Studes in Roadside Americana photos

[spokejr]

The Salton Sea in So. Cal. back during its short hayday. I think 6384 is from there as well. I remember as a little boy going there with my parents to visit my mother's uncle who loved the place and fishing there. I still don't understand why.

[BRUCESTUDE]

Seattle, 1963:

[kurtruk]

Surfside Beach, South Carolina, 1967

WOW Did anyone notice the complete lack of MoPar products in this shot? Maybe there's one or two hiding here, but come on, Chrysler was building some good cars (and a few ugly ones) in the early sixties. Where are they??? Maybe the '57-up had rusted away already, but their later products weren't so rust-prone.

[BobPalma]

WOW Did anyone notice the complete lack of MoPar products in this shot? Maybe there's one or two hiding here, but come on, Chrysler was building some good cars (and a few ugly ones) in the early sixties. Where are they??? Maybe the '57-up had rusted away already, but their later products weren't so rust-prone.

That's a good point, Kurt, and it brings up a reality I've seen repeatedly in a lifetime of automobile market research: A make's penetration in a given market is so strongly related to one or more good dealers in that market, that a make will have penetration in that market well ahead of its national penetration, due to a good dealer or two. Obviously, the reverse is also true; weak dealers in a given market will produce poor penetration in that market.

To wit: My father's Packard and Nash market in the mid-1950s were two counties along east central Illinois at the Indiana border: Edgar and Clark. Because he was a good dealer, his market penetration for those makes in those counties was roughly twice those marque's national penetration.

But to your point about Ma MoPar is the reality for the Chrysler brand in those counties from 1956-1961 (or 1962, I forget which). To save a lot of typing, read the paragraphs about the Paris IL Chrysler-Plymouth franchise toward the end of this article about my Dad, starting with the paragraph that begins, He went to Plan B:

https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hcc/2010/05/Lu-Palma/3197351.html

As you said, 1957-1959 were good years for Chrysler Corporation. But because of the stupidity on the part of Chrysler's Vice President of North American Car Operations, there was no Chrysler dealer in those counties during those years. (Ultimately, Dodge-Plymouth dealer Floyd Hegg picked up Chrysler in either 1961 or 1962 and became a full-line MoPar dealer upon DeSoto's demise.) People could still buy a Plymouth in that market during 1957-1959 because the Dodge-Plymouth and DeSoto-Plymouth dealers thrived during those years, but if they wanted a Chrysler, they had to go 23 miles across the state line to Terre Haute IN, or north about 35 miles to Danville IL.

So if you found several 1959-1960 photographs of the parking lot at Twin Lakes Park in Paris IL with dozens of local cars in the lot, the probability of your seeing a Chrysler would be nil; certainly far less than Chrysler's 1957-1959 national market penetration would suggest.

(As an aside, the first car I ever owned, as defined by "bought with my own money," was a 1940 Mercury 4-door sedan that had been donated by Hegg Motor Company to The Edgar County Shriners for a charity auction, where I bought it for $67. After getting it home, Mom took this picture of me with the car on a Sunday morning in July 1961, at age 15. It was a running and driving car...but not far, as one of the two water pumps was bad and leaking terribly):



BP

[BobPalma]

From today's Hemmings Blog:




Vancouver BC. BP

[jclary]

Post 6395 above. I usually associate electrical trams operating on rails, instead of wheels and tires. When first viewing the picture, I assumed that the town had paved over, or removed the tracks, but had not removed the overhead electrical tram/trolley lines. However, after closer inspection, I see the pantograph on top of that bus/tram.

[8E45E]

Yep, and AEC Brill trolley bus. Very common in bigger cities right after the war. Edmonton last run a Brill in 1978, and still has #202 in their historical fleet.

Craig

[Dwain G.]

I used to ride one of those electric trolley buses and a real street car (on rails) to school. Once in a while the pcables would jump off the overhead wire causing the bus to drop dead. The drivers had to get out and fish the cables back into position with a long pole carried on every bus for that purpose.

[rowan]

I rode an electric bus to work in SanFran in the early 90's - it was 60' or so long with an accordion section - lots of fun. Hope it's still in service.

[Greenstude]

Re 6395 --- Halifax, Nova Scotia, had many Brill electric trolley buses, which replaced its earlier street car service. When they were taken out of service (early 1970s?) some of them continued in use in Mexico.

[spokejr]

From today's Hemmings Blog:




Vancouver BC. BP

And the Stanley Theater is still alive and well as a live performance venue;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Industrial_Alliance_Stage

[mr moto]

This photo hangs on the wall of Louie's Restaurant (est. 1941) in Baton Rouge, LA. It was probably taken around 1963 judging by the Wagonaire which is the newest car in the picture. Somewhere in that jumble of shops and signs is the original location of Louie's on Chimes Street next to the LSU campus.

[Warren Webb]

I remember seeing the overhead lines at the Wood Green station in north London in 1952. They used a very similar bus but when we went back in 1959 they were gone.

[JRoberts]

Lark playing Peek-a-boo....

[JRoberts]