This was a film used to promote GM's huge touring "Motorama" show. My dad took me to it when I was 11 years old. To a kid who was into 1950 science fiction, this show was pure magic. My memories are of the "cars of the future," the kitchen of tomorrow, and the unbelievable, it drives itself, Firebird II. These were heady post-war years. Lots of money around and imported autos weren't even on the horizon.
Tad Tadlock's dance at 5:14 seems to be one inspiration for Suzanne Lloyd's dance in 1959's "Perchance To Dream" episode of The Twilight Zone, and this is all from the same era. She was one ultra-cool dancer and performer, and I am sorry we lost her in 2000. As for the video itself, it is the product of its time. Though unrealistic, the production values are fun in themselves!
I'm sure we'll have an oven that can bake, frost, and put candles on a cake (AND light them) by the time we can call our houses on the phone and tell the oven to start-- Which AT&T has been promising us for at least 50 years. (And I've still never heard anyone express a desire for it.)
didn't the future look so bright, according to the magazines of the 1950's we should all be living in colonys on the moon or cities under the sea, where did it all go wrong
Moon colonies have a problem with the low gravity doing a number on your bones and muscles, and radiation exposure thanks to the lack of atmosphere. Underwater colonies are too high-maintenance to keep them from being crushed by water pressure. Neither dream was very practical.
all this technology now is supposed to make it easier for people to do these things, but we inherently developed a fixation with it, so much that we cant put it away to actually DO those things.
I hate the sexism but I judge that by today’s standards. It is good that these pieces of pop culture history are preserved though, even if it’s only so we can learn the errors of your previous ways.
LIKES TO WATCH ME IN THE GLASS ROOM BATHROOM CHATEAU MARMONT SLIPPIN ON MY RED DRESS PUTTIN ON MY MAKEUP GLASS ROOM PERFUME COGNAC LILAC FUMES SAYS IT FEELS LIKE HEAVEN TO HIM
Poor woman. She even has to bake in her dreams. At least she got a Cadillac! Also, the highway of tomorrow seems to just be a gigantic loop that goes nowhere.
Corny and kitschy as entertainment, this film only succeeds as a colorful surreal dream of the possible future in an ideal world, with beautiful finned advanced dream cars and homes laden with every modern convenience. The female dancer is truly mesmerizing. What it does show clearly is the wide-eyed optimism of the mid-1950s General Motors Advanced Design Studio at GM Technical Center at Warren, Michigan. My favorite is the Pontiac Club de Mer, a Pontiac version of the Corvette. The turbine-jet powered Firebird II is also a fantastic design.
More and more I'm forgetting the past More and more I'm livin' at last Day by day I'm losin' my blues More and more I'm forgettin' 'bout you But oh how I tried to keep you by my side And oh how I cried the day you said goodbye Day by day I'm losin' my blues More and more I'm forgettin' 'bout you But oh how I tried to keep you by my side And oh how I cried the day you said goodbye Day by day I'm losin' my blues More and more I'm forgettin' 'bout you
IMHO, the Speed and Horsepower Race of the 50's is what eventually ruined the Auto Industry. Hudson, Nash, Packard, Studebaker all fell to the Wayside. These were marques that would keep the Big 3 in check. Studebaker Champion > The small 6 with overdrive would get 35MPG highway. Hudson> TONS of engineering innovation. Nash> Climate Control Air Conditioning. Packard> True Luxury with Enough steel in the Bumpers to Build a Whole Toyota.
@@scotpens - Studebaker and Packard also merged, but the Packard only lasted until 1958 with a warmed-over Studebaker body. Studebaker moved to Canada after 1964, and lasted to 1966.
@@scotpens - Had all 4 merged as originally planned, AMC might be with us today with this hierarchy: Rambler = compacts; Studebaker = mid-size, low-price cars; Hudson = full-size; and Packard with luxury above Cadillac.
