I believe this photo highlights a case of South Bend supporting South Bend, with a group of company men from South Bend’s Bonnie Doon Ice Cream nicely posing with a bunch of ’56 Studebaker/Packard products. The men in this photo are -from left- Lee J. Muldoon, Elmer Faller, Howard J. Muldoon, Paul Muldoon, and Foster J. Muldoon.
With so many Muldoons mentioned, you probably figured they have something to do with the ‘Doon’ in Bonnie Doon. You would be right. Back in 1938, the Muldoon family set up the fledging ice cream company in Indiana. From all available evidence, business was rosy and the company quickly blossomed.
In short order, Bonnie Doon expanded with three restaurants opening around South Bend and two in nearby Mishawaka. Being the ’40s and ’50s, the restaurant locations exuded mid-century splendor in their layout and attractions. Besides the standard dining-in facilities, drive-in service was also available, with ‘car hop’ attendants providing service.
The ’56 Studebakers in this post were shot in 1955 in the Bonnie Doon at 3030 Lincoln Way W. in South Bend. Curiously, the photo captures the transition taking place during the Studebaker and Packard merger, with a Packard taking center stage in the shot. Maybe the Muldoon’s patriarch vehicle?
The shot also showcases a good deal of rare 1956 Studebakers. Not the more common Champions or Commanders, but instead, the rather rare 2-door wagons. It makes sense though, as it sounds the Muldoons were busy folk and had stuff to haul around.
Regardless, one can sense that local businesses made an effort to support the local economy.
There’s no need to repeat here the sad fate of Studebaker-Packard, as it’s been told elsewhere in these pages. Regarding Bonnie Doon, like a lot of midsize enterprises, it eventually lost ground against larger and better-funded conglomerates. After some decades of prosperity, by the 2000s, most of its locations had ceased operations.
Still, online sources mention that one Boonie Doon exists to this day in Mishawaka, opening only during the summer. Like a lot of mid-century attractions fallen in hard times, in my Google browsing, the location doesn’t look quite so vibrant nowadays. But I would think that’s no deterrent to those who still wish to experience the old Boonie Doon days.
Further reading:
Automotive History: The Studebaker Sedan’s Last Decade Of Styling – Magic With Leftovers
Curbside Classic: 1957 Studebaker Commander – Eureka!
Growing up in South Bend in the 1970s and early 1980s, a Bonnie Doon location operated on South Michigan Street (the main drag through town) a mile or so from my home. My family visited it a time or two. I believe it had closed by the time I graduated high school in 1985.
My mom grew up in South Bend, in a big house near downtown. She told stories of the “merry go round,” a teenage car-cruising circuit along Michigan Street that started downtown and turned around in the parking lot of that Bonnie Doon location.
It’s possible that the Mishawaka Lincolnway location was the only one still operating then. But you could buy Bonnie Doon ice cream in bulk at Martin’s, the most prominent local grocery chain, for a long time after that. Might have been into the early 2000s. Mom always had some in the freezer. I remember it as being good ice cream, but there were other good ice creams available at the grocery, too.
An ice-cream shop near where I live now in central Indiana uses the Valpo Velvet ice cream and it is excellent.
On the vintage photos the sign reads “Bonnie Doon’s.” That apostrophe-s thing in names is an affectation I have not noticed outside of northern Indiana. We added apostrophe-s to place names in our speech and writing all the time. “I’m going up to Kroger’s” or “I’m just back from Target’s” or “I work over to Studebaker’s.” Is this a thing in other places?
Is this a thing in other places?
It is a thing around Seattle. People will talk about their relative working at “Boeing’s”.
I think apostrophes were used more commonly in the past, even if they didn’t strictly follow the rules of grammar. Or did the rules change over time.
The Florence Apt’s are in Eugene.
I think that Apt’s is simply overly-enthusiastic use of punctuation. Much like the random use of quotation marks phenomenon where “Broccoli” is for sale at the grocery store and we’re urged to “Do Not Eat” silica gel packages.
I always figure that it’s really probably ok to eat since the Do Not Eat part is in quotation marks and therefore is just a “Serving Suggestion”. 😉
It was definitely a thing in Western Kentucky, which is in many ways almost a part of Indiana. Until it becomes a part of Missouri or Illinois.
But yeah, going to the Kroger’s was a thing.
Or “Lets Go Krogering”.
I believe it is colloquial.
When we moved from Chicago, famous for (“youze guys”, and Dominick’s), we discovered that many folks in central Illinois use apostrophes where there shouldn’t be. When we married, we received a brass door knocker from a friend from here and it had an apostrophe s at the end of our last name – which both my wife and I cringed at. We get nice stuff that is personalized with our family name with an apostrophe s, which kind of drives us nuts.
Our kids attended school in central Illinois and we need to repeatedly correct this colloquialism.
