# Errett Lobban Cord
**Errett Lobban Cord** (July 20, 1894, Warrensburg, Missouri – January 2, 1974, [Reno, Nevada](https://www.edgepedia.org/reno-nevada)) was an American automobile manufacturer who took control of the Auburn Automobile Company at age 31, built it into a holding-company empire spanning cars, aircraft, engines, taxis, and shipbuilding, and lost it in 1937 under pressure from the [Depression](https://www.edgepedia.org/depression) and the Securities and Exchange Commission.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Errett-Lobban-Cord) • [2](https://time.com/archive/6768395/business-finance-cord-out-of-cord/) He rebuilt his fortune in real estate, mining, and other ventures and died leaving an estate worth nearly $40 million.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Auburn takeover | Hired as vice president and general manager by the Chicago ownership group; under a performance contract he took complete control and was elected president on February 2, 1926, at age 31[4](https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/78000029_text) • [5](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/auburn-auto-history) |
| Auburn turnaround | 1925: 5,601 cars sold, $7.9 million sales, $750,000 net profit, all debt paid off by November; 1926: $10.8 million sales, profits over $942,000[6](https://acdfestival.org/images/event-guides/ATA-2026.pdf) • [4](https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/78000029_text) |
| Empire at peak | By end of 1933 Cord Corp. controlled Auburn, Duesenberg, Lycoming, Stinson, Aviation Corp. (American Airways), Checker Cab, and New York Shipbuilding[2](https://time.com/archive/6768395/business-finance-cord-out-of-cord/) |
| Signature cars | Cord L-29 (1929), the first front-wheel-drive car sold in the American market; streamlined 810 (dated 1935 by Britannica, 1936 by other accounts) and 812 (1937) with concealed headlamps; Duesenberg Model J (1928–37)[7](https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15362447/a-brief-history-of-the-cord-automobile-the-coolest-car-you-never-knew-existed/) • [1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Errett-Lobban-Cord) |
| SEC affair | SEC investigation beginning in 1936 over Checker Cab stock manipulation; Cord and Checker Cab president Morris Markin later consented to an injunction, charges both denied; no criminal indictments were ever brought[2](https://time.com/archive/6768395/business-finance-cord-out-of-cord/) • [8](https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/api/collection/p16797coll39/id/7414/download) |
| 1937 exit | Sold his Cord Corporation holdings in August 1937; contemporary reporting gives $2,000,000, later accounts $2.5 million[2](https://time.com/archive/6768395/business-finance-cord-out-of-cord/) • [3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) |
| Second fortune | Beverly Hills holdings sold for $10 million in 1948; 35,000 acres in Nevada; estate of nearly $40 million at his 1974 death[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) |
## Early life and the Auburn takeover
Cord had worked as a racing mechanic and driver before arriving in the automobile business.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Errett-Lobban-Cord) The Chicago ownership group of the ailing Auburn Automobile Company hired him as vice president and general manager.[5](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/auburn-auto-history)
**The performance contract.** His route to ownership was a wager on his own results. He proposed that he could turn the company around, sell its existing backlog of 1,500 outdated cars, and have a new model in production by the following year. If he succeeded, he wanted complete control, a portion of the profits, and enough stock options to buy a controlling interest in the company.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) The results made the option valuable: 5,601 Auburns sold in 1925 for $7.9 million with a net profit of $750,000, and the company paid off all its debt by November 1925.[6](https://acdfestival.org/images/event-guides/ATA-2026.pdf) In 1926 sales climbed to $10.8 million with profits over $942,000, and the September 1926 balance sheet showed a surplus of $1.7 million.[4](https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/78000029_text) The transition of power occurred on February 2, 1926, at the annual meeting, when Cord, then 31, was elected president; *Automobile Topics* reported that he had "acquired a substantial interest in the company, and is now in complete control of its affairs."