In the late Forties and early Fifties, Chrysler was considered a luxurious, well-engineered, high powered (starting in ’51 with the Saratoga) line of cars but at the same time boring and staid. Starting in 1955, that all changed. Virgil Exner, late of Raymond Loewy & Associates and Studebaker, was out to make his mark in the automotive world. By all accounts he succeeded, with some of the most attractive Mopars in years.
In the late 1940s, Virgil had gotten himself into trouble with Loewy & Associates, where he was assisting with the styling of the all-new postwar Studebaker line. According to Richard Langworth’s excellent book Studebaker 1946-1966: The Classic Postwar Years, while designing the new 1947 Studebaker, Exner colluded with Studebaker staff, particularly chief engineer Roy Cole (who didn’t take kindly to Loewy and his consulting form, for various reasons), to come up with an alternate design. Though not drastically different from Loewy’s design, Studebaker executives chose the in-house design but kept Loewy involved, so as to use his name for sales cachet. Loewy was not pleased with his employee’s subterfuge, and old Virge was sent packing. In addition, Loewy had enough clout to make Studebaker uncomfortable enough not to hire Exner themselves, so he wound up at Chrysler in 1949.
The 1949 Chryslers were all-new, but remarkably stodgy and tall, designed for people who liked to wear hats while driving. Engineering was good, but the cars were plain vanilla next to other models like the Olds Rocket 88, Buick Roadmaster, and ’49 Ford and Mercury. The 1953-54 Big Three sales war resulted in a remarkable upset; Chrysler Corporation, who had been number two in sales after GM for years, suddenly found themselves behind Ford in third place. Clearly, something had to be done.
What was done was a remarkable transformation of all Chrysler automobiles, from entry-level Plymouth to the new Imperial, now its own marque and no longer a deluxe Chrysler. The “banker’s hot rod” 300 was also big news when it was introduced in February of ’55 as a mid-year model, tearing up the sand at Daytona and easily trouncing everything in sight.
This new styling direction was called the “Hundred Million Dollar Look”, as that is what cars allegedly cost Chrysler to put into production. It may have been worth it. Suddenly the once-dowdy Plymouth Savoys and Dodge Royals looked attractive to many new buyers, no longer something only your Aunt Gert and Uncle Fred in Sioux Falls would drive.
Even the Windsor Deluxe, the least-expensive Chrysler, was very attractive. In fact, as with many cars in the mid to late Fifties, the more basic versions were perhaps more elegant and pure than the increasingly bechromed, two- and three- tone models that appeared as you got into the fancier models.
While all ’55 Mopars looked great, Chryslers were particularly attractive, with suitably deluxe accommodations. Our featured model is a New Yorker Deluxe St. Regis, sporting an attractive red and white two-tone treatment inside and out. ’55 Chryslers (and their near-identical DeSoto brethren) also had a particularly attractive instrument panel, looking like something out of a Chris Craft Capri or Century Coronado speedboat.
Other than the rarefied 300 hardtop, the top of the line Chrysler was the New Yorker Deluxe, offered in four door sedan, two door hardtop, convertible and Town & Country wagon versions. The rarest 1955 Chrysler was the New Yorker Deluxe convertible, of which a mere 946 found homes. The two-door Windsor, New Yorker and 300 were the only pillarless models offered that year, though a four-door hardtop would appear for ’56.
You could get your NY Deluxe hardtop in two versions, the standard $3652 Newport, or the slightly fancier $3690 St. Regis, which wore (of course) additional chrome trim, providing a very unique two-tone pattern, as seen here. Chrysler buyers apparently preferred it to the plainer NYD hardtop, to the tune of 11,076 St. Regises vs. 5,777 ‘regular’ NYD hardtops.
All Chryslers had a V8, regardless of trim level, Windsors with a new 301 CID version with 188 hp and New Yorkers retaining the excellent 331.1 CID Hemi V8 with 250 hp. As befitting its name, the 300 got a souped-up 300 hp version of the 331 mill.
All in all, Chrysler had a good year in 1955, undoubtedly helped by the fresh, attractive styling and proven Hemi power on the upper-level versions. Chrysler actually was second place among high-end marques for 1955, though the company as a whole remained in third place, behind GM and Ford.
