Let’s look at some new ’57 Imperials today. Here’s an interior view from the Max Barish Inc. “Exclusive Imperial Salon” showroom in Los Angeles. This one shot features prominently the rarer single-headlight Imperial offered that year.
Here’s the neat-looking exterior, located at 650 S. La Brea Ave. The small structure is long gone.
The “Exclusive Imperial Salon” was just one of Mr. Barish’s concerns, with the core of his business coming from his 444 South La Brea Chrysler Plymouth dealership. A facility opened in 1952, and in those early days, Mr. Barish hired a young Johnny Carson to promote the dealer. Barish Inc. would eventually become known for selling vehicles to stars such as Bob Hope, Cary Grant and Fred Astaire.
And my apologies if this entry is sounding too star-struck, but such is life in Tinseltown.
Related CC reading:
Automotive Milestone: 1957 Imperial – Most Exciting Car In The Planet – But Which Planet?
More Vintage Snapshot Galleries Here
Delivery bikes to the left, one might be a trike. Max must have delivered his exclusive parts by non-exclusive bicycles.
Nice .
-Nate
Isn’t this the time frame when Chrysler attempted to make Imperials a separate brand unto its own. Might account for the stand alone Imperial building in the photo.
Yes, on both accounts.
Good looking ’57 Imps!
I know we’ve covered the 1957 headlight debacle before. However, I thought the 2 headlight cars were only sold in states that were late to approve quad headlights. I wasn’t aware that dual- and quad-headlight cars were sold side-by-side in states that allowed the quads.
I wrote the article in question back in 2021. I was thinking the exact same thing.
My guess is that the state restriction only applied to the quad headlight variants. The single-headlight models were legal to sell anywhere (and apparently were).
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/curbside-face-off-all-the-1957-cars-with-alternate-front-ends/
Yes, thanks, Tom. I can see where the idea of offering 2 or 4 headlights makes sense on low-end cars, where eliminating 2 sealed beams would shave a few bucks off the MSRP. Even in the early 80s, a basic Chevy C-10 had 2 headlights where the fancy trims had 4.
But on an Imperial??
Might be a concession to (small-c) conservative buyers leery of the newfangled smaller quad-headlight fad and preferring to stick with a good ol’fashioned, tried-and-true pair of larger lamps.
Sad to see a brand launched right before the auto market collapsed 40%.
The 57 Imperial is one of the best-styled ever. I actually prefer the single-headlight model. It’s too bad that the car grew more overdone year after year until, like Cadillac in 59, the 61’s fins became a joke rather than part of a nicely integrated design as on this car.
Agreed. But the ’57-59 Imps at least carried that integral fin look for those years. In all of its finny originality, the Caddys always looked to have awkward, tacked-on fins to me.
Rows of fluorescent tube lighting was popularly used in many ’50’s showrooms. In retrospect, it lends an economy look, I’d later associate with retailers like K-Mart.
I would imagine those lights were very bright at night so passerby’s would gawk at the Imperials in the window.
Today, I’m not so sure you would to do that!!
At night the dash lights were violet color, quite mesmerizing to say the least. Hard to keep your eyes on the road. And not the dash.
I grew up in Southern California, and as soon as I saw the name Barish on the sides of the building it brought back a lot of fond memories of seeing Chrysler Corporation vehicles all over town with those license plate surrounds.. As for the single headlight 57 Imperials, to me they always looked like something was missing, because there was. The quad headlights took hold in 1958, and think they looked much better. Same goes for the 1957 Mercurys, they too looked like they were missing something big. When I958 took hold all the Detroit Big Three made sure all their models left the factory with quad headlights. And while some looked like the manufacturers just threw the 2 extra lights at the fronts of some models, but by 1959 they all seemed to fit and looked a lot better. Both the Plymouth division and the Lincoln division over at Ford Motor Company placed their turn indicators next to the single headlights and made the indicators look like slightly smaller headlights to give the look of the quad headlights that were coming in 58. I was only 3 years old in 58, but apparently it was a pretty big deal when the quad lights became legal. The only thing I could compare it to was in 1968 the feds requireded front and rear side marker lights to all cars sold in the US from 68 forward. I think the Chrysler Corporation did the best job of adding the light. Every Chrysler Corporation car had little amber in front, and red in back round lights with very nice chrome and black bezels. They were placed very nicely on the lower fenders. Ford Motor Company used small rectangleur shaped lights with the fronts having a clear, and the rear with red lenses. They looked good too. GM on the other hand let each division to place them however they wanted. It must have cost the manufacturers a grip of money to add those extra lights and wiring to each car. In 69, Chrysler used rectangleur shaped reflectors on all their cars. Must less costly, I’m sure they worked fine to satisfy the feds, I’ve never understood why there had to be a law against having quad headlights in the first place.
Not so much a law against quads specifically, just that a single pair of 7″ round hi/low combo sealed-beams were the only headlight design allowed by law until 1957, and even then only in some states until the following year.
I think most cars look better with quad headlights, although the first generation Mustangs looked good with just two. But the 69 Mustangs looked much better with the quads. The high beams placed in the grill was a great look.
Yes, 1955 was the year set Imperial out on their own, but everyone still referred to them as Chrysler Imperials. I have to think about it every time I talk about Imperials, or I call them Chrysler Imperials too. I have always liked the Imperials, Exner pulled out all the stops with them The 55 and 56s are very classy looking but from 57 on Imperials had the biggest fins in the industry. I don’t hate the headlights on those chrome pods, they kinda have a retro thing going, and the 63s moved the taillights to the back edge of the fins and that looked pretty cool. The Chrysler from 57 threw 1963 had great instrumentation. But it was the full-size 61 threw 62 Chryslers have the incredible Astrodome instrumentation with Chrysler’s famous Panelesent lighting. Man the aqua blue color that the lighting gave off was memorizing. The bright red needles up against that fantastic aqua blue lighting gave off a glow that was like no other. It was all done through electrical circuits, no light bulbs. I’m sure it was expensive to install and maintain, but there has never been anything like it. As a kid, I would sit in the back and stare at that dash when ever I was able to ride in one at night. My favorite Imperials are from the 64s
through 66 model years. I actually had a 66 silver, with silver cloth seats trimmed in black leather. It was the first year Chrysler put the 440 cubic inch engine in the Imperial. It was comfortable, well behaved on the road due to Chrysler’s Tourtion Air front suspension, and the 440 made that huge Imperial run like a scared cat. The front grill and famous headlights under glass worked very nicely with the cat eye shaped taillights in the rear bumper. In my opinion, the 64 through 66 Imperials are the most beautiful and elegant cars to roll out of Detroit. For some reason, the Imperial never sold as well as the Cadillacs and Lincolns from that era did. Maybe it’s because the US didn’t really have room for three luxury cars. The Imperial was every bit of an American luxury car. It looked and handled much better than the Cadillacs and Lincolns at the time, and the Imperials were absolutely gorgeous, so the only thing I could think of is the emotional factor that goes into buying a luxury car. Whenever I see an Imperial from any time frame, I usually stop in my tracks and just stare at them.
Major cities were the only venues where a stand-alone Imperial (Salon) dealership would have a ghost of a chance of successfully surviving. Though not surprising it was owned by a Chrysler-Plymouth dealer where volume sales could subsidize the upscale ‘Salon’.