You’re twelve years old, and your uncle who lives in LA and works in the entertainment business—natch—has invited you out from Nebraska for a visit. And to show you a bit of the sights after arriving at the airport, he and his girl friend have decided to drive the whole length of Sunset Boulevard, from the Pacific Ocean to near downtown LA, almost 22 miles.
You’re a car nut, so you’ve got your eyes peeled out the left side rear window, taking in every car that you see. Fortunately, you’ve got a photographic memory, and you remember them all, even though there’s 821 photos. And of course you identified each and every one—including this early Excalibur—even though a whole lot of them you’ve never seen in the flesh before.
Note: if you want to refer to a specific photo, the way to identify it is to click on the image, and then the number (1-821) will appear on the browser line at the top).
This took a bit of doing, copying all these images from Ed Rusha’s Archive at the getty.edu website. Ed started driving down Sunset with an automatic camera mounted on a truck or van in 1966, and then repeated it every so often until 2007. His interest was not in the cars though; it was in the built environment, and how it changes over time. Since the cars were a distraction, he made the drive on Sunday mornings, hence the low traffic volume. You may also notice that some buildings are duplicated with different cars in front; he made duplicate trips, to ensure maximum coverage.
I have skipped all the images that didn’t have cars, and after a while, I skipped some cars too, but quite few, maybe 10% or less. There’s only so many Cadillacs and VW beetles one can take… These two brands are very highly represented, as this was peak Cadillac and VW time. Actually, Cadillacs were already quickly being replaced by Mercedes in 1973, and you’ll see a lot more of them here than you would have in any other American city by far. 1973 was actually a couple of years after peak VW Beetle sales (in 1970), but the cumulative totals are quite remarkable.And the rapid influx of Japanese cars that quickly supplanted the VW is all too obvious in these pictures.
Obviously, this part of LA is not very representative of the rest of America; it’s a place where foreign cars had been common for some time, and were now in the process of dominating the streetscape. And the demographics of this area are of course different too; it encompasses some of the wealthiest neighborhoods/towns of the country, including Holmby Hills, Bel Air and Beverly Hills; just affluent ones (all of the West Side) and then ends in much more downscale and ethnic neighborhoods as it passes eastwards from Hollywood. The extreme contrasts in the cars brings that to life, even early on Sunday morning.
This drive—and this era—is very familiar to me, as I moved to just south of Beverly Hills in 1977 and spent quite a bit of time traversing Sunset. So it’s a bit like going home.
The drive starts where Sunset meets the pacific Coast Highway, in Pacific Palisades.
Sweet old fire trucks.
I passe don most non-car shots, but there were a number of ones that included people caught in various activities, like these firemen doing a bit of landscape maintenance.
Two Fiat 850s.
This is Pacific Palisades “downtown”, such as it is.
Austin America.
The era of Honda was just starting.
Honda Z600.
Looks just like my Dodge A100 van, but I didn’t arrive for a few more years yet.
The leaning tower at Sunset and the I-405 (San Diego freeway). Ed’s camera seems to want to level the roads, which makes the buildings lean when the road is actually on an incline.
Check out the light traffic on 405. The good old days. Of course it is a Sunday morning.
Bel Air West Gate
Maserati Ghibli
I’ve come to realize that many women, especially older ones, tend to sit really close to the wheel. It’s very noticeable in many shots.
Looks like we’re entering Beverly Hills
Fiat 128 Coupe
Fiat 1100D
An interesting assortment in the driveway
I was a bit surprised at the number of VW 411/412s. There’s several more yet to come.
Jag XK-120
We appear to have crossed the city line into West Hollywood
That Dart is taking that turn a bit briskly, from the looks of its lean.
Hmm; do I want this Gremlin?
Scientology – the early days.
Now this is an interesting British pairing
Maserati Quattroporte between those two little offices.
One Adam 12
Fancy something a bit out of the ordinary? Nice Mercedes 300 sedan back there
Maserati, Ferrari and Lamborghini dealer
One of my favorites: Quite the three-some
I love this: the front of an old Greyhound Scenicruiser passing on the left lane.
And here’s its back end. This was very much the tail end of the Scenicruiser’s career with Greyhound.
