I own a KIA Soul which has proven to be a great mini-ute. That being said I agree car commercials should actually showcase the vehicles available options.
All 21st century commercials are infantile. They all center around a really slovenly couple (either black or inter-racial) doing some ridiculous sight gag, often CGI generated, which later turns out to be their reaction to the product. Not a word about what the product actually is or why you should buy it. But the young buyers today are all so stoned they wouldn't understand facts, anyway.
@@tomservo56954 Part of the design of the 1964-66 Imperial was Exner's contribution. These cars were all designed in 1962-63 before Exner left Chrysler to go design motorboats. Exner designed the circular Imperial Eagle logo as well as the entire chrome rear bumper assembly, and he and Engel agreed to continue to use Exner's windshield design from 1957 on the 1964-66 Imperials. Engel designed the slab-sided bodies and front grilles, and most of the interiors, but Exner championed the 1964 front split grille design. Engel designed the front ends of the 1965-66 models.
I'll take the unpopular option here. Geez they were ugly but so damn cool. I know a gentleman who has 9 forward look cars and I've driven 2 plus 2 others he's since sold. Some of the best of the mid '50's early '60's we'll never see cars like this again and that's sad. Thanks to my buddy Noel for sparking my interest in these cars.
He was the announcer for Highway Patrol from the beginning to end. He also had a recurring role in Dragnet (episodes with Harry Morgan). He wrote several books on radio announcing and was the announcer on the religious program hosted by Garner Ted Armstrong, "The World Tomorrow". Art lived well into his 90's.
And lest we forget, "Art Gilmore speaking" was the last thing you heard every Tuesday night on CBS for "The Red Skelton Show" (for Johnson's Wax and Pet Milk Company!)
I'm proud to be able to have called Art Gilmore my friend. He was a fantastic fellow. He also voiced trailers for many, many films for Paramount as well as Elvis's movies.
Back then, you could actually SEE the vehicles being advertised. I also appreciate the announcer being properly dressed for the occasion. Imagine, a car commercial that you actually *want* to watch. Skillful advertising such as this is a lost art.
My mom & dad owned a 1957 Dodge coronet in '57. Those up to the 1961 models were absolutely beautiful!!! All that chrome, the sleek stylish body, and those tailfins, OMG!!! Love, love, love the mopar fins during those years. And when you compare those commercials then with now, notice a BIG difference? Those cars had a beauty all their own that sold the car itself. It could be sitting still and look hot as ever. But nowdays the cars have no style and have to show off speed & racing just to get noticed. Those older cars were truly beautiful works of art. If I could ever have 1, I would be MORE than proud to show it as the pride of workmanship reflected in the final product. And back then, from a distance you could decipher 1 car make/model from another. Unlike today's crap that are made from the same mold, no chrome, no fins, no stylish dashboards, etc. These newer cars just DON'T MEASURE UP in styling looks and quality as my "tail fin era favorites" did. Ohhh how I miss them.😭 Everything else is making a retro comeback, I wish the older cars would too!!!! I'd trade my newer one for an older 1 like RIGHT NOW!!!😆😆🖒🖒
@@walterweddle7644 They did, have character, but they did not last and or people didn't care for them. I remember as a kid in the late 60s, rarely seeing a 10 year old car and when you did it was usually dented up, pieces of chrome missing, paint faded, interior torn up, and hubcaps long gone. Essentially a year or two away from it's appointment with the crusher. I also grew up in Northern, California where rust just wasn't a factor. Maybe since the cost as a percentage of income was so much less and the fact that they were constantly evolving with style and features they just depreciated like rocks after a few years so people were always trading up to the next new thing. Picture yourself in 1969 and compare a base model 59 Plymouth to that of a 69. In addition to the car just being more comfortable, you would have had automatic transmission, power steering, power brakes, maybe even AM FM and Air Conditioning if the buyer wanted to splurge. Not to mention that there were several safety features that had been mandated since then, meanwhile, the 59 would also have been 4 body styles behind and just looked dated and old.
@@kennethsouthard6042 Watch shows from the late 60s-70s and look at the cars on the roads. I could list 100s, start with Adam 12, look you see 1950s cars rust free on the road, or how about the Streets of San Francisco. Any shows from the 70s out west. I remember in the mid-late 80s here in the salt belt Michigan early 70s cars but were rusty that's Michigan though
@@m42037 I think back to the street I grew up on. We moved there in 68 when I was 5. We had a 62 Thunderbird (still in our family by the way) and a 64 Volkswagen and our cars were probably about toward the older age of cars on the street. The oldest car that I can remember was the guy's wife across the street had a 59 Chevy, but she traded that in the next year for a new Malibu. I would say that the average of cars on that street with 20 houses or so then were probably 65 - 66 model year and I remember a hoop of them replaced around 69 -70 and by 73 about 90% of the ones that were there when we moved in were gone and the few that remained were not too well cared for after that. When we moved out of that neighborhood in 78, I think our Thunderbird was the last car that would have been there when we got there in 68, but it really wasn't driven much as a 73 Lincoln became the new family car in75 and the Volkswagen was replaced with a 77 Toyota pickup.
