A journey beginning with The Osmonds and a rebellious schoolmaster ends in Utah, discovering how one of the world's toughest vehicles almost never happened.
The Toyota Land Cruiser.
Credit: Land Cruiser Heritage Museum
I recently found myself in Utah for the first time.
Prior to my arrival, my knowledge of the state was limited. I knew it as the spiritual home of the Latter-day Saint movement and, perhaps more importantly to a generation raised on 1970s popular culture, the place that gave the world The Osmonds.
Donny Osmond performing at The Rainbow Theatre, London (1972).
During my primary school years, girls on both sides of the Atlantic were captivated by the wholesome Mormon family band. At the centre of the phenomenon was Donny Osmond, whose recording of Puppy Love inspired a level of hysteria difficult to imagine today. The only serious competition for teenage affections came from David Cassidy - the choice for those who preferred their heart-throbs with a hint of rebellion and a little more edge.
Longer hair. More attitude. More New York. Less Utah. Less wholesome. David Cassidy pictured during his concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley (1973).
Credit: KEYSTONE Pictures USA
When I progressed to secondary school, I found myself under the supervision of a form master with a rebellious streak of his own. He appeared considerably younger than the senior staff and dressed accordingly: long hair, flared trousers, wide-lapelled blazers and kipper ties hanging loosely beneath deep-collared shirts left defiantly unbuttoned at the neck - precisely the sort of attire my schoolteacher mother had forbidden me to wear.
1970s British man about town.
Credit: STOCKFOLIO 791
He was almost always late for assembly, usually arriving with a five-o'clock shadow and dark circles beneath his eyes. We assumed he must have led a very interesting life (outside school). To a young boy, he was the perfect role model.
He taught Geography - which brings me to my point.
One morning he arrived carrying a portable record player. Without introduction, he placed a vinyl disc on the turntable, turned the volume up, and played Crazy Horses by The Osmonds.
"Crazy Horses" The Osmonds.
Credit: CBW
The track was a considerable departure from the soppy love songs that had made Donny a star. Gone was Puppy Love. In its place came screaming guitars, a pounding rhythm section and a distinctly hard-rock sound. Brothers Merrill and Jay took the lead vocals while Donny, whose breaking voice was suffering the effects of puberty, temporarily stepped aside.
The song generated its share of controversy. It was reportedly banned in South Africa, where government censors interpreted the word "horses" as a reference to heroin. In France, authorities initially objected to the lyric "smoking up the sky", believing it to be a song about drug abuse. Years later, Donny Osmond would claim that Ozzy Osbourne told him it was one of his favourite rock-and-roll records.
Ozzy told Donny that, "Crazy Horses was one of his favourite rock-and-roll records".
Credit: ZUMA Press Inc.
Whether the Osmonds had genuinely transformed themselves from teen idols into rock stars is open to debate. What is beyond dispute is that our teacher had succeeded in capturing the attention of an otherwise distracted classroom.
Only then did he explain the purpose of the exercise.
Crazy Horses was not a song about drugs. As Jay Osmond later explained, the "crazy horses smoking up the sky" were automobiles - gas-guzzling machines polluting the atmosphere with their exhaust fumes. The lesson that followed concerned ecology, pollution and mankind's impact upon the environment.
Half a century later, as a self-confessed petrolhead, it is a lesson I remember and understand - but perhaps never fully learned.
Which brings me back to Utah.
Mormons on the 1,300 mile trek from Illinois to Utah (1846) - a state built by pioneers would later embrace one of the great pioneering vehicles.
Credit: Ann Ronan Picture Library / Heritage Images
Faced with a couple of spare hours in Salt Lake City, one is hardly short of places to visit. There are temples, tabernacles and monuments to the state's pioneering past. Yet the most extraordinary discovery is a museum dedicated to one of the craziest horses of them all: the Toyota Land Cruiser.
Perhaps that should not come as a surprise.
A state settled by pioneers has a natural affinity for vehicles capable of venturing beyond the end of the driveway. And few machines have earned a reputation for endurance quite like Toyota's rugged four-wheel-drive.
The Land Cruiser Heritage Museum, Salt Lake City.
Credit: The Land Cruiser Heritage Museum
Hidden away on the outskirts of Salt Lake City, the Land Cruiser Heritage Museum houses more than one hundred examples spanning the model's remarkable history. What began as a utilitarian off-road vehicle has evolved into one of the most respected and capable automobiles ever built.
Like many great museums, it is about far more than the objects on display.
Over 100 vehicles on display.