An apostrophe s is a possessive. If you want to give someone a personalized something and use it correctly, then instead of a last name with an apostrophe s, it should read, “The VanillaDude’s House”, not “VanillaDude’s”
McDonalds went through this over the past seventy years. They have standardized what was at one time a possessive with an apostrophe s to being a part of their name. It has been about 25 years since McDonalds has used the original apostrophe s in their corporate name.
I certainly don’t have a problem with a restaurant with an apostrophe s in its name. But no one in South Bend said “We’re going to Bonnie Doonses”, right?
HaHa – we were gifted with a door knocker with an apostrophe in our name too! They were good friends so it went on our door. To this day, I think of it as a signal of my personal dominion over everything. 🙂
I sometimes use (and hear) “youse” to mean you plural, but never “youse guys” – that seems redundant, until I remember “you guys” is common (regardless of the gender the people being referred to are). I’ve also heard “you lot” but only from British expats. The most amusing for me is Southern Americans who of course are fond of “y’all” – a slurred “you all” is universal but in the South it’s exactly one syllable, “yall” is like “wall”. But when you really want to emphasize you’re referring to everybody in the crowd with no exceptions, they’ll say “all y’all”. I’ve never heard that outside the South.
“We added apostrophe-s to place names in our speech and writing all the time. “I’m going up to Kroger’s” or “I’m just back from Target’s” or “I work over to Studebaker’s.” Is this a thing in other places?”
In Chicagah yaz goes to da Jewel’s over by dere. Sometimes yaz gotta goes to da Jewel’s couple two-tree times a week. Ah Jeez. 😏
My mom grew up in South Bend. I remember Bonnie Doon’s but it’s been a few decades since I’ve been back. Sad to hear of its demise.
Re Seattle and apostrophes: I live a couple of blocks from a Dick’s Drive In.
I call it the insistent possessive. It’s definitely a thing in Vermont. Turning “Ames” to “Ames’s” was probably the most awkward example.
If the ‘s is on the sign it’s not a *true* one though, but part of the official name.
A nice old sign in any case .
I remember many independent seasonal ice cream stands up and down the East Coast when I were a lad .
-Nate
Great images!
Not surprisingly, it seems that Bonnie Doon(‘s) used Studebaker delivery vehicles as well. Shortly after the company was founded, they purchased an M-series delivery truck, and kept Studebaker trucks in their fleet for years.
Howard Muldoon, the firm’s president, evidently specified Studebakers for his managers’ company cars, which is likely the reason for the pictures here.
To my eyes this year Studebaker is no better or no worse looking than the same year Chevy; with a much better automatic transmission.
1956 Studebakers used the other B/W automatic, very similar to the Fordomatic. It started in 2nd gear unless Low was selected. But Low was noisy and it was not a pleasant undertaking to shift into Low on every start, right? Meanwhile, the PG’s torque converter had a higher effective gear ratio, making it substantially quicker off the line. It was not crippled by an essentially useless Low gear.
And let’s not even start on the huge difference between the Studebaker and Chevy engines…but suffice it say that the ’56 Chevy V8 with the PG would have creamed any ’56 Studebaker. And I have the vintage reviews to back that up.
Your deep seated dislike of the PG makes some sense in the mid-late ’60s, but in the mid-50s it was actually about as good as it got. It was quick and very efficient, unlike the Fordomatic/BW/Studebaker units.
If one stepped down hard on the gas pedal when leaving a stop sign or stop light, the B/W automatic would start off in first gear, then automatically shift to second and then to third. But you really had to stomp the gas pedal quickly and hold it to the floor of the car.
True, to get a smooth forced first gear to second gear shift with the Ford/Studebaker automatic transmission required the a deftly done combination of throttle and rpm choice. But it could be done.
I have not drove one in quite some time; but I do not recall the Powerglide’s “great leap” from low to high gear being “quick and efficient”? I do recall some most unkind words and phrases used to describe it’s gear shift.
One of the better features of the B/W 3 speed automatic (compared to the Chevy Powerglide) was it’s two lane passing performance. Pulling out in the opposing lane to pass slower traffic and flooring the gas pedal gave a solid downshift from third gear to second gear with a burst of passing power. Flooring the Powerglide in the same situation gave the driver a downshift to first (low) gear, giving a LOT of engine noise but not all that much (if any) added acceleration.
Paul’s fondness of the Powerglide matches my disdain for it.
Those styling mouldings on the Studebakers make the car look unfinished.
The Packard doesn’t look enormous in comparison to the wagons, which is odd. Probably an optical illusion.
Sadly, that seemed to be the case for all the non-Loewy-coupe Studebaker products until Brooks Stevens got ahold of things after it was too late.
