Today we have a gallery of fancy dressers and their cars; some of which were very fancy, and some not so fancy. A lot has changed in the last fifty or sixty years, so let’s take a look at a different time.
Our lead photo was a lady in a fur coat with a background that did not look like winter. A photo search reports this was Beverly Hills, California, so it very well could have been winter, at least according to the calendar. She was posing in front of a ’51 Cadillac Series 62 convertible with some minor body damage on the door and quarter panel and curb rash on the whitewalls. The house had an unfenced swimming pool in the front yard, which of course is illegal now.
One, or perhaps both parties in this couple were about to take a trip. They did not have much luggage, unless the rest of it was already in the car. The car was a ’51 Oldsmobile 98 Holiday Coupe or De Luxe Holiday Coupe from Cass County, Nebraska, which is located on the eastern border with Plattsmouth as the seat. It looked like a late fall or early winter day.
A dressy lady was posing in a not so fancy neighborhood in front of a not so fancy car. It was a ’53 Ford Mainline. There were some bare looking trees down the street, so another likely winter photo.
It must have been a special occasion for this California lady surrounded by Hudsons. The one on the right was a ’50 model two door, had a ’52 issue renewal tab on the license plate, apparently was purchased at C. & P. Hudson Company of Burbank, and had a kid waiting inside the car. The one on the left looks to be a ’42 Super Six.
Perhaps a father and son in their Sunday best, posing alongside a close to new, V8 powered ’57 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible from Iowa. It looks like it could have been any of the seasons except winter.
A snazzy lady in front of a snazzy car in a tropical looking location that may have been Florida, as they do not issue front license plates. The car was a new looking ’56 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible. Parked on the other side of it was a ’54 Cadillac sedan, and a ’54 Buick.
It was time for a business lunch at John’s Bar-B-Q. The gentleman looked ready to eat and arrived in a ’54 Buick Special 2 door Riviera with some curb rash on the front tire. The only other car I can readily ID is the light blue ’54 Ford Customline Club Coupe in the left background. The trees were bare so a sunny winter day.
A photo search reveals this was Bonnie Estelle McEachin of Norfolk, Virginia. She and her husband owned the Hotel Plaza in Norfolk. She was obviously a very stylish lady, and was posing with a ’57 Cadillac Eldorado Seville Coupe, one of 2100 built that year. It was wearing a ’58 issue Virginia license plate with a Norfolk 900? plate above it. There was also a necklace draped across the hood. Perhaps the two were a present of some kind.
The entry level DeSoto for ’57 was this FireSweep 4 door sedan. A lady was posing with it, perhaps on some sort of roadside pulloff with a short rock wall as a border. The trees were beginning to turn colors so likely an early fall photo.
These two did not look like they were interested in having their photo taken. The lady was dressed and ready to go, and may have been anxious to get to their destination. The car was a ’57 Mercury Monterey convertible with the “Flo-Toned” paint scheme.
Here we have a Navy family dressed for a special occasion and posing in front of a ’60 Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe or convertible. Mom had a cigarette between her fingers, and the boys were sporting bow ties. It was a very typical looking post war neighborhood, and the photo date was March of ’63.
This lady could have been a member of the Red Hat Society, except the official one did not come along until the late nineties. It couldn’t have been real warm in this late winter or early spring photo, but she had the top down and apparently was enjoying the open air in a ’63 Ford Falcon Futura convertible with snow tires on the rear. In the driveway on the right was a ’56 Buick 4 door Riviera that could have been a Special, Century, or Super series.
Two ladies were about to depart a very mid-century looking house in a ’66 Ford Fairlane 500 4 door sedan with the optional 289 cubic inch V8. The driver had a coat and shoes that were color coordinated with her car. She had her purse under her arm, and was carrying something in her hand. The tree in the yard had no leaves, so perhaps a winter day in a warm locale.
