1957 Buick Century
In the late 1980s/early 1990s, I started noticing that my beloved cars of the ’50s were becoming evermore rare. So I began a project of photographing surviving examples that I would find not at car shows, but in the “real world”–on the street, in parking lots and driveways, in seedy industrial areas, in the woods–truly in the spirit of “Curbside Classic”. Some of them were still being used as “daily drivers”! And I was working primarily in that wonderful photographic medium–Kodachrome!
1955 Packard
Being a Curbside Classic photographer in those days was not as easy as it is now. You had to use a bulky camera and real film. You had to focus, set aperture and shutter speed, point and click, shoot 24 or 36 exposures, send the film to be developed and wait for the results.
I took a college course in graphic design. One of the things we learned was how to use computers to put lettering on slides. I made this up so that if Time magazine called, I’d be ready! Call it a very early version of a “meme”. So if you and I went out photographing cars together, this is what I looked like at the time.
It would have never occurred to me in 1991 that one day there would be this thing called “The Internet” which would allow you to write articles and post photographs for the whole world to see!
I’ve had all these pictures sitting in my closet for over 30 years now doing no one any good, so I thought it would be a fine idea to share them with you here.
Facel-Vegas
Most of these were taken in 1991, although a few are a little older, maybe a few newer. Many of the slides were stamped “91” by the processor. If an image is a color print, I put a (P) in the caption. Otherwise, it’s a Kodachrome color slide. Locations include areas in and around Morristown, Denville, Dover, Boonton, and Millburn New Jersey. So what we’re getting is a kind of cross-section of cars of the 1950s that one would still find in this geographical area. Sad to say, most of the cars in this collection probably no longer exist, and this may be the only lasting record of them. And while photographing old cars was (and is) mostly a solitary endeavor, I met a lot of interesting people along the way, and I treasure those memories and friendships as well:
High school days: History teacher, Mr. Shoemaker, checking out my 1962 Mercury Comet.
Robert Vogelsang behind the wheel of his 1958 Lincoln Continental convertible, which I photographed for a magazine article on 1958-60 Lincolns. (1980s photo)
Me (left) reuniting Daniel Seidel with his grandfather’s 1958 Cadillac, which Seidel hadn’t seen since the late 1980s. (2017)
Car enthusiast and ’59 Corvette owner Don Succardi (from the “old neighborhood”) checking out my recently acquired 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne. (2018)
Jackie Braun from Braun’s Automotive, who has always been a source of encouragement.
William A. “Bill” Ketch (1943-2022) of Dover, who helped me find old cars to photograph.
So here the photos I have, taken over 30 years ago, presented in no particular order (except for ease of uploading):
1959 Cadillac (P)
1960 Edsel “Starliner”
Verner-Cadby Ford–still in business today!
1958 Cadillac (P)
1959 Chevrolet Bel Air (P)
1960s Mercedes S-class, Clinton NJ (P)
1958 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88
1950s Ford truck
1953 (or ’54?) Plymouth
Toy pedal car on top of Mustang
1959 Edsel
Cadillac and Pontiac
1958 Pontiac Star Chief
1958 Buick Century
1958 Oldmobile 98
1956 Pontiac
1959 Mercury Monterey
Early ’50s Buicks
Late ’30s (?) Ford
Girl at a diner in Paterson. (To give you a little break from the cars)
“Old Car Day” in Millburn
1951 Studebaker at K-Mart (P)
1956 Packard Caribbean and 1954 Lincoln
Divco delivery truck
1959 Dodge, Long Valley NJ, 1986. (P)
1960 Lincoln Continental Mark V at a gas station in Mount Freedom, 1989. (P) This car was painted Sapphire blue, which you can’t see because the photos are black & white. If someone wants to color it in Sapphire, that would really be cool!
Dodge Challenger and 1958 Buick Special
1959 Plymouth Savoy (P)
Bunch of cars stuffed behind a body shop on Route 46.
Off Rutan Drive (formerly Hooey Street), Dover
1961 Mercury Meteor 600
Retired school bus
Early postwar Packard
1953 Mercury
1950 Oldsmobile
THE END (Junkyard pile, 1991)
That’s a lot of cars! But even so, there were a few cars I remember seeing in the 1980s that I wish I had taken photos of, but never got around to doing it. These include:
–In Whippany, a 1959 Chevrolet Impala in solid blue. Just talked to the former owner a year ago. He’s about 90 years old now; he got the car from his father. He had to junk the Impala in the late ’80s because of underbody rust issues.