Only a very small percentage of Americans watching this TV special saw it in color...color TVs were sill very rare due to being considerably more expensive, coupled with a lack of color programming to watch in general. That this original 2 inch videotape survived, and that it was possible to find a functioning videotape player to transfer it from, was pure luck back in about 1990.
@@m42037 You do not understand that video technology had already changed dramatically from the time this tape was recorded in 1958 to when it was found. Yes, it was a big deal that it was possible to play it and transfer it to a watchable format. I attended a presentation by the people who handled this process back in the 1990s when they'd just completed it.
The Plymouth station wagons were the biggest of the low-priced three because all Chrysler Corporation wagons that year shared the same chassis and 122-inch wheelbase! And notice the rare '59 Dodge Sweptside pickup (with the fenders of the Dodge station wagon) at the very end of the closing clip!
I remember in 1963, the neighbor across the street had a pink and white 1958 Plymouth wagon. One summer night, my family and I were sitting in the front yard, there was a terrible sound of tearing metal and a boom. My father ran across the street, the spare tire had fallen through the rotten fender and fell on the driveway. Dad helped the neighbor through the tire in the back, the neighbor took off down the street. Two hours later, he pulled in the drive with a new 1963 Ford Country Sedan wagon.
@@21stcenturyfossil7 Okay, I never knew that he did the narration, good to know. Another Adam 12 connection, William Boyett (Sgt Macdonald) also appeared on Highway Patrol.
@@bobwigg761 William Boyett was a familiar TV face from the 50s to the 80s. Seems he usually played a police officer, oftentimes on one of the Jack Webb shows. Here, he's selling the 67 Mustang: th-cam.com/video/vPn98yW9Aug/w-d-xo.html
1959 , what a great year for Chrysler. We have just replaced our successful series of hemi engines with larger displacement wedge engines that cost much less to produce ( 35 dollars per engine less ).
0:56 are you sure about that Chrysler? The '49 Cadillac is generally agreed on as the start of fin mania. Love the color on that Fury. Interesting roof treatment on that New Yorker, DeSoto had the same design. 3:05 and try finding any of those today3:49 that's right the window rolls down to let all those exhaust fumes in 4:31 well it seemed like a good idea 4:44 Hey what about one of my favorite wagons of all time the Newport? Love the color on both the Dodge and Plymouth wagons. 5:07 WOW I'm sold.5:35 that mint green DeSoto is out of this world.
The two best late '50's Chrysler commercials, by FAR are the Lawrence Welk Plymouth JATO Rocket commercial and the entire High School Confidential movie......
"OK kids, New Yorker hardtop sedan or Plymouth ragtop; which of these is going to be the rusty old beater you drive to Woodstock in only to leave in the ditch five miles from Yasgur's farm?"
Arthur Wells Gilmore, known as Art Gilmore (March 18, 1912 - September 25, 2010) was an American voice actor and announcer heard in on radio and television programs, children's records, movies, trailers, radio commercials, and documentary films. He also appeared in several television series and a few feature films.
Chrysler Corporation had Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler and Imperial! Ford Motor Company had Ford, Mercury, Edsel,Lincoln and Continental! General Motors had Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac! All three companies had five makes back then, each with their own models!
And by the end of 1960, Ford had merged Lincoln and Continental back into one division (and dumped the Edsel), while Chrysler dropped DeSoto. When Chrysler introduced the Valiant for 1960, it was its own division ("this car is nobody's kid brother"), but the trials and tribulations at Chrysler forced DeSoto and Plymouth to merge at the end of 1959. And Plymouth sales for 1960 were so bad, Valiant became Plymouth's "kid brother" in 1961 to improve sales.
Both Ford and Chrysler thought GM had the right idea with multiple divisions by being able to keep a buyer for life as they moved up the economic ladder. However, I don't think that they realized the marketing, engineering and manufacturing costs involved in maintaining so many divisions, so they both dropped back to 3 by the early 60s. GM had more experience with it and soldiered on with that strategy, but rather than dropping divisions started in the late 60s changing the differentiation, to where by the late 70s there was basically everything else and Cadillac and by the early 80s they even started to poison that pool to the point that those that bought a Caddy were literally being taken for a ride.