Our featured vehicle was spotted at the Sycamore Mall cruise-in, held the last Friday of the month between April and September in Iowa City. I met up with my Uncle Dave and despite the threatening weather, headed over to the show. It was only raining a little when we got there, but about five minutes after getting out of the car, it picked up, right on cue. We sought the shelter of the mall, and eventually the rain stopped and I was able to get more detailed shots of this car. It is actually frequently seen here, but that was in my pre-CC days, before I kept a camera in the car. There was a beautiful red and beige ’55 Bel Air next to it, but this Chrysler is a lot less frequently seen than the Tri-Chevys, long a car show staple.
As for Virgil, he would hit another home run with his “Forward Look” cars iof 1957. If it wasn’t for the rush to production and the resulting shoddy assembly quality and rust issues of those cars, perhaps Chrysler wouldn’t have abandoned the look for the bizarre styling of 1960-62 Mopars. For Virgil, time was running out.
Beautiful car, the owner is justifyably proud.
Although I have always preferred the ’56 models, the ’55 Chrysler was a beautiful car. It was a design that proudly showed off its curves in an era when styling was becoming more angular.
The ’55 models were also notable for being the year when the Powerflite automatic became common in Chrysler and DeSoto. The 2 speed Powerflite was Chrysler’s first genuine automatic and proved to be a very durable unit, being offered into 1961. 1955 was also the only year that shifting of the automatic was done via a lever that came straight out of the dash. Pushbuttons would debut in the 1956 models.
My grandma had a pink and white 55 DeSoto Firedome sedan which would have been very similar (though less luxurious) to this car. It was my favorite car in the whole world until she replaced it in 1967 with a used 64 Catalina.
A great find. I am not sure that I have ever seen one of these in person, under any circumstance.
My great aunt and uncle bought a new 55 DeSoto Firedome two-door hardtop in powder blue and white. I loved that car and they kept it in impeccable condition (unlike Paul’s Dad, they sprung for the “nubby” rather than slick plastic seat covers) for ten years until they traded in for a new 65 Chrysler Newport four-door hardtop. It was my second favorite car in 55.
The first was my aunt’s new Oldsmobile Holiday 88 four-door hardtop (first year for this body style) in yellow and black with white vinyl and black cloth/silver interweave upholstery and the first power antenna I encountered.
55 is one of my favorite car years of all time. The two- and three-tone combinations of exuberant colors, the vast array of new models from all of the manufacturers, new body styles, more optional equipment. This one is a great example.
That 55 Chrysler is a beauty!
> The 1949 Chryslers were all-new, but remarkably stodgy and tall, designed for people who liked to wear hats while driving. Engineering was good, but the cars were plain vanilla next to other models…
That in a nutshell describes why the first car my Grandad ever bought was a brand new 1950 Plymouth. He was a stationary engineer, and also liked to wear a hat.
> The two-door Windsor, New Yorker and 300 were the only pillarless models offered that year, though a four-door hardtop would appear for ’56.
My dad’s first car was a 56 Dodge Custom Royal 4-door hardtop. I remember him mentioning that it had ribs stamped lengthwise into the roof to give it extra rigidity because of the missing B-pillar.
Correction: My dad’s first two cars were both 1956 Dodges, a Regent then a Custom Royal. Both were 4-door sedans. His third car, a 62 Chrysler Saratoga, was the 4-door hardtop.
A “Regent”? I gather then, you’re Canadian (unless you grew up in Hawaii in the territorial days when “Plodges” were sold new in dealers in Hawaii through early statehood days . . . ).
In 1962 There Was no Saratoga It was the Newport And 300 And 300H And New Yorker and top of the line Imperial
Eerily, this is the dressed-up 1955 Dodge Royal Lancer Le Femme dad bought because the bank wouldn’t lend him the $600.00 for a nice blue-and-white 1956 Dodge sedan. The 1955 was a two-door hardtop and was $450.00, I believe. This was about 1962. We were working-poor, remember?
Anyway, I was 10 or 11 years old and I sensed how humiliating it was for mom and dad to be turned down for a loan at our bank for the sake of a 150 bucks…
That Royal Lancer was a piece of junk – nothing but problems, always in the shop it seemed. It was a used car, after all, and was probably about done for at that time. Dad hated that car, but made it do because he had no choice and the 1953 Dodge we had was even worse.
The light got much brighter when dad brought home the 1960 Chevy I described last week!
