Here’s another gallery of images from the past, this time with a bunch of sightseers having a grand time. And riding some sweet wheels. As with other recent posts, these come from the web, without much info about their origin.
Not that it’s that important. For me, the images are a reminder I still have a few more places to visit in the US. And if I could do it in an old Imperial, it would be all better.
Dinah Shore used to sing SEE THE USA 🇺🇸 IN A CHEVROLET. Groucho Marx urged viewers to visit the local DeSoto dealer. Lincoln was a sponsor of Ed Sullivan. Lawrence Welk was sponsored by Dodge, etc. Seems like folks don’t sightsee much as they travel. Long distance travel is either airline or expressways. Every one is in a hurry. Remember one family trip through Badlands, Mt. RUSHMORE, through Colorado and home 🏡. We had a beautiful DeSoto (Mom’s car),but Dad insisted we take his two door Studebaker Lark. No air conditioning 🔥 or even a radio. Loved some of the sights, but traveling in that Studebaker was NO Lark 😔 for a 16 year old. Wish we could have traveled in the DeSoto OR that Imperial! Thanks for this trip down memory lane.
In those days the Hollywood studios probably had to do their limo service in-house and run a mixed fleet, it wouldn’t do for Sullivan or Welk to be photographed at the airport getting into a Cadillac rather than their sponsor’s make!
Our family’s road-trip car in my teens was a 1986 Plymouth Horizon, also no a/c and with the deluxe front seats shared with the full-size Dodge vans (!) but at least with 4 doors and windows that all rolled down.
No – those celebrities publicly drove their sponsor’s cars. There was quite a scandal decades later when “Mean Mary Jean” from Chrysler Plymouth commercials was shown driving her Pontiac. She didn’t own a Chrysler product it was discovered and Mean Mary Jean disappeared from their ads from that point on.
They took it seriously.
To think Chrysler could have leased her a car for only $1 per year to reinforce the image. Someone in the marketing get his/her butt kicked.
Same thing with cowboys who win major rodeo contests. They are leased a Ram truck for a minimal amount of money to reinforce the image.
It’s vacation time! Wheee! Let it all hang out! No schedules, no constraints! Time for my light striped necktie instead of my usual dark striped necktie! Fun fun fun!
On that same trip, we kept seeing two guys in a 62 Starfire convert. Kept thinking what a beautiful car and one day I would be touring in my own convert. First 🚗 came close, red 66 Dynamic 88 convert. Later had 72 LTD convert. Especially loved driving to and from the beach ⛱ with top down! Big car, great shape 💪, and long life ahead. Those were THE days! Time flies having fun! Make the most of every single moment. At some point you will have those memories to see you through! 😎.
Final pic looks Canadian, I think the car on the left is a Canadian [Chevelle based] ’65 Beaumont.
Actually, I think it’s at the Big Basin Redwoods State Park in California. Looks like the photo was taken just outside of the visitors center (also, the cars seem to have black California license plates).
The corresponding modern StreetView image is below – looks like the trees match the photo:
https://goo.gl/maps/qMEQXJbXJmJj3uvN9
Nice Dart Seneca.
That red Dodge sure looks great. The couple must think so too because they seem to be looking at the car instead of the camera.
My experience with Forward Look Mopars is from the mid 1960s when we lived just down the street from our little town’s Chrysler – Plymouth dealer. I loved exploring the used car lot and many times the cars were unlocked. I remember these cars as faded chalky relics that usually had weird musty smells. The then-new Chryslers and Plymouths seemed so new and modern.
Some of us still take pictures of our cars on trips. Here’s a few photos of our Kia Sedona over the past few years. Clockwise from top-left: Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota; at the beach in Pensacola, Florida; Buckhorn Wash, Utah; and the beginning of US-41 in Copper Harbor, Michigan.
Rick is correct. These road trips build memories. Here we are in 2021 in the Smokey Mountain National Forest. Sorry for the ugly guy in the picture. It is rare that we have a picture of ourselves with the scenery because I am the photographer. Of course, a nice selfie of the two of us at the edge of a precipice in order to capture us and the view would be great until “Let me move back just another step…” Love the photographs.
Maybe the photo did not insert.
It needs to be reduced in size to attach.
Those are fantastic pictures. Love those old Kodachromes!
Love the ’60 Dodge. When I was a little kid, my parents had one just like that, only in a baby blue color.
We were avid road trippers back in the day, but my memories of the ’60 Dodge are very few. I was 5 going on 6 when the car was traded in for a ’66 Impala.
Skyline Drive in Virginia was a favorite destination back then, but we went to a lot of other National Parks too.
The ’64 Ford in the 4th picture looks like an XL 4-door hardtop. Nice!!!
The early ’50s pale yellow over red interior DynaFlow Buick is my favorite.
It’s a few years newer than Rain Man’s ’49 Buick, but I bet it sounded the same as all other DynaFlows as that one speed (in D) transmission acted with total indifference to the car’s actual ground speed.
I can only imagine the dustblasting the couple in the back seat was getting!
That looks like Stephen Pellegrino’s 58 Ford in the Mount Rushmore shot.
When I look at that red Dodge in the first picture, all I can see is a need for perpetual polishing to keep the oxidation at bay. Ugh.
The picture of the ’64 Ford with the lady in a yellow dress and the scenery in the background is beautifully composed; if that was someone in my family I’d have it enlarged and framed. The guardrail is slightly distracting, but still…
I agree, someone had a good eye!
This is from one of my earlier trips to the Oregon coast. Taken at Depoe Bay. I bought that Jag in LA, drove it back home, then everywhere. Fearlessly, for a couple of years. I got to immerse myself in the Jaguar experience. Really a beautiful road car. Not an easy car to keep up as the years pile up. Unfortunately.
I like the Imperial photo. Anyone know if that was taken in Death Valley?
It reminds me of Ethel Merman, Milton Berle, and Dorothy Provine in their Imperial in the 1963 movie “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”
Dad driving the Fiat 125S into the hovercraft. Calais, late October 1971 I suspect Mum took the photo, my sister and I are the blurred blobs in the back seat.
Nice Seneca ~ I had a green Phoenix, it was a better car than I deserved, I didn’t really cherish it in the mid 1970’s .
I remember Mt. Rushmore in the 196’s, it wasn’t all built up nor was it overly crowded when I went .
Traveling by Auto is fun, I still enjoy it .
-Nate