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Mad Martigan was close, aside from a few details. The thing about cowl induction was not so much about cooler air as it was, well, having air, and the ram air effect to go with it.
With a number of hood scoops available in that era, despite several of them being open and "functional", the truth is that they did absolutely nothing. In reality, the aerodynamics of the cars would cause the air to flow up and over the scoop, creating more of a vaccum than providing fresh air.
However, it was discovered that at all speeds, there is an area of positive pressure at the base of the windshield. As a result of this finding, the thought of putting a scoop or opening at the base of the windshield, or "cowl", provided fresh air under a positive pressure, which became more and more effective as speed increases.
Although the flapper is cool to look at, the more modern cowl setups alleviate the flapper, and people often construct a bottom pan to go under the air cleaner , with foam around the perimeter to seal it off from the underhood air.
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