(first posted 11/2/2016) I’ve recently discovered vintage.es, a site with large collections of everyday snapshots. This particular collection is 100 color snaps from the 1950s, from which I’m pulling the ones with the most automotive interest. I’m not going to add a lot of commentary, as there’s not really much to add. But the colors are fab, none more than in this shot. (Click on images for larger size)
What a great period shot. A new development in California, obviously.
And the polar opposite to this one. Two Kaisers here, along with a very old house.
More snow, but a bit less depressing than the previous one.
I don’t recognize this location. Mexico?
A Mercedes along with a Nash and Ford. California, I’m guessing.
It says “Detroit” on that sign. From the recently clear-cut hill in the background, I’m wondering if it’s Detroit Lake in Oregon?
Berthoud Pass, in Colorado. An early Karmann Ghia and Corvette.
No idea where this is.
Two Mercuries in the shot.
San Francisco, on the west side.
The same yellow Chevy on vacation.
Looks like a rear axle problem while on the honeymoon.
Proud Buick owner.
And another Studebaker to book-end this collection. The proud owners of the new house going up behind them, no doubt.
Great photos, And thanks for the web link
(looks like another way to kill some hours).
Motorists wise choose Simoniz.
when I see the fantastic American cars of the fifties I cannot understand why anybody would have bought a VW Beetle or a Dauphine or a FIAT 600 back then in the US.
I can understand they’d buy a sportscar from Europe but those VW, Renault and FIAT tinboxes when America made the most fantastic cars in that era with hughe V8 engines automatic gearboxes and luxury that the rest of the world would meet in the late nineties of the last century.
I have very fond memories of the Oldsmobile 98 from 1960 from childhood friends father, I mean the car had courtesy lights in the interior, a wonderbar radio, electric windows, tinted glass, it made our 403 Diesel look like a pathetic French heap of menure.
Have you never driven a big, squishy luxury car and then jumped into a base model Panda 1.1 or somesuch and absolutely loved the Panda?
After a while driving one of course, I hanker for the other.
Why didn’t all Europeans buy a Citroen DS, Mercedes 220, a Jaguar, Opel Kapitan, or Lancia?
An Olds 98 or comparable car was very expensive for the average American. Money was still tight for working class Americans with a stay-at-home mom, gas was not as cheap as folks make out to be. Import cars were a lot cheaper, thanks to the strong dollar. And in the case of the VW, it had superb resale value. One could drive a VW for much less than a big American car.
And it wasn’t just money either; some folks were turned off by the terrible handling, steering and brakes of American cars in the 50s. That explains a lot too. Some drivers just wanted a different driving experience.
You can say THAT again. My dad needed to purchase a second car from 1959 until about 1975, when his employer experimented with reimbursing their employees for company expenses, rather than providing company cars.
My Dad had two VW Beetles, a Karmann-Ghia, then his favorite – a 1965 Rambler Classic 550 4DR sedan with the 232 I-6, three-on-the-tree with overdrive, and fairly-well optioned…PS, PB, PW, AM-FM radio, A/C and more. It was no stop-light dragster, but what he wanted was an economy car with the creature comforts – and that is what Rambler offered in those days. You could buy any engine with any transmission in any model made, if you wanted to pay for it.
Dad found this car in the back lot of Menard & Holmberg Rambler as a recent trade in 1968. The dealer’s sales manager said no one would want such a car with the manual transmission. My dad paid a ridiculously low price to “take it off the dealer’s hands” ($900 or so, as I remember) and laughed about i for the next six years as he added almost 100,000 miles to the odometer. It ended up being my brother’s first car and we eventually sold it for $400 in 1975. Quite a good investment.
Aussie here.
We non-Americans tended to think of all Americans being rich not only because that was what Hollywood relentlessly portrayed, but because (in automotive terms) even your cheapest cars were still huge, and because you guys could apparently afford to run them.
Okay, your Chevy might have come with a six as standard, but that was still almost twice as large as a fifties Holden engine (235 vs 132), and probably near twice as thirsty. At a time when many people couldn’t afford any car, even used, a base Chevy was an unbelievable, unattainable and unmaintainable luxury. Unwieldy too, by the end of the fifties.
My babysitter and her husband had this in “green”. Was soo huge to me as a kid. Inside was like “two sofa’s”. lol
This looks like the road to Timberline Lodge, but I seriously doubt it is the same road
https://i2.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/USA-1950s-37.jpg
Great collection of photos indeed, they are a joy to gawk at. The bug guard on the Mercury is clever and I cannot find any dents or other damage on any of these vehicles.