[4](https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/78000029_text) That year Auburn also recorded its highest gross revenue and its highest stock price, $72-7/8 a share, while its production floor space grew from 527,000 to 747,000 square feet.[6](https://acdfestival.org/images/event-guides/ATA-2026.pdf)
## Building the Cord Corporation empire
Cord leveraged Auburn stock and purchased the bankrupt Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Company of Indianapolis for $500,000 in November 1926, renaming it [Duesenberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/duesenberg), Inc., with himself as president and Fred Duesenberg as vice president of engineering.[6](https://acdfestival.org/images/event-guides/ATA-2026.pdf) • [5](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/auburn-auto-history) He then founded the [Cord Corporation](https://www.edgepedia.org/cord-corporation), a Chicago holding company of which Auburn and Duesenberg, Inc. became subsidiaries.[5](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/auburn-auto-history)
**Acquisitions, 1927–1933.** Cord acquired the Lycoming engine maker in 1927, along with Ansted Engineering, Lexington Motor Company, Limousine Body Company, and Columbia Axle; Stinson Aircraft in 1929; Checker Cab and a stake in the Kansas City Southern Railway in 1933; and New York Shipbuilding the day before a $38.5 million Navy contract came through.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) By the end of 1933 Cord Corp. controlled, besides Auburn and Duesenberg, Aviation Corp. (American Airways), Checker Cab Mfg. Corp., and New York Shipbuilding Corp.[2](https://time.com/archive/6768395/business-finance-cord-out-of-cord/)
## The cars: Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg
**Front-wheel drive.** The Cord L-29, introduced in June 1929, was the first front-wheel-drive automobile sold in the American market, using a Lycoming straight-eight modified to drive a front-mounted transaxle.[7](https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15362447/a-brief-history-of-the-cord-automobile-the-coolest-car-you-never-knew-existed/) The engineering was partly borrowed: the L-29 relied on front-drive technology that Cord had licensed from the race car driver [Henry Miller](https://www.edgepedia.org/henry-miller), whose front-drive cars won multiple [Indianapolis](https://www.edgepedia.org/indianapolis) 500s in the 1920s.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) The National Historic Landmark nomination credits Auburn under Cord with the first front-wheel-drive production automobile, unitized all-steel stamped body construction with a built-in frame, and concealed open-and-close headlamps.[4](https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/78000029_text) The L-29 was produced through 1932.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Errett-Lobban-Cord)
**The 810 and 812.** The streamlined Model 810 and Model 812 (1937) followed; Britannica dates the 810 to 1935, while other accounts give 1936.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Errett-Lobban-Cord) • [9](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/news/auburn-cord-duesenberg-automobile-museum-announces-acquisition-of-five-significant-automobiles-in-2025) Styled by Gordon Buehrig, the 810 stood 58 inches tall in convertible form, nearly a foot lower than a contemporary Ford, and hid its radiator behind a "coffin nose" with a rear-hinged hood; its headlamps were concealed and operated by dash cranks, and the fuel-filler cap and door hinges were hidden as well.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) Power came from a 125-horsepower Lycoming V-8 with a four-speed gearbox actuated by a Bendix Electric Hand shifter; the car could exceed 100 mph and originally sold for $2,595, with six body styles offered.[7](https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15362447/a-brief-history-of-the-cord-automobile-the-coolest-car-you-never-knew-existed/) • [9](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/news/auburn-cord-duesenberg-automobile-museum-announces-acquisition-of-five-significant-automobiles-in-2025) The 1937 812 offered an optional Schwitzer-Cummins centrifugal supercharger, and the front-drive 810 was the only front-wheel-drive car on sale in America at the time.[10](https://www.sportscarmarket.com/profile/1936-cord-experimental-berline) The 810 and 812 were the final automobiles produced by the Auburn Automobile Company.[9](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/news/auburn-cord-duesenberg-automobile-museum-announces-acquisition-of-five-significant-automobiles-in-2025)
**Duesenberg.