We’ve passed through West Hollywood, Hollywood, and now are into LA proper, what seems to be called Little Armenia.
An early Chinook motor home.
What happened to all the Corvairs? There were so many in the 1966 tour. I guess they weren’t generally very long-lived, at least in some folks’ hands.
I’m not exactly where we are, but this might be near Silver Lake or Echo Park, both areas that are now very gentrified.
Apartments for rent: $90
That’s a Peugeot 404. There was another one earlier, but I forgot where.
This is an interesting shot: a couple with backpacks on. Travelers of some sort.
And here’s where the tour ends. Hope you made it all the way.
A Drive Down Sunset Blvd. 1966 (Part 1) (Part 2) Part3: Going The Other Direction
Very cool. Must have been late 1973, as I spotted a 1974 Grand Prix in one of the photos.
A good number of VWs, Datsuns, and Toyota Coronas (my favorite).
Back then, the Asia and Foreign brands started on the east and west coast. California was considered the trend setter. They gradually worked their way to the mid west and heartland of the US.
Some of those apartments are in the $1k to $2k monthly range today. I hate to image what the houses are worth.
I love this era of architecture… too bad a lot of it is being destroyed. If I was of age then, it looks like there were plenty of Mustangs to choose from to keep me happy. In 1973 I was only 7 and living in Anchorage. I remember the cars on my street pretty well, including a pink ’59 Cadillac and a Plymouth Superbird. The contrast of different types of cars here really shows off what giant behemoths full size American cars were… let alone the thick, blobby podmobiles we have now.
Interesting to notice the percentage of cars wearing body damage and missing wheel covers and such,
Thanks for the pictures, Paul!
I did several job TDY visits to #SOCAL; spent much of my time just riding around and eyeballing and rubbernecking the area. Quite the change from New Orleans!
During my last TDY there in the mid 1980’s I was sad to see that what had been SO enjoyable 10-15 years earlier was going downhill quickly and obviously.
My Aunt and Uncle sold out and left L. A. in the late 1980’s. They enjoyed their 25 year residency stay there but had no regrets about “getting da Hale outta Dodge” when they did.
So you haven’t been here for nearly 40 years? You must be a consumer of (right-wing) media that of late has made a cottage industry of trashing CA at any opportunity. They just cannot countenance the nation’s economic engine is solidly blue. My view, anyone who wishes to leave beautiful, dynamic CA please, don’t let the door hit you. We could stand to lose a few million actually.
You seem to be lacking the Mellow Mood associated with #SOCAL residents.
Could you be a transplant from a large northeastern city?
297 Wow, a metal roof Monte Carlo!
At first, I wondered what Cadillacs?, then a deluge.
Appropriately, the first 2 E Types are at a service station.
When I was 8, I lived just east of Long Beach, a flat area. I have zero memories of riding in hilly populated areas–hills were always at a distance–but plenty of people talking about houses sure to fall off the hillside.
In the photo immediately above “We appear to have crossed the city line into West Hollywood,” there’s a glimpse of the Celebrity Club, home to Pat Collins, “The Hip Hypnotist.”
“Bikecology” sounds like a name for a present-day business.
While there are more imports – especially Mercedes – than was typical for the era, I’m still surprised at the prevalence of higher-end American iron.
Probably a long shot, but I wonder if anyone has ever spotted a celebrity in one of those cars, or walking down the street?
In #343, behind the motorcycle, seems to be a ’38 or so Caddy V16. There’s also a less exclusive ’46 Caddy convertible.
One big correlation: Nearly all American cars are ‘sporty’. Club coupes, convertibles, Montes, Mustangs. Nearly all the four-doors are foreign. Rolls, Toyota, Mercedes.
’38 or so Caddy V16
It’s too small compared to the mid-50s Cadillac behind it.
Quite a few woodgrained domestic station wagons too, including two brand-new GM Colonnades.
Great collection of photos. It seems as though Fords were popular in southern California, particularly the small Fords – Falcon, Mustang, Maverick and Pinto. There were a lot of Pintos in those photos, but not too many Vegas.
I also saw three pre-Civic Hondas in the photos. Those were rare birds at the time. I don’t remember seeing one in Pennsylvania at the time.