Well, considering that Chrysler had an unfortunate reputation for not so great quality, I will definitely say that those were some massive cars with more room than the competition so if you were looking for a big car, you’d look no further than Mopar, even I can say that Chrysler had some good looking cars, I still love the looks of the 72-73 Chrysler New Yorker and Imperial, I just think they had more features that others lacked, but don’t quote me
The 59 Plymouth is the best looking car ever made. And to think it was their entry in the "low price field". Chrysler tried really hard to put over the push button transmission, but it never caught on with any other company (Ford tried it with the Edsel, but it flopped like the rest of the car), and Chrysler eventually abandoned it too. I drove a 61 Imperial for a number of years and got to like the push button transmission. I guess it was just too different for people to get used to, and maybe people just like grabbing the stick. Who knows?
1958 was the year the American public started taking notice of foreign cars. I mean Americans are free to choose whatever they want, why deny them that?
There was an import boom that peaked in 1959 just before the Big 3 launched their own compact cars. After that the import market would sugar off quickly with a lot of marginal makes dropping out of the US and only VW gaining sales, until the Japanese started coming on strong with the '66 Toyota Corona and '68 Datsun 510.
Awesome commercial, in color; forward look!👏So much class. No these weren’t privileged whites; these were men and women who survived the depression, won wars, and made America the greatest empire in history.🤔🇺🇸
Yea, the buttons were away from the children, but the gas pedal wasn't! Family story goes, I was sitting on the floor on the passenger side and crawled onto the hump and pushed my fathers foot right to the floor, while he was parking the car! So the 383 cu in engine jumped to life the car nearly went through the garage wall! (I was a bad little bastard!!!)
I'm a sucker for '50s cars, but it needs to be pointed out that these finned, chromed, oversized cars were rejected by a growing number of Americans in 1959. That was the first year that sales of compact foreign cars really grew, and it forced the American companies into crash programs to introduce their own compact cars for the 1960 model year. And imported cars never went away after that.
hebneh Chrysler down sized their cars until the mid 1960s when the public wanted big cars again. Fury is a good example. It shrank in 61 and went big again with the C body platform.
@@josephjames259 Chrysler downsized its 1962 models based on information that GM was doing likewise. That turned out to be the 1962 Chevy II compact. The Impala and others remained full size. Chrysler suffered a major drop in sales in '62 as its customers defected to GM and Ford.
frdjr252 I love the 61 Fury, but they are out of my budget. I found a 60 Matador (pretty rare) but in poor shape. The C bodies are relatively inexpensive compared with insane prices on B body cars. Unfortunately not a lot of parts are made for C bodies. Fun to drive, though. th-cam.com/video/UvvhZ4gTQaU/w-d-xo.html
there was a time when the gods worked like men , toiling this earth , digging the foundations to bring life forth . and when they succeeded ? they taught Humans 3 things , the holy trinity of that is to succeed in creating ,,,, well basically how far your imagination can go : Geometry , Physics and Chemistry , schools used to do that in those days , and in those days Innovation was more Competition between children to prove who's Idea was fit more to serve a better future . there was once schools that taught the knowledge of the Gods and even more : civics and merits to help a better civilized generation to take over as they pass such priceless river of information to them . in those days socializing was more physical in places where minds met and lovers melt toward each others , Music was the poetry of the hearts to whom lovers danced , and also had places to go to and find your future happy wife that completed you happy life , places full of life , energy and innovation . in those days I use to see children stand in Awe before the American flag as they watched their fellow Americans fly in to the skies like eagles with talons carrying messages to the Gods : we shall one day be like you , and roam the universe by rights by our seed you have planted on this wonderful Earth . and the American Children use to follow those 3 holy trinity things to be their next vehicles as they imagined how extraordinary Journeys would fold one day for their own future Children too . in those days , prayer was meant for forgiveness when a person realized their doings were wrong , not to go to the house of God and compare clothing or try to get attention , the altar and the temples were to be Holy and served free , not built to establish Lavish estates where servants become owners of their own God's house . I look around me today wherever I go and all I see is sheeple roaming in fields and fields of ugly ass shopping Malls , their heads down on little screens they call Mobile devices and they seem excited by it , and graze over useless posts and meaningless pictures of others on what they call today : modern way of life , the social Media . how sad , and how truly all that was built once now is crumbling before the eyes of this wacky Iraqi Bastard who walks among you all without rights still .
Gustavo Borjalo Broadcast Live On October 17, 1958 in Living Color on NBC and ABC simultaneously resulting in a 67 share in the over night ratings for a television special. First show entirely video taped in color and broadcast live. On NBC The M Squad and The Thin Man were cancelled for that evening and on ABC The Lawrence Show was also cancelled for that evening. That just shows the power of just one of the big 3 automakers in the 1950's to make 2 networks to pull their most popular shows to introduce their new line up of car that would have the covers pulled off of them at the dealerships the next morning.
Tail fins. Just another of the nutso wrinkles that "stylists" introduced for no reason at all. Hard to believe at this distance, but about this time their word was law at the Big 3..
