There was some discussion about “angry car” styling in yesterday’s 1959 Dodge post. Eric Van Buren stated that “…the Dodge looks like a mean old man while the Buick looks like an angry woman…” Well, here is the angry woman, in the form of the all-new 1959 Buick.
Another find at the Sycamore Mall cruise-in, this four door sedan appears to be an Invicta based on the chrome rocker trim. For some reason the “Invicta” script was missing from the front fenders. Other than the period aftermarket wheel covers, this was in nice original shape. Funny that there were so many angry-looking cars in the happy, prosperous Fifties. This one even looks mad from the back!
So there you have it. The American Gothic of cars.
Since I started this I’ll expand on the human image both of these cars bring to my mind.
Dodge, the old man who’s window you just broke with a baseball out the first time you really connected with the ball solidly and hit it farther than you had before, or since, who comes out of his house toting his shotgun, shaking his fist, screaming you “@*$% #*&@% kids”.
Buick, the woman dressed like the one above or June Cleaver, who’s freshly mopped floor you just tracked mud all over, right before company was due.
With the Dodge you steered clear of that house from then on and added a couple of blocks to your walk to school to do so.
With the Buick you hid in your room for the rest of the day, but all was right with the world the following morning.
Dodge’s bumpers floating in the grille look like big cigars in gritted teeth. With the big furrowed brows it’s an angry old man.
The Invicta got married and had baby Dodge Chargers!
At the time the 59 Buick seemed like a breath of fresh air compared to the over adorned church organ look of the 58, especially the sleek rear, so I don’t think we thought of it as an angry appearance. Our neighbors purchased this same car – a new white Invicta four door sedan – in 1960, a form that reflected the stylists’s efforts to tone it down, as was done with Chevrolet that year. For sure the 59 Pontiac and Oldsmobile were the most handsome GM entries of the year. For me the hands-down winner for angry, bizarro styling of the period is the 61 Plymouth’s front end, perhaps one reason I like the much maligned 62 so much more than most.
Yeah, one angry Buick. Should they have called it the Buick Invective?
I’ve always adored the ’59 Buick, ever since I first saw it in red on a Motor Trend two page spread the month it came out. Never looked angry to me, just sleek. One sharp sweep along and around the front, a second likewise around the back. Simple clean and fast. No silly scoops or ventiports either.
Works especially well with the hardtop and in bold colors like red and black. Still this sedan looks great. Buick was best looking of all the wild ’59s.
From the brochure’s back page.
Don’t get me wrong I think the 59 Buick is a beautiful car, in fact I’d say it’s my favorite car from 59.
I sure can see the angry look in it, but it always looked like a toothy grin to me, maybe since I was so little when it made its big impression on me. Buick had some of the best grilles ever.
The slanted headlights put off some, that might be part of it, but I always liked them.
Mike, obviously I agree with you that the car must be considered in the context of its time. I have the October 1958 issue of Motor Trend in which William Caroll road tested a prototype. Though his focus was primarily on the engineering changes, he wrote, “First impressions are often the best. And in this case first impressions were the greatest. The new lines are good and clean. It appeared fast just sitting, with little evidence of great size, yet typically Buick in styling of wheel cutouts and block grille.” So, innovation yet continuity.
Personally, I liked the 59 Pontiac and Olds better but perhaps my view is colored by the fact that neighbors purchased a new Pontiac sedan that year (loved the wide track) and my cousin got a new 59 Olds convertible (white on white with red interior), a car I and my little cousin – both of us nine at the time – loved to ride in and watch the ribbon speedometer go into the red zone as we encouraged her to give us some speed.
Wow, you have that Motor Trend! It must be the one I remember. The writer expresses it beautifully. It is remarkable how the car’s great size was minimized into such sleekness.
’59 Pontiac was great. My twenty-something uncle had a convertible in the mid-sixties that he took me water skiing in. He reversed the ash trays so across the dash it said CONTIAP.
Hmmmm – water skiing in a 59 Pontiac convertible. Did anyone get pictures? 🙂
Ha! Sure, it was like this…..
To me, the hood from the Buick looks like a frowning Master Shake from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Here ya go:
I agree.
Just a few years ago, some Cubans got a 1959 Buick, like this, but green, to float. They were intercepted on the way to Florida. I thought it looked good as a boat.
As I recall, the Coast Guard or Navy sunk the Buick. I remember seeing a photo of it while it was still afloat and hoping against hope that the Buick would be spared.
This 59 Invictiva is the real star of the ‘French Connection’ story. According to author Robin Moore, the French television presenter purchased this car and had the drugs stuffed in the floor.
In the movie they used a Mark III which is a very cool car in its own right, but this Buick is the real sh*t and the actual arrest was in 62 or 63. .
Actually, the French Connection drugs weren’t hidden in the Buick’s floor but in the area directly behind the tires in the front fender wells. The Invicta was chosen specifically because of the large fender space.
You are correct…. i got lazy and went w/ the movie when as you point out, the Invicta was used due to that extra fender space
thx for that.
Angry? No, smirky. Those slanted quads give it the appearance of a double-meaninged grin.
There were a fair number of those Buicks in and about my vicinity as I was growing up. I remember them as better-preserved; not sure if it’s because the cars were better or that the owners more likely to minister to its needs.
