Text by Patrick Bell.
For today’s viewing we have a fine gallery of delectable Dodges along with their people in a variety of settings. Dodge seldom (if ever) was a sales leader in the medium price range, but it is still around and Edsel, DeSoto, Pontiac, Mercury and Oldsmobile are memories. So spice up your Monday a little with some Dodges.
A search of our first image results in a Salt Lake City location. It is a warm summer day and a man is in a new ’57 Coronet or Royal Lancer 4 door. The piece of paper in the back window may be a buyer’s tag. This was the first year of the ‘Swept-Wing’ styling, Dodge’s version of the Forward Look. The four door hardtop models were available in all three trim lines with the Coronet the most popular, the mid level Royal the least, and the top of the line Custom Royal in the middle. A ’42 or ’45-’47 Ford pickup is parked up the street, with a ’55 Chevrolet further up on the other side.
‘Daring new Dodge’ was the advertising lingo for the post war new design in ’49. This Coronet 6-Passenger Club Coupe with twin spotlights and fender skirts is clean and shiny and has some other extra chrome as well. The nicely dressed lady is posing in front of a Spanish Mission style church on a sunny day.
Here we have a suntanned lady with a polka dot dress posing with a ’55 V8 powered Coronet 4 door sedan in a rural setting. A six cylinder was available on the Coronet sedans and station wagons only. They accounted for about 12.2% of production.
Happiness is a warm puppy. A gentleman wearing a bow tie and house shoes sitting on a ’57 Coronet or Royal 4 door sedan from California. I had a neighbor with one like this except in two tone blue when I was a youngster. I washed it for him along with his two other Dodges and vividly recall all the body lines and styling quirks. The sedans followed the same order of popularity as the hardtops in this year. The bonus Dodge is a red ’61 Lancer, the first year of two for Dodge’s answer to the Valiant.
Out for a country drive in a ’59 Royal or Custom Royal Lancer 2 door from New Jersey.
This was the least expensive model for ’59, a Coronet 2 door sedan. The six cylinder model listed for $2516. Next door looks like a ’58 Chrysler Windsor, and across the street a ’55 Ford Customline 4 door sedan and a ’56 Pontiac Star Chief 4 door Catalina. It looks like a summertime photo in a middle class neighborhood.
This little guy seems shy about his fancy new duds while posing in front of a ’61 Dart with a license plate I do not recognize. Dodge kept you guessing in the name department in the late fifties and early sixties: In ’60 they brought out a lower priced full size model with a four inch shorter wheelbase (the same as Plymouth) and called it the Dart. From ’55 to ’59 Lancer was a name for the hardtop and convertible models regardless of the trim level. That name was then used for the new compact model in ’61 and ’62.
Then, in ’62 when Plymouth downsized their full size line, Dodge used the Dart name on their version. And then in ’63 the compact dropped the Lancer name and became the Dart. The Polara was the top trim level on the large cars in ’60 and ’61, became the top trim level on the intermediate size from ’62-’64, and then became the bottom trim level on the large cars in ’65 where it stayed the rest of its days. The Coronet took a rest after ’59 until it was revived in ’65 for the intermediate line. There, that should clear up any confusion.
Here is a fine example of the new intermediate size (or standard size as Dodge called it) line for ’62. This is a top of the line Polara 500 4 door hardtop. They were available in 2 and 4 door hardtops and a convertible, and came standard with a 361 V8, and the 383 and 413 V8’s were optional. The less expensive trim lines were called Dart. The wheelbase at 116″ was a half inch longer than the new Ford Fairlane. They (and their sister Plymouth) did not win any beauty contests that year but I am sure they were great drivers. The lady in the photo has a matching dress and seems to be happy leaning on this California car.
Now we are in Leggett, California at a drive thru tree park in a ’63 Polara 4 door hardtop. They refreshed the styling that year and smoothed out some of the rough edges. This was the only four door hardtop available in the intermediate size for the year and the red inside mirror may indicate a rent car.
Taking a rest stop while traveling through the southwest USA in a ’66 Dart 270 4 door sedan with the slant six and perhaps a Michigan license plate issued in the Bicentennial year of ’76 and used through ’78. If so, they were far from home. The car reminds me of a trip I made in a ’65 Dart. But the terrain does not as I drove from Boise, Idaho to Anchorage, Alaska.
Another rest stop, this one at an overlook of some sort in a ’68 Polara 4 door. This one looks like an unmarked or perhaps retired police car with the basic hub caps and twin spotlights.
The Charger was first introduced as an intermediate size fastback in ’66 and sold just okay. It was carried over in ’67 but the sales fell off to less than half its first year. A heavy restyle was done for the ’68 model, and it was a hit, with nearly double the amount of both previous years leaving the factory. This well equipped unit from Virginia looks close to new, and the guys look like they are having fun. In the background from the left a ’64 Buick Wildcat, a greenhouse that looks like a ’64 or ’65 Dodge or Plymouth 2 door hardtop, and a ’67 Pontiac Bonneville.
