Click on pictures to Z O O M in.
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Click on pictures to Z O O M in.
I remember this car because Grocho Marks had DeSoto as a sponsor for his TV show, “You Bet Your Life”. One other point, again from memory, was that these cars had “Push Button Drive”, that used push buttons to change the gears for the automatic transmission. Other than these two pints, I can not find much on the Internet for this years DeSotos. Help me out and contribute some information as comments.
© Fred Winograd copyright 2010
Dad – an Air Force fighter pilot – bought a fully-loaded ’56 in sage green & white. $4,800 new, more than the price of the little house my parents built in Colorado Springs. Mom nearly s@#t! a square brick.
The car was a topic of conversation with everyone who saw it up close. The ’56 was the first car equipped with a push-button trans and the first to sport true tail fins!
Heavy as hell, the family toured all of europe in the “Green Monster”. Remember road-side picnic breaks sitting on the tail gate in the French Alps. Also remember the climb up Pike’s Peak in that machine. What a beast.
Dad’s other car was – in true fighter pilot tradition – a ’58 Porsche Speedster. By ’61, the DeSoto’s push-button trans had a mind of its own and so the car was sold. Saw one on the street in Arlington, VA in ’68 – brought back all the memories.