@@OldsVistaCruiser And those ersatz Packards -- the "Packardbakers" -- were horribly tacky-looking. Eight-year-old kids in Packard showrooms were saying, "Daddy, that's a Studebaker!" But, considering the planned "real" 1957 Packards would have looked like a cross between a Cadillac and an Edsel, maybe it's just as well Packard went belly-up when it did.
@@scotpens - I actually like the Packardbakers, 61 years later. They were far better looking than anything from GM or Ford in 1958. The only styling that was as good looking that year was from Chrysler.
@FIREBIRDC9 Too bad GM couldn't forsee it's own dark future back in 1956: Vega, Ventura, Cavalier, Firenza, 6000, Astre, Monza, Cobalt, Ciera, Celebrity, Cimarron, Sunbrid, Aztek, Trans Sport, Fiero, Achieva, Grand Am, Corsica, Beretta, Lumina, etc.
I'm here because of "The Many Voices of Thurl Ravenscroft," a Disney Legend, but who was best known as the voice of Tony the tiger from Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.
And lets remember the early Toyota's and Datsun's were as basic as you could get and also rust buckets but they got close to 30 mpg and they came at a time when the 1st 'gas shortage' was around the corner, early 70's. I remember sitting around in the mid 70's with some fairly intelligent people thinking by the year 2000 we would no longer have gas, now it's plentiful but 10 x the price then. Let's also remember Toyota and Datsun perfected their cars-- it was a different world then too
True cars of the Future will have Magnetic gyros instead of wheels that Cancel gravity and propel the car. There will Only be a Joystick in between the front seats to steer and brake the vehicle, which would allow a driver to operate the car from the Right or Left hand. This will make it a Real World car that wouldn't even have to be adapted for the handicapped.
Does anyone know where and shorts like this one would have been shown? I'm guessing at the Motoramas there were mini-walk-in "movie theaters. In my humble opinion Thanx
02chevyguy It's like the Chrysler line...start with a Plymouth and work your way up thru Dodge, De Soto, and Chrysler to Imperial (until Imperial went back to being the top Chrysler model, not a separate brand).
This was a film used to promote GM's huge touring "Motorama" show. My dad took me to it when I was 11 years old. To a kid who was into 1950 science fiction, this show was pure magic. My memories are of the "cars of the future," the kitchen of tomorrow, and the unbelievable, it drives itself, Firebird II. These were heady post-war years. Lots of money around and imported autos weren't even on the horizon.
I wish I had a kitchen that would magically bake me a cake that's already frosted and with lit candles.
For the time, and considering this is a movie short from a car company, the production quality is tremendous.
The main dancer has some amazing moves. I must be easily amazed, but she did a lot of moving!
Exactly what I was thinking. Especially when she said "I'm exhausted!"
What a wonderful piece of art. =)
"Hey lady, your apron is showing!" " I better get her to the kitchen quick!" LMAO
Tater tots are burning!
I wish Tuxedo Kamen would whisk me to the next auto show I attend, too.
You realized that to! Yeah, I would love to go on an Auto show too. But I think Usagi would be Jelous.
Retro- futuristic. So beautiful
Um, I'll take one of each car and the kitchen. And the bedroom and all the clothes, Thank you.
kimdkus I am not sure but I think that's why I am on wifey number 47.
Jeepers. That Firebird II is the most futuristic dreamy vehicle. Simply dreamy.
enjoyable trip back to 1956--time travel retro
I have a Polaroid photograph of my mother basting a Thanksgiving turkey from about this time, and she has the same Leslie Caron pixie cut! Wow...
I (eventually) got here from Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes."
I would kill for that Oldsmobile Golden Rocket's or that blue Impala....
Man! The future sure looks bright😀👍
That dream seems more like an eerie nightmare. Gota luv it.
