The first image I saw was a small bottle of perfume, its top enveloped by a large printed bouquet of ribbons on a card. Beneath it, I read three words that were incongruous with the image:
“New 1954 Chevrolet.” What did a Chevy have to do with perfume? Then I read the small print:
“In appreciation of your interest
in the Beautiful
New 1954 Chevrolet”
Below the inscription was the name of a dealership in Pennsylvania.
Wanting to know more, I turned to the back of the package and saw that this was a complimentary gift of Prince Matchabelli’s “Wing Song” perfume from the dealership to its female customers.
Wind Song had been introduced the year before as a reasonably priced perfume so giving away millions of tiny bottles to lure women to buy Chevys wouldn’t break the bank.
General Motors was said to have given away more than one million bottles of Prince Matchabelli’s perfume during the fall of 1954 to promote its 1955 Chevys. (Later, Wind Song was immortalized in the ditty that still plays in the heads of many of a certain generation: “I can’t seem to forget you. Your Wind Song stays on my mind.”)
By the 1950s, General Motors’ Chevrolet was the top-seller, having supplanted Henry Ford and his Model T by the end of the 1920s by offering cars for less. In 1954, the Chevy car of the hour was the Bel Air. First introduced in 1950 as the Deluxe Styleline Bel Air, it was the first generation of this model. In 1953, the top-of-the-line Styleline car was given the simple name Bel Air.
But there was nothing simple about the car itself. The exterior had lots of chrome molding, a roof that looked like a convertible but was not detachable, a luxurious interior with a heavy dose of chrome, brilliant colors, top-of-the-line steering wheel, chrome horn, carpeting, wheel cover and optional power steering . The Bel Air came in five body styles, including a hardtop coupe, station wagon with exterior wood-grain trim and a convertible. The coupe sold for $1,741.
The 1954 Chevy Bel Air was much the same, but power steering was standard along with power brakes, power seats and power windows – all of the accessories that originally could only be found on luxury cars. The 1955 was more stylish, but nothing topped the iconic and very popular 1957 model.
The cars were beautiful, “as fresh and colorful as the flowers of spring,” Chevrolet noted in a 1954 ad showing all of its cars.
Cars in general were not necessarily pitched to women, although many women were in on the household decision to buy and what to buy. Starting in 1956, Chevrolet sponsored “The Dinah Shore Chevy Show,” with each episode ending in her singing that familiar tune “Drive the USA in your Chevrolet” as perhaps as much as an appeal to women and families as to men.
Some car companies did aim their sights on the female market. In 1955, Dodge created the La Femme, a pink two-door vehicle that came with a pink calf-skin purse the color of the interior of the car. The purse held a compact, lipstick case, cigarette case and lighter, and comb. On the back of the driver’s seat was a compartment with a raincoat, rain bonnet and umbrella. The car was in production for only two years.
Most car designers at the time were men, not women, who for years were the stereotypical butt of jokes about their driving or their inability to do it well. It took women a little longer to drive en masse because, among other things, the earliest cars had to be started by turning a hand crank. Once the self-starter appeared on cars in 1912, that opened the door but not far enough. Carmakers did not begin to view women as real buyers until after World War II, but designing cars was still – and still is – off-limits.
One of the earliest team of female industrial designers was assembled at General Motors in the 1950s by its president for styling, Harley Earl. Called the “Damsels of Design,” the group of nine (or 10, depending on who you read) female designers worked for the company’s Frigidare division and its automobile interior design department.
They created Corvette’s retractable seat belts, and such other accessories as glove compartments and light-up mirrors. In 1958, Earl organized the first exhibition of cars by the women. When he retired in 1958, his successor dismantled the team.
