I’m a bit surprised I’ve never heard of Bosco’s Collapsable Rubber Driver before, because it seems to show up a decent number of times on the internet, and it’s always the same ad you see above there. I actually saw it in a 1978 copy of The Vintage-Auto Almanac I picked up at a used book store, but even way back then the content and context of the ad is the exact same, and it boils down to “look at this crazy shit.” I’m not sure I’ll be adding all that much to the discourse, because all I really want to say is “look at this crazy shit.” because, re: this crazy shit, look at it!
The ad is for a product named Bosco’s Collapsable Rubber Driver, and that product is pretty much exactly what it says: it’s a collapsable rubber driver. Well, “driver” is pretty generous, as it is not capable of doing any actual driving, it’s just going to sit in the car’s seat, where its only job is to dissuade car thieves. Probably just relatively stupid car thieves, or ones with extremely poor vision or a very rudimentary idea of what actual human bodies look like.
It’s basically a blow-up sex doll, but instead of sex, it’s automotive security. Though I’m sure if your intent was sexual, you could have figured out something.
Let’s look at this ad one more time:
The Bosco ad starts by denigrating the use of locks, which can be “picked or jimmied,” and notes that people tend not to steal cars with a man at the wheel. I guess this was in the days before carjacking?
The ad states the rubber man is “lifelike and terrifying,” which makes me wonder what sort of terrifying men Mr.Bosco was used to spending time with. The rubber man was $15 back in 1910, which would make it close to $500 today, hell of a lot of money for an inflatable, terrifying man.
The December 1985 issue of Popular Science has an article called “Accessories a Century of Progress” that starts like this:
“Lemuel Bosco of Akron, Ohio, spent $5 for an antitheft device that was supposed to lock the Splitdorf ignition switch of his car, but it didn’t stop a thief. He broke it off and took Bosco’s Mercer for a joyride. The cops found the car undamaged, but Bosco was mad and vowed it wouldn’t happen again. Thus was born the Bosco Collapsible Driver. When inflated and propped behind a steering wheel, it looked like Charlie Chaplin, right down to moustache and derby. When the mannequin wasn’t needed, it was deflated and stored under the seat. Standing a foot away from a car, no theif could tell that the rubber dummy wasn’t a real man — or so ads in auto accessory manuals of 1910 would have you believe.
The Bosco Collapsible Driver Co. collapsed in two years, because it didn’t take even the dumbest thief long to realize that the guy who was sitting behind the wheel never even twitched, which meant he was either dead, in a coma or not for real.”
I think this description is based on the same ad illustration as we see here, which really isn’t much to go on. I’ve not been able to find any photographs of the rubber man anywhere, but I suspect a 1910-era rubber person likely isn’t all that convincing even from “a foot away.” I also wonder how it may have been strapped or secured in, to keep from blowing away in a potential open Model T.
The Bosco company didn’t last long, and it’s not clear just how many rubber drivers were sold; any amount sold is astounding, though.
Also, it’s almost impossible to see this ad and not think of this:
Man, I’d love to see one of the Bosco Rubber Men. I bet they’re pretty huggable, if nothing else.
Oh look, a Tesla “driver”
I’ve got a collapsible latex driver, but it doesn’t seem to scare anybody.
Scrolled for the Airplane! reference.
Very happy.
“The rubber man was $15 back in 1910, which would make it close to $500 today, hell of a lot of money for an inflatable, terrifying man.”
So you adjusted it for inflation, but couldn’t just say that?
you have to inflate it yourself.
I have suspicions, this looks very very like one of many silly things that were produced in the 1980s. Some of them by me. If there is anywhere a genuine period newspaper with this advert I will eat my hat.
I have a foolproof recipe for hat, basically it is chocolate sponge cake but hat shaped.
Yeah this is so obviously a fake from the 70s or 80s. There was a ton of kitschy faux old-timey crap like this being made then.
Bosco may be the great, great, great granddad of this ticket to the HOV lane:
https://www.thedrive.com/news/this-carpool-passenger-dummy-was-good-enough-to-fool-the-cops-until-it-wasnt
(Also Bosco seems to have confused car thieves with crows.)
For those making comments about the rubber dummy looking like Charlie Chaplin, bear in mind the ad came out in 1910 with the Bosco Collapsible Driver Co. lasting only two years and Charlie Chaplin emigrated to the US in 1910 as part of the Fred Karno troupe (along with Stan Laurel who can be seen on the left while Chaplin is in the center in the life preserver: https://chaplin.qi-cms.com/media/_source/watermarked/karno_0070.jpg)
Chaplin created his film persona in 1914 as first publicly seen in the film Kid Auto Races at Venice. In that film Chaplin’s character keeps trying to get in the frame of the newsreel film footage being shot of the races, much like the way people keep trying to get themselves in the background of TV news reporting decades (indeed, more than a century!) later, lol.