–A little-old-lady owned ’59 Impala sedan in Crown Sapphire and white (mint condition). Was often seen at the Shop Rite in Millburn. Another little old lady drove her ’60 Comet (in silver/gray) to Acme in Morris Plains.
–Hudson Jet, owned by someone who worked at the Morris County Library. Only Hudson Jet I’ve ever seen.
–1958 Packard sedan in pale pink with the trunk smashed in. It was parked behind the blue 1958 Oldsmobile near that repaired fence section. It disappeared before I got to take pictures.
–1959 Ford Custom 300 2-door in black; oldest car in my high school parking lot at the time.
–1959 Cadillac 4-door sedan in what I believe was Pinehurst Green (rarely seen in that color), at a funeral parlor in Morris Plains. (Regular car, not a hearse).
–A 1962 Plymouth Savoy was owned by a family who emigrated from Egypt who lived on my street. They didn’t keep it long.
–A childhood friend’s grandparents’ car–a 1961 Ford Galaxie in Garden Turquoise.
–A rusty, robin’s egg blue and white ’57 Chevy wagon; it was driven back and forth from the house to the Presbyterian church in Cedar Knolls, that’s all.
–A Renault Caravelle which was hidden in a garage. I only got to see it once when the family living there had a garage sale.
–Train station cars (regularly seen in the commuter parking lot, late 1980s): a black 1960 Chevrolet in Morris Plains; a light green 1959 Chrysler Windsor sedan in Maplewood, and, maybe the best one of all, a 1958 Chrysler Windsor 2-door hardtop in Spruce Green with a white top near the Short Hills station. And that one was for sale!
Closest approximation I can find to the car in Short Hills. Except the car in question was Spruce Green, not blue; and it wasn’t a Dartline–it just had a single side strip front to back. I’ll always wonder what happened to that car.
Is this a “Curbside Classic”?
So there’s this red Mercury Topaz GS parked down the street from me. I’m guessing it’s about a 1990 model, meaning it’s now 33 years old . . . the same age the “Classic ’50s” cars were in 1991 when I was enthusiastically photographing them. This red Topaz really does stand out among all the recent model SUVs, CUVs, trucks, and compact sedans. But does it generate the same kind of enthusiasm, admiration, and nostalgia that the 1950s/60s cars did (and still do)? Is someone searching out and photographing late ’80s/early ’90s cars?
Apparently, yes–judging from some CC posts on more recent cars that I thought were nothing special when they were commonly seen. See, here’s the thing that sort of bothered me a little. At the time, I was the only person I knew of who was going around taking these Curbside Classic-type pictures. Sure, some people took pictures at car shows, but that’s a whole different thing. Like I was the only one who would venture into Newark to take pictures of historic buildings doomed by urban renewal. It seemed that nobody else cared–even though there were four colleges in the city (one with an architecture department), plus lots of students, professors, and private citizens. Just wasn’t on their radar.
The wonder of the Internet and websites like CC is that they bring together like-minded people and allows them to share their passions and creativity.
And I suppose if I live another 30 or 40 years, I will see the time when all the common, everyday vehicles that surround us presently will one day become nostalgic curiosities–when 99% of them are gone, replaced by . . . something we can’t possibly imagine. So what we see during our lifetimes is but a tiny, narrow sliver of the infinite spectrum of history–but because we are such finite beings, it’s hard for us to see things from that cosmic perspective.
“If I . . . could save time . . . in a bottle . . .”
This is a great post, Stephen. I think about this a lot when I’m out and about in every day life – if I took pictures of my surroundings, would they seem interesting to people in 50 years? The way I find street scenes and videos from 50+ years ago endlessly fascinating? Maybe it’s a function of “golden ageism,” longing for a time we didn’t live in, that we only know from the media that survive and stories from other people? I find nostalgia for the 80s funny – as a teenager in the 80s I dreamt of being able to fast forward out of it or better yet go back to the 60s, when fashion, cars, music, everything was just plain better than the godawful cars, clothes and pop music we had to put up with (sorry, 80s aficionados – it wasn’t my bag). Lots more to say on this subject. BTW, the little boy in that video, AJ Croce, is 51. A little younger than me! Man I feel old.