Tad Tadlock's dance at 5:14 seems to be one inspiration for Suzanne Lloyd's dance in 1959's "Perchance To Dream" episode of The Twilight Zone, and this is all from the same era. She was one ultra-cool dancer and performer, and I am sorry we lost her in 2000. As for the video itself, it is the product of its time. Though unrealistic, the production values are fun in themselves!
I'm sure we'll have an oven that can bake, frost, and put candles on a cake (AND light them) by the time we can call our houses on the phone and tell the oven to start-- Which AT&T has been promising us for at least 50 years. (And I've still never heard anyone express a desire for it.)
The Gernsback Continuum! The future that never was.
Pretty tragic that the real future didn't come out the way they thought it would be.
'The electric highway of the future'. 60 years later we're still waiting for it...
the Firebird looks like the car that Homer Simpson designed
yes, it dose
LOL, hey your apron is showing, quick get her to the kitchen XD
awesome video thanks for posting
didn't the future look so bright, according to the magazines of the 1950's we should all be living in colonys on the moon or cities under the sea, where did it all go wrong
Hippies and nihilism that's what went wrong
Nixon gutting NASA in the early 70s
Moon colonies have a problem with the low gravity doing a number on your bones and muscles, and radiation exposure thanks to the lack of atmosphere. Underwater colonies are too high-maintenance to keep them from being crushed by water pressure. Neither dream was very practical.
@@hurricanefury439 nah it's people like you who don't know what the fuck they are talking about
@@hurricanefury439 Greedy self important narcissists run our lives that's what went wrong
That Firebird 2 is pretty fancy - I can imagine me using a week's wages to start it up.
I want that Corvette too!!
all this technology now is supposed to make it easier for people to do these things, but we inherently developed a fixation with it, so much that we cant put it away to actually DO those things.
The highway of tomorrow will be one big traffic jam.
Yes it will.
I hate the sexism but I judge that by today’s standards. It is good that these pieces of pop culture history are preserved though, even if it’s only so we can learn the errors of your previous ways.
LIKES TO WATCH ME IN THE GLASS ROOM
BATHROOM
CHATEAU MARMONT
SLIPPIN ON MY RED DRESS
PUTTIN ON MY MAKEUP
GLASS ROOM
PERFUME
COGNAC
LILAC
FUMES
SAYS IT FEELS LIKE HEAVEN TO HIM
L I G H T O F M Y L I F E
FIRE OF MY LOINS
KEEP ME FOREVER
TELL ME YOU WANT ME
Poor woman.
She even has to bake in her dreams. At least she got a Cadillac!
Also, the highway of tomorrow seems to just be a gigantic loop that goes nowhere.
Yeah yeah General Motors, I'm still a Ford Nucleon man myself. :D
Corny and kitschy as entertainment, this film only succeeds as a colorful surreal dream of the possible future in an ideal world, with beautiful finned advanced dream cars and homes laden with every modern convenience. The female dancer is truly mesmerizing.
What it does show clearly is the wide-eyed optimism of the mid-1950s General Motors Advanced Design Studio at GM Technical Center at Warren, Michigan.
My favorite is the Pontiac Club de Mer, a Pontiac version of the Corvette. The turbine-jet powered Firebird II is also a fantastic design.
simplesmente maravilhoso, parabéns.
I don't know, I actually could go for a futuristic dome-oven.
Not to mention the whole kitchen!!
I love the Buick Centurion. It's too bad Buick didn't use the grille from the show car for the 1957 or 58 production car.
Apparently the future will have a lot of dry-ice fog.
The Oldsmobile Golden Rocket looks as if it should have a shark's mouth painted on the front.
"Better get her to the kitchen. Quick!"
Oddly prophetic...
@ILOVEMYSUNGLASSES
Interesting that you should say that. This has recently been shown on Classic Arts Showcase.
girls don't go to motorama in a pair of pink pajamas
The highway of tomorrow will be a slot car track?
Bizarrrrre. This got sampled in Bowie and the Pet Shop Boys video for the "Hallo Spaceboy" remix (1995).
