Favorite cigar store of baseball-minded Detroiters in 1907 was Mel Soper's. Two of Mel's good customers were Walter Owen Briggs and John Kelsey, coming figures in the coming automobile industry. When Walter Briggs was unable to get World Series pasteboards because the ball club and not Mel was the chief purveyor of tickets, Mel went to see his friend Frank Navin, part owner of the Tigers. Said Mel with dignity: "Frank, you've got to get me two tickets. . . . They're for Walter Briggs." Mr. Navin snapped: "And who the hell is Walter Briggs?" Mel grew eloquent about Briggs's loyalty to the Tigers, offered to introduce him to Navin. When he did, Briggs got tickets.
Navin, Briggs and Kelsey became good friends, and when Mr. Navin's partner died in 1918 Walter Briggs, president of Briggs Mfg. Co., and John Kelsey, who had built up Kelsey Wheel Co., each bought a quarter interest in the Tigers, but allowed Navin full control of the club.
When Wheelmaker Kelsey died, Mr. Briggs took over his stock and a year ago, with the death of Mr. Navin, he became the Tigers' sole owner.
Parallel to Walter Briggs's rise in Detroit baseball have been his fortunes in the manufacture of automobile bodies. The same year he was lucky in getting World Series tickets he joined B. F. Everitt Co., pioneer auto trimmer. When Owner Barney Everitt and two friends started the E. M. F. Co. (motor cars), Mr. Everitt did not think it altogether ethical to run a competing business of his own, so he made a deal with his able employe, Walter Briggs, to take over the trimming plant, which was soon called Briggs Mfg. Co. It went on painting and trimming bodies until after the War, when Mr. Briggs decided he could make better ones himself.
By 1924 Briggs was the largest independent body maker in the U. S. It still is. An original capital investment of $50,000 has produced a $42,468,000 company. Mainly on body business from such motor makers as Ford, Chrysler and Packard, Briggs last year earned $9,266,000. To diversify its manufactures the company has lately developed a line of lightweight stamped iron bathroom fixtures with a porcelain finish called "Brig-steel" which it says is cheaper to ship and install than conventional products.
Next door to one of the six Briggs plants in Detroit is the main works of Motor Products Corp., makers of dashboards, manifolds, mufflers, many another auto part. There is no duplication of manufacture between the companies. Briggs even buys top parts from Motor Products. Last week it was announced that a merger was in the making. Subject to directors' and stockholders' approval on both sides, three shares of Motor Products stock will be exchanged for two shares of Briggs. Combined assets figured on the basis of 1935 year-end statements will be $50,000,000.