I noticed a lot of Fords too, particularly a lot of full size. The number of Thunderbirds and Econolines also surprised me.
Regarding the Honda 600s, I’m pretty sure they were only distributed on the west coast and Honda didn’t go nationwide until the Civic.
There are also plenty of 1961-69 Lincolns. There were more Cadillacs from those years in the photos, but nationwide, Cadillac outsold Lincoln by 5:1 during the 1960s. The ratio seems to be closer in Los Angeles, based on these photos. And the Continental Mark III appears to have been very popular in Los Angeles.
But where are the Imperials? None, except for one tired old one from about ’59 and another old hulk resting in some back storage lot, both near the end.
The sheer number of Cadillacs, especially late model ones, is rather overwhelming. I got tired of seeing ’71-’73 CDVs, and cut some of them. It was the default premium car of choice, until MB took that away.
In photo #46, there is a 1967 or 1968 Imperial hardtop coupe parked in the driveway of the house. But that is the only other Imperial I saw in the photos.
Yeah I was surprised by the number of Mark IIIs too.
When I moved out here in 1972 SoCal was saturated with Ford dealerships. I had my new Maverick LDO serviced at the long gone Walker-Buerge Ford in West Los Angeles, one of the largest Ford dealerships in the country. Ford was a strong presence throughout the state at the time. That situation would change dramatically after the gas crises and the rise in popularity of Japanese cars. By the 80’s those Ford dealerships began to disappear one after another. A comparable 1983 trip down Sunset would show that change.
Wow, I’d sure like to have a 1970 Charger AND and Iron Pig FJ-55 Land Cruiser parked in front of my house.
Some buildings are still there, but many have changed. Any gaps between the buildings have been filled in, all those realtors who had their offices along Sunset were very busy over the years!
Great stuff, thanks Paul
And my Matador in front of the Kaiser Hospital 🙂
I stayed the whole way, and am glad I did. Thanks, Paul, for selecting and posting all of these for us.
Quite a mix of vehicles (since this is CC, after all), and if anything I figured I’d see more 1955-60 U.S. cars “still in nice shape”—but maybe not on Sunday morning.
Funny how “Bikecology” caught my eye–like BuzzDog above–as it seems so very 1973; they must have advertised in some bicycle magazine I was reading then.
Socio-economically, it reminds me of Manhattan: what a difference a mile or so makes! Also sobering to realize that 2021-back-to-1973 would be like my grandparents in 1973 looking back to 1925 photos of their young years. Part of me really, really wants to figure out the exact date; JoeP has narrowed it to late 1973, and there weren’t all that many Sundays to choose from.
I’ll be looking at this one again later today, Paul—thank you once more.
p.s. For the curious, some “Sunset Boulevard” photos (earlier and later) to match up at LAPL: https://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/search/collection/photos/searchterm/sunset%20boulevard/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc
Definitely pre oil embargo, as some of the gas prices indicate. Also striking is the haze that is visible in the distance on most of the photos.
Not only that but SoCal’s own oil wells were still going strong then. They’ve since been largely tapped-out which more than any reason that can be ascribed to politics is the real driver of CA’s highest-in-the-country gas prices. Infrastructure to bring oil to there was simply never built because it was self-sufficient for so long.
California is the 6th largest oil-producing state. Perhaps not representative of its huge reserves, but I’m not sure if the lack of local capacity is the main driver in pricing. It’s more complicated than that.
Smog was bad throughout the 1970’s, with the summer of 1979 being especially horrific. I apologize for the poor quality of these scanned photos – I could not get them out of the ancient album to scan – they’re stuck in place. The photo on the left is Bunche Hall at UCLA. At that time there was an observation deck on the roof open to the public (a couple of suicides later it was closed forever). I took the picture on the right from the deck in 1972. The brown haze in the horizon is typical of what LA looked like at the time. Catalytic converters: a good thing.
What stands out about the car mix is that there are plenty of mid-to-late ’50s survivors but a sharp cutoff at around 1955-6 with a scant handful of earlier models; and quite a few brand-new ’73s.
The VW Beetle was almost inevitably the most common specimen of “fat-fendered” styling, but the Rolls Silver Cloud seemed a surprisingly close second!