A high society type lady who was dressed to the nines with a ’63 Cadillac. I see a rear vent window and a smallish back glass, so I am going to call it a Fleetwood Sixty Special Sedan. The location looks like a country estate, as the road does not look very heavily traveled. Everything was nice and green so a late spring or early summer day.
Our final image for today appears to be a small wedding party since it is in front of a church. My best guess is the man with the gold tie was the groom, and he was holding on to his bride. To the left were his parents, and further left a two ladies who were likely relatives. The two ladies on the right were the bride’s mother and grandmother. On the left was a ’67 Ford Mustang convertible from California, which likely was the location as well. This may have been a bluff overlooking the sea.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
FURR be it for me, But Those WERE the Days! Divine DECADENCE clearly shown in the photos of the Mink clad Grand Dammes with their Cadillacs! But grandma in mink STOLE the show with her FALCON convertible! Clara Peller shouting *Where’s the BEEF?* And Could that be BABY JANE with those Hudsons? Makes me BLANCHE at the thought! But I love this post. As I stated on a Buick CC post, you’re SUPERCADILLISTICEPIALIDOCIOUS! 👍
Rick, that is a long post. I bet it took a while to show up! He He! I like the one with the father kneeling next to his young son in front of the Belaire and he is smoking a stogie so his son’s cute little suit will stink of tobacco smoke. At least cigars smell better than cigarettes.
Only when the cigars are fresh.. Stale old smoke of any sort isn’t desirable.
Nice, I’m glad they don’t dress women like that anymore .
-Nate
I posted a long comment. It hasn’t shown up. Just checking.
Thanks! Guess I was too eager 😁
Fancy dressers? Hardly. This is how comfortably middle class Americans dressed in the 1950’s. Men wore suits, even ties, not just at work, but most of the time they went out of the house. The (odd to us in 2025) jacket and skirt ensembles that the women are wearing were standard business clothes of the era, worn by secretaries and other white collar workers. As for the furs, I went to high school (admittedly two decades later) with girls who wore hand me down fifties minks to school. They weren’t dressing up. Fur coats and stoles are wonderfully warm on cold winter days in a way that snow parkas and wool coats are not.
Granted, some of these posing people are documenting some event in their lives, such as driving to their first day at a new job, or celebrating a get together with family. No way to know what. When these women wanted to dress fancy, they had gowns, not business suits.
Of course the cars are great. But they too point to the life of the comfortable class, not the life of the blue collar family.
Indeed – some of the older women maintained that style (electrocuted hair, twin-set & hateful peep-toed shoes) into the 1970s, when the younger housewives were wearing brightly-coloured slacks or skirts.
Perhaps that is why I look at those charming photos and everyone looks so damned OLD. I’m 62…
That was an era when comfortable middle-classers were in the ascendancy, not gradually being squeezed-out.
Plenty of good looking Caddy’s, the 66 Fairlane with the 2 lady’s looks more like something Joe Friday would drive. Can’t help but agree with Nate about the women’s dressing.
I’m sure the couple in the 2nd pic standing in front of the Olds were a very nice couple.
He looks like a gangster.
Was thinking the same.
Also….the Buick Riviera guy goes to the BBQ place in suit and tie?
It was a different time…
Business lunch.
As a really heavyweight, he certainly could have afforded better-fitting trousers.
I don’t know why I didn’t catch it sooner. The lady in the lead photo reminds me of Mrs Downey (played by Marjorie Bennett) featured on several episodes of CHIPS. When Ponch called her car a CADDY, she snarled *It’s a CADILLAC! ! 😠 😡 😤
Another wonderful posting taking me down memory lane of “ladies who lunch”.
I was about age eight in 1959, Mom was newly divorced and we were in SF. As I recall Mom and her other divorced lady friends would meet for lunch and afternoon cocktails at someone’s house. I was always there, playing with other divorced kids. Mom and the other ladies would dress in the latest day-time fashions, their cars spotless clean. Us kids would just run around, away from the Moms while they had lunchtime cocktails. Don’t bother Mom’s during cocktails. This was just the way it was and as a child I loved it.