From what I notice many people who never experienced the 80’s like everything about it. Probably because we 21th century kids only see the best parts of that era in the media, its all we know and see. I don’t mind it, my Firebird gets a lot of respect because of that nostalgia. It’s tacky and a bit too much but that makes it 80’s cool I guess.
Very cool stuff! THANK YOU for sharing!
My ’91 Miata, 32 years old, looks pretty much like any Miata, and draws no attention whatsoever. My ’51 MG TD, of pre-war design, doesn’t look like anything else on the road today, It’s fun to drive up the nearby twisty foothills canyons when the weather is good. I drive my ’37 Buick 20 miles every Sunday to the Colorado Railroad Museum, weather permitting, where it is parked while I run my G-gauge Shay on their garden layout. People are always taking photos of it. It’s the original factory “Coronary Green.” I wish I could find out where that color name came from.
1937 Buick Special 5 passenger trunk-back sedan in coronary green
“Coronary”–traditional meaning: ” . . . going back to Latin, ‘of garlands or wreaths,’ from corōna “garland, wreath worn on the head as a mark of honor or emblem of majesty.”
It’s only in recent decades that the word “coronary” has had a medical connotation.
Thank you for the time and effort posting all of these great pics, and sharing memories with us. I used to work in Morristown/Cedar Knolls at WMTR-AM doing a weekly doo wop show on Friday nights – and of course, doo wop conjures up memories of flashy 50’s cars (completely useless trivia – The Fleetwoods and The Cadillacs named themselves after the vehicles).
So we used to do listener trips to doo wop shows, and there usually would be a car show at the venue – in this case, at the Meadolands Arena. It was a blast getting to hear about these cars from people who grew up with them, and see how much they still mean to them, along with the music.
And the legendary Lead East car show and oldies extravaganza in Parsippany…
When “American Graffiti” kicked off the 50’s/early 60’s oldies boom, those songs were only about 18 years old….which means “today’s oldies” are from 2005 (the year I got my license – “tempus sure does fugit” as my old boss used to say). When I hear songs from my youth on the “throwback” station, I now know how my parents felt when their songs got called “classic rock.”
I’m on FB groups that love 80’s and 90’s cars, and one of the reasons I’ve been hired to dj car shows is because I play music for everyone to enjoy….not just the “greasers”, as the demos of who goes to car shows is changing and getting younger.
Now I want a bagel & lox from ShopRite…
On the other side of Horse Hill Road from the WMTR transmitter was one of the biggest collections of abandoned 40s-50s cars in the woods! I don’t know if you ever ventured up in there. The cars started to disappear around 1982-83 when the Trailwood housing development was built.
I have only one picture:
Picture:
Concerning the photo of the all black 1956 Packard Caribbean convertible, as far as I can determine, of the 276 Caribbean drop-tops built, only one was special-ordered in all black, and it was one of 16 with factory A/C. I can’t be 100% certain, but the dash on the car in your photo, seen thru a broken windshield, appears to have the A/C vents on top of the dash. Looking closely the paint appears to be original as well.
Without knowing the VIN, it’s not possible to be sure, but it’s a reasonable expectation that the car exists today, and it may be this very car . . .
It would be great if that Packard has been saved and restored, but the car in the photo looks like a hardtop, not a convertible.
Yes, it certainly is.
The ’58 Buicks and Oldsmobiles really are the ugliest cars GM ever produced, aren’t they? They’re fascinating in their excess and their clumsy hamhanded lines. It’s easy to understand why Bill Mitchell and the design staff freaked out when they saw the ’57 Mopars. Ironically, the ’58 Chevys and Pontiacs are quite attractive, I think. Strange that there was absolutely no commonality between the lower and higher end brands.
I think that the ‘58’s were the last GM cars fully attributable to Harley Earl. His initial design plans for ‘59 was a rehash of the ghastly ‘58’s, to the horror of many younger GM designers. When Earl then went on a European vacation, these quite brave men dismissed the Earl work and took it upon themselves to design what eventually became the ‘59’s. It had to be a nervous moment for these designers when the autocratic Earl returned and got wind what they did. Instead of firing them all, Earl adopted their designs and his ‘58’s became one year wonders. He retired shortly thereafter, Bill Mitchell succeeding him in 1959.