Just guessing, but I would imagine that in 1962, there would be mighty few vehicles in a used car lot less popular than a 55 Dodge LaFemme. Your father deserves a medal for being man enough buy a LaFemme because it was the best car he could get for the money. Too bad it turned out to be a POS too. Bad enough to have a pink car, or a POS, but when they are the same car, now THAT is bad.
JP, one good thing I must say about that car:
Shortly after I turned 13, dad would take me to the nearest shopping center on a few Sundays – back then everything was closed except for Walgreens’ – and let me drive the car – foot off the gas – just in “D” and idle along and learn how to guide the car, stop and generally learn about what driving was all about – in case something happened to him while behind the wheel.
The car had a V8, so I never got the chance to find out what it could do – the ’60 Chevy got that chance some years later…boy, did it!
My Dad did the same thing. Idle along in a deserted shopping center lot on a Sunday morning at age 15. Those were the days. Nothing open on Sundays except for drug stores, paper stores, and ice cream places.
Boy, do I miss that era. I would not want to be a teenager again, but the quieter, more sane world really would be nice.
I’m guessing that by the early sixties, other “white elephant” cars would’ve been the last big Nashes and Hudsons, and the last Packards, especially any “Packardbakers” (1957/58). Funny, I drove past the local Ford/Lincoln dealer (Honolulu Ford in Kalihi) and saw three 2012 Lincoln MKZ’s parked in a row. I immediately thought of the Packardbakers and how these MKZ’s (Ford Fusions with Lipstick that are $16,000.00 more expensive) and how the MKZ might be a modern “1958 Packard” . . . .
One of my favorites too, although I also prefer the ’56, especially the 4 dr New Yorker.
I’d like to know more back story, since they didn’t whip up the 55′s overnight. The 49′s came out and were old fashioned, but didn’t the designer of them fight to stay at Chrysler, thinking new fangled lower height cars would eventaully flop?
I am going from memory here, but I cannot say as I recall ever reading who was responsible for Chrysler styling when the ’49 line was done. Chrysler under K.T. Keller was an engineering kingdom, and Chrysler’s styling department had always been under Engineering’s umbrella. I have read many times that Keller himself influenced the conservatism of the 1949 cars, but I do not believe that there was a really strong styling department. Chrysler bought its bodies from Briggs in that era, and it is possible that Briggs may have supplied some styling talent. Whoever it was, it is not someone who is anywhere near a household name.
Edit – A little quick research showed that Henry King was lead stylist (and had been at Chrysler styling since the 1930s) but he worked with a lot of direct input from Keller. Poor Henry King was preceded by and followed by a design giant – he succeeded Ray Dietrich who ran styling from 1933-38 and preceeded Exner who was promoted over him in 1953.
All that said, it was Keller who hired Virgil Exner in 1949, and Exner almost immediately set out building a series of showcars, starting with the K-310 in 1950. The 1949 line did not sell well, and although Keller had his own ideas of what made an attractive car, he also understood what disappointing sales looked like. Exner was able to influence the look of the 1953-54 line. At some point, Henry King got responsibility for the Plymouth and Dodge studios, while Exner had more direct influence on the Chrysler and DeSoto. The 1955 line was the first that Exner had control over from the start, and his “massive yet curvy” theme from many of the showcars was very evident in the 55 Chrysler and DeSoto. It is also evident that the Plymouth and Dodge were largely the work of someone else (King) but still under Exner’s authority.
I think Chrysler’s styling conservatism in the 40s and early 50s also had a lot to do with the Airflow debacle. Keller had been more conservative than Walter Chrysler to begin with, and had became president in ’35, about halfway through the Airflow’s run. He undoubtedly got an earful from people like Joseph Frazer, who hated the Airflow and wanted it gone as soon as possible. Admittedly, the Airflow had been shaped more by Engineering than by the stylists, but I recall reading Chrysler stylists saying that after the Airflow, Chrysler management was extremely reticent about any design idea that wasn’t already a demonstrated commercial success.
Richard Langworth interviewed Raymond Dietrich in the 1970s. He had been a famous designer of high end cars during the classic era, and had been hired by Walter Chrysler personally. Dietrich was pretty much Walter Chrysler’s fair-haired boy, but was not popular with Fred Zeder and the rest of the engineering side of the company. Dietrich was forced out shortly after Chrysler suffered a stroke in 1938. Dietrich claims that Keller was disappointed to learn of the departure, and that he had worked very well with Keller.
