[Video] Dinah Shore And Pat Boone Introduce The 1959 Chevrolet
With its batwing tailfins and cat’s-eye tail lamps, the ’59 Chevrolet was arguably the most boldly styled stovebolt in history. Here are Dinah Shore and Pat Boone to sing its praises.
Like Groucho Marx for DeSoto or Ed Sullivan for Mercury, Dinah Shore was the star celebrity spokesperson for Chevrolet through much of the 1950s. With her hit NBC TV variety show, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, she made “See the USA in Your Chevrolet” the nation’s most familiar commercial jingle.
Pop singer Pat Boone also hosted a Chevy-sponsored show, the The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom on ABC, and often the two performers were partnered on Chevrolet commercials, including this one launching the all-new 1959 product line.
Along with the other General Motors car brands, Chevrolet received all-new sheet metal for ’59, and to call the new look radical would be an understatement. Massive horizontal tailfins sprawled the entire width of the car, creating a rear deck that Tom McCahill called “big enough to land a Piper Cub.”
GM’s Flying Wing four-door greenhouse was also new for ’59, and while it’s not mentioned in this spot, this was the first year for the Borg-Warner four-speed transmission as a factory option in a Chevy passenger car (though Corvette featured it in ’57). All in all, ’59 was a memorable year for the bow-tie brand. Video below.
