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Look Back: Service cars' last run, 1965
Date: 11/23/2011 Album ID: 1367417
Photos by St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff
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by Tim O'Neil --- Before World War II, almost 500 service cars plied St. Louis and its surrounding suburbs, charging five-cent fares. Cabbies and streetcar motormen loathed service cars because they siphoned customers and clogged downtown corners. Bus company executives called them "parasites." The last runs were scheduled for the morning of Nov. 30, 1965.
Three drivers for Consolidated Service Car Co. circle St. Louis City Hall on Nov. 30, 1965, the last day of regular operations. Service cars were automobiles that operated along set routes and schedules, and competed with buses and streetcars. In the years after World War II, many service-car operators went out of business. Bus companies disliked them because of their largely unregulated competition. Cabbies also wanted them off the streets. When the Bi-State Transit Authority was created in 1963 as the regional bus system, its executives lobbied hard to be rid of service cars. By November 1965, when Consolidated had dwindled to three routes in north St. Louis, company president Anthony F. Sansone accepted Bi-State's offer of $625,000 to cease operations. But most Consolidated drivers were owner-operators, and many of them worked with the Committee of Racial Equality (CORE) to provide unlicensed service along their routes. Many black commuters honored the drivers' call to boycott of Bi-State and rode the service cars. Because they didn't have city operating permits, the service-car drivers asked riders for donations. CORE ended the boycott in March 1966. By then, Bi-State had hired about 35 former Consolidated drivers. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch)
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A former Consolidated driver picks up customers at Ninth and Cole streets downtown on Dec. 7, 1965, a few days into the CORE boycott of Bi-State to save what was left of service cars. In 1965, they charged 20 cents per rider. That was 10 cents cheaper that buses, but buses allowed free transfers. The defiant owner-operators erased Consolidated's name from their cars. (Lester Linck/Post-Dispatch)
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Alderman Alfonso J. Cervantes on March 7, 1965, two days before he defeated three-term mayor Raymond J. Tucker to win the Democratic mayoral nomination. Cervantes had co-owned Consolidated Service Car Co. with Anthony F. Sansone, who managed Cervantes' campaign. Cervantes said he sold his interest before taking office. After Sansone agreed to close Consolidated, many of the drivers blamed Cervantes. He served two terms as mayor, was president of Laclede Cab Co. and died in 1983 at age 62. (Buell White/Post-Dispatch)
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Anthony F. Sansone Sr., owner of Consolidated Service Car Co. Shortly after Cervantes was elected mayor in 1965, Sansone was appointed 25th Ward Democratic committeeman. He ran the Lambert Field airport-limousine service until 1982. Sansone, a real-estate developer, is chairman of Sansone Group in Clayton. (Lou Phillips/Post-Dispatch)
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Norman R. Seay, chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1965, when he helped organize the boycott of Bi-State buses over the closing of Consolidated Service Car Co., which mainly served black commuters. Seay took part in the Jefferson Bank protests in 1963 and is a long-time civil rights leader in St. Louis. (Lester Linck/Post-Dispatch)
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A sign in the front window of a former Consolidated service car on Dec. 8, 1965, during the boycott of Bi-State buses. This car is stopped at 12th Boulevard and Franklin Avenue, an intersection now called Tucker and Dr. Martin Luther King boulevards. The former Easton Avenue now is part of King boulevard. (Buel White/Post-Dispatch)
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Elaine O'Connell, secretary of the St. Louis Board of Public Service, accepts the application of a new company to provide service cars in north St. Louis. Seeking a permit on Feb. 9, 1966, is (center) Solomon Rooks, president of Citizens Service Car Co. With him is Bill Bailey, chairman of the Committee of Racial Equality in 1966. The board, the city's main construction agency, also handled taxi and service-car permits. Citizens Service Car never ran regular operations. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
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A Bi-State bus at North Kingshighway and the former Hodiamont streetcar line in October 1966. The scene is looking west from Kingshighway. Like the old streetcar line before it, the Hodiamont bus line ran through the heart of north St. Louis. That line runs the area last served by service cars. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch)
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St. Louis Alderman Lawrence E. Woodson speaks to the Board of Public Service in City Hall on May 22, 1973, on behalf of the Community Service Car Co., another effort to revive the service-car business. The board rejected the plan. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch)
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The Rev. Samuel Layne (left) and the Rev. Phelton Jones (center) confer with Solomon Rooks (right) during the hearing May 22, 1973, at City Hall. Rooks led the unsuccessful effort to obtain a permit to operate Community Service Car Co. Bi-State and unions for the bus and taxicab drivers opposed the idea. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch)
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Three men entering a freedom ride on June 6, 1973, at North Kingshighway and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. Backers of the bid by Community Service Car Co. showed their support by briefly reviving the freedom rides of seven years before. (James A. Rackwitz/Post-Dispatch)
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