Vintage Clippings: Newspaper Auto Advertising, Part I | Hemmings ...

All images from the author?s collection

Newspapers and other periodicals have carried automobile advertising?from the earliest days of the last century. These advertisements were sometimes?regional in flavor, and almost?always included the contact information for the local dealership that sponsored the ad.

My father came across a stash of?crumbling 1940s-1950s?The Marlborough Record newspapers?in my grandparents? home. These papers have provided many hours of entertainment, and he?s enjoyed finding and?sharing stories that pertain to local families who still live in our Hudson Valley, New York,?hometown. Dad has been setting aside the?car ads for me, and I, in turn, am happy to share them with you. Please forgive the size limitations of our scanner, as some ads were too large to fit in their entirety; I?ve tried to?include the?date,?where available, and the?sponsoring dealer. Here are the General Motors product ads, with Ford, Mopar and independents to follow in subsequent posts.

The ad above, printed in festive?green and red ink, appeared in the Friday, December 19, 1941, paper ? a mere 12 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was placed by Barton ?Bart??Miller, then located at?484 Main Street, Poughkeepsie, New York, at phone number?2648.

And to show how little the post-war Pontiac had?changed (compare, yourself!), above is an advertisement from a Kingston-based dealer in?early 1946.

I love this 1951 Buick Riviera hardtop ad (above ? note the blackwall tires!) for its ?quaint??take on advertising a car to a?female audience. Watch out, lady ? you may get hit by?that ?Fireball Engine? in the sky!

I noted the name of the president of the Poughkeepsie Buick Company, C.B. Hartshorn? I?d wager that this person?is of the same family as the Poughkeepsie-based C.A. Hartshorn, who had an?Overland?franchise in Marlboro and who sold property to my great grandfather.

Perhaps this well-dressed Highland couple?is motoring down Route 9W in their 1951 Chevrolet Styleline De?Luxe two-door sedan, relaxing in the cradled comfort of their Center-Point Suspension and reveling in the ease of their velvet-smooth two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission?

?but because last year?s model was so last year, that smart couple have now traded in their tired old ?51 Chevrolet for a sparkling new ?52 Styleline De Luxe Bel Air hardtop with Royal-Tone Styling!

For the local couple with a taste for power and performance, Thomas H. Elliott of New Paltz offered the ?Rocket?-powered 1951 Oldsmobile Super 88. You can see and hear the squeaky-clean, sweet harmonies of Oldsmobile?s Singing Sweethearts, Johnny and Lucille, in a four-part ?Trail of the Rocket? series: Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.

And running in the Friday, October 23, 1959, issue of The Marlborough News, was this ad for the polarizing 1960 Chevrolet range, including the flagship Impala. Louis Smith Chevrolet was located between the Mid-Hudson Bridge and?the village of Highland.

Thanks, Dad? and stay tuned for more vintage newspaper car fun!

Source: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/03/26/vintage-clippings-newspaper-auto-advertising-part-i/

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