A ’70 Coronet Super Bee hardtop from Maryland in ‘Sublime Green’, one of the optional ‘High Impact’ colors. The Super Bee was Dodge’s budget muscle car that was introduced in ’68 and handily outsold the better equipped and more expensive R/T model. In the ’70 model year it was by nearly six to one. This young man looks tall enough, but not old enough to have a driver’s license.
Out playing in the snow in a Hemi powered ’68 Coronet R/T hardtop from New York. It has aftermarket mag wheels and no snow tires. This one wins the big bucks award for the day. I wonder if it survived.
‘Here’s the story of a lovely lady’. Yes, this one looks straight out of the Brady Bunch. I know it is not, but it certainly is out of that time period. They stand next to a new looking ’70 Coronet Deluxe wagon in seventies green.
Thanks for not dodging the Dodge tour and good day to all!
My Grandpa in his new ’57 Coronet hardtop:
The 61 Dart with the little cowboy in front, license plate looks like a 1960 NY plate.
Oddly, that’s a New York “School” license plate. The SB on the bottom center was the New York abbreviation for School Bus – the plates weren’t necessarily confined to buses, but I don’t know where the line was drawn. Maybe rural school transportation vehicles could use those plates, and maybe back in 1960 those were sometimes on private vehicles? I don’t know for sure, but that’s an unusual license plate to see on a Dodge.
Thanks for doing all the digging on this–I wouldn’t have known where to start. A lucky hit in the Olean (NY) Times Herald, 27 September 1960, gets us this–hooray!
Thank you!
Sometimes in rural areas station wagons were used as school buses. Although the ones I remember had a roof rack with large school bus signs on it.
Thanka you for featuring these wunnerfull Dotch cars. Fora many years Dotch sponsored me ( with my wunnerfull Champagne 🍾 music makers) . I drove some Dotch cars, Plymouth even sponsored my Top Tunes and New Talent Wednesday night show. Thena outa the blue, Dotch dropped my show lika hot potato. Buta I had the last laugh when GERITOL picked up my wunnerfull TV show. My wunnerfull TV show is still showing some places with reruns! So, my friends, put a smile on youra face and a song 🎵 in your heart. Andremember SERUTAN spelled backwards is NATURES. Anda Don’t pop your çòrk ! 🍾 🥂! Lawrence Welk.
As Lawrence noted , Dodge was popular in the 50s and 60s, still going on as the last of Chrysler Corp line up. A yellow and black 59 Dodge convert was featured in Elizabeth Taylor and Mark Harmon SWEET BIRD of YOUTH. As a teen, we had a 61 red PHOENIX convertible, Unfortunately Dodge no longer makes CARS, only Trucks are Bloated SUVS. And PLEASE don’t say Stelantis! Or I just might pop MY cork. BTW, the guy with the puppy, seems to know Dodge is going to the Dogs and the 59 front end looks angry and very aggressive. Love THAT style!
Blackwall tires. One of the most effective ways, of muting late 50’s styling.
It’s surprising how sombre some of those old cars could be. A friend of my father had a mid 60s Dodge Dart convertible in dark green with a black top and interior. Almost like a military vehicle. Our gray Plymouth Valiant was at least livened up with a red iinterior
That plain Jane 1968 Polara might be a Canadian market Polara which competed with the Pontiac Strato Chief and Meteor Rideau and was priced just above the Plymouth Fury I and below the Plymouth Fury II. Friends of my parents had one just like this that they bought new.
In the Sublime Green Super Bee photo, I like that the house in the back has two cannon in the front yard. That’s something not seen too often – maybe the folks who lived there were Civil War enthusiasts.
A great collection of photos.
Whenever I see a photo of a proud owner posed with a brand-new 1957 Mopar, I wonder how long it was until that dreamboat began to show signs of water leaks and then start falling apart. They were, however, very good-looking cars for the era.
My grandmother had a 1966 Dart 270 four-door sedan in dark blue. To this day I remember how smooth that slant six was at idle. It was a good, tough car.
The photo of the 1968 Charger reminds of me how handsome those cars were, and still are today.
The man with the ’68 Hemi Coronet R/T is my father after he decided that the ’68 Dart stripper with the 170 /6 was too slow for him and he went back to the dealer and told them he wanted something much more powerful. And so they fixed him up, properly. Who needs snow tires when you can just melt all the snow with blazing tires?
the red inside mirror may indicate a rent car.
Patrick, you’ve got me stumped with this comment. Can you elaborate?
My maternal grandfather was a dyed in the wool Dodge owner. It is all he drove for whatever reason. I never asked when young and he passed away in the mid 70’s earlier that one should. I had seen two of his that stick in my memory with one being a 66 and the other an early 70’s. However, we had this one parked on the dead end street next to our house in Catonsville MD most of the four years we lived there. It was just there. His, stored there but he lived in New Jersey. I’ll never know. In the picture is my father and his father who never owned a car in his life being a lifelong New Yorker.
Well, I’ll be. When I blew it up I saw the jackstand and tire for the very first time. The two are changing a tire. Maybe it was my father’s car and I didn’t know but wasn’t around in 58-62 in New Jersey. This 62-66.