1923 Kissel Speedster Model 45 'Goldbug'
edited by David Barth, 10 January 2009.
Courtesy The Forney Museum of Transportation at 4303 Brighton Blvd., Denver,
Colorado. Photos were taken in January 2009.
This 1923 Kissel is the car that Amelia Earhart purchased used in 1924 and named "Yellow Peril."
The Kissel Motor Car Company's ambition was to custom-build cars in sufficient quantities and with such efficient
manufacturing equipment and methods to assure reasonable prices consistent with the quality of the
product.
The Speedster is low-slung, racy, with great power and speed. The neatly-tailored top is rainproof and, with
tight-fitting side curtains, can be used in any climate. The Speedster became known as the "Goldbug Roadster" or
"Goldbug." It featured the innovative use of an outrigger seat that neatly folds into a drawer on each side of the
body.
Kissel brought out the Speedster in July 1922. Amelia Earhart bought this car in Los Angeles, California in 1924 as a
used car. She drove her mother cross-country from Los Angeles to Boston, Massachusetts to join her sister Muriel,
nicknamed "Pidge."
Enroute, they visited National Parks as well as Banff National Park and Lake Louise in Canada. They traveled 7,000
miles and took six weeks to get to Boston.
Amelia owned this car in 1931 when she lived in New York City. She sold it in 1931 to a friend at the Denison House.
The car changed hands two more times until it was acquired by the Forney Museum in the 1960's, making the Museum the
car's fifth owner.
It was said that Amelia drove her "Yellow Peril" like she flew airplanes – at top speed and somewhat
recklessly.
In 1966 this Speedster was sent to Boston for Northeast Airlines to use for the introduction of their Yellowbird Jet
Service from Boston to Washington, D. C. This service was so named in honor of Amelia Earhart who co-founded Northeast
Airlines in 1922.
Amelia Earhart drove her Goldbug Kissel around New York and Boston. She was a board member, a volunteer, employee, and supporter of Dennison House, a haven for orphaned children. It was also a special school for immigrant children.
