My grandmother had one of these cars. My parents liked it so much they bought a 1956. Was riding with my mother when the steering wheel came off . My mom managed to get the car parked and called the dealership to get it reatached. That weekend my dad traded it for a Buick Roadmaster.
I remember my grandpa has a mid 50's Plymouth Savoy. As a little kid I remember that it had a "horsehair" headliner. It was the cheapest Mopar they made, with sticky vinyl bench seats.
My Dad bought this exact car. When he picked it up, it came with a two Dcell battery toy of the same model. There was a button you pressed that inflated a little rubber bladder that turned the front wheels. I still have the toy. Amazing.
You did a very good job! I am the guy who wrote the definitive article about LaFemmes almost forty years ago, that has been plagiarized for profit, dozens of times. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has dug up even a sliver of new information about LaFemmes since then. Maybe that's all that there ever will be. I spent three weeks in the back stacks at the National Automotive History Collection doing research for the LaFemme article in Automobile Quarterly. At the time, it was the longest article that they had ever published.
Excellent video about a relatively unknown but culturally interesting trim. Also appreciate how you always connect the dots by providing context (e.g. Chrysler world-class engineering / quality at the time). Thanks Adam!
Lots of the trim (fenders, hood scoop and especially the chrome) was to put the buy in mind of jet aircraft. GM, Ford and AMC were doing that too at the time.
That restoration (I assume it is a restoration) is flawless. I had forgotten how beautiful the ‘55 Dodges were! I know you are more of a 60s/70s guy,but I really enjoy the 50s cars you occasionally feature, Adam. Thank you! 👍👍👍
Hey Adam, I had never heard of the La Femme edition Dodge!!! This car is absolutely gorgeous!!! The interior is beautiful & definitely very feminine!! Thanks for sharing this interesting video!!! 😁👍👍
What a fun car to feature, Adam! I've never seen one up close, so this video was a real treat. In particular, thank you for featuring the 1955 accessories.
I agree with you on the quality and ride points. These were big comfortable floatmobiles. They were ruined by the overly stiff "Torsion-Aire" ride. This car is beautiful!
@@UberLummox Yes. Most people wanted a car that floated. The torsion-aire ride didn't give that to you. It was too stiff for the taste of most people, at the time.
@@waynejohnson1304 ChryCo. sold millions of cars past '59 that were all torsion bar car. Many yes, I don't know about "most people". Semantics I guess. Most that bought high end, yes.
@@UberLummox I think that people who bought them were impressed by the "forward look" styling and not the ride comfort. They were okay if you could travel above 80 MPH on a fairly regular basis but, at the speed limit, they were jerky if the road had broken pavement or there were a lot of dips and humps in the road.
I've known about this car for decades and researched it many times. It's definitely in my top 5 favorite cars in all of history. I was raised in the 70s and 80s around cars that were considered antique back then. I did get to see a La Femme at a car show once in the mid 80s. Loved it then and love it now. While that isn't really a possibility now, I'm currently searching for a daily driver full sized luxury chunk of American metal. It amazes what a younger generation considers a "full size" sedan these days. I currently drive a 97 Cougar XR7 and its just too small and too new for my taste. I have had people comment on how "big and heavy" it feels. Me ?? Are they crazy ??? It is NOT a "big" or "heavy" car to me or even close to it !!! I'm newly subbed here and looking forward to the content !!!
Chrysler was at the top of its game in the Fifties, and their sales reflected it. Harry Truman drove a '55 Custom Royal Lancer, in dark green and white. Bess drove a black '55 New Yorker. Great, great cars.
@@anderander5662 It wasn't until 1958 that ex-presidents received a government pension, of $25,000 a year, plus office expenses. That was solely for Truman's benefit. Herbert Hoover was a millionaire and didn't need it, but he took it so as not to embarrass Truman.
@@tombrown1898 I guess that's why Harry Truman said if you get rich in office you're a crook...🤔 But that brings up something else, Hoover was a Republican and Harry Truman a Democrat yet they had such respect for each other, those days are gone
Chrysler really did have some unique colors available at the time! My aunt and uncle custom ordered a 1956 DeSoto coupe in grey, but with that same pink roof and the sweep was painted lavender. They were pretty wild people 😂
Beautiful car! My Aunt Joyce, a stunning blonde, had a pink '55 Lincoln convertible that got a lot of attention at stoplights. I don't think it was just the car.
