Travelling the Traveleze Way

Travelling the Traveleze Way by Shannon Lee Mannion
	Chris Bryant collects Melmac. If you recall this unbreakable Canadian-made dinnerware, you are indubitably a child of the fifties and will appreciate his efforts to restore his 1957 Traveleze travel trailer to it’s nostalgic, but oh-so-practical glory.
he Traveleze was bought in Calgary in 1957 by Chris’s parents, Harry and Judy Bryant, when the family was stationed at the Claresholm Air Force base, north of Fort Macleod. Buying this mini-mobile home was in keeping with both parent’s backgrounds in the Royal Air Force in Britain, and subsequently in Canada where Mr. Bryant continued working as a pilot from 1952. Chris and his sister, Gini, were used to moving from air base to air base, and the Traveleze was just another day-in-the-life method of vacationing.
The senior Bryants gave Chris the Traveleze in 1980 but it wasn’t until 2000 that work began in earnest to restore it to its former utility. Many local tradesmen were called upon to refurbish interior woodwork and to paint the external aluminium shell, plus new curtains had to be fashioned out of cotton barkcloth, stencilled in a pattern and colours by a California draper, Melina. www.melinamade.com Then came the detail work. With Chris and his father combining their efforts from mid-June until mid-August, the trailer was ready for a late-summer maiden-run to a campgrounds to meet some friends. “I attracted quite a bit of attention when I pulled in with my ‘37 Chev Coupe (with a turbo hydromatic 350 V8) pulling the Traveleze,” Chris recalls, “Many people came down to the point that weekend to take a look.”

What convinced you to undertake this restoration?
I’d been looking for information on Traveleze because I was thinking of buying a good used one.. I also checked into www.vintage-vacations.com where I chatted with both Craig Dorsey of Santa Monica and then met Gerry Haglund of Coquitlam www.fiftiestrailers.com who reproduces 50's-style trailers for $22,000 a pop. It was then I realized that I had a diamond in the rough. Sure, it’s got a few dents, but those are character lines.
What parts stayed original from the time your family used the trailer when you were young and what did you have to replace?
The upholstery is original and so is the tabletop and the linoleum. The mattress is also original. It is an odd-sized one, 48" x 72", made by Traveleze for their trailers. The lamps are original as is most of the Melmac dinnerware. I had to replace some of the inside wood due to water damage and I intend to replace the picture window at the front of the trailer.
Is there any part of the restoration that stands out as being more problematical than the rest?
The aluminium trim around the windows was the most difficult. In 1969, we put a clear spray all over the aluminium and it would not come off so we had to hand-strip it. I removed 500 rusty screws and replaced them #6 and #8 Philips pan-head stainless steel screws. I cleaned-out the hardware store of their entire stock.
How do you think we got from compact travel trailers like your Traveleze to the behemoths we see on today’s highways?
I can’t tell you exactly except to say that the motorhome idea is not new. They’re similar to covered wagons, when you think about it. The current trend has been going since the 1930s when trucks were used. I recall some chap in 1949 who built a huge mobile home that had a collapsible swimming pool on the roof. Trailers have gone from utter practicality to a way of passing time.
Do you see the permanent trailer parks of today as an outgrowth of travel trailers?
I think they are. Many of the well-heeled workers of the ‘30s bought trailers and took them from site to site as their mobile home. And now, of course, there are hunting camps and logging camps where trailers are used.
Do you recall your first and last trip in the trailer with your family?
Our first trip was to Edmonton in 1958 in the dead of winter to get me fitted for contact lenses. I was 11-years-old and the youngest person in Canada to be fitted with contacts. Our last trip, in August 1964, when I was 18, the whole family went to Round Lake near Barrie’s Bay. I recall we got a block of ice out of a saw-dust-filled icehouse for our icebox.
If you had a young family, could you see yourself doing this?
If I had children, I would have either bought a replacement for this trailer or fixed it up ages ago. I have great memories of wonderful family trips.
How do you see yourself using this trailer once it’s ready for the road?
It’s ready now. I’d like to paint my coupe off-white with an aqua stripe to match it and take it around to the various shows. I’d like to spark a resurgence.