There was a good reason. People were enamored with the space race. The fins didn't last too long, but that's another great thing about this era -- you got new styling every year. Today, the cars look the same every year.
I can truly see how Plymouth was an incredibly strong contender for the Big 3 in 1959! Especially gorgeous as a convertible in my opinion!
How clever, a car commercial that actually shows the car and its features! Gee, no hamster in a hoodie.
I own a KIA Soul which has proven to be a great mini-ute. That being said I agree car commercials should actually showcase the vehicles available options.
I agree. Todays car commercials really lack in this area.
All 21st century commercials are infantile. They all center around a really slovenly couple (either black or inter-racial) doing some ridiculous sight gag, often CGI generated, which later turns out to be their reaction to the product. Not a word about what the product actually is or why you should buy it. But the young buyers today are all so stoned they wouldn't understand facts, anyway.
@@GLC2013 It's the difference between advertising that had to lure you into the showroom and advertising that only needs to lure you to the website.
It’s like a living time capsule,a look though the tunnel of time into the past. It’s amazing that the old video has survived for this long.
Thank you, Virgil M. Exner Sr. (1909-1973) the Creator of the Forward Look cars of 1955-1962 and Imperial to 1966.
Elwood Engel revamped the Imperial in 1964, echoing his 1961 Lincoln Continental
@@tomservo56954 Part of the design of the 1964-66 Imperial was Exner's contribution. These cars were all designed in 1962-63 before Exner left Chrysler to go design motorboats. Exner designed the circular Imperial Eagle logo as well as the entire chrome rear bumper assembly, and he and Engel agreed to continue to use Exner's windshield design from 1957 on the 1964-66 Imperials. Engel designed the slab-sided bodies and front grilles, and most of the interiors, but Exner championed the 1964 front split grille design. Engel designed the front ends of the 1965-66 models.
The Forward Look cars are my FAV early Chrysler Corp. cars! They are just gorgeous!
I absolutely agree! The Forward Look cars are amazing!
You can thank auto designer Virgil Exner for the forward look. Chrysler later unfortunately fired him.
Samual Terry Exner Tailfins are and always will be the best
I'll take the unpopular option here. Geez they were ugly but so damn cool. I know a gentleman who has 9 forward look cars and I've driven 2 plus 2 others he's since sold. Some of the best of the mid '50's early '60's we'll never see cars like this again and that's sad. Thanks to my buddy Noel for sparking my interest in these cars.
@@zacharygerhart8504 Except the '59 and '60 Dodges, they look like afterthoughts.
Pure class! Art Gilmore was one of the best announcers ever!!
I recognized his voice. Yes. The great voice of Art Gilmore. Takes me back.
💯💯💯
...then, along came Gary Owens.
At 4:13...what a HUGE amount of space in this Plymouth wagon!! No SUV need apply!!
That burgundy IMPERIAL Le Baron just screams "old money".
Very beautiful and elegant car .
Very nice presentation 👍
Thanks for posting all the commercials from the stunning Fred Astaire spectacular!
That announcer has a great voice
It's Art Gilmore, he did a lot of work for Chrysler, you can find him if you search on youtube....quite a few commercials for Chrysler
@@OsbornTramain Did he narrate Highway Patrol?
He was the announcer for Highway Patrol from the beginning to end. He also had a recurring role in Dragnet (episodes with Harry Morgan). He wrote several books on radio announcing and was the announcer on the religious program hosted by Garner Ted Armstrong, "The World Tomorrow". Art lived well into his 90's.
And lest we forget, "Art Gilmore speaking" was the last thing you heard every Tuesday night on CBS for "The Red Skelton Show" (for Johnson's Wax and Pet Milk Company!)
I'm proud to be able to have called Art Gilmore my friend. He was a fantastic fellow. He also voiced trailers for many, many films for Paramount as well as Elvis's movies.
Wish I would have had a De Soto back then drove a couple but never owned one, they were good cars!
1959 is my favorite year for Desoto.
@@CamSargent '59 was the last year DeSoto offered a full line up. By that year, DeSoto's identity was blurred between Dodge and Chrysler.
To that point the '61's had canted headlights just like the Chrysler.
Back then, you could actually SEE the vehicles being advertised. I also appreciate the announcer being properly dressed for the occasion.
Imagine, a car commercial that you actually *want* to watch. Skillful advertising such as this is a lost art.
Yes, today's SUV commercials are all about family needs, interiors, stereo systems and safety. Not about what these vehicles look like.
Very cool and futuristic! I really enjoyed watching this...thanks!!
My mom & dad owned a 1957 Dodge coronet in '57. Those up to the 1961 models were absolutely beautiful!!! All that chrome, the sleek stylish body, and those tailfins, OMG!!! Love, love, love the mopar fins during those years. And when you compare those commercials then with now, notice a BIG difference?
