Saturday, October 22, 2022

Boat & Camper Show, 1957/1958

It's October, and is probably past the time of year when most people might choose to go camping (unless you are on the west coast or southwest). I recently went through a batch of slides that featured a woman and her husband, we've seen her before and you will definitely see her again. She and her hubby (and some friends) went to a local boat & camper show, maybe just for fun, or maybe in the hopes of buying a nice Airstream trailer or beautiful Chris-Craft boat. 

There she is, the two-million candlepower flash made her blink, even with her green-tinted lenses. She looks very put-together; no plaid flannel and dungarees for her. The tomato-red overcoat reminds me of a Disneyland photo from roughly the same year. Maybe she picked up a brochure for that "BoaTop" motorboat, my dad and brother and I used to love to go to the big Auto Show in Los Angeles, and we'd have fun collecting brochures from all of the vendors.


Oh boy, vintage campers! But brand-new. You now what I mean. I'm always fascinated by these houses on wheels, especially the older ones that have so much beautiful wood, and the way they make the most of the small space (like sailboats), with tiny kitchens, showers, hide-away beds, and so on. The red one to the left is priced at $3,195, which translates to about $33,000 in today's spacebucks.  I have that in my wallet right now!


The woman in the middle is wearing a different outfit, so unless she changed several times during the day (like Cher), this is likely from another year. She's run into Hal and Norma (love Norma's hat, with the pheasant feather angled jauntily upward). Every year they love to go to Lake Kabetogama and fish for a week. Well, he does anyway. They can use those Eagle-brand fishhooks, which might have been a free giveaway (sweet!). Look at those guys in the background, they look like extras from a Billy Wilder movie.


12 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
From a time when folks always "looked their best". The gentleman in the second image is definitely a stand-out with that black shirt and bolo-? tie. And that 'winged serpent' pin on our gal with the tinted shades - classy. Also, the 'pipe and drape' in the first image might actually be made out of real galvanized pipe-! Those were the days.

Thanks, Major.

JB said...

Mrs. Redcoat looks quite a bit different here than she does in the other photos you linked to, Major. Especially the second one where she's sprawled out in front of the flower bed, ... blonde!

Are those campers or travel trailers? Campers are the things that fit onto the bed of a pickup. Or so I've thought, all my life. Our family did a lot of camping when I was a kid/young teen. Sometimes we had a trailer, sometimes a tent. I have to say, the trailer was more comfy. In the tent, we put our sleeping bags on air mattresses... which invariably went flat during the night.

Major, those are Eagle-brand Fish Books. Because, as we all know, fish travel in schools.
The 'extra' on the left looks like he's wearing a policeman's hat. He's gonna put the pinch on that Chicago gangster. I'm looking around for Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon... in drag.

Thanks for the vintage photos, Major.

Dean Finder said...

Perhaps our couple bought a trailer to head to the sunny Southwest where our heroine later want blonder.

As for me, I'm not buying a trailer from a guy in a black shirt and a bolo tie. He's probably going to get me on the hook for some undercoating. Maybe I'll talk to the guy in the grey suit on the left of the last picture. He looks like he's from some Midwestern insurance company.

My dad and older brother used to go to the NY Auto Show in the 90s and take the freebies from the manufacturers. while going through postcards for a garage sale, I just came across a card GM gave out for the 1993 Camaro. It was holographic foil so you could turn it one way to see the exterior and another to see the engine and transmission.

MRaymond said...

Although I was born in the 60's, my family still "dressed up" whenever "going out." Today, an RV show is filled with people wearing shorts and t-shirts, etc. I do my part by wearing polo shirts when I go to events but I can't see putting on a suit like my parents used to.

When I was growing up, a "travel trailer" could almost be lived in while a Camper was for sleeping and you MIGHT be able to prep a meal.

JG said...

Red coats must have been a thing for ladies about then. I remember Mom had one, and green tinted dark glasses with tortoise shell frames. They appear in the Disneyland photos too.

We loved to camp and went several times a year, mostly to the Sierras, but occasionally to the coast. Major, the campground by Oceano dunes is very nice. Always with a tent, until Dad bought a little trailer when I was in 7th grade I think. He bought a bigger one a few years later and taught me to drive the truck with it.

I’ve toyed with the idea of getting one of those short trailers where the lid cranks out to raise a tent, but haven’t resolved on that. A trailer greatly simplifies packing for a campout since you can pre-load it. Just fill the water tank and buy groceries on the way in some new exciting different grocery store.

Thank you for these pictures.

JG

Sunday Night said...

Love these. My dad loved boats. When he went to the boat/camping shows in the 60 he would always take me along because he knew I'd collect every brochure known to man. That was the fun part to me. Although I did enjoy walking through the trailers.

Major, have you seen "The Long, Long Trailer" It's with Dezi and Lucy but it's not, the TV show which shall remain unnamed. I think you would enjoy it. It's actually quite funny. These pics reminded me of the film. It the film opens at a trailer show.

Kathy! said...

