For 1959, the Chrysler Corporation was a Motor City trendsetter with its Forward Look styling by Virgil Exner. See the all the Chrysler brands in this series of great promotional spots produced for An Evening With Fred Astaire. 

On October 17, 1958, NBC broadcast the highly successful live one-hour variety special, An Evening with Fred Astaire. The first television program recorded on color videotape, the show earned nine Emmy awards. And it also reaffirmed Astaire, suave and graceful as ever at the age of 59, as one of America’s most beloved entertainers. “When Fred Astaire danced,” film director Stanley Donen said, “Everything in this world was perfect.”

As was common in television in those days, sponsor Chrysler was written directly into the production with a series of promotional spots, which lends an air of confidence to the message that we appreciate. The five Chrysler brands were solid sellers in ’59, partly on the continuing popularity of the Forward Look styling theme conceived by the company’s vice president of design, Virgil Exner. Meanwhile, the automaker was working overtime to differentiate itself from General Motors and Ford with distinctive mechanical features including push-button automatic transmission, swivel seats, and torsion-bar suspension, as shown here.

The Chrysler Forward Look lineup for ’59 looks pretty darned attractive in these commercial bits. As Astaire quipped at the program’s close, “I only hope the show is as good as the cars.” The familiar voice in the narration belongs to Art Gilmore, who was also the announcer in Highway Patrol, The Red Skelton Show, and many other classics of TV’s golden age.  By the way, the unique arrow-and-boomerang Chrysler logo seen at the opening of this clip has a unique name, too: It’s called a flookerang. Video below.