CLARK TRANSFER, INC.
HARRISBURG, PA

For three generations, Clark Transfer has been a leader in a very specialized arena — we proudly serve the entertainment industry, providing reliable, cost-effective solutions to the logistical and transportation challenges of getting the stuff of live entertainment where it needs to go, when it needs to get there. Since our modest beginnings in Philadelphia just after World War II, much has changed. We have grown, we have adapted, and we have learned. But one central commitment has always remained constant: we are fanatically dedicated to service. You can count on us to get your show on the road. Because there is, after all, no business like show business. Clark Transfer, Inc. When Clark Transfer was born, getting the show on the road was a new idea. There were no interstate highways; America relied on the railways — and the railways had limited reach — so first-class live entertainment could only be found in the major cities. Clark Transfer helped to change all that, bringing the performing arts to America’s heartland. For us, “Let’s Get the Show on the Road” is much more than a slogan. The National Touring Company of was loaded into the back of a specially designed Clark Transfer semi-trailer. For the first time in history, a Broadway show took to the highways. Clark Transfer moves eleven tours more than 161,000 miles, including The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, The Berlin Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Boston Pops, While today this seems like nothing extraordinary, at the time it was revolutionary. It marked the end of one era in American show business, and the beginning of a new one. Ralph Hoffman, who crossed the country with the National Ballet and other companies more times than he can count, remembers the old times and the new. “In the early days of my touring, the tradition had always been trains. In Detroit, the train pulled right up to the theatre. They had a loading dock with a spur from the railroad track. And I remember the old stagehands here in Washington talking about going to the railyard, offloading railroad cars onto trucks, and then bringing them to the theatre. That’s where the name car-loaders came from. Nowadays, whether you live near a railroad spur or not, it’s immaterial. Trucks can take a show anyplace. You can be in Peoria and go see Les Miserables or the New York City Ballet. They bring culture and live entertainment to your doorstep, wherever you live. And looking back, it was Clark Transfer that really made this possible.” One thing led to another, and Clark came up with the money to buy a small trucking company, which he renamed Highway Express Lines. As towns along the East Coast began to build their movie palaces, Highway Express got the job of delivering the movie prints to and from the theatres. Later, they added newspapers and magazine delivery. There is no record of what they carried on their trucks during Prohibition. But Jim and Whitey were there, loading, hauling, unloading. Times were hard, but Clark and Molitch had found a niche for themselves. Through the depression and through the war they managed to keep in business, and the business grew. Jim Clark became a force to be reckoned with in Philadelphia politics, eventually becoming the Chairman of the Democratic Party there. Meanwhile, Whitey was always out on the road, keeping the business moving forward. When he met 16 year-old Sylvia Nadler in 1924, he began a six-year, long-distance courtship, with letters mailed from terminals and truckstops. Sylvia told him that, unless she met somebody she liked better, she would marry him when she turned 21. In 1932 she did turn 21, and they did get married. They moved first to Washington, then to New York, and finally into a row-house in North Philadelphia’s Logan neighborhood. In 1933 Sylvia gave birth to Norma, followed in 1936 by Matthew. Their third child, Barry, arrived in 1942. Still, Whitey saw change coming, and he was determined to be ready. He made weekly trips to New York to pitch his scheme to producers, and prepared an elaborate presentation to the Interstate Commerce Commission to persuade them of the need for a new kind of service. In 1948 his persistence paid off, and Highway Express (soon to become Clark Transfer) was granted ICC rights to carry theatrical goods throughout the 48 states of the United States, Mexico, and Canada. A few producers, swayed by the economics of carrying shows directly from one theatre to the next, were willing to give it a try. A young teamster named Charlie Hackett was hired to drive the first jobs. In 1954, Clark Transfer carried 11 shows on national tours, including Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, The Moon is Blue, The Boston Pops, The New England Opera, The Ballet Russe, and The Berlin Philharmonic, running a total of 161,027 miles. Total theatrical revenue that year was $98,156.41. Soon thereafter, Whitey assumed the presidency of the company, and in 1957 his son Matthew came to work there as well. When Jim Clark died, the Molitch family bought the outstanding shares of the company from the Clark estate A family business was born. In 1965, Man of La Mancha went out on tour, and “Let’s Get the Show on the Road” became the registered service mark of the company. Louis Molitch died, just short of his 61st birthday. The family carried on, as 29-year old Matthew stepped in to assume the presidency of Clark Transfer. He saw new opportunities, and moved aggressively to build the company from a small business to a large, diversified group of enterprises with theatrical trucking, film distribution, and books and magazines at its core. In the 1970’s Barry joined the team and oversaw the expansion of the company into Rock and Roll. And still later, Norma took over responsibility for sales after the retirement of long-time employee Bill Reed. The 1960s opened the door to another sea change in touring theatre, as the Metropolitan Opera abandoned the rails for the roads. Each summer, Metropolitan Opera head carpenter Joe Volpe and a Clark Transfer team led by Charlie Hackett would pull off a logistical tour de force, as they brought show business on a grand (opera) scale to America’s heartland. It was a breakthrough that set the stage for the era of the mega-musical.