** The Duesenberg Model J, produced from 1928 to 1937 by Fred and August Duesenberg, was highly profitable for the group; by 1930 Auburn had sold 250 Duesenbergs.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Errett-Lobban-Cord) • [3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/)
## The SEC investigation and collapse
In the summer of 1936 the SEC turned its attention to heavy trading in Checker Cab stock. Cord, just turned 42, consented to a federal court order in Chicago enjoining him and Checker Cab's president Morris Markin from the "further violation" of SEC anti-manipulation provisions, charges both men denied; he simultaneously announced the sale of his entire holdings in Cord Corp. to a Manhattan banking group.[2](https://time.com/archive/6768395/business-finance-cord-out-of-cord/) The SEC levied no criminal indictments against Cord, he never officially admitted wrongdoing, and the federal court gave him legal notice to abstain from stock manipulations in the future.[8](https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/api/collection/p16797coll39/id/7414/download)
A separate SEC action concerned Auburn's own stock. On December 31, 1937, the SEC cited Gerald M. Loeb and Gordon B. Crary, partners in E. F. Hutton & Co., and floor trader H. Terry Morrison for alleged manipulation of Auburn Automobile stock on the [New York Stock Exchange](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-york-stock-exchange) from December 26, 1935, to March 12, 1936, under the [Securities Exchange Act of 1934](https://www.edgepedia.org/securities-exchange-act-of-1934).[11](https://www.nytimes.com/1938/01/01/archives/hutton-partners-face-sec-charges-g-m-loeb-and-g-b-crary-cited-for.html) The SEC alleged that through Morrison they raised the price from $38 on December 24, 1935, to $54.25 on March 5, 1936, using such oldtime pool methods as buying heavily at the close.[12](https://time.com/archive/6758117/business-secs-next-round/)
**Fraud or Depression?** The two explanations are not mutually exclusive in the record. Britannica attributes the end of manufacture of Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs in 1937 to the Depression.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Errett-Lobban-Cord) The sales figures support the demand-side reading: 1931 was the best year for the three marques with combined sales of roughly 34,000 vehicles, then sales slumped by half in 1932 and halved again in 1933.[13](https://www.carsforsale.com/pop-culture/cord-americas-forgotten-luxury-car-titan/) But the enforcement record is real: the SEC found against Cord on August 5, 1937, and the next day he sold his Cord Corporation holdings.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) Newspapers announced publicly on August 5, 1937, that Cord had sold out, and later that year the decision was made to shut down automotive production for good.[8](https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/api/collection/p16797coll39/id/7414/download) No criminal charges followed.[8](https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/api/collection/p16797coll39/id/7414/download)
## By the numbers
The turnaround years: 5,601 cars and $750,000 profit in 1925; $10.8 million sales and over $942,000 profit in 1926.[6](https://acdfestival.org/images/event-guides/ATA-2026.pdf) • [4](https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/78000029_text) The Depression outlier: while national car production declined by nearly 60 percent from 1929 to 1931, Auburn sales went up from 13,000 to 31,000.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) Combined sales of the three marques peaked at roughly 34,000 in 1931.[13](https://www.carsforsale.com/pop-culture/cord-americas-forgotten-luxury-car-titan/) The L-29's total is disputed: Hagerty says over 5,000 were sold, while Carsforsale says approximately 4,400 units were built during its run.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) • [13](https://www.carsforsale.com/pop-culture/cord-americas-forgotten-luxury-car-titan/)
The collapse years: in the last year of his control, Cord Corp. made $306,691 while Auburn turned in a loss of $1,522,843.[2](https://time.com/archive/6768395/business-finance-cord-out-of-cord/) Cord built 1,764 Cords in 1936 and 1,066 in 1937, about 3,000 in all.[14](https://www.hemmings.com/stories/1936-1937-cord-810-812/) The 1937 sale price is reported as $2,000,000 by *Time* and $2.5 million by later accounts.[2](https://time.com/archive/6768395/business-finance-cord-out-of-cord/) • [3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) His 1974 estate was worth nearly $40 million.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/)