Really entertaining. Loved the Dodge drive-in style ads you added at the end. Great work as always! Chrysler really was the innovation leader in the late '50's.
Love it! That dusty rose is a great-looking color. I painted one of my bikes that color and friends referred to it as "sick salmon pink". I think the car looks quite tasteful and not "over the top".
Oh wow, my folks bought a 55 Dodge Royal Lancer, it was pink and black and white, very sporty looking car, had the spinner hubcaps, got it at Ballard Motors in Taft,Oregon at the time. Always loved that car, wish I could find it now as an adult, I’d scoop that up for sure,
I love your flow through relaxed style on your reviews. Nice work. Pleasant to listen to. I have this car only not a Le Femme... all original and in family since new. They are beautiful cars. Glad to see these La Femmes, not many are in existance anymore.
Although I love late 50’s styling of a lot American makes and models, the 54-56 vehicles of the time all seem to have larger interiors with very tall rooflines. That Dodge is absolutely gorgeous and I actually never heard of that model before. For instance I own a 1954 Cadillac Fleetwood and that car has a massive interior. Its dimensions are large all around, and what I really appreciate about it is how easy it is to get in and out of the car because it’s almost like entering a Crossover because of its tall height. The seats are wide, thickly padded and has a tall backing. Driving the 54 Cad feels completely different versus any late 50’s-60’s Cadillacs in a good way IMO. Compare the mid fifties Cads to the 57-60 models and those cars are low slung and are less spacious. Especially the 59’s where they had terrible leg room, and headroom for its size. It’s so strange that you can have similarly sized cars but yet vastly different interior space dimensions.
What I love about 50s car was just how often things were changing- from styling, to powerplants and other engineering details. This color combo is stunning and obviously a standout today . Always felt the two toning on the hood looked excellent on these. I like the restyled rear end on the 56, but the 55 has a better interior. Love all these mid century cars, where the more dowdy cars of the early 50s really began to turn into stylish cruisers. 55-56 Plymouth's are my favorite of this pre forward look era.
A neighbor of my dad was a taxi driver, and had a 56 Dodge for his job...back then, I thought it was so blah looking...now I can see how cool it actually was!
In March of 1955 I became 16 and my mother was riding the bus when it passed the Dodge dealer. There was a pink, black and white 55' Custom Royal Lancer sitting in the front window of the showroom. She was blown away and told dad about it when he got home. That evening, they went down to the dealer and ended up buying it. The pink was on the front end and sides, the mid-section and deck lid was black, the roof was white. Upholstery was black cloth with tiny silver flowers on the mid-area and white doe skin leather across the top, front edge and door interiors. It had the Red Ram engine along with dual exhausts. The same spinner hub caps as this one, but also with flush fitting, flaired skirts. Signal seeking radio with dual rear speakers and all the other features shown here. It became their main car for about 4 years. Never needed any repairs.
New subscriber here as of this moment. i like your presentation - not rushed, thorough and entertaining. I remember cars similar to this one still running the streets when i was a young mechanic in the early 1970s.
Thanks, Adam! This is the adult-market counterpart to the Lionel Girl’s Train of the same period. That’s an interesting prow-like piece on top of the hood. It’s not unique to La Femme; I see it on other Royal Lancers (and it is in contrasting colors on those too). Interesting, hard to miss, and I’m not sure it’s attractive, but that’s a matter of taste.
What a beautiful restored example! My neighbor had a 1956 Dodge Royale Lancer. Well built and a solid ride and driving car with the Red Ram V8 and two speed push button Powerflite transmission. He was the original owner and drove it into the mid 70's when the floor boards became like swiss cheese.
Excellent video! Chrysler products in 1955 had the one year only auto transmission shifter on the dashboard to the right of the steering wheel. They introduced push button shifting in 1956.
