Curious to think that not long after most of these photos were taken, DeSoto was to disappear. Luckily, some owners thought it worth it to capture their DeSotos for posterity; there’s no doubt the cars were being featured as centerpieces in some of these photos.
But not all images in here belong to that category. Some are just DeSotos in the background, and a few appear next to their owners. And well, we got at least one photo that’s not exactly from the 1950s.
Regardless, I’m sure fans of the brand will enjoy exploring these images. All from a time when DeSotos were still a common sight on the roads.
Love the looks and the Color of Desoto.
Gotta say, if I was around back then I would have been a DeSoto kind of guy. Just the right amount of sporty and classy amongst the Mopar choices….
DeSoto was America’s Taxi Cab, filling the streets of the East Coast and these taxis appear in hundreds of 20th century movies. DeSoto could try and position themselves as something other than a taxi – but for generations during its run, DeSoto was branded as a taxi brand. Most all of us weren’t around back then, but how many of you would want to buy a brand known mostly as being a taxi?
Ever want to buy a Checker Marathon?
In Germany the E Class Mercedes was the taxi of choice. Did that make Mercedes the taxi brand?
DeSoto was never a taxi brand like Checker. They had long wheelbase Suburban models that we perfect for taxi and livery use. But those were a small % of sales and went away as the 50’s progressed. Later in the decade DeSoto got squeezed out of the market by a recession and lower priced Chryslers that made the brand superfluous for a company looking to shed expenses by eliminating model redundancies.
davis is correct, DeSoto was never particularly known as a taxi brand. I’ve owned 3 of them, none were taxi cabs! lol. I never saw a DeSoto taxi in Baltimore in the ’50s. The brand suffered mainly because Chrysler was considered the more prestigious marque and could be had for virtually the same money. Same with Dodge vs the Firesweep like the white 4 dr hardtop pictured above.
There’s a guy who drives a Checker Marathon in my neighborhood! Pictured at the local Safeway
Personally, I’ve alway seen fleet vehicle models favorably. If they can survive day-in day-out wear enough that the taxi companies buy them, they must be doing something right
Dude, there were plenty of low-level Dodges and Plymouths in fleets too. Even `59 Studebaker Lark sedans, which seemed to linger on my city’s streets into the 60s.
Same in Israel, many of those cabs found their way into the country after the US cab operators changed their fleets into newer cars. In Israel the gasoline engines were swapped for diesels (mostly Perkins units) and then they continued to be used until the 70s…
Those of us that came of age watching “Happy Days” recall that Howard’s frumpy black ’40s vintage DeSoto sedan was the butt of many jokes.
The ’50s were actually some dashing years for the delightful, delovely DeSoto. I think what I enjoy most about watching Hitchcock’s Vertigo is getting to see Jimmy Stewart dashing about in his 1956 DeSoto Firedome Sportsman.
I remember the “Cunningham car” being blue.
I’m not sure we had traded our black and white set for a color model before Howard traded the DeSoto for a Studebaker.
Yes–it was a dark blue! and I think it had the roof rack like the ‘suburban’ models maybe?
I love the 1956 Chryslers and that 1956 DeSoto is sublime. I think the 1956 Chrysler fins were most handsome ever.
Chrysler spent all that money for the 2 year 55-56’s and rushed the production of the all new 1957’s, with spectacular and then disastrous results. Imagine if Chrysler delayed the 1957’s for one year like GM did with the 1957 Chevy.
What I enjoyed the most about Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” was Kim Novak. Just a great movie!
To my eyes the ’55 and ’56 are the prettiest cars ever, leaving aside the curve-breaking Studie.
The snowy chalet seems to be a Suburban, judging by the roof rack.
Excellent photo collection. The 1950’s are among my worst decades, for identifying cars. Yet, I would readily ID most of these from a distance as Desotos. Distinctive styling, without being unusual, or unattractive.
My worst decade for identifying cars is the forties. If I were to guess Daniel, you are at least 10 years younger than me. Forties cars all look the same to me. The fifties offered a lot more differentiation IMHO.
People 10 years older than me can probably tell the forties cars apart from each other at the drop of a hat.
Just a theory. Much of what I’ve learned about identifying cars came from reading these very pages at Curbside Classic. Even if I didn’t know before, I can many times guess the year based on styling of a brand I am less familiar with… My Dad taught me all the Chevys when I was little. From there, and with knowledge gained from reading CC, I can infer the years of the Fords, the Dodges, etc.
I personally find the individual manufacturer’s identifying features more obvious and distinctive on 1930’s and 1940’s cars. Perhaps, it is because I worked harder to identify… and memorize, specific features on ’30s and ’40s domestic cars.
No question, 1950’s styling was more distinctive among brands. I’m not a huge fan of overwrought ’50s styling in general, I consider many cars as ‘chariots’ from this era. Why, I also probably haven’t appreciated their distinct design elements moreso.
Yeah, most likely it’s that I haven’t taken the time to study the differences on the 30’s and 40’s cars. And I like many of the cars from the 30’s.
But you are right, but the end of the fifties, the overwrought styling had gotten out of hand. I definitely liked that blue and white ’56 Desoto better than the 1957’s Forward Look models that followed.
The carstylecritic blogspot guy likes to analyze the minutia of yearly facelifts and body changes in cars from the 1930s on, both American and others. As a little kid in the 1950s – 60s I already had a brain full of model change details from those periods but have added a lot more, and greatly increased my formerly minimal and also entirely useless knowledge of 1930s-40s car styles as well.
Highly recommended.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the demise of DeSoto was more of a surprise to the general public, unlike Packard, where it was easier to see the end coming. If I recall, even DeSoto dealers were caught off guard by the discontinuance.