Those cars had a beauty all their own that sold the car itself. It could be sitting still and look hot as ever. But nowdays the cars have no style and have to show off speed & racing just to get noticed. Those older cars were truly beautiful works of art. If I could ever have 1, I would be MORE than proud to show it as the pride of workmanship reflected in the final product. And back then, from a distance you could decipher 1 car make/model from another. Unlike today's crap that are made from the same mold, no chrome, no fins, no stylish dashboards, etc. These newer cars just DON'T MEASURE UP in styling looks and quality as my "tail fin era favorites" did. Ohhh how I miss them.😭 Everything else is making a retro comeback, I wish the older cars would too!!!! I'd trade my newer one for an older 1 like RIGHT NOW!!!😆😆🖒🖒
I totally agree! Automobiles back then had character.
@@walterweddle7644 They did, have character, but they did not last and or people didn't care for them. I remember as a kid in the late 60s, rarely seeing a 10 year old car and when you did it was usually dented up, pieces of chrome missing, paint faded, interior torn up, and hubcaps long gone. Essentially a year or two away from it's appointment with the crusher. I also grew up in Northern, California where rust just wasn't a factor.
Maybe since the cost as a percentage of income was so much less and the fact that they were constantly evolving with style and features they just depreciated like rocks after a few years so people were always trading up to the next new thing.
Picture yourself in 1969 and compare a base model 59 Plymouth to that of a 69. In addition to the car just being more comfortable, you would have had automatic transmission, power steering, power brakes, maybe even AM FM and Air Conditioning if the buyer wanted to splurge. Not to mention that there were several safety features that had been mandated since then, meanwhile, the 59 would also have been 4 body styles behind and just looked dated and old.
Today's cars are sad. Cars all look about the same. And the colors are the same. And they don't change from year to year. How did we sink so low?
@@kennethsouthard6042 Watch shows from the late 60s-70s and look at the cars on the roads. I could list 100s, start with Adam 12, look you see 1950s cars rust free on the road, or how about the Streets of San Francisco. Any shows from the 70s out west. I remember in the mid-late 80s here in the salt belt Michigan early 70s cars but were rusty that's Michigan though
@@m42037 I think back to the street I grew up on. We moved there in 68 when I was 5. We had a 62 Thunderbird (still in our family by the way) and a 64 Volkswagen and our cars were probably about toward the older age of cars on the street. The oldest car that I can remember was the guy's wife across the street had a 59 Chevy, but she traded that in the next year for a new Malibu. I would say that the average of cars on that street with 20 houses or so then were probably 65 - 66 model year and I remember a hoop of them replaced around 69 -70 and by 73 about 90% of the ones that were there when we moved in were gone and the few that remained were not too well cared for after that. When we moved out of that neighborhood in 78, I think our Thunderbird was the last car that would have been there when we got there in 68, but it really wasn't driven much as a 73 Lincoln became the new family car in75 and the Volkswagen was replaced with a 77 Toyota pickup.
I owned a 57 Plymouth Suburban wagon. It handled very well on the highway due to the torsion-air ride.
Big 301 V8 used a helluva lot of gas though !
Yes, but gas was only 15 cents a gallon.
Only a very small percentage of Americans watching this TV special saw it in color...color TVs were sill very rare due to being considerably more expensive, coupled with a lack of color programming to watch in general. That this original 2 inch videotape survived, and that it was possible to find a functioning videotape player to transfer it from, was pure luck back in about 1990.
Actually, there are still some 2 inch quad machines around that can play this tape. www.quadtapexfer.com/
The first time color video tape was shown was in June of 1958 with speech by President Eisenhower. It shows the new technology from RCA.
@@robertkeefer1552 And this tape has survived, too.
30 year old tapes aren't a big deal, you said it was found in 90. It's not tape from the silent era lol
@@m42037 You do not understand that video technology had already changed dramatically from the time this tape was recorded in 1958 to when it was found. Yes, it was a big deal that it was possible to play it and transfer it to a watchable format. I attended a presentation by the people who handled this process back in the 1990s when they'd just completed it.
The 1957-1958 models were masterpieces. Our of the 59's the Dodge and Plymouth were the most attractive.
One of the most enjoyable parts of this show was watching a young Mary Tyler Moore Dancing at the End
Coool
I couldn't see her, would you show me the 0:00
The voice of 'Highway Patrol' himself! Miss you Art, 10-4.
Call me crazy but i really believe the De Soto is going places!! ..long lasting quality 👍
Yeah out of business in another 2 years, loved those cars going back to the '35 DeSoto airflow.
The Plymouth station wagons were the biggest of the low-priced three because all Chrysler Corporation wagons that year shared the same chassis and 122-inch wheelbase! And notice the rare '59 Dodge Sweptside pickup (with the fenders of the Dodge station wagon) at the very end of the closing clip!
