1957 Plymouth Unearthed in Tulsa...
Gregory Morrow
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/15/AR2007061500908.html
1957 Plymouth Unearthed in Oklahoma
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS
The Associated Press
Friday, June 15, 2007; 5:11 PM
"TULSA, Okla. -- Thousands watched Friday as a crane lifted a muddy package
from a hole in the courthouse lawn: a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere buried a
half-century ago to celebrate Oklahoma's 50 years of statehood.
The wrapped car was covered in red mud as it came out of the hole. Its
trademark fins were exposed, caked with either rust or mud, and a bit of
shiny chrome was visible on the bumper.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Miss Belvedere," said event
organizer Sharon King Davis, a fourth-generation Tulsan whose grandfather
helped bury the Plymouth.
The gold and white two-door hardtop spent the last half-century covered in
three layers of protective material and encased in a 12-by-20-foot concrete
vault, supposedly tough enough to withstand a nuclear attack.
But event officials already had to pump out several feet of water from its
crypt.
Some in the crowd had arrived downtown at dawn and endured torrential rain
just to glimpse the car. By the time of the midday ceremony, people were
standing on rooftops and looking out office buildings as news helicopters
buzzed overhead.
The car was placed on a flatbed truck so it could be unwrapped, spruced up
and officially unveiled Friday evening at the Tulsa Convention Center.
Spectators lined the streets to watch its journey.
Whether the car will start was unknown. The suspense drew Pittsburgh car
enthusiast Dave Stragand.
"It's our King Tut's tomb," Stragand said. "It's like a fairy tale."
He and others weren't too concerned about the car's condition. "It's just
the whole idea somebody thought of it in 1957 and here we are living it,"
said Denver retiree Bob Petri.
Buried with the car were 10 gallons of gasoline _ in case internal
combustion engines became obsolete by 2007 _ a case of beer, and the
contents of a typical woman's handbag placed in the glove compartment: 14
bobby pins, a bottle of tranquilizers, a lipstick, a pack of gum, tissues, a
pack of cigarettes, matches and $2.43.
There was also a spool of microfilm that recorded the entries of a contest
to determine who would win the car: the person who guessed the closest of
what Tulsa's population would be in 2007 _ 382,457 _ would win.
That person, or his or her heirs, will get the car by June 22, along with a
$100 savings account, worth about $1,200 today with interest.
Legendary hot rod builder Boyd Coddington, host of the TV series American
Hot Rod on The Learning Channel, will try to start the car Friday afternoon.
Thousands of tickets were sold for a Friday evening unveiling.
Back on the day the Belvedere was buried, all Bixby resident Marlene Parker
wanted to do was find a photographer for her wedding. Catching a glimpse of
the car being lowered into the ground was the last thing on her priority
list.
Unfortunately, not for the photographer: He was shooting the burial.
This weekend, the 70-year-old will celebrate 50 years of marriage and may
come downtown to see what all the fuss was about back then.
"Probably across the pond people know about it," Parker said. "If nobody
knew where Tulsa, Oklahoma was before, they do now."
___
On the Net:
cuh...@webtv.net
actually means a brand name of Twine/string,,, not a Ship.
cuhulin
FragileWarrior
@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:
> Buried with the car were 10 gallons of gasoline _ in case internal
> combustion engines became obsolete by 2007 _ a case of beer, and the
> contents of a typical woman's handbag placed in the glove compartment: 14
> bobby pins, a bottle of tranquilizers
Mother's little helper...
Big J
news:f522p0$rhe$1...@blackhelicopter.databasix.com:
"Life's just much too hard today"
Big J
-----
----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----
Benny Holmes
That's probably the most modern thing you can find in that POS podunk
town.
cuh...@webtv.net
cuhulin
vxp
"Big J" <bi...@myrealbox.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9951BDDBBBA45...@38.119.71.104...
"What a drag it is getting old"
vxp
Deborah
I'd like the pack of smokes. Jeepers to have a pack of smokes that
doesn't have a warning on it...
Deborah
Gregory Morrow
> 1957 Plymouth Fury's were some sharp looking cars.The Plymouth name/logo
> actually means a brand name of Twine/string,,, not a Ship.
>
The '57 Mopar line was GORGEOUS, the best - designed cars of that year
and possibly of the whole 50's...
Unfortunately they were SERIOUS rusters, very few of them exist. '57
Chevy's were built like tanks, plus which many more were built, that
is why the '57 Chevy is still what people think of when the term "50's
car" comes up. Around 100,000 are thought to still exist. To me they
are stodgy and old - fashioned looking, they can't approach the svelte
lines of the '57 Chrysler Corporation line...
Plymouth's ad slogan for 1957 was "Suddenly It's 1960!"...one wag
commented on the poorly - designed GM line, saying that at GM
"Suddenly It's 1949...".
The '57 Plymouth and it's sister Chrysler makes were supposedly to be
introduced in 1960, instead they were rushed through for production in
1957. Little time to pay attention to build quality, so...
There is a rumour that the steel Chrysler used that year was poor -
quality scrap steel imported from Japan - much of it specifically from
Hiroshima. Did the Japs get their revenge this way...???
In the summer of 1956 GM corporate styling "spies" got glimpses of the
new 1957 Chrysler line, they hid out near the Chrysler plants in
Detroit. They were shocked by how modern the Chrysler products
were...in response GM went on a crash program to entirely re - design
their planned 1959 line, which was even uglier than GM's 1958 line
(remember the bulbuous and chromed '58 Buicks and Cads and
Olds...???). The result was the long, low "linear look" which all GM
cars sported for 1959. The '59 GM styling started a trend which all
US carmakers adopted (longer, lower, wider, headlights mounted flush
with the grille, large glass area...), it prevailed until GM's
downsized cars were introduced in 1978...
Anyways, some trivia...
It's too bad about the Tulsa Plymouth, but apparently there are plans
to restore it. It's in sad shape, but car restorers can take an old
rusty frame and work wonders...we'll see.
--
Best
Greg
Gregory Morrow
> "Gregory Morrow" <greg...@morrow.net> wrote in news:RMDci.1728$ZY1.666
"Tranqs" and martinis were the 50's answer to EVERY psychological
crisis...!!!
If you watch 50's - early 60's movies and TV you'll see TONS of
references to tranquilizers, e.g. "I've given her a tranquilizer to
calm down...". They were especially popular with women, as
fashionable as psychoanalysis, the butt of many jokes.
--
Best
Greg
cuh...@webtv.net
Character, they had Charm, they had Cahrisma, they had Everything.My
eight years older brother, back in the 1950s, he owned a 1957 (maybe it
was a 1958?) Mercury Turnpike Cruser car.I have owned a bunch of
interesting old vehicles meself, years ago.Motor Oil runs in my blood.
cuhulin
doomella
vxp
Cuhulin you are a charmer.
vxp
subscriber1997
"doomella" <doom...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:46756c0d$0$14922$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
you're high
cuh...@webtv.net
thinking about going to the Wal Mart food store tomorrow afternoon and I
will rectify that situation.(I never go to the store only for beer)
Those people should be ashamed of themselves, burying that 1957 Plymouth
car.They could have locked it up in a barn somewhere and it would have
survived A OK.I hope that car turns into Christine and it comes back to
haunt those people in Tulsa.
cuhulin