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The Way It Was Back Then

Chapter 4

By: Frank Starkes
This is the fourth in a series of articles portraying the exciting life of the post war years immediately following World War II, as I remember them. During the war years just about everything was rationed or in short supply, and after the war life was full of new inventions, new construction, and new automobiles. For those of you reading these articles; if you were born before 1940 it may be a bit of nostalgia, and for those of you born after 1940 it may be interesting to read about the way life was back in the early 50’s. In the first chapter we talked about life in the late 40’s, in the second chapter we revisited 1950 and 51, and in the third chapter we remembered 1952. This chapter will take a look back at the exciting year 1953. I believe most of the information will be fairly accurate, but it is not guaranteed to be 100%, as it will be told as I remember it.

Life is still very good in 1953, people are genuinely happy with their lives and their jobs, and there is a great deal of optimism about the future. The country had a brand new president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the new administration promised change. Auto production controls were lifted in February, and the Korean War was winding down, and ended on July 26th. Factories are busy, people are optimistic, and the public is still pretty much car crazy. Inflation was in check, and new products and inventions continue to flood the marketplace. The design engineers at the car companies were pretty much given an open check book to go all out for glitz; with bigger, wider, heavier, and more powerful cars.

Television and automobiles are still the big topics of conversation for the boys and men, while the ladies are thrilled with the new frozen food products, appliances, and household gadgets. By now, most homes are sporting television sets as evidenced by the tell tale antenna attached to their chimneys. TV’s are now being produced with rectangular 17” screens, and those folks who bought the early ones with 7”, 10”, and 12 “round screens are trading up. The hours of broadcasting are expanding, commercials are becoming more sophisticated, and people are just plain itchy to spend their dollars on new things from cars, to television, to record players and records, to power lawn mowers, and even electric hand drills. Popular Mechanics and Popular Science were the books that most men anxiously waited for each month to read about the new inventions, home projects, and things to make or do on week-ends. There were plans for kit cars that you could make, plans for a laundry room in the basement, a build your own swimming pool in the back yard, a build your own radio, etc. For the more affluent, beautiful wood cabinetry would surround the latest television, radio, and record player combinations for the living room. The minds of men and boys alike were just starved for new and exciting stuff. New homes were being built all over America, most of them one floor models called Ranch Homes. 1953 was an exciting time to be alive.

1953 was a great year for the auto makers as well, especially General Motors. The post World War II sellers market was now over and the car companies were selling the sizzle to bring buyers to the show rooms. 1953 produced a whopping 6,134,534 cars that year. Ford goes all out to regain #1 position over Chevrolet, and came within 100,000 units of doing so. Ford and Buick both celebrate their 50 years in the car business. As for price, Chevrolet’s start at $1524. Imagine, buying a new car for a lot less than some TV’s cost today.

G.M. introduced The Motorama “Dream Car” show tours for six months, hosting some 1.7 million visitors to see four spectacular new convertibles, which remain to this day, very, very collectible and expensive; the Corvette, the Buick Skylark, the Oldsmobile 98 Fiesta, and the Cadillac Eldorado. The Corvette was GM,s first Sport Car, even though it was only a six cylinder, it was peppy, good looking, and had a full fiberglass body. Only 315 units were produced, and cost $3513. The Buick Skylark was a dressed up Roadmaster with a new V-8 engine, cut away rear wheel housings, and a dipped belt line. 1690 units were produced at a cost of $5,000. The Olds Fiesta was a dressed up 98 model with the new wrap around windshield which was lower and swept back into the front door opening. It also had the dipped belt line, with production of just 458 units at $5717. The Cadillac’s Eldorado went over the top style wise, and sported the wrap around one piece windshield, the dipped belt line, a hard fiberglass boot cover, and Kelsey Hayes Wire Wheels. 532 of these beauties at $7,750 found anxious buyers. These four cars were way ahead of their time design and appearance wise, and gave G.M. a definite market edge. Other big news at GM was in the Buick camp. They dumped their long time straight eight over head valve Fireball engine for a new V-8 in their Super and Roadmaster models, which gave these big cars a much needed power boost. Chevrolet introduced the sporty Bel-Air, while Pontiac had a lowered body change.

Chrysler cars had modest body changes to their 51 concepts, with the big news being Dodge getting the Red Ram V-8; a smaller version of the famous Hemi, with 140 horses and 241.3 cubes. Ford products were in their second year model run with only slight changes in body trim. The Indy 500 used a 53 Crestline Sunliner to mark Ford’s 50th birthday. Studebaker came out with the famous Raymond Loewy Star-light coupe which remains very desirable in the collector field to this day. Packard introduced the big Caribbean convertible which brought a lot of interest to their show rooms, and outsold the Cadillac Eldorado at the lower price of $5210. Nash and Hudson had only modest changes to their models, with Hudson in its third year body and Nash in its second year.

Options were an important part of every purchase. By now, most people were ordering their cars with automatic transmissions. Caddy, Olds, and Pontiac used Hydramatic, Buick used Dynaflow, and Chevy had Powerglide. Chrysler had their own design, and Ford used Ford-O-Matic, Mercury used Merc-O-Matic, and Lincoln may have still been using hydramatic. Packard used Ultramatic, Studebaker had their own, and Nash and Hudson used hydramatic as well. Power steering and power brakes were now available on all the upper line models of all makes, and were ordered on most. On the lesser models these options were usually deleted. Radios, heaters, and directional lights were pretty much common add ons. Power windows and a Power Seat still remained convertible options with the exception of top line cars like Cadillac, Lincoln, and Chrysler. I think it was because they shared the hydraulics with the top raising mechanisms needed on convertibles. Spot lights and Fog Lights were not popular extras any more. Whitewall tires and two tone paint combinations became commonplace, which really gave the low end cars a sharper image.

To add a bit of a personal touch to this story about 1953, may I tell you what it was like for me. I am now working a 40 hour week at General Electric in Pittsfield, Mass, going to night school with G.E, studying to be a Tool and Die maker, and making a whopping $1.28 an hour. This basic four year work-school program was how G.E. got their managers, so I knew good times were ahead.

Always keeping one eye on used car lots, I spotted a 1941 black Buick Roadmaster convertible. This was always a dream car for me, and upon striking a deal, I said good-bye to my first love, my 1937 Chevy Sport Coupe, and drove off in that beautiful big powerful Buick. Boy, at 18 years old did I think I was a lucky guy. 1953 and that Buick gave me some wonderful memories, and how I wish I still had it, but that is still another story.

This glimpse into 1953 has only touched on some of the events and happenings of the exciting years after the war. I hope that you have found some humor in it, maybe relived a piece of it, or just enjoyed reading about the way it was back then. Our next issue will look at 1954, another very exciting year, and what happened to the automobile and life itself in that year. If you have any comments, suggestions, or interesting trivia you would like to pass on to me, my e-mail address is (starkes@taconic.net)