It’s time for another visit to a defunct marque, back to a time when its products had much life. We’re talking about Plymouths, and on this occasion, we’re featuring their products from the ’50s and ’60s.
The images cover their functional, untrendy early ’50s designs to a few of their bold, Space-Age ’57-’58 models. Trends shifted quickly to sobriety in the ’60s, and though it was briefly its own marque, an early Valiant is included. After all, they became part of the family, didn’t they?
Cool looking trailer park in the first pic. If that really is Wisconsin like his license plate says, the people that live in those up there will freeze in the winter. Those didn’t have much insulation in them tin walls.
They’d have hauled their trailers to Florida by then. 🙂
Seriously, these are actual trailers, and quite mobile. There was a subset of folks back then that liked to be mobile; it was a popular lifestyle.
I liked that colorful pic too. As ya say, when the sun isn’t shining…. Loses some appeal.
Car is from Wisconsin, but even back in 1959 more than a few Cheeseheads would depart for warmer climes once the snow started to fly. That trailer park could be anywhere.
Boy, I was hoping I’d see some young 20’s male standing next to his brand new 68 Roadrunner at the end.
I’m not quite sure I can picture that sartorial looking fellow in sweater and hip round sunglasses, next to the Valiant. Although that Valiant is showing the tin worm working it’s way all the way down the car along the rocker panel, door, and fender arches. Didn’t take long did it?
He’s an early hipster, right down to his choice of car.
With that cardigan and nicely tied necktie, I picture him as a high school teacher, driving a sensible car. Too bad about the corrosion however.
Yes, thinking he didn’t do well in the divorce.
I’m definitely getting Jacob from Abbott Elementary vibes, if he were 50 years older and wasn’t already shown driving a Crosstrek.
Thank God you didn’t show a 62 Belvedere! My parents passed up chances to Trade out 55 DeSoto for a 59 ADVENTURER and 61 DeSoto, only to buy a 62 Belvedere. 🤮 IMO one of the ugliest cars ever built.
Opinions, like your gas mileage, may vary.
Ah but they were able to hold out and “buy new, in 62”!
In the 7th pic down, that scooter on the right appears to be the Sears Allstate version of Vespa. I wonder if Sears sold more Vespa scooters in the States than Vespa did through their dealers?
Well, how many cities had Vespa dealers? How many small towns had dealers? Meanwhile many if not most American homes had an Allstate “dealer” in their living room and at least a catalog store within a reasonable distance to pick it up at. So yeah my gut says Sears sold more.
Wasn’t around back then, so, to answer your questions, “Don’t know. Don’t know.”
Do I spy a liquor bottle on Grandpa’s hood? 😉
Also notice how well he parked the car on the concrete ribbon driveway.
Regarding PRNDL’s remark. Here is my take: 1955 Plymouth, home in the burbs, bottle of booze – How much more could any man want? Great photos. I miss the marque.
I am calling it a 56 Plymouth, as I detect a possible fin out back. He’s as proud of his Plymouth as the Chevy and Ford owners are of theirs, across the street. Neighbourhood of bungalows, sensible car purchases. Looks like a blue 64 Chev Bel Air or Biscayne.
I think you’re right – it appears the 55 V8 symbol was on the hood, not in the grille.
Rick W many want to skip reading my entry here?
By far my Father’s all time favorite car of the many he owned was his 1962 Plymouth Savoy, optioned with the “Golden Commando” 361 V8 engine.
An oddly optioned car (361 4-BBL V8 engine, factory A/C. “3-on-the-tree” manual transmission, manual steering but power brakes), bought on impulse (HIGHLY unusual for my careful, frugal, pragmatic “Great Depression Baby” Father!) off the showroom floor, when Dad stopped by the dealer for an oil filter for our two year old V-200 Valiant. Dad said he was “taking a short cut” to the parts department thru the showroom, laid eyes on the Savoy and froze in his tracks.
Dad said that the first time he floored it in second gear to merge onto the highly congested expressway, “It felt like an Atlas booster rocket kicking in compared to that Slant Six Valiant!” He ruefully said that he was a “Gone Pecan” from that moment on.
