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Washington, D.C., 1935. "Sen. Huey P. Long." The former Louisiana governor and future assassinated senator with a shiny DeSoto Airflow. View full size.
Two observations:
1. While Huey looks significantly rumpled, his shoes have just emerged from the Senate shoeshine stand.
2. Parking near the Russell Building (as it is now) was a lot easier then. This looks like C Street NE, just north of the building.
... projecting out of the hood, just in front of the driver's section of windscreen? Some kind of deflector? Airscoop?
[The cowl ventilator, a fresh-air intake for passenger compartment air circulation, here shown open. Standard feature in cars up through the early-50s.]
The DeSoto, with its shorter chassis, was better suited to the proportions of the Airflow body style than its larger Chrysler cousins, resulting in an altogether more graceful product. I must admit that the distinction escapes me. The DeSoto's radiator grille seems marginally better looking, although by the end of the Airflow era, both DeSotos and Chryslers had evolved a more upright grille in a futile effort to make the cars look more "conventional" to cash-strapped Depression buyers.
Did the Desoto and the Chrysler model Airflow have big styling difference? Just 700-some dollars, pretty sleek body. I recall seeing the commercial where they flew one off of a cliff.
[You are perhaps confusing the cheaper but similarly named DeSoto Airstream ($695) with the Airflow, which had an advertised price of $1,015. - Dave]
HPL is the physical definition thereof. He is one UGLY man, yet he was adored by hundreds of thousands. Note his static position, the body language: it's upright and expansive. He's important and he knows it; and important people stand regally and take up a lot of space.
The Airflows were too drastic a design for the conservative depression era, but in seeing this excellent photo of a brand new example, it would seem they would fit right in with today's styling.
That tire has the strangest tread pattern I've ever seen.
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