All the commercials done by that great announcer, Art Gilmore.
He also did the voice over in HIGHWAY PATROL and also guest starred in DRAGNET 1967-70.
+Fred Wucher Not to mention the Red Skelton show on TV and lots of great movie trailers during the 1940s and '50s.
Gilmore was the soundtrack of 50's television. I hear his voice and it takes me right back!
@@fredwucher3792 True. I watch Highway Patrol everyday. It's like a time capsule.
That plymouth is beautiful
Beautiful cars! Really classy presentation!!
Thanks for posting these treasures from the past!
Greetings from Brazil.
@5:06 "You can sit up straight, even with a hat on." Remember that the next time you doubt your own confidence.
love this wow !!
These cars are ahead of there time still in 2021
Wow!!!. Love the Sport Fury!!!. The wagons...nice for the spare tire and long before the car seats for children!!!!.
Old good days gone. I miss it
I wish they'd open the hoods. Show the optional tunnel ram, with the one 4 barrel over here, and the other one way over there.
I remember in 1963, the neighbor across the street had a pink and white 1958 Plymouth wagon. One summer night, my family and I were sitting in the front yard, there was a terrible sound of tearing metal and a boom. My father ran across the street, the spare tire had fallen through the rotten fender and fell on the driveway. Dad helped the neighbor through the tire in the back, the neighbor took off down the street. Two hours later, he pulled in the drive with a new 1963 Ford Country Sedan wagon.
Scott Ferrell Go away Ford lover .. Fiat Chrysler all the way.
***** Actually, I cant help it, my father was an executive for Ford Motor, but when it cam to style, Chrysler was hard to beat.
@@sferrell1000 My old man bought a new 1963 and a half Ford Galaxy 500, and even today I think that the 63 Ford were the best looking car ever made.
Oops. Chrysler's engineering was great, but their build quality left much to be desired back then.
@@walterweddle7644 Loved the '63 Ford!
The spokesman in this video looks like the actor that appeared in many episodes of Dragnet and Adam 12.
Yes, it was Art Gilmore. In addition to acting, Gilmore narrated many TV shows, most famously "Highway Patrol'.
@@21stcenturyfossil7 Okay, I never knew that he did the narration, good to know. Another Adam 12 connection, William Boyett (Sgt Macdonald) also appeared on Highway Patrol.
@@bobwigg761 William Boyett was a familiar TV face from the 50s to the 80s. Seems he usually played a police officer, oftentimes on one of the Jack Webb shows. Here, he's selling the 67 Mustang:
th-cam.com/video/vPn98yW9Aug/w-d-xo.html
1959 , what a great year for Chrysler. We have just replaced our successful series of hemi engines with larger displacement wedge engines that cost much less to produce ( 35 dollars per engine less ).
I can’t think of a more luxurious American car in the 1950s than the Chrysler Imperial.
That's amazing
5:52 THAT's the best car in the entire presentation, but they didn't talked to much about it.
The spare in the fender...that's something i didn't know about those cars.
I saw this live.
0:56 are you sure about that Chrysler? The '49 Cadillac is generally agreed on as the start of fin mania. Love the color on that Fury. Interesting roof treatment on that New Yorker, DeSoto had the same design. 3:05 and try finding any of those today3:49 that's right the window rolls down to let all those exhaust fumes in 4:31 well it seemed like a good idea 4:44 Hey what about one of my favorite wagons of all time the Newport? Love the color on both the Dodge and Plymouth wagons. 5:07 WOW I'm sold.5:35 that mint green DeSoto is out of this world.
Lovely color from TK-41's and videotape. Yes, it was in color.
How many models and price points can you build?
Really cool
The two best late '50's Chrysler commercials, by FAR are the Lawrence Welk Plymouth JATO Rocket commercial and the entire High School Confidential movie......
"OK kids, New Yorker hardtop sedan or Plymouth ragtop; which of these is going to be the rusty old beater you drive to Woodstock in only to leave in the ditch five miles from Yasgur's farm?"
The well-read Millennial thanks you for this comment~
0:30 'Right Fred' said.
Heh heh, nice (I'm dyin', Ryan...). I always giggle at that part anyway - it sounds like they're kind of chummy.
This was an excellent Mopar year.
That's Art Gilmore, the host or announcer
Arthur Wells Gilmore, known as Art Gilmore (March 18, 1912 - September 25, 2010) was an American voice actor and announcer heard in on radio and television programs, children's records, movies, trailers, radio commercials, and documentary films. He also appeared in several television series and a few feature films.
OsbornTramain Is this Gilmore the same personality who describes the TH-cam ‘71 Chrysler Royal’s “Salted Peanut Theory?”