Henry King seems to have been much more of an organization man than either Dietrich before him or Exner after him. I think that this is reflected in the cars that came out of Chrysler during his tenure as head of styling (1938-1953).
You raise a good point about the Airflow, but I think that the personnel change may have had more to do with the conservatism of the 1940s models. Dietrich claims that he had virtually nothing to do with the Airflow (other than to try to pretty-up the later ones a bit) but that it was styled almost wholly by the engineering guys in a process completely separate from everything else done around that time. But at the same time, the Chrysler Airstreams and even the ’39s that Dietrich styled were very graceful cars.
Look at a 39 Chrysler then a 40, and I think that you see the difference between Raymond Dietrich and Henry King in a nutshell.
This is a great car, truly Classic.
Curious front end styling. That full-width bar appears to raise the bumper area up high, so the twin grilles and headlights make up the whole face which is much wider than it is tall. Clever but strange. After a lifetime of seeing these ’55s it’s odd I never noticed that. It has some continuity with the full width bar in this ’54 (oldcarbrochures.com). What a big step forward the ’55 was!
I’ve always remembered these cars with the 300/Imperial front end shown in that brochure cover (fifth photo). Now that’s an elegant design.
Funny, now the twin grilles on this ’55 front end look like a mustache. Sort of like Jerry Colonna. If you remember when the ’55s were on the road, you remember that guy.
I was a child with these cars’ “faces” at eye level. That’s still how I see ‘em.
The name must refer to the elite St. Regis Hotel in New York City, known for its King Cole Bar with the famous mural by Maxfield Parrish. (Extra cool website: http://kingcolebar.com/. Best “site loading” icon I’ve ever seen.)
Lily and I were sightseeing one cold winter day and just ducked in there to get some hot toddies, not realizing it was the famous St. Regis until we were stunned by that mural.
During my brief corporate career, my senior partner always stayed at the St. Regis, and I had a few memorable breakfasts there. Beautiful hotel, ans spectacular mural indeed.
What was the source of the fascination for naming Chrysler products after hotels? The same era gave us the Plymouth Plaza, Savoy and Belvedere.
I don’t know, but we also had the Dodge Meadowbrook – wasn’t that a country club in Grosse Pointe or someplace like that?
I wonder if the Plaza, Savoy, and Belvedere were increasingly expensive hotels to go along with the Plymouth naming scheme.
Meadowbrook was the Dodge family estate in Rochester MI that is now owned by Oakland University.
The front end of the blue car on the upper brochure begs the question, which nobody else has asked yet – was this the inspiration for the Volvo Amazon ?
Good question, one that others have asked too. The Amazon went into production in 1956, so it might have been a bit tight, but possibly so.Its designer, Jan Wilsgaar, said he was inspired by a Kaiser he saw in the harbor at Gothenburg.
Judging by the wings, would that be the Imperial or is there another version that shares the (best-looking in my opinion) grille styling with the 300?
Only the Imperial and the 300 got that grille.
It was a loaner 1955 Windsor 2-door hardtop that first helped me to realize what nice cars Chryslers could be, to the point that I became hooked on Mopar cars for quite a few years. This was in 1964, and the car, while obviously not brand new any more, drove and handled remarkably well, and the relatively small 301 V8 gave good performance.
Paul, “…a Kaiser he saw in the harbor…”?? I do remember that Kaiser built quite a few Liberty ships during World War II….
Earlier in the year I saw a red and white St Regis very similar to this one for sale on a collectible car lot in Sherman Oaks, CA. I wish I could remember the price – it was considerable. And the car appeared to be in excellent original condition and fully equipped. It was a pleasure to just walk around it and drink in 1955 again.
The wedding I was at today (I really am a wedding DJ! Did karaoke for this one.) featured the bride & groom pulling up in a black ’55 Windsor 4-door. Pretty clean and solid except for the faded paint on the roof (patina, right?). They were impressed that I identified the car right away. Peeked inside, and the original AM radio was working and playing oldies from AM 580 in Windsor, ON, the only AM station left here that plays any kind of music (oh yeah, there’s a country station from Canada, too). I’ll try to contact the photographer and see if she’ll send me a few pics.