Ruben Allender made millions, then lost ’em, by Roadkilling. “He was a wheeler-dealer,” his grandson, Steve Allender, says. “He was always good at making something out of nothing.”
“Ruby” came to Detroit from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in 1913 and built a career selling myriad surplus goods. “After World War I he bought parachutes,” Steve Allender says. “One of his ideas was to unwind them and sell the string as fishing line. He didn’t know what to do with the parachutes, though. He had 20,000 or 30,000. So he looked at the manufacturer’s name on the box, and an employee got the bright idea of calling them.” Ruby sold the parachutes back to the manufacturer and made a killing. He rewarded the wise employee with the car of his choice, a…