They both looked like they were designed to rid crosswalks of any pedestrian traffic in the most efficient way possible. The ‘59 and ‘60 Buick, much better, but even they look like an angry stingray coming at me (the fish, not the Corvette). Much more so the 1960.
Yes, I’ve read several commentaries on this episode. You’ve probably seen some of the clays for the ’59 designs they had been working on before the staff revolted. If not, google them — it’s fascinating. Even worse than the ’58s!
I was shocked by this post that so many ’58s survived to be photographed. I guess there’s one advantage to being so over the top–a few people believe they’re worth keeping around, and it only takes one per car.
Wonderful post. Thank you.
One of my regular drivers is now 28 years old. It gets no attention whatsoever because although it is long and low and sleek and stands out among the high, stubby, boxy crossovers of today, it doesn’t look old in the same way as did those cars when you preserved on Kodachrome.
Stephan, this is really great. Yes, you were CC before it was a thing; our spiritual forefather.
I always noticed older cars and trucks and tractors and things, going back to childhood, but I just never had the foresight to take pictures. How I wish I had, back in Iowa City in 1960-1965, and in the Baltimore are after that. I have so many mental pictures, but they’re not the same.
Actually, I borrowed my brother’s camera a week or two before we were to move from Iowa City in the summer of 1965, and took a couple of rolls around downtown, mostly street scenes with cars. I had them for decades, but I cannot find them anymore.
That ’58 Olds 98 coupe is to die for, or from 🙂 Wow; that has to be the ultimate poster-boy of late 50s excess.
Thanks for sharing these, and I’m so happy you found your way to CC. I’ve so appreciated all of your posts; you do in the real world what I do mentally, or something like that. Keep it up!
“That ’58 Olds 98 coupe is to die for, or from 🙂 Wow; that has to be the ultimate poster-boy of late 50s excess.”
Ha, yes, that one and more than a few others in the batch has me wondering about all the people complaining about weird shapes and tacked on appendages on some of today’s cars. The “good old days” had p l e n t y of odd things like huge grilles, weird protrusions, weird trim to accentuate lighting, and of course much much more as well to, as always, draw attention and cause some polarizing opinions.
I wonder which of the 1950s cars most imbues the traits that the pictured 1990 Topaz does. Something not particularly interesting inside, outside, or underhood, purchased more often to do a job than provide joy, and that was more or less forgotten about a decade or two later and rarely written about fondly. It obviously wasn’t a high point of that decade or the one in which it was launched.
A great collection of photos, Stephen!
I wonder which of the 1950s cars most imbues the traits that the pictured 1990 Topaz does.
This is what instantly came to mind: Ramber American 4-door.
That is interesting! And perhaps shows how mindsets and experiences work. I, having zero personal experience with that Rambler, think it looks interesting, relatively practical, and worthy of looking at more (as I do with all Ramblers, really). It’s also not “overdone” or garish to my eye and whatever design failings it may have are sort of charming. If I drove it I’d perhaps think that all 1950s car drove sort of like it and accept it for what it is (as compared to a more modern car I mean). The contrasting roof is cool, as are the wheels/hubcaps and whitewalls on this one.
But I gather most people that grew up with them find them dorky and uninspiring, right? Kind of how I view that Topaz. I wonder if my youngest kid will end up thinking Topaz’s are interesting, he certainly doesn’t recoil at the idea of driving a sedan.
We had not one Topaz but two. Yep. Dad had been looking at new Volvo sedans and wagons and getting us all excited – that would have been an unimaginably exotic luxury item for us. But he bought the Topaz because it was cheap. White 1988 with the bordello-red interior. Then, he got a promotion that came with a company car – a blue on blue 1989 Topaz. Both parked in the driveway at the same time. The neighbors must have thought, correctly, that we were the most boring people on earth. Driving it was what you would expect – slow, wheezy, handled like an elephant on stilts despite being really small.
Lincoln Continental V in Sapphire (colour based on one found online):
Wow! Can you do the back too–pleeez? Now you can see why this car was so striking when I first saw it–it really stood out from its drab surroundings. I wish I were running color film that day . . .
I added some color to the background. It’s not my best work, so I’ll improve on it when I have the time. If you could specify the colors of the other vehicles/surroundings and the interior, it would be very appreciated. The license plate details would be nice, too. Thanks for taking such awesome photos!