I’m pretty sure the tiki bar in pic 709 just where you guess to be in Silver Lake is Tiki-Ti at 4427 Sunset, just as the Boulevard which had been going due east-west through WeHo, Hollywood and Little Armenia bears to the southeast towards Downtown LA as it crosses Vermont Ave.
Picture 84 of the already-battered Pontiac GTO just confirms my suspicion that that is those cars’ natural state and any restoration is over-restoration.
Pic 101 of the suburban house with Ford wagon, 240Z and VW bug and bus just screams “kids are grown and not yet gone”.
Chevron seems to have been caught in the middle of switching to that as their national brand having been Standard within California since the original Standard Oil was trustbusted. Today they only have one “Standard” branded station in every Western state to maintain trademark rights.
Standard Oil of California owned and operated stations were branded Standard and independent dealers were branded Chevron at the time. Today’s Chevron Corporation includes the Chevron, Texaco and Caltex brands in different markets. I have not seen a Standard branded station in California or Hawaii in recent years.
I noticed how few pre-’59 survivors seen.
Thanks for the explanation re Chevron/Standard, I always wondered about that.
There used to be a Standard in SF about a decade ago, not sure if it’s still there. Somewhere around maybe Franklin and sort of where the Hard Rock is/was? Southern side of the city but North of Market anyway… No idea if it’s still there though.
We still have a (sort of) Standard branded station in Bellevue. The big signs say Standard but with the modern Chevron chevron logo. Meanwhile the headers on the pumps say Chevron. It isn’t that it is that they are really old signs either since they were replace when they completely redid the site 5-10 years ago. The only thing I can think is they do it to show continued use of the trademark.
WOW, this is amazing! Thanks for doing this, Paul. I recognize SO many of the cars from my childhood, but didn’t get to see them so new and shiny. I was born in 1970 so I’d say my clear car memories start around 1977 or so. It struck me how quickly US makes aged back then. These shiny new Colonnades and big GM’s seemed so faded and clapped out by the late 70’s. So many high end imports too, a real treat to see.
This was a fun journey back to the year I graduated high school, though I was few hundred miles north. The general automotive mix feels pretty similar to the Bay Area in 1973; aside from more exotics in LA. The E Types and 911’s and Mercedes were pretty common sights, Rolls Royce or Panera definitely less common, but a Lamborghini, Quattroporte or Excalibur would have been very unusual. But perhaps the sheer number of photos here skews the statistics. However, one other difference seems to be that there are fewer domestic compacts here than I remember at the time. Maybe a regional difference, maybe socio-economic, but I recall a lot more Darts, Valiants, Mavericks and AMC Americans and Hornets than I saw in these pictures. Perhaps we were just thriftier and more sensible than those Angeleño’s.
Aha-here’s a matchup (1937) to #309:
An odd mashup of Streamline Moderne and Colonial Revival architecture.
Wow that was amazing. For a moment I expected to see Brodrick Crawford to pull up. 2150 to headquarters.
I was surprised by the prevalence of a lot of the cars. The one that stood out first were the Cougars. Also a lot of Thunderbirds, full size Fords, Econolines and Marks. Of course a lot of Mustangs and Pintos were pretty well represented.
Over in the GM camp Buick and Olds are very well represented, particularly surprising to me was the number of their early 60’s A bodies. Monte Carlos and to a lesser extent Grand Prix are more common than I would have expected.
I was also happy to see a smattering of Internationals and Honda 600s.
It was also interesting how many of the Japanese cars had aftermarket wheels, and the good old “Slot Mag” was well represented.
They weren’t long-lived, but I recall Honda 600’s as being quite common sights around this time. And though I lived in an urban area, I knew several people with IH’s. Two Scouts, two Travelalls. As for Ford vs GM, I’m not sure about this period of the seventies, but by the mid-eighties, Ford was killing it in California. Escort, aero-Bird, Ranger and Bronco II, even Tempo and of course later the Taurus dominated the sales charts along with Honda and Toyota. I added to those numbers with my own ‘86 Ranger; and by that time I was not a typical domestic buyer.
Love the photos.
Did you have to float a loan to get them developed?
These photos are fantastic, even if they might have been better from our perspective if he had taken them in busier traffic. I actually find the buildings and overall environment interesting, too, so it’s all good. I ate the 1966 article up before and have nibbled on this, planning a full course later.
