Charles’ 
Slide of the Week: April 28th, 2005
Car & Trailer Portrait, 1960
Mom is looking at the scenery with binoculars and the little girl waves to daddy who’s taking the picture. They are very stylish people traveling in a two-tone turquoise and white 1956 Plymouth Belvedere and a pink and white Dalton Trailer.
Of course I love old trailers!!! It’s amazing just how many old trailer courts and parks are still out there. A while back on the way to an estate sale in Montebello I happened upon Harmony Lane, a gem of an old trailer court on Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park (next to Mc Donald’s on the north side of the street). It was all overgrown, real spooky and looked like no one lived there. So I ignored the NO TRESPASSING signs and drove right on in like I owned the place. The abandoned ’30s and ’40s trailers were astonishing. They were stylish and streamlined. Some even had porthole windows. As I turned the corner there was by far the grandest and most fashionable ’50s “long, long” trailer I have ever seen. It was beautifully finished with a wide band of gleaming stainless steel embossed with stripes running the length of the whole thing.
I sat there stunned, not believing what I was seeing when out of nowhere appeared a lovely lady with loads of pancake make-up, lashes smothered with black mascara and a slept-on stack of dippity-dooed bleach blond curls sashayed up to the car. Speaking just above a whisper, she said, "Hi I’m Joy."
Turns out Joy grew up there and her parents have owned the place since 1939. “They’re real old now and I can no longer take care of it.” She said. What’s going to happen to the trailers? She and all her brothers and sisters "just can’t agree on that." So for now they’re just sitting there.
If YOU love trailers the way I love trailers, you might want to add "Travel Trailer: A Visual History of Mobile America" by Bryan Burkhart, Phil Noyes and Allison Arieff to your library. It’s TRAILERIFIC!!
Here’s to you and to trailers!!
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles
April 2005
Sets this Slide belongs to:
Transportation
2 Comments on “Car & Trailer Portrait, 1960 ”
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February 16th, 2006 at 11:31 am
This picture says it all!
December 28th, 2006 at 11:14 am
That Plymouth is a 1955 Savoy. I had one 20 years ago.
Greetings from Finland.