Interior:
Also see my comment toward the bottom of comments.
Back seat:
Thanks! Working on the back; rear lights will add a little extra colour.
Here:
Here:
What a great collection!
The picture here that simply can’t be pegged to a particular decade is the 1960s Mercedes in the Clinton historic district. A timeless car, along with a timeless setting.
The real shockers for me are the Facel Vegas deteriorating in the field, and the 1960 Edsel.
Street scenes like many of these are simply mesmerizing… all those little details that we’d forgotten. Well, except for Weichert Realtors signage, which I guess hasn’t changed at all in 40 years. And the girl in the diner – I feel like I’ve met her dozens of times, yet I know I never have.
I’m glad you saved all these photos!
Fantastic collection, Stephen. I’m going to have to sketch some of these. Thanks for keeping these photos all these years so that they could be shared.
That’s an interesting Dodge van behind the 51 Studebaker. Looks like it might have been a hearse what with the curly-doo on its…E-pillar. And it has some horn situation towards the front.
I think there’s an air of specialness to OLD old cars that not as many(but certainly not all) more recent classics often lack. The Topaz is a dreary economy car made out of another economy car designed in mind for efficient no frills transportation, and that’s it. There were tons and tons of low spec “economy cars” built in the 50s but being the age largely before different sized/shaped/engineered segments you got the same core styling on a Chevy 150 as you did on a swanky Bel Air. Car designers weren’t tasked with designing 8 totally different models at different price points and the result was better looking average or even below average cars on the road.
But yes, I do get excited by good amount of 30-40 year old cars, my Cougar and it’s Thunderbird and Lincoln Mark siblings, numerous Japanese sport cars like the RX7 and Supra, Fox and SN95 Mustangs, Third Gen F bodies, Grand Prix GTP, etc are cars I can get as excited to see as anything older. It’s just family sedans of the vintage like the Cutlass Cieras or narrow body Camrys don’t do anything for me, at least compared to a 50s 4 door sedan like the Buick at the top, they’re just timelessly uninspired compared to the true classics IMO
Big thing that works against newer cars for me too is other than the rise of the CUV styling hasn’t really changed all that much since the late 90s/early aughts, so a lot of cars I like that are 20-30 kind of blend in if I’m not paying attention, especially if they’re in the modern color palette.
Since you mentioned Cougar, here’s a ’60 Comet and a Cougar. (Picture I took in 1986):
Or is that a Thunderbird?
Think you are correct with T-Bird. Recollection is that the Cougar had a more formal and upright roof.
A great post and a great collection. I love the old Kodachromes. May I ask what camera you were using for many of these in the late 80s and early 90s?
I knew of the Internet in the early 90s. I was actively posting stuff on Gopher servers, but it was all for work and naturally it would never have occurred to me either that anyone would ever be interested in seeing my collection of “airplane slides” (I was taking pictures of planes back then, not cars).
Oh, and I want to know, did Robert Vogelsang sell Mary Kay? That is one giant pink car. It’s a little hard to tell how Robert might have felt to be behind the wheel of that.
I was using a Minolta X-370 camera which I bought in 1985. I had an adjustable wide-angle lens on it. (Photo from the internet)
Robert says he sold the Lincoln about 25 years ago. As for the color . . . pink was a popular shade in the late ’50s. Two-toned with white it can look pretty good. Here’s a ’58 DeSoto in solid Rose; one of the few cars that can pull that off:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-for-sale/ebay-classic-1958-de-soto-firesweep-sedan-solid-rose-beige/
Ahhh, Kodachrome moments! LOL. I was a creative/art director, production person, chief cook and bottle washer for a small group of automotive magazines back in the 80s through the early 90s. The last days of the golden age of magazines. We were small and in the land of “professionals” we were the “prosumer class.” A bunch of enthusiasts in very niche markets. Survival was based on how cheaply and quickly you could put a publication to bed, and still grow an audience. We had knack but we’re often the butt of many jokes by the larger publications. Ironically, karma is satisfying in many cases. We were the last standing of the small independents.
I had publishing experience previously but my big positive was in my printing background. I knew the in and outs of CMYK [four color printing) on sheetfed and web (rolls, like toilet paper!) printing. Also had camera and darkroom experience. Production was king because it cost the most to produce a magazine. We literally had no budget, other than for film and whatever the print bill was and used our own equipment, in more ways than one.