Mom was not at thrilled at the loss of “her” paid for Valiant, but after riding around in the hot & humid New Orleans Summer the first year of ownership, with the freezing c-c-cold factory air conditioner on, she mollified her attitude towards Dad’s surprise of the unplanned for new car.
Dad and I talked about this car the day he passed away, 35 years later, in 1997. Even racked with pain from the whole-body cancer and warped out on morphine, he spoke lucidly about this automotive love. Mom, hearing our conversation, just shook her head at us.
Here is the only picture I can find of the car (most of my parent’s photo albums got flooded and turned into pulp when hurricane Katrina “visited” New Orleans and the faulty levies of the U. S. Corps of Engineers failed & flooded most of the city) and me, Christmas eve 1961, the only time the car got snow on it, at my Grandparent’s home in southeast Oklahoma.
What a weirdly optioned car! And he bought this off the showroom floor? Hard to believe that a dealer would order such a car for his inventory.
The weirdest optioned car I can recall was the grandfather of a childhood friend. A 1963 Olds 88, with many options, but with a 3 speed on the column.
eek
There are stories of screwed up Chrysler production scheduling resulting in batches non-ordered oddly optioned cars. Missing power steering seems to be a common thread. Many did not end up in dealer inventory but signed out to low level Chrysler executives as their car for the year.
Great picture, nice story, glad your Dad enjoyed his COAL. I liked the 62 Plymouth when I was a kid (after the hideous 61, who wouldn’t?) and still do. I’ve always liked right-sized cars and I loved the front and back styling – very cool. From the side the proportions don’t work so well but some models look better than others. One Mopar family in our small Midwestern town traded in a 59 Fury for a new 62. IIRC the model and from what I can tell from the color charts it was a “luminous brown” Belvedere sedan. I really liked it but they did not. Too small and some reliability issues. They traded it the very next year for a new 63 Ford Galaxie four-door hardtop, which later was traded for a Buick Wildcat, the first of many Buicks. The 62 seemed to really turn them off Mopar products forever.
Really like the look of the ’66 Satellite. Always did. Clean lines, and the roof pillar seals the deal for me.
Agree!
Still looks great today.
It’s so sad to think they’re all dead or quite decrepit now. The people, too.
lolol This “person” as well!!
Mark… Fortunately we can STILL have our own opinions, while respecting Others. Not sure how much longer! 🤔. Like your father, mine loved the 62 Belvedere. It went from family car to his drive to work car, giving 120,000 dependable miles. It just wasn’t the LAND YACHT I have always loved. 👍
🙂
What’s that on the windshield of the car in the second photo ? Black rectangles. Some kind of defroster grids ?
That seems likely. Here’s a type that uses suction cups:
https://www.icollector.com/LOT-3-VINTAGE-ELECTRIC-WINDSHIELD-DEFROSTERS_i21968588
I’m wondering if that’s a transistor radio on the fender. The first one came out in ’54, and his plate has ’55 markings.
I didn’t remember adults turning up their jeans’ hems–I thought it was just so kids could grow into them.
My dad owned and drove a lovely 2-tone 55 Plymouth. I bought and drove another 2-tone 55 Plymouth from high school through college. I now enjoy an all original low mileage 55 Plymouth and drive it nearly every weekend to car shows and cruise-ins. Great fun.
attach us a pic if ya can.. t/y
No HEMI
To tbm3fan
I was that early 20s guy (19 actually) standing next to my red ’68 Roadrunner purchased in 1970. Still miss that beauty as well as the Plymouth nameplate ruling the roads back in the day.
Say what you will about the Plymouth with the ‘Golden Commando’ engine. I owned one new, it shook and felt like a tin can…. It wasn’t much of a vehicle for that or any other engine.
These are all lovely .
I think perhaps the #2 picture in Alaska is my favorite .
The early hipster with rusty Valiant is nice too .
