1956 Pontiacs in the showroom at Lamerdin Pontiac, Compton, California.
The 1950 Chevrolets have arrived at So. Tacoma Motor Co., Tacoma, Washington.
1950 Pontiacs at Boomershine Pontiac, Atlanta, Georgia.
“World’s Most Wanted Car!”, 1952 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 Limousine in the showroom.
1954 Buick on display at Buchanan Motors, Florida.
1955 Oldsmobiles on display.
1955 Pontiac on display at Andy Klein Pontiac, Kansas City, Kansas.
1956 Pontiacs at Lamerdin Pontiac, Compton, California.
A very Buick Christmas time.
1957 Chevrolets at Belisle Automobiles, Ottawa, Canada.
1956, 1957 and 1958 Cadillacs in the showroom.
Clark Motors, Orillia, Canada.
The wild 1959 Buicks on display.
Entering a new decade, 1961 Chevrolets on display at Yingling Chevrolet, Wichita, KS.
Pretty sure those are ’61 Chevys at the Wichita dealer. See the Bel Air on the left side and the digits “61” on the window sign.
Yeah, noticed that too.
Yes, they’re 1961 models. I updated the text.
Love these vintage dealer pics, went to many in those years with Dad, after ’55 at least.
Wild looking chopper outside that dealer in pic 1, that’s CA for you, even back then!
I’ll take the orange & white ’55 Starfire!
The ’57 Chevies are displayed in what looks like the service department.
The Ford dealer I worked at did the same thing during annual new model year introductions. The showroom – such as it was – could only hold a single car. The fall model year introductions were subject to dicey weather changes in Wisconsin.
We mechanics had to scrub the floor of our service area, get all in progress jobs out of the service bay, clean up our tool boxes, clean all the shop tools hanging on various walls and have neatly folded clean coveralls displaying our name at our work bay. I had one of the oldest hoists in the oldest part of the shop. When I was the most junior apprentice, I also had responsibility for doing the undercoatings on my hoist. It was one of the more difficult areas to clean and our service manager was a stickler for a clean shop.
While many of us generally enjoyed the new model introductions, turning over our work areas to the salesmen was an annual PITA.
I was going to say that is a service dept area and yes it looks very clean and well lit.
I love the toy Corvettes in front of the real Corvette in that photo
I’m very familiar with Belisle Automobiles in Ottawa. One of the Chevies pictured above could very well have graced our driveway in the days/weeks following this photo session. Our was a medium blue/blue four door Belair with a V8, automatic, full wheel covers.
But no radio – my dad worked for the Canadian Transport Commission where he led investigations into train/motor vehicles accidents, too many of which concluded that the driver of the car or truck could not hear the train whistle/horn warnings over the sound of the radio. Back in the 1950s, the vast majority of level train crossings in Canada were protected by a simple railway crossing sign. My dad worked hard during his career to remedy this situation through education, regulations, enforcement, and government subsidies.
I spent many Saturday mornings accompanying my dad to Belisle’s for an oil change or other maintenance on our ’57 Belair, and later on our ’64 Impala. I could watch the mechanics at work through the large windows on the right, or annoy the salesmen in the showroom. (I’m pretty sure there were very few saleswomen in auto dealerships at the time, if any.)
Belisle Automobile was a Chevrolet dealer from 1926 to January 2013.
The above photo was taken in October 1956, probably coinciding with the grand opening of their new building. That would also explain why the service area looks so clean. See:
https://www.facebook.com/LostOttawa/posts/inside-and-outside-of-ottawa-chev-olds-dealer-belisle-automobiles-in-october-of-/2112453652187181/
That’s too funny! Back in ’96 I worked on a ’57 Chev Bel-Air 4 door, V8, automatic, owned by the grandson of the woman who bought it new. She had the dealer REMOVE the radio and install the factory block off plate before delivery, for that very same reason!
Fascinating inside view! We assume people skipped radios for cheapness or for religious reasons. Some people had better reasons.
The old railway crossing signs said STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! Back then a radio prevented you from listening. Now everyone has a pocket television interfering with both looking and listening.
Picture #9 (A very Buick Christmas time) appears to be from Paul S. Spaar Buick-Pontiac in Berks County, Pennsylvania. (The name is visible on one of the windows.)
The dealership was located in a rural area between Emmaus and Pennsburg. A photo of the building is below, and this is a Google StreetView link to the location now (still standing and occupied by a consignment store now):
https://maps.app.goo.gl/V8ko2Q99N93D4sgSA
That last Caddy dealer really had cars stacked up inside. Kinda surprising unless inside for weather.
That dealership was the Cadillac Factory Branch at 2250 S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago. Looks like the building was one story, and it doesn’t appear that it had an outside lot, so I wouldn’t be surprised if their entire inventory was inside – which wouldn’t be a bad idea given Chicago weather.
Great *color* photo of the 2 ’55 Olds’.
The orange / white convertible has “Starfire” on the front fender.
The was the name given to 98 convertibles.
The Olds behind it has “Holiday” at the same point on the fender — indicating 2-dr. hardtop.
But I can’t see enough of its side trim to determine 88 or 98.
The TV ad slogan was “Things are fine at Andy Klien” . They were Pontiac dealers for many years.
For new car showroom lovers nothing compared to the General Motors Exhibit, which was on the boardwalk in Atlantic City from 1929 to the mid sixties. It was huge and featured dozens of all the new GM cars. As a kid it was the highlight of our annual family vacation..
That hanging mobile in the lobby of Yingling Chevrolet is far out… or was that parlance not in effect in ’61?
Nice ;
-Nate
The lead photo is the showroom of Ealy Motor Co. in Pulaski, TN. Here’s an exterior shot showing the same cars, and same neon signs in the same windows,