Quite a ride down memory lane! We were still out there, as I had another semester or so at ACCD.
Many was the Friday or Saturday night when we used to cruise a large portion of the Strip in my ’56 Chevy. Low priced entertainment for a poor student with a very low paid High School teacher wife, but ga$ was still cheap so my 327 powered ’56 was affordable to drive all over L.A. 🙂 DFO
Another common car in LA appears to have been the Chevrolet Impala/BelAir/Biscayne which I spotted dozens. Nowadays they are as rare as a Beetle.
If Ed took these photos with a camera with 36 shots per roll, that’s over 22 rolls of film and a lot of reloading.
Fascinating!
Wow, thanks Paul and Ed for taking the photos to start with.
My only time on American soil was a few days in New York, but seeing LA on a small screen is more familiar than many other places, because most of the tv I watched in the 70s seemed to be made there.
More Rollers and E types than I’ve seen despite living less than a 100 miles from where either were made, and a couple even seemed to be able to move under their own power.
And not just Beetles, all those Splits and Bays! So many typ 3 and typ 4 as well. Noticed that Sun West VW could see into the fwd future with a sideline in SAAB 99.
Far fewer MGs than previous years but European Capris and Opels Manta and GT. I even think I saw a Hillman Avenger – sorry Plymouth Cricket in #497 and a Hillman Hunter – Sunbeam Arrow or 2 nearby.
Thanks so much, now if I can find an episode of the Rockford Files to watch.
#302 was apparently the “Crosby Building,” 9023 Sunset.
LAPL photo “about 1937”:
This is amazing! I went through the whole collection, as well. What surprises me is how beat up a lot of these cars are (some areas more than others)—many of them just barely five years old. So many dented panels! Was driving in L.A. really that rough at the time? I guess it was.
FWIW, #365 has a business celebrating its (upcoming) first anniversary “June 29.”
Aha… well that dates it definitively to June 1973. The business was evidently known as Art Leboe’s Club, which opened in June ’72. Leboe was an aging DJ who opened a club to feature live performances from 1950s/60s “Oldies” rock groups.
It’s amusing that the term “Oldies” was used then to denote music from just 15 years before! I guess music aged even faster than cars in those days.
I see that this was just before “American Graffiti” appeared (Aug. ’73) and the whole Fifties-nostalgia thing really got rolling—by Jan. ’74 “Happy Days” was on the air.
I see the Sundays in June ’73 were 3rd, 10th, 17th–not sure how to narrow it down further (I couldn’t get any closer based on the theater marquees).
It’s great fun to look through photos for precise-date info; there’s likely someone out there who can look at shadow angles and even tell us what time of day each picture was taken, I suppose.
404-5 is the world’s strangest, brutalist car wash building.
Certainly a nice mixture of new cars (Oldsmobiles, Ford Torinos, many others).
I was struck by how many cars had collision damage.
Very many VWs appear, including a VW Thing.
Also absent from what is seen on today’s roads, is a quantity of delivery vans and trucks. Yes, even on a Sunday morning.
A nice ’58 Cadillac made an appearance.
Thanks for all the work that went into posting this.
I would have been in the 1st or 2nd grade in 1973. These cars are all familiar to me–I recognize all the shapes and can identify nearly all of them. In those days, they were just “part of the background”–now if you saw any one of them on the street today, it would stand out and attract attention! I doubt that any more than 1 in 100 of those cars survives today in any form. And, sad to say, many of their drivers are really old or dead by now.
This is what I would have seen walking to school, going out shopping with my mom & dad, or visiting grandparents in a neighboring town. Picture #1 I can relate to–in my early car-spotting days, you could often find some ’50s or early ’60s cars parked at gas stations. There were still a few people using them as DDs into the ’80s, but not anymore. I still look for 50s-60s cars behind gas stations and other decrepit commercial areas, and I still find a few, but not nearly as many. This scarcity of old bombs takes lot of the fun out of driving around!
I like the storefronts and their signage too. We need more small appliance repair places, antique and junk shops, and iron forgers.
A few more to date this:
Las Vegas attractions billboard has Sonny & Cher; they were at Sahara, June ’73.
