Prout Chevrolet, Elyria, OH.
Hoselton Chevrolet, East Rochester, NY.
Charles Burham-Miller Chevrolet.
1955s in the showroom.
East Point Chevrolet, Atlanta, GA.
Doane Motors Chevrolet, Dundee, IL.
Tom Henry Chevrolet, Bakerstown, PA.
Vintage Dealers: Chevrolet Dealers In The Mid-50s
– Posted on August 12, 2024
See the U-S-A in your Chev-ro-Lay!
Very cool to set up a theme with a 57 convertible in the showroom.
In response to J. P. Cavanaugh: MWAA! Checking out Doane Motors, I see that the young lady on the left has a tray suspended from her neck. Is she handing out cigarettes? This type of tray was typically used by “Cigarette Girls” in nightclubs to sell cigarettes tableside. I have attached another lost part of Americana. Yes, that man is in hospital. Hmmm, anyone nearby on oxygern?
But everybody smoked back then. Nobody knew the dangers back then. Now, everybody knows. But many still do.
The percentage of American adults who smoked peaked in 1954 at 45%. Not quite “everybody”.
I was born at the tail end of 1953 so what do I know. I do know that both my parents and grandparents smoked so that was everybody…
IMHO, I don’t think that 45% is close to being correct. In my admittedly small universe, most adults and alot of teens smoked.
You admit that’s your “small universe” and as such is not representative. Anecdotal evidence is not a reliable statistic.
Lots of statistics of this sort will vary depending on how the question was asked. There’s monthly health survey I take that lists “Smoking” and I’m supposed to check off one of these: current smoker, occasisional smoker, rare smoker, have not smoked in last 5 years, never smoker. Or something close. I can’t honestly check off “never smoker because I smoked exactly one cigarette when I was 13 out out curiosity. Then became afriad I’d become a nicotine junkie and never touched a cig again. Although false, I think “never smoker” describes me much closer than “”has not smoked in the last 5 years” so I answer “never”.
Polls often have dicrepences due to how they are asked and how the possible answers are grouped.
In my life, it was much more then “45%”. I think , not everyone admitted to it.
Back in the day, folks who smoked under two a day didn’t consider themselves smokers..lol
Just for what it’s worth, I think that both perspectives can be correct here. Paul’s data is population (US population, I am assuming without looking into the data more specifically) statistics. Your (JT, et al.) data is more observational but based in observations that may (i.e., “are”…I’m being professionally diplomatic 😉 ) be more reflective of regional and local differences.
Fact is, smoking has always been a cultural thing. (You know, I actually did academic research on this…) As such, rates and trends vary by region. There are vast tracts of this country where smoking has always been less than the majority; and also tracts where it’s been the majority and then some. In my own current experience, if I drive 10 miles north to Southern New Hampshire, I’d assume that well above 40% of the population smokes. But if I base my observations here in Massachusetts I’d be in the 20% range that current population-level data suggests. The point is that population-level statistics don’t really work for us in this case. We need much more granular data…unless we are in fact interested in population (US) statistics, for which I’d say that Paul’s numbers are indeed correct.
Not that this has anything to do with Chevy dealers in the 1950s, but that is the wonderful thing about CC posts and comments.
Maybe he is buying a candy bar.
I think the nurse is making him sign a waiver (about what might happen if he or his room mate go on oxygen) before he’s able to light up. 🙂
Bobb Chevrolet’s furniture is Chevy seats! Smart. Get the customers to sample the Chevy experience while you’re talking with them.
The Atlanta-area dealer is a photo of East Point Chevrolet, which was located in East Point, a small city just southwest of Atlanta.
East Point Chevrolet first opened in 1937, though this building itself was constructed in 1948. The location was 2443 Main St. – looks like the business closed and the building was demolished in the early 1980s when the MARTA train line was built.
But how would anyone know it’s East Point Chevrolet? I didn’t see a name anywhere!
Here’s a 1948 ad from the same dealership from when they opened that showroom – even though the signage is different, we can see it’s the same building. (The address is different too because the city changed its address numbers in the 1950s.)
You had to be there to understand how prevalent smoking was back then .
I’m trying to figure out why there’s an MG Roadster in the ’55 Chevy dealer’s showroom floor .
-Nate
One reminder of this for those who are younger is how the back seat and even the third row seating in ’50s-early ’80s station wagons usually had at least one ashtray per row, lest the kids in the rear-facing third row wanted to light up.
The Bobb Chevrolet showroom is fascinating. It’s hard to imagine a dealership spending that much to create those displays. Looking at the rest of the photos in this post, no one else was exhibiting cut-away engines and transmissions and some kind of display there at the top of the photo that looks like it has a video/tv screen in it…but that couldn’t actually be in 1957 since no one had video tape outside of a TV studio in 1957. The whole set up looks more like something you’d encounter at a world’s fair exhibit hall versus the Chevy dealer down the street.
I know that I’d have spent hours there if possible in 1957.
I think that image may actually be of a dealership called Prout Chevrolet in Elyra, Ohio. The showroom car has a sticker on the bumper that says “Prout” – Prout Chevrolet was located at 112 E. Bridge St. in Elyra. The building is still standing, and happens to have the same unique fanlight window over the front door, and the same overall window patterns as shown in the picture.
An image of the building (which still has the Chevrolet logo on the roof parapet) is below. StreetView link is here:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/vt9HN5W4NdniXXbM7
The Bobb Chevrolet building (long since demolished) in Columbus also had a fanlight window, but the rest of the building doesn’t seem to match the showroom shot:
Thanks for the research Eric. The post has been updated to reflect the new information.
You’re welcome!