I’d say it probably wasn’t a surprise to most car-watchers By 1958 the handwriting was on the wall, as many brands bounced back after the ’58 recession but DeSoto didn’t. Each succeeding year the number of model offerings dropped off and after the quite attractive 1960 models still sold poorly it was all over just a few short months after the weird looking ’61 with almost no model offerings was introduced, they went out with a whimper.
By November of `60, DeSoto was SOL. As short a production run for the `61 model DeSotos as the `60 Edsels. The times were a changin’.
I love that blue and white one. Maybe it’s the Kodachrome, but that blue looks intense in the sunshine!
I believe some of these images have had their colour saturation (and contrast) bumped up, to increase the image appeal, and vividness. That is a very attractive, and rich, appearing blue.
I thought so too, That blue `56 really pops with kodakrome! Looks brand-new.
The lead photo of the purple-ish Desoto is beautiful! I never made the taxi cab
connection with the Desoto. Growing up in the East Bay Area, taxis weren’t as prevalent, except around the airport. I have only ridden in a taxi a handful of times. We’re the later ’50’s through ’60’s models commonly used as taxis?
I’m kinda developing a thing for mid ’50’s DeSotos!
I too like the older DeSoto’s looks and styling .
-Nate
In San Francisco, we even have a DeSoto Cab Company which did use only DeSotos in their day. It has remained in business, long after the demise of the DeSoto car.
Well, judging by the picture, it looks like the cab company at least stayed with cars from a Chrysler division….
Long after the demise of the DeSoto car, I recall Herb Caen lamenting in his Chron column that the DeSoto cab company was reduced to using Plymouths.
Time to add my two cents here. My favorite years of DeSoto are: 1956-1958, and then 1960.
I like the increasing forward look of the first set I listed, with a stunning crescendo in 1957-58, quality issues notwithstanding.
The next two years seemed to retract into a more restrained look. But then 1960 came along, looking stylish and fresh.
1961? Just weird looking. Exner’s magic had diminished by then.
I like that 4th photo with the ’57 or ’58 DeSoto hardtop. Those are my favorite years even though I wouldn’t kick a ’56 or a ’59 out of my driveway of course them being two doors.
5th photo: DeSoto sitting next to river/lake:
Reminds me of my Dad’s 54 Chevy Belair. Missing six kids plus Mom & Dad in the front seat.
https://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Chevrolet/1954_Chevrolet/1954_Chevrolet_Brochure/1954%20Chevrolet-04.html
My Dad owned one DeSoto – this 1940 convertible he bought from his cousin in 1945 after returning from WWII service as a Marine in the Pacific Front. Given the number of photos I inherited of the car, I think it must have been the favorite among all of his cars. It had style and given the shortage of cars at the war’s end, no doubt enhanced his social life.
My great aunt and uncle owned a 1955 DeSoto Firedome two-door hardtop in baby blue and white bought new and kept for ten years. As a kid I thought it was just fantastic. The little wand transmission control held great fascination and the hardtop model was new enough to be not that common in small town Midwest. They traded it for a new 1965 Chrysler Newport, another great Mopar product.
I know I’ve seen photos but I would have to get with my aunts to find them but in 1954, my grandmother, her sister and their parents took a cross country road trip from Alabama to San Diego, California in a 1953 DeSoto and there’s at least one photo of them in California standing behind the car.
This is a nice collection of photos, and it’s especially fun to see a shiny new car (in a way that’s different from seeing a rechromed and clear-coated one today).
Photo #1’s “Bob Bauer Motors” is apparently San Diego County; somewhere-somewhere there ought to be someone who recognizes the hillside, though I’ll guess it’s more densely built up, nearly 70 years later.
That yellow and red late forties DeSoto pictured must have been in about 958,562 movies over the years! As a kid when these cars were common, I can’t say I ever remember seeing any up-scale car like DeSoto, Oldsmobile, Buick, Mercury or Nash being used as a taxi!
I loved DeSotos from the time I was a kid, owing mostly to my grandma’s pink and white 55. This probably explains why the three separate 56 models are my favorites of this bunch.
It always seemed to me that Chrysler ran too many brands without enough to distinguish between them, and DeSoto always seemed to be the weakest of the lot in sales.
I enjoyed reading all of your comments. I love the photos. Growing up in The Bronx, DeSoto taxis and Checker taxis were de rigeur. I worked at Chrysler in the 1970’s. At that time the talk about De Soto is that there had been a management ego fight that led to the demise of the DeSoto. Chrysler could easily have kept the Chrysler auto out of DeSoto’s price range. DeSoto taxis were equipped for heavy service both in the mechanicals and appointments. Seats were upholstered in horsehide which is a durable material. It could take the constant sliding in and sliding out of bodies as well the brat who walked on the seats. You could smell that leather when you entered the DeSoto – well, except for the one day that my Dad hailed a Desoto to take us to Manhattan to see his family. The driver used his garments as his urinal. For ten miles in cool weather and therefore with the windows closed, his effusion overpowered the smell of the horsehide! YUK! I rode in one of the rarest DeSoto models. In 1952, a young lady from Schenectady bought a 1952 DeSoto convertible in blue with blue interior and the six-cylinder engine. What a slug! She loved the car. I sat in the back seat while she and my auth were in the front seat as we drove around the Luzerne and Lake George area on highways and byways. It really needed the V-8. I leave you with this advice, “Tell ’em Groucho sent you.!
In 1965 when I was 14 I wanted to buy a non-running 1946 Desoto for $50. My parents refused. I canvassed the neighborhood with a petition for other parents to sign in support of my purchase. It seemed to go well and I presented the petition to my parents. I was surprised to find I had signatures from George Washington, Ben Franklin & Albert Einstein! I didn’t get the Desoto.