Suddenly, it’s 1960!
I’ve never taken much interest in cars. I see them as a mode of transportation, and my concern is with drivability and safety features, with looks a distant third. Even as a child growing up in the 1950s I didn’t take much interest in how they looked, except for liking pink ones and turquoise-blue ones, which were not all that uncommon then.
Ditto car advertisements. I just didn’t pay attention – except for one ad campaign that I remember vividly.
The year was 1957 and the ad was for Plymouth, the make of car my mother drove. The musical pitch was “Suddenly, it’s 1960!” The reason this made such an impression on me had little to do with the car and everything to do with the slogan. After all, as far as I was concerned, it had been the 1950s forever. I didn’t recall any other decade. 1960 seemed impossibly futuristic, like a science fiction dream. The ad opened my eyes to the fact that the 60s were coming, although in the far-distant three-years-away future.
Last night it occurred to me that I could probably find some of these ads on YouTube. Sure enough, this came up:
I have to admit it’s a sharp-looking car.
I also grew up in the 50s, born in 1954. I remember the change from 1959 to 1960 being somewhat disorienting. Now on all my school work I had to print 01/01/60. Most of all I remember coming into school on January 20, 1961 (my birthday of all days) and wondering, “Where’s president Eisenhower’s picture?”, “Who’s that other guy?”.
Dad had one for a short while. I don’t remember much about it except the rather odd fins in the rear (which the video seems to de-emphasize). I was a junior in high school.
Dad then upscaled to a Chrysler and drove them for years, in fact, til his passing in 1981. Dads were really car loyal in those days!
All these years later, I drive a Mini Cooper…
I get off on ’57 Chevys…
Peter Crowell:
My father always drove a Chrysler. He traded in his old one for a new one every 2 years He usually didn’t even go to the dealer to pick it out. The dealer knew what he wanted: dark blue or dark maroon.
Probably referring to stolen elections…
The thing about 50s cars is that they needed V8s to move them as they were built like tanks: all metal and very solid. My first car was the hand-me-down family ’54 Ford. 1/8 inch sold steel bumpers, 3 speed on the column, etc. (https://cdn.dealeraccelerate.com/mce/1/432/17757/1920×1440/1954-ford-crestline-fordor). By the time I was driving it to high school, late 60s, the right pax floor board was rusted out and replaced by plywood. The ball joints were shot and going over 45mph resulted in severe wheel shimmy. I kept asking my Dad to fix it, but he said no. In retrospect, he probably looked at that as a speed governor for me.
Parked in the HS lot, a girl in her new Camaro backed into my 1/8 inch steel bumpers and got a lesson in how car construction had changed in 14 years. 🙂
In ’57 my Pop traded his ’51 Plymouth sedan in for his first Volvo, a white PV444.
In ’58 while passing through Coffeyville, Kansas on our homeward trip to Fort Worth (from visiting my grandparents in nearby Independence, Ks) the rarity of that Volvo caught the eye of the Coffeyville sheriff and his companion, the Grand Marshall of the annual Coffeyville rodeo, who were together on the prowl for a random passerby (Texas plates!) to whom to award free tickets to the rodeo along with a free steak dinner and overnight accommodation at a local motel — and we were it, pulled over in a flashing-light and siren traffic stop. Poor Pops had no clue what he’d done wrong, heh. Come to find out it was only buying a weirdo car.
I will say that I appreciate all of the new, bright colors of some of today’s cars.
But, outside of this, as far as I’m concerned, visually most of today’s current model cars are pretty unattractive and lack style, many looking like some form of bug.
Crazy as some of the old car styles look from today’s perspective— massive fins come to mind— at least they had some flair, and designers were apparently willing to take a lot more chances.
There is probably a market opportunity for a car company to bring back some flair.
Dad worked for Chrysler associated companies and we enjoyed various Plymouths. My allegiance to Chrysler products persisted too long.
The original Corvette model was on a marketing tour and displayed at my college. The guys all scoffed and said, “the damn thing is made of plastic”.
The ’57 Chevrolet was classic. Two toned paint, hard top convertible, and those perfect fins. Wish I had taken a larger loan and invested in one when I finished flight training that year.
There was a time when most any self respecting American boy could recognize a car’s make by the shape. Now, I often have to look for the manufacturer’s emblem. So little originality–Tesla truck excepted, of course.
Interesting about those cars in 1957 up to 1960 because they became more interesting, lots of fins and they looked a bit like jet fighter aircraft sleek and ready to take off. At the same time they were a bit more comfortable and lots of them had air-conditioning and better radios, lots of heavy metal with gasoline which they guzzled selling for about 35 cents per gallon which would be right under 4 dollars per gallon in today’s money. Inflation has made a lot of difference and we put a lot of high octane fuel through those fine old cars. I was 12 years old in 57 and I was driving before 1960, in 1961 I got my driver’s license and parallel parking my mom’s 1960 four door hardtop Chevy Impala was kind of like bringing a freighter into a dock, or something.
Of course the bench seats made dating a bit more fun because you could drive up and down main street with a nice young lady tucked into your side with your arm around her and automatic transmissions helped that too. The good old days really were rather good, the music was great, the girls were pretty and the cars were neat and fun. Some of the cars from that period like the two seater Thunderbird and the Corvette were out of our range even though a few kids had use of them and in the early 60’s I had my first car, a little 1958 Austin Healy Bug Eye Sprite which I bought with a saved up down payment and made my monthly payments to the bank when I was working at a hardware store. I made decent money for the time working three hours each school day and eight hours on Saturday and full time during holidays and summer.
Most all of my friends in high school had jobs and a bit of spending money, I tended to spend my extra money on guns and ammunition because I did a lot of hunting and target shooting. I usually had a shotgun, rifle and a .22 pistol in my car just in case something needed to be shot. Those really were different times and I tend to write too much once I get started, so there’s that and sorry about that.
My first car was a 65 Mustang, which I drove until it was old enough to drive itself.