Dependable Motors, Monroe, MI.
Mc Corkles Motors, Chicago, IL.
Buhler And Bitter, Keyport, NJ.
Pistoresi Motor Sales, Madera, CA.
Mason Motor Co.
Main Motors, Minot, ND.
Boling Motors, DeSoto, Dodge, Plymouth.
Shimkat Motor Co., Fort Dodge, IA.
Howard Motors, New Orleans, LA.
Mancini Motors, Mountain View, CA.
Related CC reading:
Groucho’s cigar sent me!
Mr Dependable doesn’t look especially happy to participate in the Required Publicity Photo.
Maybe he’s wondering why they couldn’t be bothered to fix the wall signage?
The outdoor signage on Pistoresi Motor Sales looks strangely damaged too, like all the inserts in letters that need them are missing. Perhaps they are a different color that gets translated into the same shade of grey on B&W film.
I’m surprised that the Mason Motor Co. (Peekskill, NY) building is still standing, but it is – and it’s still in automotive use as well:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hqrWAoTqsQziFYW27
“Peekskill again!! T/y “E/703”.
I know — this is the second time in about a week that Peekskill has come up!
I was curious about Mancini Motors, shown in the last picture, as I lived in Mountain View for many years. Apparently Ugo Mancini bought the tower and other items from the San Francisco World’s Fair of 1939, after the exhibition ended. He sold some of the items to finance purchasing the property, but kept the tower as a distinctive landmark. The dealership closed a long time ago, and the location is now the site of a large Chase Bank building … which might be about as busy now as the DeSoto dealership was in its waning days. The Mancini name is familiar to locals as a local mattress store chain, which started just down the street from the dealership. Maybe a descendant of Ugo?
It’s a “Pgh/ westrn PA” name too. Remember a long time “on air, anchor”. with that last name.
Think there is still a bakery/ baling company owned by the family..
Neat! I was curious about that one too. I wonder if the globe on top of the tower still spun after the whole thing was moved?
Here’s an aerial image of the Mancini site taken not too long after it opened. Mountain View has changed a bit since then.
I can’t read the signage for Mancini Motors, but all of the other dealers also sold Plymouth. Were standalone DeSoto dealers rare by this point, or are we seeing a skewed sample?
Before Chrysler Corporation’s reorganization of the dealer structure in 1960, Plymouth was typically sold as a companion brand by Chrysler, Dodge, or DeSoto dealers, so I think what is shown here was standard practice.
Loving the rag top in picture #2 .
-Nate
Well. I’d certainly rather have a DeSoto than a “P YM UTH”!
Man, you took the words right out of my muth!
My fave shot is Photo #3, Buhler & Bitter, the dark DeSoto with the super-toothy dental work. I remember once seeing a full-on custom hot rod with those vertical teeth incorporated. Very cool.
What’s the chances that one of those cardboard cutouts of Groucho Marx survives to the present day?
I wouldn’t bet your life…
In the second pic, see if you can spot Alfred Hitchcock making a cameo like in one of his movies 🙂
Opening photo — Am I correct that the sign hanging above Groucho and the guy with the lighter advertises a “Hi-Fi Record Player” as a feature for one of their models? I have a very vague recollection of reading something about that as an option for a car, but that’s about it…
Highway hi=Fi ran with 16 2/3 rpm records which had to be made specially for these players. I like the dealership in New Orleans. Just what the dealer needed is a wall of a building adjacent advertising FORD’S FURNITURES. Don’t like the new De Soto and Plymouth models? Well, there’s a Ford in your future! I think that the year was 1932, at the time of The Great Depression, that Walter P. decided that all dealers selling a Chrysler marque would add Plymouth to their lineup aa Plymouth dealers were given the opportunity to take on another Chrysler brand. This was done to make lower-priced Plymouths available for all dealers to sell. Nice photos. Thanks.
Mourned the fallen flag that was DeSoto.. Back in the day I felt that many years the DeSoto styling was the pick of the Chrysler Corporation litter.. The DeSoto/Plymouth dealer in Kokomo,IN was sub-standard. The building on West Superior St..even had old-fashioned vertical folding garage doors. .Kokomo, a city that had 4-5,000 Chrysler employees. A disgrace. Thought that Chrysler should have called the 1975 Chrysler Cordova a DeSoto or at least the Dodge knock-off. Check out U-tube. Gabriel Caplan (Welcome Back Cotter) does a one man show portraying Groucho Marx.
Last of the downtown theaters across the street from Main Motors, Minot, ND.
Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin in “Pardners”. How many would go across the street to look at the new cars in the window after a late movie or Sunday showing.
I love articles like this. I was born in Detroit in March of 1955, the same year as my dad’s last Desoto. My mom’s side of the family all worked at Chrysler’s Highland Park headquarters. My dad’s side all worked at the Ford Motor Company at various locations around Detroit and Dearborn. But the family all drove cars built by the Chrysler Corporation. A few of my units drove Ford wagons. My dad’s Desoto was dark red and gray with the interior was the same colors. In 1958, my dad bought a new red and white Dodge Custom Sierra wagon that he bought for our move to Southern California. Our last Chrysler was a 1969 Chrysler 300. After that the family switched to Fords, Mercurys and Lincolns, then a few Explorers and F-series trucks. The family always drives either Chrysler or Ford vehicles. Never GM or fourgin. Always American.
is there a Mancini dealer presence in the san josr area