I think I posted this memory before but will do it again because it is a memory I see like it happened yesterday. One my Mom’s divorced lady friends had a hillside house in the Bay Area. The house started sliding down the hill. All the ladies came to the rescue with their children. We raced in and out of the house carrying fashion clothing, throwing dresses into cars like Mom’s 1955 Olds Starfire and a 1958 white Cadillac. I remember the drive back over the Bay Bridge, me spread out over the dresses, top down on our convertible, looking up at the top of the bridge.
Wonderful memories when ladies dressed and lunched. The pic of the lady with the Falcon conv., snow in the background, also reminds me of Mom. My Mom never lived long enough to be matronly as the lady with the Falcon, but she would keep the top down on her convertibles even with frost on the ground.
I wouldn’t want to tangle with that lady in the red and white Mercury Monterey convertible.
Give me the dog instead.
Maybe the person snapping the picture suggested they put the top down (bye-bye hat).
Regarding the lady from Norfolk and her license plate topper – those toppers were issued annually by Virginia municipalities to show proof of car-tax payment. (They were largely replaced by windshield decals in the 1970s, and now even those decals have given way in many localities to just electronic tax enforcement.)
Each topper had a serial number embossed on it, and many jurisdictions reserved low serial numbers for important people. Since Norfolk was a big city, that’s likely the case here. In Mrs. McEachin’s case, “900” may have had special significance to her because that was her home address as well, so my guess is that she was offered a low serial number and requested 900. Just a guess.
” I can’t believe what my life has come to. I’m surrounded by Hudsons”
As far as the woman in front of the 1953 Ford, the locale is some eastern city where much of the older residential stock was of the row house variety, a familiar sight in Philadelphia and Baltimore. My guess is the photo is an early April photo. Being a Philadelphia-area resident, it is possible to have relatively warm days in early April (up to the 80s, F.) , before trees have begun to have leaves bud out from them.
Great photo collection! My guess is that most of these photos are Easter Sunday snapshots.
It’s early spring in most of them: the grass has greened, but there’s little deciduous tree foliage. It’s not the dead of winter, since none of the persons in the photos are wearing heavy winter clothes. while there is still some snow on the ground around the ’63 Futura conv., the owner is out in a suit and stole – not winter attire.
The family beside the ’67 Mustang convertible on the central California coast could be a wedding party certainly, but it would be unusual for additional women in the party to also be wearing white. Also, all have corsages, a typical accessory for Easter Sunday.
Back before smart phones, taking snapshots required conscious effort to bring a camera – usually done on holidays & special occasions.
the USN family in California might not be an Easter photo – Easter that year was on 14 April, and the photo is marked “March ’63″(?)
the ’57 DeSoto could be a later winter/early spring photo. The car is pulled over along a river parkway. the subject in the photo is dressed for church. If those trees behind the car are river birches (along fresh waterways/gulllies/creeks in the far Mid-West/intermountain West), they keep their dead leaves until the Spring.
The ’56 Eldo Biarritz is parked on Worth Avenue, Palm Beach, FL.
The ladies entering the ’66 Fairlane are wearing spring coats, at least one with matching pastel shoes. There are palms in front and behind the neighbors house, but the tree in their front yard has no leaves yet; their house has breeze block entry and aluminum awnings: early Spring in north/central FL.
Most every time I scroll through Vintage Snapshots I say to myself “I want to go back”.
It’s a shame folks don’t dress up as much. I still throw on one of my custom suits if my wife and I are going to a decent place for drinks or dinner, and it makes it more fun when we take the GT6. She has a number of great outfits which make it just better.
Now I had a former GF who wore insanely tight ankle/floor length gowns all the time. Walking? Well, with her 4 inch steos we had to budget a LOT more time. But she’d accessorize with full length opera gloves, bracelets, etc. So even a trip to the movies became a night at the Oscars. Her getting into my Triumphs or Jags was a heck of a sight and quite memorable due to her incredibly restricted mobility.