Good point that they all seem well taken-care of. Perhaps the Greatest Generation took more pride of ownership? Some of the early 50’s photos are probably also still showing the effects of the car-buying boom in the postwar years.
Or perhaps the demographic that was paying for Kodachrome to shoot in a nice camera was not going into the areas where the dented rustbuckets were found.
There is a lot to that. Based on memories on how my grandparents and parents treated color film, it was quite expensive to buy, and also more expensive to develop. A situation that persisted into the mid 1960s.
Thanks to their rarity, it is cool to see old color photos like these. The 1950s seem considerably more modern when in color.
This is especially true for slides. Not a “poor man’s” hobby (trust me!) Even color prints were fairly uncommon until the late ’50s. When you get to Polaroids it was worse: Color Polaroids really only went “mainstream” with the SX-70 in 1970. I had a Swinger, (the Polaroid,not the Dodge!) the first model, it ONLY accepted black and white rolls!
It’s still not today with everything going digital. Velvia is expensive. And more so for the one or two emulsions left in 4×5.
In particular the shot of the lodge at Berthoud Pass made me think the well-to-do rolled in for the weekend.
The street shots often had the cars to far away to tell their shape. But a truck for a honeymoon ride is telling the story of lesser means. It broke down too.
Color film might’ve been used more during the ’30s except it was too expensive for most. This was why color movies were rare during that period too, in addition to the extremely bright lighting required for Technicolor™, which annoyed actors & staff.
The 1937 movie “A STAR IS BORN” starring Fredric March and Janet Gaynor was in color. Good movie, too.
The 1929 silent film THE VIKINGS was in color, believe it or not. I’ve seen it on TCM. A rare bird!
I like these pictures. The shot of the 2 Mercury’s at the gas station with the mountains in the background reminds of the 1955 (color) movie BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK with Spencer Tracy.
It’s so nice to see so much COLOR! I know it’s become a tired old song by now, but mid-century America really was a colorful place. The cars, the houses, the advertising…so much optimism and whimsy.
When I think back to the cars of my grandparents, even just since the late 60’s when I came on the scene, there was always some thought put into choosing colors. Driving my grandfather’s last car as my daily driver nowadays sometimes makes me feel like an oddball, as it’s a bold, brash, special-ordered candy apple red metallic. I just waxed it this weekend, and it practically glows to the point that it stands out like a sore thumb in today’s traffic. The last time the color palette was bright and somewhat cheerful seems to have been in the ’80’s. Are people who appreciate a little vibrant optimism dying off?
Imperial Russia was a colorful place, too:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ethnic.html
These were not colorized but digitally restored.
Amazing! I was just thinking of this in reference to the previous comments. These took 3 separate pictures superimposed on one another.
Vibrant colors are available, but the entry fee is palpable. I spent some time on the Bentley website the other day; colors galore in the “build your own” section.
“I don’t recognize this location. Mexico?”
Possibly the Monumento a la Revolución (Monument to the Revolution) in Mexico City?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monumento_a_la_Revoluci%C3%B3n
http://www.mrm.mx/eng/
Yes it is Mexico City. I wonder if that nice Art Deco building in the foreground survived the 1957 Mexico City Earthquake and the 1985 Earthquake?
It did. I “drove” around on Google Street View just now and that building is still there, as are the two in the background beyond the monument (though the Nescafe sign seems to have been lost to time). It’s actually only one of quite a number of cool Art Deco structures in the area.
I could stare at these all day. I will echo MTN about the great variety of color available then. Even the conservative guy with the gray Oldsmoble picks a lemon yellow and white house! That 57 Ford wagon in the snow could be on a Christmas card.
Those two Studebakers are tantalizing. The last car looks to be a 51 Commander. A yellow V8 convertible has a whole different kind of vibe from the strippo green 53 sedan that opens the collection.
Awesome pictures. I’ve seen a few over the years. It’s nice to see some colour pics along with black and white. 🙂
I’m guessing that “Standard” station was Std. Oil of Calif., for while most of their stations are “Chevron,” they have token “Standard” stations to keep the trademark active.
I was thinking the logo on the sign kind of looks like the logo for Amoco (aka American Oil Company), one of whose corporate predecessors was Standard Oil of Indiana.