Credit: The Land Cruiser Heritage Museum
The collection tells a story of exploration, engineering, reliability and adventure. These are vehicles that have crossed deserts, climbed mountains, traversed jungles and carried generations of explorers to places where maps become merely theoretical.
Even if you have little interest in cars, the museum offers a fascinating insight into one of the world's great automotive success stories.
If, however, you happen to like Crazy Horses, it is quite simply unmissable.
Land Cruiser expert, Dan Busey, guides us through the incredible museum collection.
Credit: Mecum Auctions
What surprised me most at the Land Cruiser Heritage Museum was discovering just how close Toyota came to failure.
Today, Toyota is the world's largest automobile manufacturer. The Land Cruiser is arguably the most respected four-wheel-drive vehicle ever built. Looking at the immaculate examples lined up throughout the museum, it is easy to assume success was inevitable.
It was anything but.
The story begins in the difficult years following the Second World War. Japan's economy was struggling, inflation was rampant and industrial production had stalled. In an effort to restore stability, American-backed economic reforms imposed strict austerity measures that controlled inflation but deepened the difficulties facing Japanese industry.
A Japanese police officer and a US Army MP direct traffic in Tokyo during the Allied occupation of Japan (1945-1951).
Credit: MeijiShowa
Toyota was among the casualties.
By 1950, the company was in serious trouble. Production had fallen dramatically, labour relations had deteriorated and a major strike brought manufacturing almost to a standstill. At one point, only a few hundred vehicles were leaving the factory each month.
The company that would eventually conquer the world appeared to be fighting for its survival.
Then history intervened.
On 25 June 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea and the Korean War began. Japan, still under American occupation, became an important supply base for United States military operations throughout the region. Orders for military equipment flooded into Japanese factories.
US Marines storm ashore in amphibious invasion of Incheon (September 15, 1950).
Credit:American Photo Archive
Among them was a request for a compact four-wheel-drive utility vehicle.
Toyota responded quickly. Engineers adapted an existing truck chassis, installed a six-cylinder engine and created a prototype known simply as the BJ. Inspired by the Willys Jeep vehicles then being used throughout occupied Japan, Toyota initially referred to the vehicle as the "Toyota Jeep".
Ironically, the BJ lost the original government procurement competition to the Willys Jeep itself.
Thousands of US Jeeps abandoned on the island of Okinawa (November 11, 1949).
Credit: Carl Mydens
Yet the story did not end there.
In July 1951, Toyota test driver Ichiro Taira demonstrated the vehicle's capabilities by driving it to the sixth station on Mount Fuji - a feat no vehicle had previously accomplished. The demonstration impressed officials sufficiently for the National Police Reserve to adopt the vehicle for patrol duties.
Production remained small at first, with the vehicle remaining in prototype stage for the first two years. From 1953, orders gradually followed from police forces, forestry departments, agricultural agencies and utility companies.
Toyota had found a purpose for its rugged machine - and perhaps a path to survival.
1953 BJT Toyota "Jeep" - one of less than 300 built during the model's production years (1951-1955).
Credit: The Land Cruiser Heritage Museum
Then came the final piece of the puzzle.
In 1954, following objections from Willys regarding use of the Jeep name, Toyota was forced to rebrand the vehicle. Hanji Umehara, the company's Director of Technology, chose a new name intended to evoke strength, endurance and the ability to travel anywhere.
Land Cruiser.
Few names have proven more appropriate.
1958 FJ25 Toyota Land Cruiser – the very first Land Cruiser to be sold in the US.
Credit: The Land Cruiser Heritage Museum
Seventy years later, the Land Cruiser has earned a reputation for reliability that borders on mythology. Around the world, it became the vehicle of explorers, aid workers, farmers, soldiers and adventurers.
Standing amongst more than one hundred examples in Salt Lake City's remarkable museum, it becomes clear that the Land Cruiser represents something more than transportation.
It is a monument to perseverance.
Toyota Land Cruisers, new and old.
Credit: Toyota Motor Corporation
Toyota survived because it was forced to solve a difficult problem at precisely the moment the company needed saving. The result was a machine whose reputation would eventually become larger than the company that created it.
A vehicle that began life as a rejected prototype became a global legend.
The Osmonds were right. Some crazy horses do leave quite a trail behind them.
Visit the Toyota Land Cruiser Museum
Footnote:
The Toyota Land Cruiser established the company's reputation for durability. Less than fifteen years later, Toyota would astonish the world again with a car at the opposite end of the spectrum: the elegant 2000GT. Read our story, Toyota 2000GT: The Rarest Bond Car.