As a disclaimer, I’m still putting this together and still finding new, sometimes contradictory, information. Probably the most “controversial” thing is the dates of manufacturing the Holidays.
As you will read below, Bud Cooper, an Airstream authority from the fifties, says they were a prototype that didn’t sell as hoped and were only made for one year, 1954. On the other hand, I have found ads for the Holiday in Trailer Life 1955 for January, February, and March. I have not found any mention of the Holiday past March 1955. They are not mentioned again in any subsequent issues. My assumption is that the production ended late 54 as orders were either slow or non-existent but they ran ads for a couple months on into 55. It is very possible that the 55 ads were placed in the last quarter of 1954 as it isn’t uncommon for magazines to require a quarterly commitment from their advertisers.
To date, I have only heard of five other Holidays in existence. When I found my first one in central Florida, I couldn’t find anyone who had heard of them. I contacted Airstream directly. They had no record of a ham can type trailer ever made by Wally or Airstream or any trailer ever sold as a “Wally Byam Holiday.” I contacted the Tin Can Tourists. Forrest Bone responded that he had not heard of the Holiday but suggested I post it on Airstream Forums. I did and got mixed replies from “Ain’t no such thing” to “Man you have a really rare Airstream. “
It was on the forums I first met Fred Caldwell who turned out to be a remarkable cornucopia of Airstream facts and history. But even in the beginning Fred had not heard of the Holiday.
My first real lead came from Scott Scheuermann, the first VP of the Vintage Airstream Club. Scott suggested the Holiday might be a Holiday Travel Trailer. “From what I understand they were only produced for one year. It is an Airstream product, thus you can join the WBCCI and or the Vintage Airstream Club. The person you want to talk to is RJ Dial. He knows a lot about Vintage Airstreams and knows others who also know more about them than he.”
I contacted R.J Dial and he responded: “I've only heard of the Holiday one other time - little is known about it. Ohio didn't open up until September 1952, and the windows on your trailer were not used after 1952, so I set the age at.... 1952!... The Wally Byam Holiday does show up on the official list from the WBCCI as eligible trailers - and they received the list from Airstream back in the late '50's.”
Somewhere along in here I was told to try the The Recreation Vehicle and Manufactured Housing Hall of Fame Museum. They responded that after searching their records they had no listing of the “Wally Byam Holiday.” It was through the RV/MH Museum, however, I got in touch with Al Hesselbart, author and historian who joined the staff of the RV/MH Hall of Fame in 1994 as the on site manager. Al wrote:
“Lanny, I heard back from Wally Byam expert Bud Cooper who is very familiar with the Holiday and nearly owned one when new. It was a small production prototype model made only in 1954 to see if the customer would buy the caravan styling as opposed to the typical Airstream styling. The test failed and they were never put into real market production. The prototype unit was built by a Jack Oakley and John Taylor for Wally. “
So the history started to come together.
While building up Airstream’s Ohio production and sales during the first two years, Wally Byam manufactured this less expensive trailer under his own name, the Wally Byam Holiday. Based on small lightweight trailers he saw in Europe, the Wally Byam “Holiday” was a “15’ “ flat-sided canned ham style trailer. I set the length in quotes as the length actually is listed as three different sizes. The length is listed in the original Holiday brochure 1954, Vol. 1, Num. 1, listed the “Overall length 14 1/2 feet....body 12 feet.” In Vol. 1, Num. 2 the length was listed as 15’ with a12 body.’ The last mention I have found of the length of the Holiday was in the March Trailer Topic Magazine. Trailer Topic’s March 1955 issue has a “complete” listing of travel trailer manufacturers. It lists Holiday trailers Inc. Jackson Center, Ohio as having two models, 16’ with a body of 13’ and the 21’ tandem with a body length of 18.’ The overall length variation of the smaller single axel Holiday is probably due to the addition of a rear bumper. To my knowledge, with the exception of my newer Holiday #1135, none of the other existing Holidays have a rear bumper as the frame stops just past the wheel well. I can’t speculate as to the body going from 12’ to 13.’ I do not have information as to the exact length of the bodies of the existing Holidays. Both my #1094, which to my knowledge is the oldest Holiday existing and #1135, the newest of the Holidays, have bodies of a little under 13.’ As even less information is available on the tandem Holiday, from this point forward I will focus only on the single axel “15’” Holiday.
According to the brochure and magazine ads, it can sleep five adults. They would have to be exceptionally good friends and small as well. The undercarriage is steel ladder frame construction like many other Airstreams. The outside skin and most structural body members were riveted aluminum, with a few wood framing members as necessary. The interior is all wood, 3 ply 3/16th inch thick Birch paneling. Balura paneling was also used. Standard equipment included a four burner South Bend butane stove, oil or propane heater and an airplane chemical toilet. A flush-able marine type toilet was an option for an additional $20. Both my Holidays have Cunningham marine toilets. There was a standard sink and faucet fed by city water but an additional ten gallon stainless steal fresh water tank and hand pump could be added for another $40. My #1094 has the stainless steal tank. One of the existing Holidays #1102 owned by Ellen and Shannon Stewart has a wall mounted gas fueled water heater. It mounts on the wall next to the sink, looks to be about ten inches in diameter and 24” tall. It is not listed as an option in the original brochures Vol. 1, Num. 1 or Vol.1, Num.2.
The choice was between the standard 50 lb. ice refrigerator or two models of gas refrigerators, the Astral for $135 and the more expensive Silo from Germany for $175. These were exceptionally expensive options considering the stock or base Holiday price was $1,395.00 F.O.B. Jackson Center, Ohio. My #1094 has the ice box. The #1135, much later model, has an electric refrigerator built in Germany for the Alaska refrigerator company. It was original with the camper but not listed in any of the promotional material. . All have the same floor plan with a dinette which converts to a twin bed, a rear double bed with a narrow bunk above. In the first models, optional extra equipment included a marine type flushing toilet, 10 gallon stainless steel water tank and hand pump, gas light, propane Panel Ray heater, coil spring mattress, twin butane tanks and an Astral or Silo gas refrigerator. My 54 has the Gas light, an Alaska 110 electric refrigerator, the twin tank option and a Dearborn butane heater.