#501 Hollywood High School has summer classes starting 25 June.
#375 Eagles concert coming up, 21 June.
Carole King’s Fantasy album released in June ’73.
Pacific Motor Sales seems a bit run down to sell barely used Cadillacs.
I absolutely love collections of slice-of-life photographs like this, and have purchased photo books like it. I’d buy this one. Well curated and shared.
My recently deceased friend Jan, an urban historian at UCLA, taught an undergrad course on LA history and took her students on this 21.75 mile Sunset Blvd route via the Metro bus, from the ocean to near downtown. You learn a lot about the city that way.
I moved out here from IN in 1972 to go to grad school at UCLA (the northern border of campus is Sunset). First things I visited were Dino’s Lodge (77 Sunset Strip had an inordinate impact on my life), the site of Jan and Dean’s crash on Sunset, and Sharon Tate’s house in Benedict Canyon. Great cars everywhere you went. The funny thing is there still are. I just got back from the grocery this afternoon where I spotted this sweet old Nova SS in the parking lot. The fun never ends.
What a wonderful photographic journey moment in time! One can certainly see that VW was the import king. Their decision to continue on with old aircooled designs was killing their dominance…and it was happening during this photo journey.
I too was surprised at the amount of 411/412s. Makes me smile though. I am currently restoring my mom’s ‘73 maya gold metallic wagon. I stored it away years ago just to do this. It was such a precise car to drive and just loved it!
This really made me homesick. Southern California was a great place in the 50-70s. Sunny, warm, laid back at the time. Only bad thing about LA was the smog but other than that these pictures really brought back memories of the place and why I liked it so much.
Ironic since I sort of resisted the move from Maryland to So Cal in 1966. However, my mind changed within one month of being there.The Valley was great fun and a great place to start one’s teen years. San Diego was similar, especially along the Ocean Beach to La Jolla beaches only even more laid back.
Up here, in Northern California, there was a different vibe compared to the South but I had the opportunity to be able to go back and forth the entire 70s decade. Sadly laid back is gone. When I first set foot off a uncontrolled street in the Valley to cross Roscoe Blvd, which stretches all the way across the San Fernando Valley, all the cars stopped for me. I was stunned compared to back east. Today they will run you down no questions asked.
I think peak Americana (suburbia, cars, optimism) was 1965 to 1972 in terms of era, and of all the places to be in America,
California in general, and southern California in particular was was the best, place in the US. Sunny, moderate weather, the ocean, opportunity, not yet too crowded, crime not yet too rampant….
It was a simpler era, but far from simple.
What a time–what an era!
This may be the best CC ever! As Paul says, if you were a car lover, Sunset Boulevard was a great ride!
Yes, lots of foreign cars, compared to middle America. But America got the cream of the crop. The only plebeian car I caught in my quick skim was an early 1960s Fiat 1100/1300 (and cars in Southern Cal didn’t rust, there are lots of 10-year old cars); Americans were spared NSU Prinz, Panhard, and other marginal European cars..
I saw a Chevy Suburban and I thought I saw a big bumper Ford LTD, so I was thinking late 1973, but then I remembered some cars go the 5-mph front bumpers in 1973 (Ford), and the Suburban came out in 1973.
Nicely done memorabilia!
Merry Christmas!
Photo 630 – $0.38p for a gallon of regular gas. Roughly translates into $2.43 today, so I guess it’s not far off. In the US at least.
CA environmental regs and gas taxes have dramatically increased gas prices over the decades. I paid $4.99 a gallon for Chevron Supreme this week in Santa Monica, with regular a bit lower. CA has the highest gas prices in the US today. When I moved out here from the Midwest in 1972 I think regular was running about 25 cents a gallon there and you point out the sign for 38 cents a gallon in CA in 1973 – sounds about right. Today the difference is far greater.
I’m sorry, but there’s no way you were regularly paying 25 cents per gallon in 1972 anywhere in the country unless it was some loss-leader gimmick. Gas prices back then did not differ nearly as much regionally back then, and the national average in 1972 was 36 cents. I don’t remember any gas in the Midwest below about 32-33 cents at that time, and that was already exceptionally low.
1947 was the last time the national average was below 26 cents.