From Wikipedia:
“In 1961, Indiana Standard reorganized its marketing giving its American Oil Company unit responsibility for its retail operations nationwide under the Standard name inside the Indiana Standard marketing area (Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming) and under the American name outside that region. Both brands shared the same redesigned torch and oval logo for easy identification nationwide…By 1971, all the divisions of Indiana Standard bore the Amoco name including American Oil which was renamed Amoco Oil with American stations renamed Amoco stations. By 1975, Amoco began phasing in the Amoco name in the old Indiana Standard sales territory. Standard Oil Company (Indiana) was officially renamed Amoco Corporation in 1985”
Thanks; that sounds more plausible.
Standard of California DID use both “Standard” and “Chevron” (ads for both heard in 40s 50s radio shows) This is different from Standard of Indiana (Amoco) or Standard of Ohio (Sohio/Boron). or Esso / Exxon (“Esso being short for Standard Oil). All these “Standard”s being the result of the government breaking up the original Standard Oil. All this confusion led me to use Gulf or Sunoco! ?
Chevron still maintains one “Standard” station in each state of their original territory, in order to hold on the the trademark. Here’s San Francisco Standard:
https://goo.gl/maps/EjCyJ7KaExs
I don’t know if BP / Amoco / Indiana Standard even bothers.
Irony is, gasoline brands are about as meaningful today as GM’s were in the ’80s, for they often come from the same refinery, only with different customer formulations. Where I live, Western Refining is the “OEM” for many major brands.
Here’s another one.
Oh, and with a little ‘mini-American’ Vauxhall Victor! Funny, they used to look bigger over here.
I can’t match the bright sunshine and colourful vehicles, but here’s a 1958 colour slide image of the Robin Hood Roundabout on the A11, Essex. In those days this was the main road to Cambridge out of London.
Early Autumn so Epping Forest is putting on a bit of a show.
Looks like a police box near the center (as in Dr. Who). Hard to imagine it getting used much from such a bucolic place back then; you’d probably get a constable on a bicycle instead of a checkerboard BMW or Volvo wagon.
Yes, it’s a classic ‘Tardis’ style Police call box, though the picture was taken 5 years before Dr.Who started. Though it looks pretty remote, it’s less than a mile and a half to the nearest Tube station (Loughton, off to the right) and this was a main A road. Loughton had a police station too so I guess it wouldn’t be far to ride.
And it sure does look mini alongside that Buick.
Many of the cars do show some use. There’s dirt on them (particularly those two ’53/’54 Chevies, the Merc and the truck). I like that in an old photo; when you see paintings of 1950s rods at car hops, or model cars photographed to emulate real cars, there’s little implication of daily use evident. Nostalgia seems to come with a healthy dose of “Mr. Clean”. People posed with their cars in those days, often in clothes they chose for a photo session. Those staged images are important because they show you what the people on either side of the camera wanted you to see about them. That also limits what you can learn. Real life comes with dirt, dust and mud, and snapshots that include it seem more ethereal and bittersweet because they are less self-aware.
Two things that have always bugged me about modern representations of the past: The “Mr Clean” aspect you brought up. This also happens when you see a “Disneyized” resto of a Victorian business district. While pretty, They never looked that pristine in the 1800s (proven,again by looking at period photos.). The other is when a movie depicts what teenagers drove in the (50s,60s70s). The assumption is that they are all rich or all had dads car every minute. Kids in 1957 were more likely to have a ’48 Ford than a ’57 Bel-Air convertible. Drives me nuts!
I remember being impressed by the broken down XP-34 Landspeeder That Luke Skywalker drove in the first Star Wars movie. It was the first time that I was aware of a “future old vehicle” being featured in a film, and it was a refreshing change from all the shiny, perfect materiel that popular media envisaged for the long term. The idea that there could be a beater vehicle on a planet far, far away and far into the future was an obvious but underrepresented visual in Hollywood until then.
Years ago I saw the same idea in model railroading magazines: “distressing” or weathering rolling stock to make them seem used. But I couldn’t bear to include graffiti as well.
Funnily enough I felt that the space “future” to space “used” line was crossed by “Alien”.
This could be The Lighted Lantern (tenth pic)
Paul
Here is a website I review from time to time. Hundreds of pages of new and old photos around Toronto. http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/miscellany-toronto-photographs-then-and-now.6947/
One example is this one from the 60s. A Corvair is featured prominently.
Thanks for the great link! For some reason the lady with the sort of leopard print hat on (towards the beginning) makes my “putter flutter”, so to speak.
