Text by Patrick Bell.
Spring weddings are around the corner, and it is time to plan which vehicle to use. Today we are looking at how it was done in the past. For the most part I think it was quite simple; just use what was parked in the driveway. And in that regard, there were plenty of glitzy and colorful car choices back then to pick from.
We begin with a happy couple entering the back seat of a 1952 Buick Super convertible getaway car. The Buick looked super and it stood out in Apache Red. Across the street appeared to be a 1951 Chevrolet Styleline De Luxe 4 door sedan, and to the right of the groom was a 1951 Hudson.
Here was a blushing bride posing with a sharp looking 1954 Plymouth Belvedere 4 door sedan. It was dressed out with two tone paint, radio, wheel covers and whitewalls. Barely visible in the distance to the right of the bride’s head was the upper part of a white over red 1955 or 1956 Pontiac.
The artists had been at work on this couple’s 1953 Chevrolet Two-Ten 2 door sedan. “Jackie & Max” was on the fender, I will presume those were the newlywed’s names. It also said “Watch Florida Grow”, so we have a location as well. There was a logo of some sort on the lower corner of the windshield, perhaps someone will recognize it. They were trying to escape but the well wishers weren’t ready to let them go.
This one was likely the father and the apprehensive looking bride arriving at the wedding venue. The photographer was standing on the tall stairs that rose sharply from the street. The image was dated August of 1958, and both cars were 1956 models. In the foreground was a Ford Mainline Fordor with a six cylinder, and parked in the driveway across the street was a V8 powered Chevrolet Two-Ten or Bel Air.
The groom looked like he wasn’t sure if he should help his bride climb in the back seat of the 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Club Victoria getaway car, with its twin parked dead ahead. Image notes state the photographer was out of Bell Gardens, California.
This was identified as a 1962 wedding at Saint Francis de sales Catholic Church in Oakland, California. It appears like the couple were in the back seat of the getaway car which was about to depart. It was a 1958 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday Sedan, one of three Oldsmobiles in the image. Number two was directly behind it, a 1955 88 Holiday Coupe or Sedan. And number three was also a 1955 88 or Super 88 Holiday Coupe that was in the middle of the intersection. In the lower right was a 1960 or 1961 Chevrolet Corvair 700 Club Coupe. At the stop sign in the center left was a 1957 Rambler Custom Cross Country wagon, and to its right a blue 1958 Ford Custom 300 Tudor Sedan.
It looked like the bride was having some trouble getting out of the car as she arrived for her big day. The other ladies seemed to think it was amusing. The car was a 1962 Chevrolet Impala 4 door sedan with two tone paint and standard hub caps, and across the street was a 1961 Dodge Polara 4 door sedan, also with two tone.
And here was another 1962 Chevrolet Impala, this one the flashier Super Sport convertible that was the designated getaway car. You can see the bucket seat interior, and it was equipped with a double pair of rear bumper guards to go along with a Michigan license plate issued in Calhoun County. In front of it looks like a 1959 Pontiac Star Chief Sedan, and to the right was a 1953 Chevrolet with perhaps an Illinois license plate.
The bride and her procession were about to enter the building and head down the aisle. The getaway car was awaiting at the curb, a 1962 Pontiac Catalina Vista 4 door hardtop. Parked in front of the Bond Bread Thrift Store from the left were a Volkswagen Type 1, 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Galaxie Town Sedan, and a 1963 Chevrolet Biscayne 2 door sedan.
A 1967 Ford Mustang Hardtop was ready for Dave and Shirley and their trip to Hot Springs, with the completed art work recorded in this image. It was nicely equipped with one of the optional V8’s, vinyl roof, remote side mirror, and a backseat full of stuff. Behind it was a blue 1966 Chevrolet Impala.
In the background was a row of cars that were bookended by a pair of 1967 full size Fords. The four in between were from the left a 1965 or 1966 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray convertible, 1966 Ford Fairlane 500 Club Coupe, 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Super Sport Coupe, and a dirty 1966 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Celebrity Sedan.
In the first of our final photos the guys looked like they were preparing the getaway car. It was a 1970 Mercury Cougar hardtop with the optional Styled Steel Wheels.
The second image shows the Cougar plus a 1969 Ford Torino GT that was parked behind it. The GT model included the hood scoop, side stripes, and Styled Steel Wheels as standard equipment. The license plate may have been a New York issue.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
Note: If you wish to see your vintage photos featured at Curbside Classic, send them to us at [email protected].
In the 1962 photo with the ‘58 Oldsmobile, taken in front of the Greyhound Bus station in Oakland, there’s a green Volvo 544 in the background, on the right. I wonder if that’s our car! We had a similar Volvo from 1960 to 1964, and were often in that part of Oakland on various outings. Sears wasn’t too far from the bus station as was Kaiser Hospital, a close friend’s house, and my school. Volvo 544’s weren’t uncommon of course, but that color wasn’t the most popular. I’ll assume that’s my tall dark-haired Mom behind the wheel and I’m bickering with my sister in the background seat. For folks that know Oakland today, the building is still there but no longer the bus station, at the corner of Grove St. (now Martin Luther King Blvd) and San Pablo Ave.
That bus station in the background certainly sets the mood.
Is it just me, or the bride’s father helping her out of the ’56 Ford Mainline is a Harry S. Truman lookalike?
I appreciate enormously these series. To see all those old cars (then new, or at least in full use) just being driven, taking part in all kind of family activities, make them what they are, appliances that were integral to their lives. The fact that we are fans of those appliances make us no different than, say, people who love to see how gardening was done at the time. We just look at life from different vantage points. Please go on with this!
It’s not just you – I thought the same thing!
Incidentally, I think that photo was taken in Vermont. The Ford has a 1958 Vermont inspection sticker (comparison w/ similar 1961 sticker below), and the car across the street has a license plate consistent with Vermont as well.
I was able to find the location of this shot. It was outside Saints Donatian and Rogatian Catholic Church in the town of Randolph. The church itself is still standing, though it closed in 2008. The house in the background is still standing as well – the Chevy in the background has been replaced by a Miata.
Google StreetView link below. If you swing around, you’ll see the stairs the bride was ascending in the vintage shot.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zAw2KbuAtUeisKbH8
This is incredible, thanks for sharing.
1967 Ford Mustang Hardtop photo:
You had to wash off the shaving cream lettering as soon as possible to protect the paint finish.
Also, a message sometimes painted on such getaway cars was, “from Hot Springs to Bed Springs!”
Greyhound Bus Station on San Pablo in Oakland. Still there today and abandoned for quite some time. A magnet for graffiti and rave events at nights. Have no idea what the interior looks like today versus the picture above in it’s heyday. Oakland had another on 7th which closed in 2021 and is guarded being in a less savory location.
So much gingerbread from the factory on the ’58 Olds that the just-married decorations barely stand out…
Loving these pictures .
-Nate
When my wife and I married in 1989, my brother chauffeured us from the church to the reception in his 1957 Star Chief 4-door. The marriage is still in good shape but the Star Chief eventually changed hands and became a parts car, and has sat behind a garage for at least 15 years now.
I wonder how life turned out for all these folks. Hope it’s been good.