This image from Ralf K at the Cohort shows a good contrast of styling languages. In the foreground, a friendly-looking pink bathtub with shiny decor. In the back, a sea of aggressive and angry-looking appliances.
It’s a well-known quote from Bob Lutz, when back in the early 2000s he referred to new cars as ‘Angry kitchen appliances.’ On that, I agree with the guy, and we have certainly been swamped by aggressive styling ever since. So, if you happen to need a respite from all that, take a good look at this friendly-looking brightly colored ol’ bathtub. I know it’s making my day brighter already.
Ralf K mentions he sees this old pink Rambler occasionally around town. Nice to know it still gets regular use. Let’s hope it keeps doing so, and adding a bit of color to the roads.
Further reading:
The George Petty hood ornament doesn’t quite seem to fit with the car or its intended market. But I guess things were different in the Fifties.
“Nash’s” certainly were.
I’m not sure if that Nash was ever particularly popular in its time, but I do think that it says something about its time. Simultaneously, the collection of modern angry-looking appliances in the background also say something about our time.
Comparing the two, I am happy to spend time with the Nash. Not so much with things like that GMC truck.
It wasn’t very popular at the time; but Nash hung in there with the Rambler and then sales exploded in 1957-1958. This particular hardtop model was always very rare.
These early Ramblers were targeted to women, upscale women at that. And it worked; they were appreciated by their female owners for being compact, stylish and unique. They had a decided upscale image, not unlike European imports would a few years later.
CEO George Mason had a good feel for what women wanted, having honed his skills in the appliance business. That’s why you got a small, sensible, easy-to-park, yet stylish and well-proportioned Nash Rambler and not a Dodge LaFemme.
Interesting perspective on the Rambler being marketed to women, particularly as it applied to the failure of the Dodge LaFemme. I think car marketing directed at women was once examined here at CC but I don’t recall when this was first attempted by an auto manufacturer.
To that end, it’s easy to see why the Dodge didn’t succeed where the Rambler did. The LaFemme was just a big, full-size car tarted-up with some feminine touches. It’s telling the extent to which Chrysler had to go of adding all the accessories to drive home the point.
What’s interesting are the follow up cars later in the sixties that did succeed with women, with the most notable being Iacooca’s Mustang. What a master stroke of creating a stylish car that appealed to all genders and I strongly suspect a large portion of those affordable six-cylinder Mustangs went to women.
It’s been pointed out before that the Corvair Monza was the precursor to the Mustang and I wonder how that car sold to women.
As an aside, I once knew the older wife of a farmer who had a nice 1969 Mustang Grande in the mid-seventies. They were childless and she really loved that car. Well, the geezer she was married to decided he wanted them to have a car that he could haul larger stuff around in if they went shopping. So, he got her a Torino wagon and sold the Mustang.
They got divorced a couple of years later.
The Le Femme was the result of being created by a bunch of men who didn’t have a clue about women.
Women were generally not happy with the size of standard American cars, for obvious reasons. Hence they gravitated to the Rambler, and yes, very much the Corvair too.
The simple reality is that women were largely responsible for the demise of the large American car:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-who-killed-the-big-american-car/
I don’t know when cars were first marketed towards women but I do know that Baker Electric was doing it in the first decade of the last century.
Just posted by the Kenosha History Center – a dealer film from the 1950 introduction of the Rambler. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRb1cHCsBJc
Thanks for that film link.
To my point about each vehicle speaking to its time, that 1950 Rambler video is just so uplifting. Yes, the music is period cheesy, but it’s also all about the values and concerns of the time. And just so cheerful. I want to follow that route…and meet all of those wondrous, consistently-smoking, folks.
Here’s a commercial for the GMC angry appliance. Aside from the overall wisdom of its focus on hands-free driving of a 3.5 ton vehicle on curvy roads, it’s all about making a connection to what for most people is an aggressive chant in a sports stadium (although as a child of the 70s, I will say I prefer Queen to happy milk bottles-on-the-assembly line background industrial music of the 50s).
The aesthetic of the Rambler film is to express how the vehicle serves the needs of many (albeit as Paul notes, maybe mostly targeted at 50% of the population) and makes those who encounter it happy, as they engage in an activity that involves traveling and meeting other people.
The aesthetic of the Sierra commercial is to express how drivers and passengers are doing something that they realize is unexpected and perhaps dangerous…but that they’re people who live on the edge and deserve the unexpected and perhaps antisocial (like the wolf dog does). In the cocoon of their vehicle. But they do it. Because they can.
with narcissistic, shit-eating grins. ‘Murica.
Maybe instead of “We Will Rock You” they should’ve gone with “Another One Bites the Dust” followed by its’ Weird Al parody.
Pink rings a bell. The first model kit I built, back in ’56, was an original Metropolitan in the same solid pink. Later Met color schemes were two-tone, mostly blue and white, which made the car look a bit more “serious”.
At some point in the late sixties my grandfather bought a metropolitan from his next door neighbor for $25. It didn’t run. But pop got it working and drove it to work for a few months before he sold it. It was black and white. I’ve seen pictures but don’t know what happened to them. Even with color film in the camera the car looked like it was edited to black and white. Always thought that was kinda cool
Would be interesting to Know what he sold it for “vs” what he spent on it?
I think this car’s popularity with women may have been tied to its mission to help create the market for the 2-car family. Of course with only about 21K sold (per CC’s fabulous database) that influence was limited. But it was a good start. In my part of the world, it was a long time before the second family car could compete with the main car in size/trim/status.
I hope that awful chromatic pink is caused by a color filter .
The Nash’s painted thusly were a soft pink .
Metropolitans were SALMON, not pink .
Caddies were pink .
NASH before WWII was indeed a well regarded car, stylish and peppy .
I can’t say I recall GM marketing Corvairs towards women but women certainly loved them, you’d have to drive one to understand ~ the steering was incredibly light .
-Nate
These Nashes always bring to mind the ‘hippo ballerinas’ in Disney’s ‘Fantasia’. Especially in pink.
It seems that JPC posted this exact pic in 2014 in the ’53 Nash writeup. Great minds… 🙂