50’s Nostalgia – Chrysler Motor’s Forward Look

As the 50’s started Chrysler Motors was the stodgiest of the big-three American automakers. Mid-decade they did a major catchup which left them only 5 years behind the competition but in 1957 Chrysler stopped playing catchup and created some cars that brought something new to the equation.  All the Chrysler makes (Plymouth,Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler and Imperial) sported a wedge shape, hyped in this commercial as ‘Flight Sweep’.  This is just a tease before the cars were released.

The big news was the fins.  Chrysler had added fins to their old syling but the forward look incorpoated the much bigger fins into lower, longer bodies and where the Ford and GM cars wrapped the windshields around to vertical pillers, Chrysler kept the pillers slanted in a way that complemented the motion theme in the cars. The series of commercials show the features and the dramatic new look of the cars.  When I was a kid, the best time of the year was fall when the new car models came out.  Every year had to mark a substantial change and you can see how the commercials hype the new models.  Until I went to college, I could tell you the make, year and model of every American car on the street.  By the time I got out of the Army, the yearly model changes were trivial as American cars went into a death spiral of mindless regulation.