I read in a Consumer Reports book on 1950's cars that a Chrysler executive exclaimed to the press at the La Femme model introduction; "Every woman and self respecting ______, will want one." Obviously the 50's weren't so fabulous for everyone. Interesting car and historical perspective. Thanks for posting.
I love the way the '56 version has a more restrained interior. It's like someone at Chrysler realized, a little belatedly, that the '55 interior might have been just a _little_ bit much for, say, any woman who expected her son to be seen getting out of her car at school in the morning. :) (Also, wait a second, "full-time power steering"? Was there such a thing as PART-time power steering?)
I’ve seen lots of Chrysler car commercials and literature from back then that said their power steering was always working, while other make’s went in and out…and was not “on” all the time.
On a side note there was the mans version of this car called the Texan. I am not sure if it was built in 55 or 56. It is also an extremely rare vehicle.
My first car was a 55 Plymouth Belvedere, got it in 1974 as a gift. Very reliable! Straight 6 engine always ran cool. Rear doors opened at a 90-degree angle for easy loading. Overdrive transmission returned 26MPG on the highway.
Most people would not know what year or model or make this car is, but I am glad that you posted this. I sent to a friend who loves the color pink and this is a perfect color for this car.
I've seen several of these over the years. The survival rate may be higher than people think. I like that 60 Imperial Coupe on the left that is wearing 59 Imperial hubcaps. I had one of those as well as a 4 door in the same color.
I did a complete restoration on one of these in about 1993 for a professor at the University of Kansas. The only non-stock modification I did to the car was to install a three-duce carburetor system on its original small block hemi engine. If I remember correctly, the carburetors and manifold were era-correct.
There was a 1955 Dodge eactly like this one sitting on the side of a country road about six miles from where I live until last year. It was amazing because it was sitting out in the weather and still looked g=in great condition.
It was very typical in the 50's to trim them out to the max. Especially when the pinks and pastels were popular. In 1955 I thought the Mercury Montclair was a far more beautiful car. In 1957, Dodge was gorgeous!
An elderly lady in my neighborhood owned a '55 Dodge Royal Lancer la Femme, the only Dodge on the street. It was a stunning car as compared to others, and definitely styled for women. In the 50's Buick Roadmasters, a '58 Electra, Cadillac Fleetwoods, Pontiac Star Chiefs, and Oldsmobiles. There was one Chevy Impala. Fords or all kinds dominated the farm and ranch businesses.
I was trying to think of other car editions specially targeting women and I remembered the 1978 Ford Mustang II with the Fashion Accessory Package: "Especially for you, lovely lady!," but it only featured special upholstery, special pinstriping, and special vanity lights and vanity mirrors.
And this is part of the confusing social stress that I now feel, as an old Boomer!...Raised in one era, but now living in a radically different one...I still hold doors open for women, but sometimes get a dirty look in return.
I wish someone would clear that up...all gauges would be very cool, but not often seen...it was the beginning of the era of "idiot lights"....when a light came on, it was often too late to prevent damage.
Forgot to mention: The reason why the 1956 LaFemme interior would be an excruciating and EXPENSIVE restoration job is because every fabric used was bonkers: - The seat fabric and headliner was white canvas with a random spattering of shiny gold paint. Conversely, the 1955 interior seat fabric was EASY to reproduce, because it was a woven Jacquard fabric. Every restored 1955 LaFemme has that repro cloth interior. Many people without 1955 purses used that same repro fabric on antique luggage, to make it look like the stylish 1950's suitcases came with their car. - The 1956 carpeting was worse. Heavy white canvas with two-tone lavender yarn pile, with randomized high, low and bare spots throughout. All 1955-56 Dodge interiors were made from fragile Nylon-style materials (trendy at the time), so heat and time caused the fabrics to crumble to powder. That's why I wrote and published the article, so that I could create a LaFemme Owner's Directory and we could all share the costs of reproducing interior fabric.
The '55 looks much better thought out, My wife just saw the '55 in this video, and really likes the colours and the interior - she'd want ALL the accessories intact though.
Geez talk about a contrast with today's generic colors, black, white gray and monochrome black interiors, this is way out there and definitely made a statement, ladies first...