Chrysler Corporation had Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler and Imperial! Ford Motor Company had Ford, Mercury, Edsel,Lincoln and Continental! General Motors had Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac! All three companies had five makes back then, each with their own models!
And by the end of 1960, Ford had merged Lincoln and Continental back into one division (and dumped the Edsel), while Chrysler dropped DeSoto. When Chrysler introduced the Valiant for 1960, it was its own division ("this car is nobody's kid brother"), but the trials and tribulations at Chrysler forced DeSoto and Plymouth to merge at the end of 1959. And Plymouth sales for 1960 were so bad, Valiant became Plymouth's "kid brother" in 1961 to improve sales.
@@gcfifthgear Ford discontinued Edsel in November 1959. One year later, Chrysler discontinued DeSoto.
Both Ford and Chrysler thought GM had the right idea with multiple divisions by being able to keep a buyer for life as they moved up the economic ladder. However, I don't think that they realized the marketing, engineering and manufacturing costs involved in maintaining so many divisions, so they both dropped back to 3 by the early 60s.
GM had more experience with it and soldiered on with that strategy, but rather than dropping divisions started in the late 60s changing the differentiation, to where by the late 70s there was basically everything else and Cadillac and by the early 80s they even started to poison that pool to the point that those that bought a Caddy were literally being taken for a ride.
FIVE MAKES...NOT FOUR!! At NO POINT in these commercials is it said that the IMPERIAL is a Chrysler…Because it’s NOT !! TWO SEPARATE MAKES/BRANDS !!
I'll take the DeSoto!
Well, considering that Chrysler had an unfortunate reputation for not so great quality, I will definitely say that those were some massive cars with more room than the competition so if you were looking for a big car, you’d look no further than Mopar, even I can say that Chrysler had some good looking cars, I still love the looks of the 72-73 Chrysler New Yorker and Imperial, I just think they had more features that others lacked, but don’t quote me
Art Gilmore: The Don LaFontaine of The Jet Age
I always thought Chrysler 55-73 were nicer than Ford or GM. The Chrysler cars appealed to younger buyers. That Imperial is nice.
Early 60s models were hit and miss though
The 59 Plymouth is the best looking car ever made. And to think it was their entry in the "low price field". Chrysler tried really hard to put over the push button transmission, but it never caught on with any other company (Ford tried it with the Edsel, but it flopped like the rest of the car), and Chrysler eventually abandoned it too. I drove a 61 Imperial for a number of years and got to like the push button transmission. I guess it was just too different for people to get used to, and maybe people just like grabbing the stick. Who knows?
The Great Days before People started buying cars made by other Countries!
How untrue. My father had a Jaguar, then two alfa romeos and then a Lotus - ($4,600 in 1967) BMW was wanted by local racers as were Triumphs and MGs.
@@AngryHatter And, until this very day, NONE of those cars are known for any kind of serious reliability.
1958 was the year the American public started taking notice of foreign cars. I mean Americans are free to choose whatever they want, why deny them that?
There was an import boom that peaked in 1959 just before the Big 3 launched their own compact cars. After that the import market would sugar off quickly with a lot of marginal makes dropping out of the US and only VW gaining sales, until the Japanese started coming on strong with the '66 Toyota Corona and '68 Datsun 510.
Awesome commercial, in color; forward look!👏So much class. No these weren’t privileged whites; these were men and women who survived the depression, won wars, and made America the greatest empire in history.🤔🇺🇸
How important were trucks in 59' that they only did a second of promotion 🤣
Yea, the buttons were away from the children, but the gas pedal wasn't! Family story goes, I was sitting on the floor on the passenger side and crawled onto the hump and pushed my fathers foot right to the floor, while he was parking the car! So the 383 cu in engine jumped to life the car nearly went through the garage wall! (I was a bad little bastard!!!)
Art Gilmore speaking....
Love a Desoto always wanted one better than a Plymouth or Dodge!
I think the announcer went on to be the captain on Dragnet and Adam 12
I M P E R I A L .....NOT "chrysler imperial."
Just imagine if the '60s never happened...
I'm a sucker for '50s cars, but it needs to be pointed out that these finned, chromed, oversized cars were rejected by a growing number of Americans in 1959. That was the first year that sales of compact foreign cars really grew, and it forced the American companies into crash programs to introduce their own compact cars for the 1960 model year. And imported cars never went away after that.
hebneh Chrysler down sized their cars until the mid 1960s when the public wanted big cars again. Fury is a good example. It shrank in 61 and went big again with the C body platform.
@@josephjames259 Chrysler downsized its 1962 models based on information that GM was doing likewise. That turned out to be the 1962 Chevy II compact. The Impala and others remained full size. Chrysler suffered a major drop in sales in '62 as its customers defected to GM and Ford.
frdjr252 I own a 68 Fury. I don’t care for the smaller models very much.