More and more
I'm forgetting the past
More and more I'm livin' at last
Day by day I'm losin' my blues
More and more I'm forgettin' 'bout you
But oh how I tried to keep you by my side
And oh how I cried the day you said goodbye
Day by day I'm losin' my blues
More and more I'm forgettin' 'bout you
But oh how I tried to keep you by my side
And oh how I cried the day you said goodbye
Day by day I'm losin' my blues
More and more I'm forgettin' 'bout you
Adam Curtis documentaries brought me here!
4:34 - "Jeepers! I'm exhausted" Not EVERYONE dances around their kitchen :)
Pretty surreal.
Well, that was interesting!
IMHO, the Speed and Horsepower Race of the 50's is what eventually ruined the Auto Industry. Hudson, Nash, Packard, Studebaker all fell to the Wayside. These were marques that would keep the Big 3 in check. Studebaker Champion > The small 6 with overdrive would get 35MPG highway. Hudson> TONS of engineering innovation. Nash> Climate Control Air Conditioning. Packard> True Luxury with Enough steel in the Bumpers to Build a Whole Toyota.
Actually Hudson and Nash merged in 1954 to form American Motors Corporation, which remained in business until 1987.
@@scotpens - Studebaker and Packard also merged, but the Packard only lasted until 1958 with a warmed-over Studebaker body. Studebaker moved to Canada after 1964, and lasted to 1966.
@@scotpens - Had all 4 merged as originally planned, AMC might be with us today with this hierarchy: Rambler = compacts; Studebaker = mid-size, low-price cars; Hudson = full-size; and Packard with luxury above Cadillac.
@@OldsVistaCruiser And those ersatz Packards -- the "Packardbakers" -- were horribly tacky-looking. Eight-year-old kids in Packard showrooms were saying, "Daddy, that's a Studebaker!"
But, considering the planned "real" 1957 Packards would have looked like a cross between a Cadillac and an Edsel, maybe it's just as well Packard went belly-up when it did.
@@scotpens - I actually like the Packardbakers, 61 years later. They were far better looking than anything from GM or Ford in 1958. The only styling that was as good looking that year was from Chrysler.
8:52 - This footage was reused for Super Mario Land on Game Boy commercial.
6:54 - GRRRRRRRRR!!!
Graceful?
When Crow did that I cracked up
"In the Honeymooners."
@FIREBIRDC9 Too bad GM couldn't forsee it's own dark future back in 1956:
Vega, Ventura, Cavalier, Firenza, 6000, Astre, Monza, Cobalt, Ciera, Celebrity, Cimarron, Sunbrid, Aztek, Trans Sport, Fiero, Achieva, Grand Am, Corsica, Beretta, Lumina, etc.
0:50 - "All my instincts, they return. The grand facade so soon will burn...."
LOOK OUT, IT'S A SALUTE TO Mr B Natural!!
AAAAAhh j'aurais tellement voulus avoir vécus dans les années 50 en Amérique!!!!
@RossiniSoprano I think it's Keely Smith, popular Vegas lounge entertainer and recording artist during Sinatra's rat pack days.
Tad Tadlock
Ha! The cake scene was in the opening credits to the Hills have eyes. Now I know where it came from!
Fun film to watch in 2017. Buick Centurian and Olds Golden Rocket both hideous as is the Pontiac Club de Mer. Chevy Impala looks good.
The Impala looked like a Corvette sedan.
To think that GM had 76% of the car market in their pocket ,what happened?
Here because of MST3K.
Me too.
Me also.
I'm here because of "The Many Voices of Thurl Ravenscroft," a Disney Legend, but who was best known as the voice of Tony the tiger from Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.
Pregnant woman and schnauzer optional
It's too hard not to laugh because of them.
I'm here because of Adam Curtis!
I visited Detroit last year and it was like a ghost town, living proof that everything changes and nothing will last forever.