I never ever saw 25 cent gas in my life since arriving in the US in 1960. Seeing it below 30 cents after about 1968 or so was a big deal, only some local gas war that was short lived.
I paid 98 cents in LA in January of 2001. I told my kids then that this was the last time they’d ever see sub- $1.00 gas. That converts to 24.7 cents in 1973 dollars, and $1.47 in 2020 dollars.
I may well be remembering a loss leader gimmick price and probably from the late 60s rather than early 70s. Indiana had low gas taxes/prices then and still does. I remember promotionals when I was in high school like free water glasses and discounts if you bought ten gallons or more around 1966 when I got my first 1960 VW Beetle. I never qualified because I never let its tiny tank run even close to empty but I did benefit when I drove Dad’s Thunderbird. You piqued my memory with that expression “gas wars” as it was used in Indiana in the 1960s.
I’m having a harder time remembering that you could buy gas in LA in 2001 for 98 cents a gallon!
Here’s a chart with historic gas prices from the So Cal area. I’ve put a red ring around the Dec. 2001 average; $1.02. In the Anaheim area near Disneyworld, stations were selling it for 98 cents.
I was wrong on my date; it was late Dec. 2001 – beginning of Jan. 2002, not Jan. 2001. We were there for a family winter vacation over the holidays.
http://www.laalmanac.com/energy/en12.php
People’s memory can get hazy….we tend to exaggerate as we get older.
I would think that $0.25 to $0.35 was the pre-energy crisis cost of gas, depending where you were, maybe a car wash special.
But that’s just based on what I’ve read. I wasn’t here, and if I had been, I would not have noticed.
My family moved back to the US when I was 12, and my first memories of gas then, it was about $0.65 to $0.69 a gallon in 1977 in Long Island (which tracked with the price Consumer Reports used to estimate “cost of fuel for 15,000 miles”.
I really hadn’t paid attention to fuel prices in Greece
I’m still using the egg-shaped juice glasses my grandmother got free with every Esso fill up 50 years ago. Down to 8.
In Tennessee in the early Seventies, the best you could ever do was 29.9, often at a no-name station. Premium was usually about four cents higher, as it seems to have been in California, except for Amoco Unleaded premium, which could be a staggering 41.9. Clearly it was just for rich people!
As far as I can tell, none of the Sunset Blvd. stations were selling unleaded yet — maybe Shell, though the sign is too blurry to make out. That would change in a hurry in about 12 months, as the 1975 cars with catalytic converters had to be catered to. But we would have the fun of the Arab oil embargo before that.
My first full year of buying gas was 1970 and I had to buy premium. There were constant gas wars and giveaways. How do you think I got a complete set of San Diego Charger glasses. Anyway during these constant gas wars I paid 0.29 cents/gallon and can source my four years of gas logs from 1970-74 to show every fill up I made back then for the Cougar.
I checked my logs and Paul is right in general. I have only one fill up in December 1969 at 29.9. From June 1970-June 1971 I bought 1000.2 gallons of premium and paid $380.02 for it. That averages out to 0.379 cents for that period. For 1974 I only bought 130.2 gallons as I had a company car and rebuilt/modified the engine the last two months so no miles. The cost was $71.48 or an average of 0.549 cents.
Is that a Plymouth Cricket in #497? What a unicorn, you almost never saw them on the street even when they were new.
A 340 Six Pack Challenger was a pretty rare sight for me.
In spite of all the exotics here, you can just drop me off at Sun-West Volkswagen so I can snag one of those new Sports Bugs from the showroom roof. They were only sold in late spring/early summer 1973.
Thanks for sharing these – such a holiday treat.
YES! I noticed the Sports Bugs also on the roof. Remember them very well along with the Sun Bugs. Never forget that bright chrome yellow paint with the stripes. I believe the Sports Bugs also came in a metallic blue (light) . They were an attractive looking package. VW was trying every gimmick at that time to sell beetles that were in a sales decline.
Our neighbors bought a brand-new Plymouth Cricket in 1972. That was the only one I ever saw on the road. It was traded for a brand-new, pale blue-purple 1975 AMC Hornet Sportabout! They must have been able to get a deal on the Sportabout, because while that color was okay on a Gremlin X or Hornet X hatchback, it did not work on a basic Sportabout.
