This will be a tough poser because of the time factor. Does anyone know the make of car, a convertible, Boston Blackie drove on the early fifties TV series? It does not seem to be an American make.

This is the best I could do.

The owner of the "Crosley Automobile Club Inc." Web site wrote:

I got a report that either in one of the last Boston Blackie movies (1949) or possibly the TV program (1951-1953), the main character drove a Crosley Super Sports of or HotShot.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070608161837/http://www.ggw.org/~cac/Movies/Movies.html

I have been trying for years for the answer. The car was not a Crosley, I have seen both models of Crosley and it is neither. Blackie's car had suicide doors, no American car had them of that era. It might be a tricked out 1947 Delahaye from France. Can't find out for sure as anyone connected with the series, who would know, are dead.

It may be a Bathtub Nash:

I remember the Nash automobiles very well (we use to call them the Bathtubs) in the late '40s and very early '50s, was one of the ugliest cars ever made. Anyone remember the early TV program "Boston Blackie." He drove a Bathtub Nash as a police car.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/travel/escapes/23nash.html

This is a picture of a Bathtub Nash:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050225014517/http://www.gohotrods.com/nash.htm

plus here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20111210080636/http://www.chuckstoyland.com/nash/nash/

I can't find a web page for Boston Blackie with a picture of the car, to confirm the above.

I have looked for the answer on many websites over the years. The car is not a Nash, Kaiser or Frazer. There might be an outside chance it was a custom job from a California custom body works. I emailed George Barris to ask but did not receive a reply. There are no websites, so far, that show this car. As I said before it had suicide doors and a sports car layout. Older people remember the series but you almost get the automatic reply of "boy, that was a long time ago", concerning the car.

The car used in the latter part of the TV series was a 1952 or 53 Glasspar roadster (made by Glasspar Boats.) It originally was powered by a Ford flathead V8 and later changed to a 265 Chevrolet V8. I know this because a friend of mine owns it!

I don't think any of the posts so far are correct as to the identity of the car. I have looked at them all and none fit. The tip off is the windshield of the car. The top of it is unfinished in that the "chrome" trim doesn't go over the top of the windshield glass, and the rubber on the bottom that meets the top of the dash has a "rippled" effect that suggest a custom or kit car application. My best guess is that this is an American custom (California?) or an early fiberglass California short run sports car along the lines of the Kaiser or Glasspar. I am incined to go with custom because of the suicide doors, but then there's that windshield... The identity of the car may very well be lost to the ages if there were only a few of them made.

I recently came across a car with a sign that read "This is the smallest boat-tail roadster in the world. Built in 1949 by Powell [sic] Crosley for the Boston Blackie TV show." The windshield and rubber at the bottom seem to match the description provided by zcarbob (Apr. 24, 2007). The car is on display at the Red Barn Antique Mall in Batavia, OH. The current owner told me that it is a one-of-a-kind and originally it was painted yellow. It is now red.

There used to be a link to a site with photos of it, though it's not online any longer.

Blogger Kenneth DeVries wrote about this in 2011, stating he had solved the mystery. His discussion mentions that many of the other suggestions he'd heard didn't work because of height and other design differences. He proposed the best match was a Muntz Jet (made by the Muntz Car Company in the 1950s), concluding that "the overall form and distinctive front end indicate the car was based on a Muntz Jet."

In 2014 he added a note that various people had pointed him to a "1952 Spohn Palos," made by Spohn Coachworks, a German company that specialized in custom-made cars. DeVries still holds to his "crudely customized Muntz" idea as most probable, though admits the Spohn does have similarities.

http://kjdevries.blogspot.com/2011/06/boston-blackies-tv-car-mystery-solved.html