taxicabs that patrolled the streets of cities like New York and Chicago for decades. For many people, a Checker Cab brings back fond memories.
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