My cousin and his wife had a 1974 VW Sun Bug…painted metallic gold, with special wheels and an upgraded interior. It was traded for a 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.
Wow…so many smashed fenders.
I made it to the gates of BelAir. That was painful. I’m so glad I wasn’t old enough to drive, and it is amazing that with those cars still on the road, I wanted to drive at all.
Any imported car company looking through those photos had to be shocked at how ripe this market was for some decent cars. Cars of this era were awful. With the exception of a Mercedes, BMW and a Porsche – lord almighty, what a dog pound!
One thing that is very interesting – hardly any cars from the 1950’s, didn’t even see a 55 or 56 Chevy. Just perhaps that one weird English limousine, perhaps, and a couple wild Cadillacs.
The 1950’s were only 12 years in the past, but it’s like they didn’t exist from these pictures.
There’s a ’55 Chevy Bel Air coupe very near the end. There’s a ’55 or ’56 Ford near there too. There’s a ’49-’51 Mercury. There’s at least one or more mid-50s Cadillacs. There’s several ’50s Ford trucks, and one or more Chevy pickups.
I saw several ’59 Chevys, and a couple of ’59 Cadillacs. A Ford too.
That’s just from memory; there’s probably more.
Yes, I saw that ’55 Chevy Bel Air — it had become a beater. There were 2 or 3 1959 Cadillacs, plus one from about 1955 and an even older one (early 50s, just the front end was showing).
There were 2 1959 Chevy Impala convertibles and 2 El Caminos of the same year.
The old Mercury 2-door sedan is a 1949 or ’50, because it has horizontal taillights.
I was amazed at all the body damage, especially as the photos progressed toward the east. This is in accord with what I remember from my younger years growing up in Pittsburgh.
Rightly or wrongly, I’m surprised by the number and variety of European cars evident – VW, Volvo (i guess expected) but also Ford Capri, Fiat 124 Sport, Peugeot 504 and 404, TR6, Jag, Rolls and Mercedes-Benz, BMW 02.
Thanks for sharing
That was a lot of pics, enjoyed them all. Two Carpis, two Cortina MK2 and a P1800. The Moke was a good shot.
Wow that Mustang in 445 saw some action! The amount of fender bender damage and hasty repairs(mismatched panels) is pretty crazy throughout. Also pretty cool to see quite a few legitimate muscle cars in their prime, a few Mach 1s, GTO, GTX, Superbee(coronet R/T?) Camaro SS and a few more I can’t remember, few seemed concerned about the all important matching numbers today’s collectors discern over that’s for sure, lots of Cragar wheels and the Challenger TA seems to be missing its rear spoiler. The latter actually answered a question I had kind of wondered about those, I wasn’t sure the side exhaust pipes would have been equipped in CA but there they are. There were some rear exit tips that weren’t available in the state, the 71 Charger and Roadrunner ones come to mind.
Every 68-70 Charger I spotted appears to be standard trim down to whiteline tires and wheel covers, probably mostly 318 powered, not quite the “muscle car” everybody my age seems to believe they all were. Not that it matters, people gladly pay $20,000+ for an example now even in the worst of condition to make them one
Other notable observations is Landau tops on TWO imports before that top style was really popular on PLCs later in the decade, the Celica in 235 and the Corona(I think?) in 385
If I could pick a time and place to time travel back to and not be bothered about forgetting to pack plutonium for the return trip, I think this would be it. Thanks for sharing Paul! My thumbtip is calloused just from scrolling on my touchscreen(worth it!), it had to be monumental task to sort through and post all these great images!
Fantastic set of photos; it took me a couple of days to go through all of them!
Lots of Beetles, VW vans, Mustangs, Cougars, and Pintos! The full-size Chevys and Fords are well represented also, along with the high-end cars like Cadillacs, T-Birds, Lincoln Mark III, and even RR Silver Clouds. GM also did very well here with their brand new Colannade coupes, and their midsize cars from 1968-72 are quite common.
I’m amazed at the number of Toyota Coronas and Corollas with a smattering of Celica sightings. it was a portent of what was to come: In 1975, Toyota sales surpassed those of VW in the US, and there was no turning back.