What first caught my eye was the Rometsch Beeskow, a stylish coupe made in small numbers by the coachbuilder Rometsch on a VW chassis. But then quickly my eyes moved up the photo to the sign above the entrance to an obviously Polynesian theme restaurant. It wanted to say “Tarder Vic’s” of course, but the letters don’t quite spell that. Hmm. I spent too much time reading about the history of Trader Vic’s, but that didn’t solve the mystery.
Zooming in on the license plate, I’m 99% certain it says “California”, not surprisingly. But it appears to be white, not black. Hmm, again. But I’m quite sure one or more of you will solve these mysteries, and then we can get back to admiring the cute little Beeskow. Wow!
It’s a California yellow plate. The yellow on black plates were introduced in the early 60s. Before that, the plates were black on yellow and had the year stamped on the plate.
California stopped issuing annual plates in 1956 but didn’t remove “56” from the base plate, even on newly stamped and issued plates, until they went to yellow-on-black in 1962. Renewal sticker only in rear. You’ll encounter plenty of vintage pics of 1957-61 cars with “1956” California plates.
This one could still be faked, didn’t the yellow plates usually start with a number then a letter or two and more numbers? The car looks a bit pasted onto the background, very well though.
The California yellow plates used the ABC-123 format (for passenger cars… commercial plates were different), so this one, which appears to start with L does seem period-correct.
This car design reminds of the old wag about late 40s and early 50s Studebakers….”which way you going?”
So I looked for more pics and found the full CC on these from a few years ago;
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1956-rometsch-beeskow/
Trader Vic’s restaurant at the Beverly Hilton was briefly known as “The Traders” when it first opened. Here’s a full photo of the restaurant before the name was changed.
Bingo! You’re the answer man.
Eric, your skills at finding images on the web are truly amazing!
Thanks! I just enjoy research…