From: Christopher Hoffman <imperial67@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 06:33:41 -0700
The Parade Phaetons seem to have changed colors in some cases since 1956 but
only one has changed owners...
The City of Los Angeles still owns its car, now white with white leather.
The City of New York still owns its car, and it is black with red leather.
The Detroit car (also most recently white, with natural pigskin leather if I
recall correctly) was the one in the Imperial Palace collection for years
that recently was sold at auction. It's the only one in private hands (and
what lucky hands)...
These should be covered in the imperialclub.com archives pretty well...
I've been lucky enough to see all three in person over the years, and they
are a magical sight!
Chris in LA
Bill Watson (wwatson@xxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> The phaeton parade cars were built in 1952. There were three built, and
> Chrysler lent them to three cities :
> New York - black with light-grey interior
> Detroit - metallic green with natural pigskin interior
> LosAngeles - cream with a rose-red interior
>
> When they were redone in 1955 with 1956 styling themes, the New York and
> Detroit cars became off-white with red leather interiors while the
> LosAngeles car was metallic silver-blue with white upholstery.
>
> Sounds like the television show used the LosAngeles car (not surprisingly).
>
> Unlike the 1940 Chrysler Crown Imperial parade car, body by Derham, the
> three 1952 parade cars were eventually sold to the public. The 1940 Crown
> Imperial, built initially for the New York's World Fair, was owned by
> Chrysler Corporation until donated to the Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI,
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