And the film is actually pretty damn fascinating in that the setting is the Junior Vanderbilt Cup which featured several different categories of racing vehicles driven by children which included “zero-cylinder” pushcars, one-cylinder engines, and two-cylinder engines. Alas, the Junior Vanderbilt Cup was held only one year while the Vanderbilt Cup was held sporadically over the years from 1904 (making it the USA’s first major auto racing trophy) into the late 1960s so Chaplin’s film actually serves as pretty good documentation of the sole Junior Vanderbilt Cup event.
Yeah, bowler hats and little mustaches were just generally in style at the time
Surprised they didn’t include a “not for sex” disclaimer, Bosco clearly didn’t talk to an attorney before running with the idea
The Bosco Co. may still be in business today if he did promote it as a sex toy.
Flashbacks to Men in Black 2.
Surely you can’t be serious.
And don’t call me Shirley!
What’s your vector, Victor?
My immediate thought was that I hope the manual inflation tube is near the crotch, like in Airplane!
If it is, you could deter theft in a very different way. The thief could see you inflating the dummy and decide he’d rather not get any closer to the action.
I wonder when Elon Musk will offer this accessory….
I would trust a rubber inflatable man to drive my car over FSD any day of the week. At least he would be predictable.
As a type nerd, I’m almost more intrigued by the absolutely unhinged decision to hand-letter nearly the entire ad. It surely would have been faster and cheaper at the time to have it typeset and just illustrate the product and maybe the stylized product name. But someone involved decided their hand was better than any mere machine and painstakingly drew all those wonky letters that were clearly copied from pre-existing type anyway.
From a foot away, you’d never know it wasn’t real machine type!
Did anyone else lose their notification bell thingy?
If not, I guess this is an existential question, as I’ll never see the replies…
Matt said the last update didn’t go through, and a new one is imminent. Yes, we all lost it. Not sure on the timing of the new site. Apparently, things are good in the Autopian universe.
I wish they’d let me help! I can understand though. If you’re writing about cars and talking about cars (or any topic that isn’t websites), the details of the website are just sort of necessary evils, and you just sort of expect that things break or go down or don’t work sometimes, even if that’s not actually necessary.
Perhaps they are growing enough to start having a full time web person??? I am suggesting it right here. The time is now, fellahs.
Yes. Hopefully, they’re fixing the notifications glitch that has persisted for the last six months.
For $500, I’ll come sit in your car all day or night.
Do you need a Gatorade pee bottle or do you supply your own?
Hey, y’all, prepare yourself for the rubberband man
You’ve never heard a sound
Like the rubberband man
You’re bound to lose control
When the rubberband starts to jam
Oh, this dude is outta sight
Everything he does
Seems to come out right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSMVflSBKx8
George Costanza approves
https://youtu.be/lyEFiaUQYGE?si=ANuTVrtGVdrd5lrT
Was waiting for this.
I think the Bosco company actually found another, more successful use for rubber, by creating the Bosco Sticks that they serve for school lunches all around the Midwest. Just don’t call it “pizza”…
I guess folks didn’t have to worry about inflation in those days.
This reminds me of a male ‘mannequin’ product that was sold in the 90’s(?) for female drivers to use so they would not appear to be alone/deter criminals from approaching them. I can’t remember what the ‘product’ was called and a quick search came up with nothing.
I don’t know what single friend of yours told you that she bought the “mannequin” for use in the car, but that’s not likely how she was using it… 🙂
I remember seeing the ad for it on TV. Possibly a daytime infomercial type ad.
I remember seeing some kind of ad for this. It also brings to mind the mannequins that were (are still?) sold to lone drivers who want to use the carpool lane.
Bold move making it look like Charlie Chaplin. Perhaps something more low-key would’ve been better, as I’d imagine quite a few vision-impaired thieves would see that thing and think “oh my god, it’s Charlie Chaplain”, then walk over, realize it’s a dummy, get pissed off and steal the car anyway.
Just another kid from Akron here, and yes, that’s a tear of pride for my hometown.
Anything rubber related and you know it has to be connected to Akron somehow! Lived in Akron for 10 years now and I still find the number of random things that originated here mildly surprising.
Also useful for carpool lanes.
You can also use this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U4ZYOBzEEs
Magnavolt! I’m sure there is no way that would malfunction and electrocute the vehicle owner.
I regularly see the white masks that people use for Halloween attached to the headrest of cars. I assume for the same reason??
rubberman
we used to shade the dead
shifter unmanned
the rain was just ahead
and i know nothing about
where rubberman
is just an empty name
Otto!