Video: Marketing the 1956 Jet Age Plymouth

With bold tail fins and a push-button Powerflite transmission, Plymouth was selling the future in 1956. The Jet Age is the theme in this original commercial spot—watch. 

 

This original commercial spot from October of 1955 may be brief, but if covers a lot of ground in pitching the new 1956 Plymouths. A few of the features referenced here:

+    A wide variety of engines, including two L-head sixes and your choice of four V-8s in both 270 and 303 cubic-inch versions, and a maximum of 240 horsepower.

+   Finger-tip, push-button control for the Powerflite two-speed automatic transmission, here touted as “a first in the low-priced three.” Rowing against the tide, Chrysler Corporation would continue with push-button transmissions through 1964.

+   Highway Hi-Fi, Chrysler’s intriguing but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to offer an in-car record players. Developed by Peter Goldmark, inventor of the LP album, Highway Hi-Fi used a unique record format that never caught on, among other problems. See our feature on Highway Hi-Fi here. 

To drive home the Jet Age theme, the setting for our spot is an air base showing the latest jet fighter aircraft in action. See the Jet Age 1956 Plymouths here.

 

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