Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
June 3, 1936. San Francisco. "Woman in Pontiac made into bed." Some cars are just better at stopping than going. 8x10 nitrate negative. View full size.
You gotta love those old cars. I didn't know that was even possible! The front seat appears to be completely removed.
[It was for this promotional photo. -tterrace]
Just like those hand cranked windows, road maps and factory installed Kleenex dispensers.
I looked through the 1936 Pontiac brochure:
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Pontiac/1936%20Pontiac/1936_Pon...
and through the 1937 brochure (thinking it might be a running change addition in 1936 extended to the 1937 models), but there's no mention of reclining front seats in any of the 1936 or 1937 Pontiacs.
[The front seats were removed for this shot. -tterrace]
Seeing the crispness of the sheet and the pillow cases, and the lovely position the wife is in makes me think the guy behind the camera has more than sleep on his mind!
Back in the day, a friend of mine had a '59 Rambler with tendency for the front wheels to collapse. You think he got rid of it? He was nineteen or so....
My 1961 Rambler (three on the tree) could be converted into a honeymoon suite the same way. Best drive in movie car ever made and well worth the $125.00 it cost me when I got out of the Marines in 1969.
Might possibly have been an artistic plagiarist. That is one really big car.
Some of the 60's Ramblers would do the same. A gal in our high school used to cruise through the local drive-in in her parents' Rambler and brag about how the seat backs would fully recline. She did not have a stellar reputation, as you can imagine. She was not all that attractive, but we didn't care.
My parents had a 1949 Kaiser "Traveler". The back seat and trunk could be combined to create a double-bed and left that way if there were only two people using the car. They vacationed quite a bit using it. Unlike a tent, it was ready in a minute or two, dry, and comfortable. They would set up a simple tent as a changing room, etc., to hold their space if staying for a number of nights in the same campground. That Kaiser was not the World's Best Car, but it demonstrated that an ordinary-looking sedan could work well as dual purposes.
I had a '63 VW microbus fitted out much like this in the back, although my little rolling bedroom had Budweiser curtains and, usually, no attractive women in it.
More elbow room than a 1985 Mazda 626, to be sure, but there is no way you could make it into a 1950s sitcom master suite with separated twin beds.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5