Going Steady with Studie

Fluff up your hair, toss your swimsuit and library books into the center console, grab a lemonade from the glove box door, stuff your backseat with a gang of bridesmaids, and let’s go for a drive! Wait! What??? A pair of pink brochures from 1963 and 1964 Studebaker address the unique needs of women, and while some things have stayed the same, the 50-year old perspective offers some definite differences. Let’s take a look at these couple of historical gems from the collection of Ed Faxon, the owner of Faxon Auto Literature.

Many of the features sound the same as what we look for in cars today, but they worded the benefits with a splash of vintage charm: “First, the ceiling is high enough so it won’t squash your dazzling new hair-do. King size doors, broad and big, give you that wide-open-spaces (never that help-I’m-trapped) feeling! They let you slip out of a Lark like a movie queen – without tugging at your skirt, or scrounging your knees around.The back seat’s wide, ample, and roomy as your favorite love-seat. . . You can haul the whole family, the neighborhood gang, 2/3 of the litt
le league team, or a brace of beautiful bouffant-skirted bridesmaids.” Your beautiful new Studebaker Lark also features cup holders . . .inside the glove box door. You can pull it down to be used as a “picnic tray.” The center console can be used to store your “library books, Bikini, or whatever!”

If you’ve got a flat tire, this pamphlet recommends that you “Put on some fresh lipstick, fluff up your hairdo, stand in a safe spot off the road near your Lark, wave and look helpless and feminine.” If that doesn’t work, she recommends getting out your owner’s manual and “follow the rules. . . just as if you were putting a new needle in your sewing machine. And as you tighten that last lug-nut and snap on the hub cap, you’ll feel a wonderful rewarding surge of self-reliance that you never felt before!” If that same logic works in reverse, now you know that if you’ve ever changed a tire, you’ve probably got the skills to take up a sewing hobby.

Whether they’re from the distant past or just from a few years ago, sales brochures can offer a glimpse into our culture as well as giving you pictures and facts about your vehicle. Have you checked out the brochure for your ride?