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As soldiers began returning home from the war, their thoughts turned towards starting a family, and camping trips and travel played an important part in this explosion
of young, active families. To meet the demand for an affordable, compact travel trailer, many of our beloved "vintage trailers" began production in this prosperous post-war era.
As a part of this wave of small, practical travel trailer builders, in 1945, C.T. McCreary setup a simple shop in Watts, California (at 109th and Central) to start
manufacturing his "Aljoa" family travel trailers. Due to the war effort, parts and materials were often scarce, but McCreary persisted and as production expanded,
he moved his "Modernistic Industries" manufacturing company to 9620 E. Garvey Blvd., in El Monte California. Like many compact trailer styles of the 1950's
(Shasta, DeVille, Rod-N-Reel, Oasis, Aloha...), McCreary's Aljoa trailers followed the standard "canned ham" profile. This "canned ham" design was an efficient use of
interior space and was fairly easy to construct, unlike the more complex "aircraft" designs that were being riveted together by Airstream, Avion and others.
For years, rumors speculated that the name "Aljoa" was a combination of major trailer distributor Al Rose ("The Trailer King" - Triangle Trailer Sales) and his daughter Joanne's names.
Actually, McCreary chose the name "Aljo" after his friend's boat named the "Al-Jo", and was then convinced to add an "a" to the end so the name sounded more
"Californian". Unfortunately, in the 50's McCreary was forced to drop the trailing "a" when the Alcoa Aluminum company noticed advertisements for McCreary's
"All Aluminum Aljoa Trailers", and sued Modernistic Industries for copyright infringement because they felt that "Aljoa" was too similar to "Alcoa". So starting with
model year 1957, the travel trailers rolling out of the Modernistic Industries factory were emblazoned with the new "Aljo" name. Aljoa/Aljo trailers were manufactured in several
different models and lengths (the 15ft. model could be ordered with an optional toilet and shower!) from 1945 into the 1960's. They retained the classic rounded
"canned ham" shape until 1964 when the new models debuted with a more "squared-off" profile. Aljoa/Aljo travel trailers are well built and just as popular today,
as they were in the "golden era" of the 1950's and 1960's.
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