## Later life and after the empire
In 1934 Cord took his second wife and their children to England to escape kidnapping threats.[2](https://time.com/archive/6768395/business-finance-cord-out-of-cord/) The 1937 buyers were a Manhattan banking group; *Time* reported that Emanuel & Co., Schroder, Rockefeller & Co. were involved, with Lucius Manning taking 158,000 of 500,000 shares, and that the sale meant the end of the Cord name in the business.[2](https://time.com/archive/6768395/business-finance-cord-out-of-cord/) After Cord sold his interests in the transportation industry, the Auburn Automobile Company filed for bankruptcy.[5](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/auburn-auto-history) The Duesenberg factory was sold to Marmon-Herrington, and a Chicago Cadillac dealer bought 17 complete cars on-site for $18,000.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) One postscript survived: designer Alex Tremulis developed an unofficial 1938-model successor, the Cord 814 Cabriolet, after 812 production ended in August 1937; only one example was ever completed, and the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum announced its acquisition in August 2025.[15](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/news/museum-welcomes-rare-cord-814-cabriolet-prototype)
**The second fortune.** After selling out, Cord built fortunes in mining, broadcasting, aviation, appliances, and real estate. His Beverly Hills holdings, including a 62-room mansion named "Cord Haven," sold for $10 million in 1948.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) • [16](https://discoverindianahistory.org/items/show/567) He moved his family to ranches in Nevada, where he owned 35,000 acres, and was elected a Nevada state senator in the 1950s.[3](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/) He died on January 2, 1974, in Reno.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Errett-Lobban-Cord)
## References
1. [Errett Lobban Cord, Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Errett-Lobban-Cord)
2. [Business & Finance: Cord out of Cord, Time (1937)](https://time.com/archive/6768395/business-finance-cord-out-of-cord/)
3. [The father of Cord was a Gatsby-era genius, Hagerty Media](https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/errett-lobban-cord-was-a-visionary-transportation-mogul/)
4. [National Historic Landmark Nomination: Auburn Cord Duesenberg, NPS](https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/78000029_text)
5. [Auburn Auto History, Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/auburn-auto-history)
6. [Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival guide (2026)](https://acdfestival.org/images/event-guides/ATA-2026.pdf)
7. [A Brief History of the Cord Automobile, Car and Driver](https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15362447/a-brief-history-of-the-cord-automobile-the-coolest-car-you-never-knew-existed/)
8. [Indiana Historical Society digital document on Cord](https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/api/collection/p16797coll39/id/7414/download)
9. [ACD Museum Announces Acquisition of Five Significant Automobiles in 2025](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/news/auburn-cord-duesenberg-automobile-museum-announces-acquisition-of-five-significant-automobiles-in-2025)
10. [1936 Cord Experimental Berline, Sports Car Market](https://www.sportscarmarket.com/profile/1936-cord-experimental-berline)
11. [Hutton Partners Face SEC Charges, The New York Times (Dec. 31, 1937)](https://www.nytimes.com/1938/01/01/archives/hutton-partners-face-sec-charges-g-m-loeb-and-g-b-crary-cited-for.html)
12. [Business: SEC's Next Round, Time (1938)](https://time.com/archive/6758117/business-secs-next-round/)
13. [Cord: America's Forgotten Luxury Car Titan, Carsforsale](https://www.carsforsale.com/pop-culture/cord-americas-forgotten-luxury-car-titan/)
14. [Cord 810/812 Innovative Luxury Car Design, Hemmings](https://www.hemmings.com/stories/1936-1937-cord-810-812/)
15. [Museum Welcomes Rare Cord 814 Cabriolet Prototype, ACD Museum (Aug 2025)](https://automobilemuseum.org/about/news/museum-welcomes-rare-cord-814-cabriolet-prototype)
16. [E.L. Cord, Discover Indiana (IUPUI)](https://discoverindianahistory.org/items/show/567)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Economics and business › Founders, operators, and investors › Consumer, industrial, and services founders › United States and Canada › Industrial and manufacturing founders*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 10, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 10, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license