The Lincolnway East location is, indeed, the last remaining operational Bonnie Doon’s (the downtown Mishawaka location closed about five years ago), and then only during the summer months, typically between the Memorial and Labor Day holidays. There used to be Sunday afternoon carshows (with a few Studebaker faithful attending) but I don’t know if they’re still doing it.
For more regular local Studebaker viewing, the sure-thing is the Studebaker National Museum or, failing that, the First Friday event in the summer in downtown South Bend almost always has a few Studebakers in attendance.
FWIW, the museum actually has a diorama type display featuring Studebakers lined up in front of a reproduction Bonnie Doon’s.
I had never heard of this Bonnie Doon chain of eateries, being an IN. thing. Closest I could come are the A&W drive-ins we had here in Omaha. One had a B&W 8×10 photo on the wall framed, showing place when it opened during the summer of 1949. They had kept the architecture all those years too.
We even had an “A&W” ((old school style)) in my hometown. Closed up when I was about “13”, I think.
It was just far enough outside the town that we “rarely” ever went there.
That said – Studebaker was to South Bend what AMC was to Kenosha or Buick was to Flint. What a famous product does it its hometown is different from what it does elsewhere. When an iconic restaurant in South Bend was celebrated, Studebaker needed to be there. We see dozens of local SB parades, pageants, and other SB activities recognized by the world famous Studebaker.
I’m glad they did it. Sad to see that spirit of the times go.
My wife had a friend in South Bend and we visited a Bonnie Doon when we visited in maybe 1989 or so. That was the last time I experienced one. It reminds me of a time when almost every area had a local brand of ice cream.
We used to have “Gifford’s Ice Cream Parlors” here round the “DC” area. I assumed it was a local brand. Could be wrong though.
There’s a reason you’re confused about whether Gifford’s was a local brand. When I was growing up, Gifford’s was the place to get an ice cream dish; the downtown Silver Spring, MD location on Georgia Ave was worth a special trip; they also had four other stores in DC/MD/VA. Then they seemed to slowly disappear. After bankruptcy, they eventually got bought out in 2010 by another ice creamery from Maine that coincidently was also called Gifford’s, although the two Giffords were not connected in any way except both having been named for someone named Gifford (and they weren’t related either). So you may occasionally see Gifford’s ice cream for sale in the DC area (although it’s mostly confined to New England), but it’s not the same.
The lone heir of the DC Gifford’s wrote a memoir about it, “We All Scream”, and the story behind the company is jarringly sad given how many happy memories it gave others.
Great response..I am one of those growing up on the northwest side of South Bend..Graduated LaSalle high school (’77)..Always frequented Bonnie Doons..To this day I have my 1962 Studebaker Lark that I cruise over to the Lincolnway East location on Sunday nights…
Had to smile at this. Bonnie Doon is a small town on Lake Eildon, in Victoria, Australia. We often pass through it on our way north.
The ’56 Studebaker station wagons were either 185 ci 6-cylinder Champion Pelhams or 259 ci V8 Commander Parkviews. Both were trimmed the same, only the front fender script tells the difference. The Packard is a 1955 400 hardtop.
Studebaker arrived at the burgeoning station wagon party for 1954 with its Conestoga but only with two doors as the market preference was turning to four door models. Bonnie Doon’s managers would have to wait until 1957 by buy a four door Commander Provincial, Champions weren’t offered as four door station wagons for the domestic market.
One has to give the ice cream folks credit for trying to support their hometown automaker. No doubt Studebaker employees consumed considerable ice cream.
Paul is not correct about the Studebaker Borg Warner transmission. It did start off in first gear and later on they made it start off in 2nd gear. My 1957 was a 1st gear start, the Avantis that I own now do start off in second gear unless you manually shift it. Ford wanted to buy the Studebaker transmissions when they didn’t have one but Studebaker wouldn’t do it. When you compared that transmission to the Fordomatic you should have compared it to the FMX because Ford used that same Borg Warner transmission but made it back into a first gear start again. AMC also used that transmission and called it a Flashomatic.
This issue is not straightforward. Form my sources, apparently the initial ’56 unit did start in Low, but by mid-year was changed to start in 2nd due to abrupt shifts and Low being noisy. But apparently some versions still did start in Low in ’57, like yours. I don’t pretend to have the absolute final word on which ones didn’t and which ones did.
In any case, many did start in 2nd, like your Avanti.
I drove a ’66 Ambassador with 6 cyl & automatic, thought it was related to these transmissions. It had a “D” flanked by “2” and “1”. Driver’s choice whether to start in 2nd or 1st. I decided the transmission seemed happier when starting in 1st, seemed to slip & howl a bit if I started in 2nd, even gently. There was a single “L” position which (I’ve read; don’t recall working it enough to know) would hold 1st if it was in 1st, or 2nd if it was in 2nd.