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December 13, 1956 — Mercury
Unveiling of the Turnpike
Cruiser at the New York Auto Show.
September 3, 1957 — Edsel
Guy Steuart, where are
you? 8040 Georgia Avenue is now the address of
something called Mayorga Coffee Factory. One Teletouch latte
to go, please.
September 4, 1957 — Edsel
Sept. 4 was Introduction
Day. Edsel’s only Manhattan dealer, Charles Kreisler (bottom
of ad), threw in the towel after two months to sell
Ramblers.
September 10, 1957 — Edsel
Atlas Edsel, Monarch Edsel, Circle Edsel,
Mole-Edsel, Elvic Edsel — poof.
September 15, 1957 — Edsel
A two-page ad showing all
eighteen Edsel models, various permutations of Ranger,
Pacer, Corsair, Citation, Roundup, Villager and Bermuda.
September 25, 1957 — Edsel
The earlier Edsel
newspaper ads were variations on the print ads that appeared
in magazines. Later in the model year they were completely
different. We have around two dozen to post in the coming
weeks.
October 9, 1957 — Edsel
It was early in the game
still, but you can tell the head office was starting to get
nervous. Early in 1957 Ford said it expected to sell more
than 200,000 Edsels in the brand’s first year.
October 19, 1957 — Edsel
Guy Steuart was still
plugging along, “on the right side of the tracks.”
October 22, 1957 — Edsel
The earlier ads
emphasized prestige — Edsel was, after all, supposed to be a
step up — but as the year went on, the focus was increasingly
on price.
October 30, 1957 — Edsel
Up until now, Edsel was
the only new car in the nation’s showrooms, having been
unveiled a month earlier than usual. Ford executives were
hoping the public was taking a wait-and-see attitude with
the car, and that once the price pressure was off — it had
been competing with marked-down 1957 models of other makes —
sales would pick up.
October 31, 1957 — Lincoln
Lincoln and most of the
other makes had November 1 as Announcement Day. An exciting
time if you were a little (or big) kid in the late 1950s.
November 1, 1957 — Buick
The “B-58” Buick (which
took its tag from a supersonic bomber of the same name)
looked something like a lead balloon and sold like one, too.
November 1, 1957 — Chrysler
The 1958 “Forward Look”
Chrysler, with only minor changes compared to the 1957
model, was one of the year’s better looking cars.
November 1, 1957 — Dodge
Another of Virgil Exner’s
finned beauties, set against the Golden Gate Bridge.
November 1, 1957 — Ford
A teaser ad for Ford,
which had its introduction a week later.
November 1, 1957 — Lincoln
Lincoln’s
Announcement
Day ad from the Washington papers.
November 1, 1957 — Plymouth
A very sharp-looking and
elegant design. If only Chrysler had revived this instead of
coming out with the PT Cruiser and Prowler. Bring back
tailfins!
November 6, 1957 — Edsel
The public looked right
back and said blech.
November 13, 1957 — Edsel
Note that “EDA” in small
print — the Edsel Dealers Association.
November 13, 1957 — Lincoln
The rear is stretched
in the top picture to make a giant car look even longer.
November
20, 1957 — Edsel
Charles Kreisler was
still hanging in there on Park Avenue and at East 44th.
November 22, 1957 — Mercury
The 1958 Mercury was
inspired by the Turnpike Cruiser “dream car” of 1956.
November
25, 1957 — Edsel
A Corsair sedan in the
parking lot, and smiles all around.
December 3, 1957 — Lincoln
The Lincoln Landau,
biggest car of 1958 along with the Continental.
December 4, 1957 — Edsel
The one that’s really
new is the lowest-priced, too!
December 17, 1957 — Edsel
More emphasis on price,
and an “authentic scale-model Edsel” offer.
January 8, 1958 — Edsel
Different illustration,
same scale-model offer.
January 12, 1958 — Lincoln
A Lincoln Landau and its
Continental Mark III counterpart below, both stretched out
horizontally to look exaggeratedly long and low.
January 20, 1958 — Edsel
The Happy Edsel Family,
motoring cheerfully along the Oblivion Thruway.
January 28, 1958 — Edsel
Guy Steuart gives it the
old college try.
February 26, 1958 — Edsel
Gallery of Suckers, Part
1, including a miner and a Guggenheim.
March 12, 1958 — Edsel
Gallery of Suckers, Part
2. Hello Earl Hissam of Owatonna, Minnesota.
April 16, 1958 — Edsel
Gallery of Suckers, Part
3. Edsel police cars! (Actually we have a news clip from
1958 on Edsels as police vehicles that we’ll post one of
these days.)
April 30, 1958 — Mercury
Halfway through the model
year the Mercury slogan went from “Sports-Car Spirit
With Limousine Ride” to “Performance Champion for 1958.”
May 6, 1958 — Edsel
The spring of 1958 saw
the debut of ads with the tagline “The Edsel Look Is Here to
Stay,” evidently to counter criticism of the car’s
styling.
May 21, 1958 — Edsel
Another “Edsel Look”
ad, among the most graphically adventurous of the car’s
three model years of existence.
May 22, 1958 — Edsel
Interesting shot of the
Koeppel Motors Edsel showroom, with a Citation rear fender
barely visible through the window, along with a Thunderbird.
June 4, 1958 — Edsel
More “dramatic
Edsel styling.”
July 9, 1958 — Edsel
Chart purports to show
that Edsel sales numbers really weren’t that bad after all.
A year earlier Ford executives were saying at least 200,000
Edsels would be sold in the car’s first year.
August 14, 1958 — Edsel
The chart jumps from
50,000 to 54,300. Yaay!
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