This building became part of Spitzer Autoworld after Prout moved out with Lincoln-Mercury and Dodge next door and a small Toyota showroom across the street. Over the years this building housed Volkswagen, Mazda and Mitsubishi. At some point in the 1990s they built a sales desk in the corner with the displays–you can see the edge of it peeking though the one unbroken showroom window on the left.
The building has a car elevator going to the top floor and that was filled with old cars, everything from an early Dodge from the teens and Model Ts to a few cars from the 1970s and everything in between. I was up there about 25 years ago a walked through them a couple of times, I know the dealership moved out 20 years ago or so but I don’t know what happened to all the cars upstairs.
Thank you for all of this background – amazing about that top floor. I’d love to know what became of those cars!
The “video” screen is probably a rear-projected film player; boxy devices that put a small film reel (probably 16mm, maybe 8mm) inside the box facing a screen. This allowed “video playback” before videotape machines were affordable. Lower-end versions dispensed with movie playback altogether and used filmstrips; static projected images that were advanced every 10-30 seconds or so, automatically on later projectors and manually on earlier ones (which would have a “next photo” tone on LP record or later on cassette tape). These devices were fairly common in academic, commercial, and industrial settings. For whatever reason they never caught on amongst residential customers, which preferred 8mm films projected on a wall or folding screen until the VHS era.
I’ve seen a few of those film strip/slide and record combos turned into videos on YouTube complete with beep to advance the strip. The ones I’ve seen are mostly for sales personnel showing how superior their car is to competing makes…. so yeah I can seem them running that in the showroom too.
Yeah it would be surprising that a dealer would have one of those displays but to have 3 in this small of a showroom is really surprising.
I can’t imagine how heavy some of those displays must have been.
If you look very closely at the Bobb Chevrolet showroom photo, you can see that the ‘Task Force’ truck powertrain display includes a 322 ‘Loadmaster’ (Buick Nailhead) V-8 and an Allison ‘Powermatic’ transmission.
While seeing all these old dealerships is neat, it helps me understand why the automakers forced their dealerships to use standardized design language.
You walk into a McDonald’s, you know for certain you’re in a McDonald’s. It makes sense that car manufacturers would want the same thing.
“Tom Henry” stayed that way till about eight years ago. Now its a chain’s “Chevrolet North”, dealer.
Bought my “Citation” there in spring of “82”.
It was a “:landmark on “Rt 8” forever..
Hoselton Chevrolet still exists in East Rochester, though the location is different and they are now “Hoselton Auto Mall” with Chevrolet, Toyota and Nissan dealerships. They claim to have opened in 1920.
Belisle Chevrolet Cadillac, was a large dealership in eastend Ottawa, for many decades. A fixture on Montreal Road, the Trans-Canada Highway, for years. Across from the Beechwood Cemetery. My dad bought at least two cars at this dealer. The last was a white 1962 Impala four door. Severely rusted, by the time I was old enough to recognize it.
Large service area.
Today, it is an Audi dealer, at this exact location. With a Porsche dealer, next door.
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4403327,-75.6491165,3a,75y,109.58h,79.66t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sXVmdFeo232jmovT_SJKA9w!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D10.344798310282371%26panoid%3DXVmdFeo232jmovT_SJKA9w%26yaw%3D109.57521390457072!7i16384!8i8192?authuser=0&coh=205410&entry=ttu
If you go back a decade to May 2014, you can see the last architecture of the former Belisle Chevrolet dealership.
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4403895,-75.6489997,3a,75y,132.01h,76.24t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sCD9u6RmMMMOmQzBwFnD6WQ!2e0!5s20140501T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D13.761414097641122%26panoid%3DCD9u6RmMMMOmQzBwFnD6WQ%26yaw%3D132.00985763708636!7i13312!8i6656?authuser=0&coh=205410&entry=ttu
Meanwhile a couple hundred metres away, a BMW dealer is using a former 1970s Red Barn Restaurant, for its service department. Distinctive Red Barn architecture.
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4417446,-75.6471483,3a,75y,53.14h,82.04t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sQU0xhACidbqDhjg3Oh7A6Q!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D7.959370743857178%26panoid%3DQU0xhACidbqDhjg3Oh7A6Q%26yaw%3D53.13988696613474!7i16384!8i8192?authuser=0&coh=205410&entry=ttu
Both of my parents smoked, though they both quit before I was 12 or so. On the other hand, I’m not sure I’ve ever been inside a Chevy dealership in my life. So anecdotal/experiential evidence can lead to interesting conclusions. And I did own a Chevy for four years.
A Chevy dealer is probably a familiar sight to any car buyer. I’d find it hard to imagine a car buyer who at some point in their life has NOT at least visited a Chevy dealership somewhere.
OK everyone – feel free to point out the exceptions. Generalization demands it.
I think what we have here is a previously unrecognized correlation between having parents and grandparents who smoked and an interest in CC. Selection bias.
Obviously I am joking, but when I was a child I thought all adult men were engineers as my dad, all his friends and all my uncles (with one exception) were engineers.
Murphy Chevrolet in Foley Minnesota. The oldest dealer in the country. Still in operation since 1911. The old building is still downtown.
If I remember correctly, Diana Shore was paid $25.00 in 1953 to sing the jingle “See the USA in your Chevrolet”. Also smoking was so, so normal that the 1941 DeSoto had a cigarette dispenser in the steering column. And yes smoking was allowed in hospital rooms unless oxygen was needed.
Heck, during WWII GI’s received cigarettes in their rations. Cigarette companies even claimed health benefits. I can still remember standing up in the middle of the front seat of my parents car with them both puffing away. In the winter with the windows closed it’s a wonder that I am still alive.