Congratulations! You just landed that VP position at Southland Life Insurance
in the brand-spanking new 42-story Southland Life Building, the tallest
skyscraper in Dallas. No, the tallest west of the Mississippi! And negotiated
the membership at the tony Chaparral Club too. The boys at your former
employer, Braniff Airlines, are going to be pea-green!! So now you're in the
market for a new luxury automobile to reflect your new professional standing in
your Highland Park neighborhood. You bought that Buick Caballero hardtop wagon
for the missus last year, but as much as you love that tri-tone '56 Packard 400
with its marvelous torsion bar suspension, it is indeed looking a little dated
next to the new offerings from Detroit.
But what new car will you get? Packard is obviously out. No one in Texas
drive those foreign cars, Jaguar and Mercedes. And Cadillac...well, that
styling is just sooo nouveau riche. Who with any taste at all would want THAT?
Never mind that the little woman's been cooing for a new Sixty Special, you
know better. Think of the gossipy ladies in the bridge club at the Dallas
Country Club when your wife drives up with all the flash of Jayne Mansfield in
"The Girl Can't Help It", when you know she's the classy Kim Novak-type in
"Vertigo". No need to read about her in Suzy Knickerbocker's column when she
writes about the Big D social scene again.
May I submit for your review the fabulous 1959 Imperial. For 1959, the guys on
Madison Avenue have come up with some terrific advertisements to grace the
pages of Look, Life, and The Saturday Evening Post. Thanks to the efforts of
this humble (!) author and Eileen's owner, Steve, they are now available for
all to see again. "Heads will turn" at "the classic concept" of "a dashing
sort of dignity", "power" and "a treasury of excellences" as "distances shrink"
in the "silence". Go to
www.imperialclub.com/YearbyYear/1959/Advertisements/index.htm for all the new
additions to the collection.
And since you are an enlightened gentleman way before his time, what a way to
get your new purchased blessed by your spouse than by showing her the ads tying
in the Imperial with Elizabeth Arden cosmetics and the A-list clothing designer
Ben Zuckerman (one of Jackie Kennedy's chosen outfitters). You might want to
inspect the ads first, lest the little woman think you're implying she needs to
shop in the "plus-size" department at the local Saks (New York), Garfinkels
(Washington), The Dayton Company (Minneapolis), Harzfeld's (Kansas City),
Sakowitz (Houston), Vandever's (Tulsa), Neustetter's (Denver) and Goldwaters
(Phoenix). Now THERE's a list of generally defunct retailers. What, no
Bullock's Wilshire, I. Magnin, City of Paris, Wanamaker's or Sanger-Harris?
Check out www.imperialclub.com/YearbyYear/1959/Arden/index.htm You're in for a
surprise if you're expecting the minimalist Cadillac-style ads ("Coupe de
Ville, gown by Schiaparelli, jewels by Van Cleef & Arpels"). Ta!
ke some time to read the ad copy - it's so unlike anything you'll see nowadays.
If, perchance, the wife is put off by the Ben Zuckerman fashions and still
insists that those Cadillac diamonds are her best friend, show her how Imperial
stacks up against "the other fine cars" in the official Chrysler Corporation
comparision brochure. Do they have curved side glass or Torsion-Aire
suspension? Were they a three-time winner in the Mobilgas Economy Run (well,
all things are relative!)? Do they have the Silvercrest Landau roof treatment
for "that Imperial look of assured originality"? Then point out that she'll
look as much like the belle of the ball at the Cattlemen's Ball as the lady in
the tiara on page 11, in your new Imperial! You'll be driving that new LeBaron
up Turtle Creek Blvd. in no time! Go to
www.imperialclub.com/YearbyYear/1959/Next/index.htm
Sure is different from that New Age-y Infiniti stuff a few years back. Happy
reading!
Neal Herman
1959 Imperial Crown 4-door Southampton "Aquitania"
1972 Buick Riviera "Bianca d'Azur"
1983 Chrysler Cordoba "Christine Corinthia"
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