In any event, it was a much more pleasing “face” than the bathtub cars of the early 1950s. I somehow felt that way about most of the quad-headlighted models of that time…the four-eyes gave it a happy, pleasing look. Compare the 1955 Chevrolet (a classic and a beautiful job; but requires maturity to appreciate) with the 1959. The gull-wing is longer, lower, happier.
More useless and more shoddy, too, and quicker gone; but that was to be learned in the future.
“Funny that there were so many angry-looking cars in the happy, prosperous Fifties. This one even looks mad from the back!”
It takes drive; often a drive rooted in rage…to make it. Go-along-to-get-along doesn’t generally do it.
The 1950s were a time of dreams rediscovered…mostly, material dreams, from two generations tired of deprivation. Back from the war, everyone was saying: “Where’s MINE?”
Gawd love ’em. Innocence and drive combined, in a time where miracles could still occur.
…did they make a wagon of these? Betcha it would be damned attractive….
Yes, yes they did and it is not bad looking to me it looses too much in the translation. From the side the rear flanks remind me too much of the Chevy.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Buick/1959_Buick/1959_Buick_Brochure/dirindex.html
I wish it had a shot directly from the rear with the tailgate up, it looks pretty good with it down.
That’s a fun brochure. On the optional equipment page they list a portable radio stashed in the glove box and a buzzer that goes off when you exceed a predetermined speed.
The speed minder stayed on the options list for many years.
For the sake of “Big Three” balance, this 59 T-bird looks pretty P.O.’d too.
Well the big 3 were pretty angry about what that the economy had done to the industry in 58. Of course the designs had already been penned by the time that they new that, and some like the T-bird were more a carry over, but it makes a good story.
I always wanted to recast Christine with a red 59 Buick Invicta hardtop, now that would be menacing.
I’ve said before that, if Christine wasn’t a Plymouth Fury, she would have been a 59 Buick.
I’ve always been impressed by how quickly GM redesigned the Buicks from 1958 through 1961.
The menacing 1959 transformed to a still bold but attractive 1960. With 1961, Buicks were once again becoming understated and handsome.
Great, now I can never own a 59 Buick, it will look too much like my exwife to me.
I was born early in 1960. My parents told me that “Buick” was the third word I learned to say, after mama and dada. And I could recognize a 1959 Buick driving down the road at 2 years of age and would say “Buick”. If it was a 1960 Buick, I would say “Little Buick”. I loved the designs even then when I was so little. Owned a 59 LeSabre two-door hardtop for awhile in college. Only one minor change to the design would help: the 1960 taillights look better on the 1959, and the 1959 taillights look better on the 1960. If I ever get another 59, I’ll switch out the taillamps to the 60s.
Now and then I used to see a medium blue 1960 Buick 2-door sedan. Even in this low-line trim I thought the car was attractive.
I also remember the first 1959 Buicks I saw. This was in the autumn of 1958, in Des Moines, Iowa, and there were four of them on a parked convoy truck. They had so little in common with previous Buicks, series names included, that I had to specifically look for emblems before I could identify the cars as Buicks. These were every bit as revolutionary as the new 1957 Chrysler products had been.
The Brochure I linked to above states: “Buicks so new even the names had to be new”
Angry or not, they are a good-looking car
The Buick was “ground zero” for the complete ’59 GM redesign. The Buick’s beltline determined the general shape for all ’59 GM makes, A/B/C bodies, although technically, there wasn’t an “A” per se, for ’59-’60 . . . . Interesting in that Olds and Pontiac (I believe) deviated from the “X” frame chassis . . .
I love the symmetry of the ’59 Buick. The way the line for the fin starts right behind the vent window, rises toward the tail, dips along the edge of the trunk, then swings back up to go around on the passenger side. The corresponding line for the canted headlights actually starts at the taillights, sweeps up toward the front of the car, dips along the edge of the hood and repeats. While I love the audacity of all the GM makes in 1959, the Buick integrates the wild fins into the design better than all the others.
+1
My thoughts exactly. That chrome strip surrounding the car ties the design together in an elegant fashion. The canted headlights echo the front and rear sweeps (they’re not fins or gullwings) to add continuity to the overall look. I do find the front end of the ’60 a bit more conventional, but the ’59 is my overall preference, especially the four-door hardtops and the wagons.
I think that 1959 was a milestone year for GM styling. The ’59 Buick, Chevy, Cadillac and Corvette are all among my favorite cars styling-wise.
An old joke from back then.
Man at bar “I have three daughters: Mary, Janet and Invicta”
Other man: “Why is one named Invicta?”
“I wanted a new car”
I saw a Range Rover square on this morning and thought, that face sure looks like it’s a descendant of the ’59 Buick!
Has anyone seen the YouTube video of a 1959 Buick being crushed in a Pennsylvania scrapyard? It’s a 4-door white sedan and its very slow – the old crusher only mashes a part of the car at a time, so it isn’t a quick mash. At the beginning of the crush, its creepy to watch the canted headlights first become horizontal and then smash. Sad they didn’t get more parts off the car first, because it doesn’t look salvageable as a whole, but very sad indeed to watch.