Vintage photos....Awesome!

vwlarry said:

Need more information on the be-finned, retractable hardtop streamliner above, please. I've never seen this before. It looks to be built on a Ford V8 chassis, judging by the wheels.

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But both Otakar and I were stumped when Richard Kales sent us these photos of a mystery hardtop convertible from around about 1938. As Richard wrote:

It is a sequential still of a retractable hardtop car that was – according to WBGH (PBS) – shot on May 11,1938 in Reseda, CA and shows up in the film “The World of Tomorrow” – an excellent documentary about the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.

Nothing about the styling of the car gives us any hints, and that fin’s throwing us all for a loop. Seems like something that would have appeared in the pages of Popular Mechanics and then promptly disappeared. So we’re sending the call out to identify this car, or at least point us in the right direction.

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First up, a retractable hardtop car that we’ve seen here before, the Dan LaLee car , but in much better resolution than the grainy photos from three years ago. The photos all date from February 10, 1938, and depict LaLee, along with Jack Knight of United Air Lines and model Betty Bryant, showing off the retractable in or around Dearborn, Michigan. A couple of the photo descriptions include the word “rebuilt” and those wheels appear to come from an earlier Ford, so we can presume LaLee used a chassis from a wrecked car on which to base his retractable.

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AKADriver said:

One interesting detail in any of the '50s and '60s photos of the US are the sheer number of Renault Dauphines. That's a car that went from being incredibly popular to disappearing very quickly. They hit the US in 1957, after the Beetle had already made its initial impression, and quickly gained favor by offering a more American-car-like soft ride and four doors. But as soon as success hit, it immediately snapped back as Americans turned away from imported cars in general in the early '60s and the Dauphine developed a reputation for poor durability. The Beetle's initial popularity and simple engineering kept it afloat; Renault wouldn't come back to the US for a long time (brought back by joining with AMC, only to disappear again after AMC was absorbed into Chrysler).

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audifans said:

Marilyn Monroe and about a jillion troops in Korea

1941. At this point she really realized she'd made it

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Mooosman said:

I think you mean 1951.

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18 Feb 1954, South Korea --- 2/18/1954- Korea: The power of a woman. Over 10,000 GI's turn out to hear and see Marilyn Monroe as the bosomy blonde makes an appearance in Korea, February 16th. Not since President Eisenhower made his pre-inaugural visit has there been such a turnout for a celebrity. The serviceman traveled from all points of the Korea peninsula to get a look at the movie queen.

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1956, London, England, UK --- Creating a minor riot on opening night of her husband's play in London, actress Marilyn Monroe was the center of attention among the audience viewing Marilyn, in a revealing dress, turns to look back, as she sits with playwright Arthur Miller, (left), and Sir Laurence Olivier, (right), with whom she is currently making a movie.

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About to set new Latin American records for air travel two Henry J's are shown being loaded aboard a Pan American World Airways' cargo 'clipper' at Miami, Florida, for the 5741 mile air journey. Four of the newest autos produced by the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation are being flown to Tiphaine and Co., the K-F distributor in Argentina. The shipment marks the first time that new autos have been flown to Argentina for distribution purposes.

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barry2952 said:

My wife think's it's an Olds.

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