BoaTop -- let's squish together some more words that share a first and last letter! I like the Scottie Crat hat-on-a-stick behind her. Speaking of hats, almost every man has one in that first photo. I was coveting that dragon brooch in photo three too, though it may be a flower with leaves.

Melissa said...

It's October, and is probably past the time of year when most people might choose to go camping

Yeah, I thought it was too cold today at 50 degrees for my neighbors to have one of their drunken Saturday afternoon picnics under my living room window with the DJ speakers turned up so loud the dishes in my kitchen cupboards are rattling, but there you go. All the inconveniences of living in the country with all the nuisances of living in the city.

You can always find Norma in a crowd with that tall feather. I love the striped trailers. Behind the blue and white stripes and the red and white stripes, I hope there's a white one with red, yellow, and blue stripes like a Hudson's Bay Company blanket.

"Lou and Sue" said...

Sunday Night, the scene with Lucy making dinner in the moving trailer is one of her best performances ever. Right up there with the ILL episode with William Holden at the Brown Derby. Too bad we all live so far apart. It would be a riot watching The Long Long Trailer with you and some of the other Lucy fans.

Fun Boat & Camper Show, Major. Thank you.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, that looks like a bolo tie to me. I’ve never cared for bolo ties, though I know that they are traditional for western wear. It just seems weird. “I’ll wear this string around my neck”. Thinking about it, I guess regular ties are weird too! Genuine galvanized pipe is going to be the new trash cans of GDB.

JB, she does look a bit different, but hey, people change over the years. Especially ladies who like to try new hairdos and colors. Maybe you’re right about campers vs. travel trailers, I didn’t go to Harvard the day they covered that distinction. (I was always too involved in professional hacky-sack). About a year ago I went to see an amazing classic car collection, and they had a camper-trailer from the 1930s… so elegant. Beautiful wood cabinets, engraved glass windows… talk about camping in style!

Dean Finder, I think you might have a point. Those were the days of the grand summer road trip, after all. “Let’s go see the Grand Canyon!”. Everyone did it, or so it seems. The bolo tie guy is the husband of the nice lady in photo #1, so no worries… he’s a customer, not a seller! The freebies were such a fun part of those auto shows, I still have my clear plastic VW bug that was molded while I watched. My favorite! Holographic foil? If you look at it too long you will freak out!

MRaymond, I am ashamed to admit that I don’t remember really dressing up for anything unless it was a really special event. Or unless my grandparents were involved, because my grandma was the one who really wanted us to “look nice”. I’ve often wondered how practical those cute little showers and kitchens were, but hey, in the woods they probably seemed very civilized.

JG, I think red coats had a comeback some years back (gee, maybe it was 20 years now), I remember my sister got a long red wool coat, I often think of her when I see these pictures from the 1950s. “Hey, that looks like her!”. Can you believe that I have never been camping? The woodland animals won’t allow it. I won’t say it’s because of my snoring, but I won’t NOT say that either. Speaking of my sister, she and her husband love to camp, and they got a pop-up trailer that doubles as an extra bedroom when the house is full for Christmas. I stayed in it for a few days, it was a bit cramped, but very comfortable, really.

Sunday Night, we were a “fishing family”, my dad LOVED to fish, as did his father, so summers always involved a big fishing trip in Minnesota. Bass Lake, Leech Lake, Moose Lake, Lake of the Woods, Lake Kabetogema… why, it’s as if Minnesota has 10,000 lakes! (I looked it up, it actually has something like 14,000 lakes). I think I have seen some of “The Long, Long Trailer” when I was a kid, it was a novelty to see Lucy and Desi in color, but I don’t remember much about it otherwise.

Kathy!, making BoaTop into one word saves people one second every time it is spoken, thus saving millions of hours for other pursuits. Mighty generous of them. I would love to know if this couple ever really bought a boat or a camper. They definitely liked to travel!

Melissa, many of my friends who enjoy camping have stories of waking up to 30-degree mornings, shivering and miserable. That’s why I do all of my camping in a comfortable hotel! I’m sorry about your noisy neighbors, we’ve all been there. I have a neighbor who plays video games with a subwoofer, everything literally shakes.

Lou and Sue, my grandmother always said that if I can’t say anything nice (in this case, about Lucy), don’t say anything at all! While you and the other Junior Gorillas are watching The Long Long Trailer, I’ll be in the other room watching quality entertainment, like “Welcome Back, Kotter”.

Melissa said...

Major, I also had a red wool coat in the early 2000's. It's nice to be visible in the snow!

MIKE COZART said...

Red coats like that were really popular again the the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. For you LONG LONG TRAILER fans: when “Nicky” ( Ricky) has to back the trailer up under a rose trellis at Tucy’s ( Lucy’s) Aunt’s house and the whole family watches in amazement at how massive the trailer is …. And ultimately destroys the trellis : it’s the house and neighborhood from MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS …. However it’s not in its glorious Victorian splendor , but it’s - any town neighborhood looking bland and tired so any film production can use it ( like Twilight zone …. Etc) .