Kodachrome gets tons of love thanks to Paul Simon but in reality, its beauty was wasted on the printing press. First, it had to be developed by Kodak, not always a positive in deadline situations. Second, it was slow ASA25. Not great in less than ideal situations. Third, in the separation process to Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, it was very muddy in the shadows and poor for any real detail. All four color presses would “gain” in the Cyan/Magenta range. Kodachrome’s best “colors.” It was easy with print gain, for a red car to have a purple hue if shot against a blue sky. The sky would also do the opposite thing. Most of the “photographers” had moved to Extachrome, with various speeds and even the slower ASA’s could be pushed. It worked but it too had its limitations and was a very “cold” film. We tried various other films with varying degrees of success/failures. Finally I spent a year testing all transparency films, looking for the one that would be the best for the final product, that being a four-color printed magazine on mediocre paper. The test wasn’t about how it looked in the transparency, it was how it reproduce on the toilet paper that magazines were being forced to deal with.
A four color transparency had to be “separated” into CMYK plates with screens added at different angles. Then run through presses at high speeds. The plates would eventually have a gain of ink which could/would affect the actual printed piece. Anyway, the test results were based on the final product not what the transparency looked like. The winner was a bit of a surprise but ironically, I apparently, wasn’t the only one testing, as said film became the defacto transparency film of choice before the arrival of the dreaded, deadly digital age, when film joined those decrepit 50s vehicles in junkyards. The film was Fugichrome. In transparency form it looked over-saturated and almost cartoonish but it blew away the competition. Just as new cars did to their brethren and digital did to magazines and the printing industry.
Great article BTW. Saw so many of those beauties I my youth. Kinda sad but life goes on, just too bad with CUVs and the like..
Thank you WGoff. Your comment is an example of how I learn something every day here at CC. Hearing about how variations in the printing presses were a factor in how colors were reproduced is fascinating detail that one would be hard-pressed to know otherwise.
I suppose that it could be said that as technology moves forward, nothing about how the old stuff/days worked is important. Then again, if that attitude prevailed, then most of what’s here on CC wouldn’t matter either.
So it does…and it does.
Very interesting article. This helped jog my memory, as I started high school in 1991. One of the things I remember about this time, for the first few weeks after starting, a student would park a dark green 1958 Pontiac Chieftain in the lot outside of the school. I’m presuming it was being used as a daily driver, as it was hardly a show car. However, after the end of that September, I never saw that car outside the school (or in the city I live in) again. Obviously, even back in the early 90’s, any car older than the late 70’s stuck out like a sore thumb. The things one remembers.
Dear Steve, great tour of old cars and towns in New Jersey! The one that sickens me is the Facel Vega left to rot. They are rear enough let alone not being preserved. I live in Valley Cottage, NY aa over many years of life have traipsed through the lovely towns of New Jersey. Fun to see them. I am sure that we all have seen cars that we wished that we had photographed. For me, it was circa 1980 in Tenafly, NJ near to the railroad tracks where I saw a beautifully restored Olds 98 four-door sedan in blue metallic and LOADED. It had a/c scoops and a factory sun visor to boot. But I had no camera with me.
I toned down the blue to make it look more realistic. The red on the dump truck and the yellow on the van’s parking lights look believable. NJ license plate is straw colored with black letters CDF-853
How about doing the rear view (with red tail lights)?
Thanks for the pics! So many noteworthy cars. I really like the picture with the pink Lincoln convertible. Framed just right and the colour really works on that car. I’m a fan of the 62 Comet as that was my father’s first car.
Nobody has commented on that very finely preserved 1959 Plymouth Savoy, which looks almost like new! Absolutely amazing for 1989. I certainly never saw one that nice.
Very enjoyable post. It’s amazing your photos from the 80/90s are quite similar to what I saw in central Ohio in the 60/70s.
Being from maplewood myself these pics bring up a lot of warm fuzzies!
Very enjoyable post.
In the shot of the 1960 Edsel Starliner, what’s the gold car in the background? Intriguing tailight design.
It looks like a mid-’80s Buick Century, Roger.