-Nate
When I needed a “new” car after my beloved Corvair died, my Mom said someone where she worked had a car for sale. Since she was going to co-sign for it (I was 17, part-time job) I had to look at it. We pulled into the lot & there was a ’65 Impala S/S, with a “for sale sign” in the window. My heart leapt ! Chrome mag wheels, 409 engine, Hurst 4-speed. Wow !! She said “nope, this one”.. ’64 Plymouth Sport Fury, 318, automatic. Actually ended up liking it a lot.
Hello! Just to clarify the photo with the blue Valiant was taken in 2017 and is from my retro photography collection on Flickr! I’ve attached the unedited photo for comparison! I stumbled upon the car in the street and happened to be dressed in ‘60s attire that day so took advantage of having a period correct prop!
Aha! That explains it. I have a pretty good eye for what’s authentic period or not, and I was sure that photo was taken much more recently before I saw the date on its margin. The lesson is trust your judgment and don’t believe things like those dates.
I was around in 1969, and although it’s a decent effort, your getup just doesn’t quite make it. Not a put down, just the reality. The hat is way off. Only very few old men wore hats in 1969, unless they were in hippie garb. The glasses don’t jibe with the hat either. And… As I said, don’t take it the wrong way, but it’s way too hipster and not credible.
It’s actually not easy to replicate a truly credible period look. And part of it is the whole vibe, right down to a person’s facial expression.
Here is the original pic and the Flickr post https://www.flickr.com/photos/artdecofan/37564635250/in/album-72157657954635999
Great shot! I enjoyed looking through your retro photography album too.
Pretty well done, actually.
I found the photo online about a year ago, but in all honesty, I never featured it feeling something was off (though not quite knowing why). Still, this time I posted it feeling that if it wasn’t real, someone would point it out.
What I didn’t expect was to hear directly from the original uploader (!) So, cool. Overall, pretty good work in recreating the period look.
I’d like to know why no one is wearing sweat pants or hoodies or basketball shorts? And why no backwards baseball caps or tattoos? What was wrong with these people?
Those are frost shields in the 2nd picture. My father, like a lot of people here on the Canadian prairies, had them on their vehicles during the 60s and even early 70s. They had them on the side windows however, with a larger one for the rear window. I don’t recall ever seeing them on the front windshield to be honest.
It appears that most of the folks depicted are smiling. Not always the case with some other brands owner photos. Just joking!
The shot of the ’56 Plymouth with possibly a bottle of Seagram’s 7 caught my eye. The second car my parents owned was a black ’56 Plymouth. Purchased in ’58. The original owner had blown the poly-head V8. A garage had installed a Dodge Red Ram hemi-head engine of about the same displacement from a late model wreck. I think the car became a mechanic’s lien due to nonpayment for the swap. It survived our first cross country vacation trip in 1962 and came just short of ascending Pike’s peak. We didn’t break down, dad called it. I believe that road was a lot different back then than decades later.
I suspect that the photo with the white Valiant with NJ plates was taken at Lake Hopatcong, based on the topography in the background. My first thought was Greenwood Lake or Lake Mohawk, but I could still be entirely wrong. Any of the above, along with probably a few others might have looked very similar.
Hi Paul, you are entirely correct that. All the garments I’m wearing are from the ‘60s (minus the glasses which are from the late ‘30s) but they don’t represent what the average young man wore at the time. I describe my stylings as what I would wear back then had I existed.
Hi Rich, thank you for the kind words! A friend of mine who owns a few vintage cars shared the page with me! The retrozing became a hobby of mine a few years ago when I realized I had all these photographs of myself and fellow vintage friends that had potential to look like semi authentic photos. I’ve since switched to just photographing Polaroids but you never know, I may start retroizing again!
What a wonderful era driving those really comfortable cars!
I miss that old design and look! These photos are bringing me back to that time!
Thank you!
The man in the Alaska photo looks very much like my Dad did back then. Our ‘56 Fairlane two door hardtop had the 312, 4 barrel, dual exhaust. He had a young wife, us 3 boys….but still a hellion.