@@josephjames259 Those smaller "full size" Mopars of 1962-64 didn't have many fans.
frdjr252 I love the 61 Fury, but they are out of my budget. I found a 60 Matador (pretty rare) but in poor shape. The C bodies are relatively inexpensive compared with insane prices on B body cars. Unfortunately not a lot of parts are made for C bodies. Fun to drive, though.
th-cam.com/video/UvvhZ4gTQaU/w-d-xo.html
Hmm, they never mention the gas mileage...
No one cared back then. Gas was just 10-12 cents a gallon !!
If that was your concern you bought a VW😉
futuristic!
The forwad look that could compare to Rolls Royce. Those days are not coming back ever or??
Herculite made by PPG industries. Notice the PPG logo.
And PPG went on strike at the start of the '59 models. No car "can do" without glass.
Swivel seats.. nice:) cars had personality back then
The '59 models are when the front ends got ugly--'58 and earlier are much more attractive
imperial only
EXNER EXCELLENCE!
I absolutely love these cars, but, "The cars that can do what they look like they can do" wow... 0 points for creativity
M o p a r. S were cheap 2 get at storage yd in vegas. 2000. 800 n up 2 1500 I bought a 59 2dr imp 800 wow. Sold it tho
there was a time when the gods worked like men , toiling this earth , digging the foundations to bring life forth . and when they succeeded ? they taught Humans 3 things , the holy trinity of that is to succeed in creating ,,,, well basically how far your imagination can go : Geometry , Physics and Chemistry , schools used to do that in those days , and in those days Innovation was more Competition between children to prove who's Idea was fit more to serve a better future .
there was once schools that taught the knowledge of the Gods and even more : civics and merits to help a better civilized generation to take over as they pass such priceless river of information to them .
in those days socializing was more physical in places where minds met and lovers melt toward each others , Music was the poetry of the hearts to whom lovers danced , and also had places to go to and find your future happy wife that completed you happy life , places full of life , energy and innovation .
in those days I use to see children stand in Awe before the American flag as they watched their fellow Americans fly in to the skies like eagles with talons carrying messages to the Gods : we shall one day be like you , and roam the universe by rights by our seed you have planted on this wonderful Earth . and the American Children use to follow those 3 holy trinity things to be their next vehicles as they imagined how extraordinary Journeys would fold one day for their own future Children too .
in those days , prayer was meant for forgiveness when a person realized their doings were wrong , not to go to the house of God and compare clothing or try to get attention , the altar and the temples were to be Holy and served free , not built to establish Lavish estates where servants become owners of their own God's house .
I look around me today wherever I go and all I see is sheeple roaming in fields and fields of ugly ass shopping Malls , their heads down on little screens they call Mobile devices and they seem excited by it , and graze over useless posts and meaningless pictures of others on what they call today : modern way of life , the social Media .
how sad , and how truly all that was built once now is crumbling before the eyes of this wacky Iraqi Bastard who walks among you all without rights still .
NEVER A RECALL to be heard of and STAINLESS STEEL TRIM and GRILLES and WINDSHIELD FRAMES and DOOR HANDLES and DASHBOARD TRIM !!!!!
Now that’s what I call pizzazz!
LOVE THOSE OLD CARS PURE E LEGANCE I DIDN'T LIKE THE NEW ONES
If they stopped the music and the announcer would stop talking and if you listen carefully you can actually hear the cars rusting!
Art Gilmore hosting.
These are great! Too bad they kinda gave Imperial short shrift.
NBC, I presume.
It is
Gustavo Borjalo Broadcast Live On October 17, 1958 in Living Color on NBC and ABC simultaneously resulting in a 67 share in the over night ratings for a television special. First show entirely video taped in color and broadcast live. On NBC The M Squad and The Thin Man were cancelled for that evening and on ABC The Lawrence Show was also cancelled for that evening. That just shows the power of just one of the big 3 automakers in the 1950's to make 2 networks to pull their most popular shows to introduce their new line up of car that would have the covers pulled off of them at the dealerships the next morning.
All metal and chrome and no plastic. The problem with the 59 Chrysler models they rust.
I hope that woman in the blue dress asked a man's permission to sit in the driver's seat.
Careful............😉
No highlight of a DeSoto.
Вау
A lot of good ideas. but styling was beginning to look over done.
Tail fins. Just another of the nutso wrinkles that "stylists" introduced for no reason at all. Hard to believe at this distance, but about this time their word was law at the Big 3..
There was a good reason. People were enamored with the space race. The fins didn't last too long, but that's another great thing about this era -- you got new styling every year. Today, the cars look the same every year.
America was white and organized back then , what happened?
lol
Cry more, bigot.
Absolutely ,and predictably vile and false
I'll take the DeSoto!