These are all delicious! If only I had possessed the foresight to photograph the occasional 50s car I came across during my adolescent and teen years in the 70s. Like Paul, I still remember them vividly. Like the old lady in my neighborhood who had a solid black 57 or 58 Chrysler New Yorker sedan that looked like new, but was almost never out of the garage. Or the guy who worked at a gas station who drove a black and white 56 Buick 4 door hardtop. And the 55-56 Clipper sedan that completely stumped me on what it was and who had made it. If you think Imperial fans get tired of hearing Chrysler Imperial, think of how late Clipper owners (whose cars were a separate brand) always have them called Packard Clippers.
People gripe about the 1958 GM B/C body cars as awful, but IMHO both Buick and Cadillac’s 1958 models were improvements over the 57s. Oldsmobile is a tougher question.
And the Mercury feast – was there ever an odder roofline on a sedan than the 1959-60 Mercury? Or a sadder car overall than the 61 Meteor 600?
When I saw that ’61 Meteor 600, I noticed that it didn’t have the six 1960 Continental “jet” tail lights that I thought all ’61 Mercurys had. Instead it had these cheap-looking, lame oval things that made me think the car was customized or repaired in a non-original way.
I should have taken another photo of the rear, but those tail lights turned me off and so I didn’t do it. I haven’t seen another Meteor 600 since, and I don’t hate those oval lights now as much as I did then. Otherwise ’61 Mercurys are good cars, but I would want a Meteor 800 or a Monterey with the “jets”.
I just added this picture at the end:
Stephen, thank you for this bitter sweet post. So many cars I’d have killed to own back then or now and I bet quite a few would have gone for song if one approached the owner with a view to a sale. That period (late 80s) was just before I left Israel for good, we still had a few such vehicles and scrap yards but they were fading fast and, of course, there was not the variety which was to be expected given that they were all imported. Here’s the counterpart to your 60 Edsel, not too far from our old home…
I (vaguely) recall the fins of the late 50’s, early 60’s, but my gawd, those Cads pictured early on? Wow, I don’t remember them being that big. Ostentatious yes, but that ’58 pictured? Wow. A shark would be jealous.
Aging cars. I recall a cousin bought a ’47 Cadillac in ’72. Pretty good shape in and out, but jeez, it was an old car. We talked about it, 25 years old, it was an antique car. Now in 2002 I drive a 1998 BMW 3 series and it’s 25 years old but somehow doesn’t seem old at all, let alone “antique”.
I don’t know how I missed this when new .
Great photos .
I grew up in New England and well remember vehicle dumps in the woods fulls of old 1930’s & onwards cars .
-Nate
That “60 Edsel”, to the casual observer, looks quite in tact. Hope someone was able to save it.
As someone who was around (a 16-year-old with brand-new license in 1990) I’m as interested in the other street-parked cars as the ’50s iron. Like the carriage-roofed late ’80s FWD Caddy hiding behind its’ older sibling and the bright yellow Geo Storm parked ahead of it, the ’70s Dodge window van (in 2-tone brown no less) waiting for its’ Kmart oil change, and so on.
That blue/white 58 Olds 2 dr, is that a 98? That rear quarter looks awfully looooooong. Even for a 98!
I can’t believe I missed this the first time around. Thanks for sharing these Stephen.
I especially like the coral colored ‘59 Chevy Biscayne in the 8th picture down. 😉
When I graduated high school in 1978, a car like yours would’ve only been 19 model years old, yet even then, cars like this were starting to become a rare sight outside of a car show or gathering.
Love the shots.
Favourite for me has to be the 59 Bel Air.
No mention of whether you ever got the pretty waitress’ number.
You asked “But does it generate the same kind of enthusiasm, admiration, and nostalgia that the 1950s/60s cars did (and still do)?” and to answer your question the one thing I said out loud looking at your pictures was “Ooooh, an early Geo Storm! I sure miss seeing those everywhere!”
Super post! It’s hard to believe that elegant ’37 Buick was from the same Company that “blessed” the automotive world with the HIDEOUS ’58 Buick (and Olds)!
Today we get tortured surfaces that “fight” each other with bizarre shapes that have no continuity toward one another…….what “design”?? To top them off, most of todaze fughly vehicles come in white, gray or black; a palette of blah to complement the over worked, but under done shapes that dress these things up now.
Reviewing many of the cars you photographed certainly displays the knowledge of good surface development that yesterdays’ designers did have. Thanks for the (visual) memories!!! 🙂 DFO