I’ve no information on the dealer featured in this photo, other than it clearly belongs to a DeSoto-Plymouth-Valiant one with a showroom filled with new products. And while Valiant was the new kid in Chrysler’s tent, it’s the DeSoto at center that’s getting all the attention from the ladies in attendance. The brand may have been in its waning days, but at least in this photo, these ladies seem to have been DeSoto fans.
And in this image, besides the jolly look of most, what I truly enjoy is the signage with period advertising lingo: “New Adventurer Mark I Engine”, “New Vistarama Rear Window” and “New Comfort-Back Driver Seat”.
As known, the ’50s were quite the rollercoaster in the US car market. DeSoto didn’t escape those ups and downs, with numbers climbing nicely in ’55-’57 and coming down harshly in the ’58 recession to never recover. For 1960, the division’s products had been trimmed to two lines with styling that shared a great deal with Chrysler’s. A story covered at CC a while back with a 1960 DeSoto Adventurer.
Today’s 1960 showroom DeSoto seems to have the simpler bumper of the Fireflite line. And while hard to see in the showroom photo, I see no door pillars so it’s most likely a hardtop. So one of about 12K built for that year.
And if you were curious, sorry, no Vistarama to be seen on this Fireflite 4-door hardtop image from the brochure…
But here’s one, in the image of the Adventurer 4-door sedan. An illustration that also showcases the model’s swivel seat arrangement.
One more shot from the showroom, with the ladies now standing next to a 1960 2-door Plymouth Fury hardtop. Not as many admirers appear in this shot, however. Were the Furys too alien-like for the ladies? Perhaps. But if so, they had no idea what was in store for 1961.
Our next door neighbor in Towson had a silver with blue interior ’60 Adventurer that ignited my interest in Forward Look cars (I consider this one to be a FL and one of the best). A great looking car, especially in comparison to what followed. The moribund ’61 took an excellent design and trashed it with weird styling changes for the sake of novelty. These first unibody Mopars were superior in so many ways to the competition, but tastes were migrating to a more subdued look which worked against these well engineered automobiles.
I liked these so much that in 1962 I actually wrote Chrysler Corp in Detroit (Highland Park?) and requested a ’60 sales brochure. Of course DeSoto itself was long gone having disappeared more than a year before, but naively I sent it off, and surprisingly they did send one. I still have it, so many years later. It was the start of 62 years of brochure collecting, a file cabinet’s worth now. The library doesn’t want it, no idea what to do with it all as we are downsizing.
My suggestion would to rent a table at a swap meet or share a table with someone. Brochures are worth a chunk of change now and you would make quite a few dollars. Don’t just recycle them or worse yet, toss them into the garbage.
I sold mine to a collector many years ago and kept a few brochures I really liked.
You’d never know the DeSoto was just a retrimmed Chrysler from the sales efforts. The posting is a reminder of just how much effort went into creating all the promotional material necessary to support a separate brand. No wonder Chrysler decided to drop DeSoto in favor of the Chrysler Windsor.
I owned one DeSoto (’55 Fireflite Sportsman HT). It was a good car, but even in ’55 it was hardly different from a Chrysler. Dropping the DeSoto brand was an acknowledgement of just how tough it was for other manufacturers to compete with GMs divisional strategy by copying it.
With the benefit of hindsight, Chrysler was ahead of its time.
And the Windsor itself would be drop in favor of the Newport except in Canada where the Windsor survived until the 1966 model year. https://oldcarbrochures.org/Canada/Chrysler-Canada/Chrysler/1966-Chrysler-Full-Size-Brochure/slides/1966_Chrysler_Cdn-10-11b.html
As for why few ladies was with the 1960 Plymouth, I guess the rear looked too much like the 1957 and some joked “suddenly, it’s 1957”.
What? No Shots of the DeSoto Rebel?
A Body Fans have been let down ..
Just kidding!
“To make it easier for you to order the optional equipment you want, De Soto has assembled a number of accessory GROUPS.”
I didn’t know you couldn’t get your optional equipment a la carte on these. And of course packaged options don’t make it easier to order the optional equipment you want, rather they usually make it impossible to do so because you have to buy thousands of dollars of stuff you don’t want, or would rather not have, in order to get the one or two items you want.
It was surprising to me that heaters were still optional equipment on DeSotos in 1960.
According to Google heaters became standard equipment on GM cars in 1962, on Fords in 1963, and on all Chrysler products in 1965.
I have a friend with a 66 Mercury Montclair his aunt ordered new, radio and heater delete… In Florida though
That took until the late 60s here on Australian assembled cars, the local NZ assembled versions had heaters standard.
🎵 It’s Delightful! 🎶It’s Delovely! 🎵 It’s DESOTO! I learned to drive on a55 Black DeSoto Firedome and instantly fell in love with DeSoto from 55 until final 61s. As a teen, I wrote expressing my disappointment and received a letter from Manager Charles Craig with a 61 advertising brochure (I still have both). From a 61 Purchased brochure I created a collage, now framed and hanging on my walls with another of 61 Imperial. Grand finale Exners fabulous finned fantasies for Chrysler. So be sure to tell them Groucho sent you! 😉
Bought a 59 red convert DeSoto with swivel seats in 1966. Used car dealer said it didn’t run, miles were low, but paint gone on hood. He said take for a $100 including tax. I cranked it over, was nice and smooth. Popped the dist cap and reset the points. It started up nice and quiet. Boy was he upset. Was a very good car.
I owned a ’59 DeSoto Firedome as a daily driver and roamer for two years in the early 1970’s. White, of course. It was purchased as a one owner private sale from an elderly sales rep at an old school Chrysler dealership. That was in 1972. The car was in a very well-kept condition. I believe I put about 40k miles on it. Price was about $650.
I believe the ’59 models were still body on frame. Mine was a premium fuel 383 with a A466 iron case Torqueflite transmission. The only recurring problems were the fiddly dual wheel cylinder brakes and several generator rebuilds.
I have always been curious about DeSoto subduing the tailfins a bit on the ’59’s. Then bringing them back with gusto for 1960.
Randerson, donate those brochures to a car museum. The Lane Motor Museum in Nashville would take them I bet, they have a whole archive of old records, documents, service manuals, literature, etc Also its a HUGE and pretty well funded museum, 550 or so cars, bikes, motorcycles and experimental aircraft.
Pretty unusual collection of flat out weird European stuff, post war micro cars, and one off buit in a shed type of things. If you ever come to town it is WELL WORTH visiting and killing a whole afternoon. http://www.lanemotormuseum.org
As for the Desoto, does this one have the light up hood ornament of conquistodor Hernado de Soto??
Those poor women look like they were roped into an impromptu photo assignment .
The bright signs in the dowdy salesroom speak volumes .
For unwanted vehicular publications please contact the old car manual project . com, they’re trying hard to scan and post everything ever printed and desperately need more literature .
-Nate
I have a soft spot for the Desoto, dad drove a 60 Windsor sedan for a bit… Very similar