Great pictures of a simpler time.
From the Eastman Kodak book “Colorama”, well worth a visit:
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/kodaks-idealized-colorama-returns/?_r=0
Great images and link. Thank you.
I’m posting one of the images…. Is the center black car a Rover?
Yep P4 Rover possibly late 50s 100 model.
Reno, Nevada…the late, great Mapes hotel to the left.
The second snap, that says “California.” May have been Florida.
The motel snap with the ’58 Chevy looks like it was shot in the American South East. I think I can see Spanish Moss hanging from the trees.
Fully agree.
My ranch house, built in ’50 is the same green as the home in the opening shot. With my yellow gold wagon in the driveway, I tell people to look for the dinner mints to find my house on the street. It is very cheery, and I am not a cheery person- perhaps why I l like it so much.
Awesome pictures! Even better, not a selfie in the bunch.
Thank you Paul and the others for sharing these great photos ! .
.
Reminds me of my Childhood except the 1940’s cars were all rusty by 1953 or so.
.
-Nate
What a fantastic collection. I love period, unstaged photography – these have everything.
Awesome pictures! And, as a career marine tech and Mercury outboard lover I really want that Kiekhaefer Mercury sign for my man cave….
Paul: I can’t prove it, but this shot says “Florida” more than “California” to me.
I agree. More like sandy Florida not to mention the wrong license plate color. This one on the site is 100% California. I don’t know how many shots I have from this location.
Point Loma with NAS North Island across the way?
Yeah was toss up to me; “Palm Springs/Desert” CA? “Someplace FL”?
Great stuff. I really like the Turquoise Dream in the first one.
About 15 down is a small cabin with two Chevy sedans.
Is this Baby Doe’s cabin in Leadville, Colorado?
Ye, it is. I hadn’t heard of Baby Doe, but have just spent half an hour reading all about her, what a fascinating story! The cabin still looks pretty much the same:
Wow- growing up 20-25 years later these may have well as been shot in another dimension. Great photos and thanks for posting them.
Last phone looks to be in Daly City CA
The 1954 Mercury with the big bug screen looks to me like it has a 1958 Iowa license plate. That photo could have been taken by the car’s owner on the big trip out west.
The first and last photos remind me of Malvina Reynolds’ 1963 Little Boxes (youtube v=MZ8HEbcQG-U), which I think was inspired by tract housing in Daly City, CA that still looks just the same.
‘Little Boxes’ ~ I still sing that occasionally and everyone thinks I’m crazy .
-Nate
My folks were intelligent and thoughtful in general, but I do cackle to think back of their beloved Pete Seeger record. In the early-mid 1980s they seemingly played it constantly…on a hi-fi set in the living room of a split-level on a cul-de-sac in an HOA-controlled subdivision called Cherry Creek Farm.
LOL ! Daniel ;
You should have been there in the late 50’s & early 60’s, it could be maddening .
Even then I preferred my scratchy old 78’s of Blues and fox trots…..
-Nate
A new (and up-to-date) verse –
And the cars/Outside those houses
Are all taller than they need to be
None of them are real colors
And they all look the same.
There’s a RAV4/And a Cherokee
And a Forester/And a CR-V
None of them are real colors
And they all look just the same.
The lead in pic with all the colors; anyone know where it’s taken? The “Packard” pic makes me “shivering cold” , just seeing it.
(Or is that a “Hudson”?) Either way, “brrr”.
Is that proud owner’s Buick really purple, or is that just an effect of age?
Both, sort of. I think it’s a color Buick called Victoria Maroon, although the photo is giving it more of a bluish cast than it actually had.
From looking at the headline picture, whenever I look at a 1950’s Studebaker that’s not a Lowey coupe, especially the early ones, I just have to wonder – What in the heck were they thinking? There is just no cohesiveness to the design, especially for anything rearward of the windshield.
That top photo reminds me of my childhood bedroom. Three green walls and an ‘accent wall’ (remember them?) in lilac. And a yellow ceiling. Heaven knows what the next tenants made of it.
If you squint you can see that the sign does indeed say “Detroit, Ore”. Doubtful those buildings are still standing, if not from age, then from the 2020 fire that destroyed most of the ‘downtown’ of Detroit.
A minor tweak to the ‘west side of SF’ caption; that would be the corner of California/Fillmore. It’s the center of Pacific Heights; more the north-center of The City, just south of the Marina/Union St. neighborhoods….