SOCAL used car lot in 1956
When I ran across Hot Cars on Netflix I fully expected to see a bunch of ’32 Ford roadsters being driven by greasers with duck tails accompanied by gum-snapping girlfriends sporting pony tails and bobby socks. Much to my surprise this short film (61 min) turned out to be a story of a conflicted used car salesman (John Bromfield) who finds himself working for a crooked used car dealer that supplement his inventory with stolen cars. Much better than hot rods—the real stars of this movie were a cast of thousands all composed of late model (1953-56) cars.
1956 Mercedes 190 SL
The movie begins with Bromfield attempting to sell a very hot Joi Lansing a Mercedes 190 SL.
Jack’s At The Beach, Venice, CA
Part of his sales technique was to take Lansing to a bar named Jacks At The Beach and filling her full of booze. You southern Californians can correct me, but I think this establishment actually existed in Venice Beach. The same bar also made a cameo in an episode of The Rockford Files.
1956 Chrysler New Yorker Convertible
Why Lansing would want a 190 SL when she was driving this stunning ’56 Chrysler New Yorker convertible? Spoiler alert—she didn’t buy the 190, in fact she was a spy for the crooked car dealer.
1954 Olds 98 Fiesta
But screw the story line. Let’s meander about some of the used cars lots and see what’s up for sale. I’ll take this black ’54 Olds 98. Probably has a red interior. In front of it is a ’54 Lincoln. I’ll take that one too.
1955 Jag XK 140
What do we have here? A Jag 140, an MG TD, a Buick (?) convertible, a late ‘40s Hudson, and some other stuff across the street. Yum.
1956 Chrysler 4-Dr Hardtop
Prefer a 4-dr hardtop ’56 Chrysler? Take it, it’s yours. Maybe a ’55 Buick Convertible? A ’55 Dodge station wagon? They’re all shiny and got them donut whites.
1955 Buick Special
1953 Pontiac
About the only buzzkill in the movie was this doggy Pontiac 4-dr sedan that John Bromfield drove. Maybe that’s why he was depressed. There are a lot more shots chock full of yummy mid-‘50s cars. No rust, no paint fade. Just great stuff.
Anyhow, the flic is available on Netflix or at Amazon Prime Instant Video (a freebie) via the IMDB Hot Cars page at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049334/
The original Jack’s was in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica – not far from Venice. I seem to recall that it was located farther north in Santa Monica when I first moved out here.
I’ll take the 190SL and the Olds 98. The first MB I ever rode in and drove, and the 54-56 Oldsmobiles were/are favorites of mine.
I think the older car on the curb may be a Cadillac or a LaSalle. Its funny that thats probably a 1938-40 car in 1956 and it seems so old, it would be like a 1996-97 car today.
I remember when I was a kid (say ’58-’66, or ages 4-12) 20 year old cars, which were either pre-war or immediately post-war, looked really ancient to me. Even my mom’s first car (a ’53 Ford, bought in ’63 from a friend of my dad’s) looked pretty old, as tall and boxy as it was. By contrast, while you can tell cars from the 80s and 90s aren’t exactly contemporary, to my eye most of them don’t look that old. Maybe it’s just that I can remember when they were new and it doesn’t seem that long ago to me?
I wonder what would be the perspective of a 10-year-old today on a car from the late 80s-early 90s. Would those cars also appear impossibly fossil-like?
When I was a kid in mid 60s to mid 70s, pre-1955 cars were dinosaurs.
To my 9 y/o nephew, 60s and 70s cars may as well be Model T’s. Loves new Camaros, care of ‘Transformers’ movie.
The thing was that there were such huge surges forward in styling, thats pretty much slowed down, but compare a 1949 car to a 1959 car, thats a huge leap.
In California (and Hawaii) all throughout the 1950s, there were many pre-war cars still plying the streets as the folks who still drove them bought them from very careful owners who had to maintain them well through the duration or, were the original owners that sometimes still used them as primary or second-car transportation. Home movies of my sibblings in the Sunset District of San Francisco before I was born in 1959, show many a pre-war car out and about in the neighborhood . . . .
