AmazonRay sent me a link to a photo-essay from pre-revolutionary Iran, when women wore short skirts, rock and roll was being played in cubs, and the cars (among other things) had a decidedly American-Western aspect. Here’s a couple of street-scenes (and more):
Lots of VeeDubs here. I’ve noticed quite a few Opels and Vauxhalls too.
Skiing…
short skirts;
and dancing: “You say you want a revolution….”
Thank you for reminding me of the glorious history of American intervention in world affairs… (Ducking and covering now.)
Looks like Dubai…..
The lead photo looks like downtown San Mateo, CA circa 1963.
Or many US cities from around that time, except of course for the signage.
Plenty of fashionably dressed Iranian women around these days…they’re just all in Beverly Hills.
educatordan may I remind you of some American interventions in world affairs. WW 1, WW 2, Korea, and the destruction of the soviet union. I would include vietnam, but, that was caused by another lie by lyndon johnson. That lie cost me several friends. Keep what you think are snarky comments to yourself. This is a site about old cars. Lets keep it that way.
Forgive me, Amigo, and that is far from the most political thing said on this site. My grandfather served in WW2 and my father missed Vietnam by the slimmest of birthday margins but both my mother and father had cousins who did not come back from Southeast Asia. Our involvement in direct wars has often been to the betterment of those involved, I was thinking of the CIA and some of the clandestine things we have tried to do as a country (Bay of Pigs, propping up the Shaw, ect…), and those things have seldom gone well for ANY country that has attempted them.
Well said Educatordan,and an elegant retort as well.
The truth is for every American victory there are also examples of blow back from US foreign policy,and Iran is no exception to that rule along with other areas around the world.
Me thinks GTX440 is being a bit thin skinned here for what is to me a rather lighthearted comment.
i’ll piggyback on TW’s comment here. Thin skinned indeed- Dan’s lighthearted take was keeping in mind the wanton waste of American lives that were collateral damage to poor or selfish motivation and NOT thumbing his nose at it.
The way Iran should be.
The world is indeed a complicated place with large problems and few solutions.
In keeping with the spirit of this site I would like to ponder different mysteries, such as why the green VW in photo #2 appears to be driving with its hood/trunk/front compartment/whatever open. I’m guessing a case of dates and a stack of records wouldn’t fit in.
I was wondering the same myself… then looking closer at that same photo, I find myself wondering whether they had flying cars in pre-revolutionary Iran? (did nobody else spot the little white saloon car in mid air above the right hand lane?)
Now that you mention it – how did I miss that – could that be the sign for a car dealer?
It kind of looks to me as though that green VW simply has a black stripe around the edge of the hood.
The flying car looks a bit like a Paykan/Hillman Hunter the new domestic Iranian car only thing is the traffic seems to date in the early 60s not the late I see a 3a b c Gazelle and 59-61 Victors
Fingers crossed for Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen to show them how it’s done…
that lass in the middle of four (in light green sweater) is most fetching! Certainly a better look than the burka, I CAN say these things, right, GTX440?
Or will this be censored too?
Persian women are hot!
That’s why their menfolk don’t want any gawking.
It’s the lard-ass American women who would look better in the burka.
Those last two pics…sigh. My wife happens to be a brainy beauty of some Middle Eastern descent. In at least one American dude’s heaven let there be bookish brunettes in mod fashions who occasionally do the Twist.
Some 4 Star Iranian General is trying to live down that ackward Eliane Benes moment.
Iran still has a thing for American cars. Do a YouTube search for Iranian American Muscle Car Club, it will kick up many results. Gasoline is apparently pretty inexpensive over there, so it’s a good place to own a muscle car…
Normally, I’m the kind of guy who goes for blondes. Or red heads. But some of those middle eastern women sure can turn your head around… 🙂
I lived there in the late 60’s and early 70’s – I remember tons of 2002’s, Peugeots, of course the peykan, belching mercedes diesel 190’s, trucks, and buses. In fact whenever I’m behind a stinking diesel today I can breathe deeply and am instantly transported back to old Teheran! My mother drove a light blue ’66 bug and my father had various squarebacks, peugeots, and land rovers for his job. I learned how to drive there in her bug and in an old jeep. I dream of going back there and finding a treaure trove of pristine 2002 parts!
Okay, you can’t show a bunch of pictures of upper middle class Iranians in the ’60s and assume that everyone in the country was thrilled with the way everything was being run. And pics of old Impalas and short skirted women don’t negate the existence of political repression. In fact, the US is who exhorted the leadership back in these glorious days to repress the secular opposition (“communists” and communists) and tolerate the religious opposition (who evolved into today’s psycho leadership) in the name of human rights. I don’t understand how speaking honestly about history should provoke such a defensive, hypersensitive reaction among patriotic readers.
My parents both grew up in Iran under the Shah and most distinctively remember their fathers’ Impalas, Ramblers and midsize Benzes, respectively.
Hear, hear!
You took the words right out of my mouth. Ulrike Meinhof’s “Open Letter to Farah Diba” (Mrs. Farah Diba Pahlavi was the Shahbanu of Iran/Persia) has this to say about 60s Iran:
The full letter (in German) is here.
It can be said that the US-sponsored Shah prevented the Red Revolution, but instead led to the Islamic Revolution (in the midst of looting the country). What the Iranian upper crust did in the 60s had no bearing whatsoever on the lot of the average Persian. Nice pictures, though.