That's grrrrrrrrrrreat!
The only reference to Thurl Ravenscroft that I have seen!
So horrible it is fascinating.
The male singer (not the guy on screen) is Howard Keel. I don't recognize the female singer.
3:50 - "No need for the bride to feel tragic, the rest is push-button magic" :)
Just make sure you've got plenty of C size batteries!
6:40 the Schtick electric razor car.
Tuxedo Mask Broke in?
so valid.
8:24 nice but no trees no plants
That's today
We never did get the space-age cake maker nor the kitchen. It would have been great if GM had actually built the Impala like the one on stage.
And lets remember the early Toyota's and Datsun's were as basic as you could get and also rust buckets but they got close to 30 mpg and they came at a time when the 1st 'gas shortage' was around the corner, early 70's. I remember sitting around in the mid 70's with some fairly intelligent people thinking by the year 2000 we would no longer have gas, now it's plentiful but 10 x the price then. Let's also remember Toyota and Datsun perfected their cars-- it was a different world then too
my thought exactly
True cars of the Future will have Magnetic gyros instead of wheels that Cancel gravity and propel the car. There will Only be a Joystick in between the front seats to steer and brake the vehicle, which would allow a driver to operate the car from the Right or Left hand. This will make it a Real World car that wouldn't even have to be adapted for the handicapped.
6:54
GRRRRRRRRRRR!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRR-HRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
@Zelusetradix Same
LMAO!! I was asking myself that exact same thing, VERY odd indeed !
Is it Carolyn Jones?
Yes. Morticia Addams herself.
And Thurl Ravenscroft
Crow T. Robot: "HRRRRRRRRRRRGH...GRRRRRAAARRRRRRRRRRGH!!!"
7:52 kinda looks like a scene from Back to the Future
@DPO263 ah i saw it there too, its what brought me here(:
Oh, she's been singing for two hours !
Does anyone know where and shorts like this one would have been shown? I'm guessing at the Motoramas there were mini-walk-in "movie theaters. In my humble opinion Thanx
6:54 into the video !!! the first impala ever !!!!!
I want England to make more affordable cars! My country seems to be one of the only ones that doesn't have a cheap brand!
Most Germans cannot afford a VW, too. And lets not speak about Audi, BMW or Mercedes.
are there any copyright issues with this video - I posted a link on FB and UMG are claiming copyright and as a result Facebook have blocked it ???
Bet nobody thought Detroit would be in ruins in the next generation.
mickster boone thank a communist demorat!
I just noticed the '56 Cadillac did not have wide white-walls, it was the future...
the only thing they got it right was the highway somewhat like that
Here’s from Lana del reys song off to the races live visuals😍
MerleOberon Buick has always been over Oldsmobile. For as long as I can remember, the line up was Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac.
True. I always wondered why Buick wasn't sacked instead of Olds to make the resulting quality spread more even.
02chevyguy It's like the Chrysler line...start with a Plymouth and work your way up thru Dodge, De Soto, and Chrysler to Imperial (until Imperial went back to being the top Chrysler model, not a separate brand).
Tad Tadlock rules!
The Phantom of the Opera announces 1956 GM cars.
i love how they thought the future was going to look XD
pity they didnt know it was to be full of boring Daihatsu's and Beige Nissans
crow was right "just because it's futuristic doesn't me it's practical."
What's an electronic highway?
* drools excessively *
this video have zero dislike :O!
Who is here for Lana del Rey?
Who's the girl?
The dancer is Thelma "Tad" Tadlock.
She's hot
@@scotpens umm Carolyn Jones aka Morticia Addams
if this was truly about the future, she should have just gone in her pajamas...
The cars of tomorrow were old looking by 1957
Ehh,,, Tomarow 60 years from then will be a nightmare.... perhaps.
The Cadillac was the only one to make it to production as the '58 Eldorado Brougham, which cost over $10,000 when most cars were $2,000 or so.