Looked through the background for my 50 olds. Guess they were higher class than a poor sailor. Oh, well… Maybe next time. Interesting article Kevin.
Great stuff Kevin thanks. I’ll take the convertible New Yorker thanks,these look much nicer than the raved about 57 Mopars in my opinion.
That pair of 56 Chryslers would make me a very happy guy. Actually, as I think about it, I am not sure if I have ever seen a 56 Chrysler 4 door hardtop in person. It is amazing to me how much development money Chrysler must have dumped into engineering that body for a single year’s run. Of course, Ford did the same thing on the 56 Ford and Mercury (but, curiously, not the 56 Lincoln which was a brand new body shell.)
I saw a 56 Imperial Hardtop sedan once at a local car show, it was quite a thrill watching those windows all roll down, especially that small window near the c-pillar, If I remember right itdoes a littl acrobatic move before sliding out of sight, very cool.
I’ve seen a ’56 Chrysler 4-door hardtop at a local show ‘n shine a few summers back. It had both the New Yorker and Newport names on it, which confused me greatly because as we all know, Newport and New Yorker were distinct model names in the 60s and 70s.
It turns out that the Newport name was used as a designation for the hardtop body style back in 1956, the same way GM used Riviera and Holiday for their hardtops in the Buick and Oldsmobile lines, respectively.
This vid reminds me of one of the reasons I wish I had a time machine. Other than using it for some of the obvious things (preventing 9/11), I would love to just go back to a large city (NY-CHI-LA) in the late fifties/early sixties just to “people-watch”. Maybe go to a large department store to see clothes/electronics. I wasn’t alive during the fifties, but I like that this era signaled the start of the tech age.
While you are there, would you pick me up a couple hundred shares of McDonalds stock and a Chrysler 300? 🙂
Be careful with that time machine! You’d want to back with only selective memory, or you’d go insane trying to stop every tragedy or injustice that occurred over the last 50 years. You might even obliterate me or at least my descendants who were not yet born!
But please do bring me back a ’61 bubbletop Impala 409!
11/22/63, a very good novel by Stephen King, addressed the time machine righting-wrongs conundrum. Definitely worth a read–it is very unlike his horror novels. One fun part is when the main character, a teacher from the present day, falls in love with and buys a bright red 1953 or ’54 Ford Sunliner.
A dream date: Driving the 56 Chrysler convertible with Joi Lansing, 50’s cocktails (with a good aromatic pipe tobacco), and a long evening drive. (Never been to California, so I’d have to play it by ear.)
After that, drive Joi home, drop her off. (She’s a good girl.) Anyhow, at my age, I’d be too tired to do anything else.
Early tee time at Pebble Beach, so I’d need my rest.
Nice post Kevin. I wonder if this is the same ’56 Chrysler convertible used in Touch of Evil? In reading the Wikipedia entry on Joi Lansing, I saw that she was in that movie, too!
That Pontiac is a ’52. The split winshield the the small block PONTIAC letters in the badge at the end of the Silver Streak plus the ’49 style C pillar makes this one a ’52.
Billy,
That’s twice you got me! Forgive me if I just can’t work up the energy to differentiate between a ’52 and a ’53 Pontiac, but as I said, major buzzkill.
As a child of the eighties(born aug 1979) I had a love of all things automobile, used to love the model T in in its simplicity and contrast to anything from a newer generation. My daughter is just nine and loves car and has a photographic memory for tail lights and head lights and can tell me what car it is even in the night. Her first love was the 1955 cadillac on the show classic car restoration, good taste and a hard wired car guy from birth she likes new cars but prefers the old ones.
Ah, yes, Joi Lansing…the beautiful (and fictional) “Mrs. Lester Flatt” on The Beverly Hillbillies.
Always wondered what Lester’s real wife looked like…
“Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, don’t give your love to Earl.”
While were on the subject of 1950s car thief flicks
Finally got around to watching this film last night. My bride even watched it with me — a nice bonus.
Loved all the cars. Story wasn’t too bad, either (low expectations pay off).