In 1955, Oldsmobile offered its popular Holiday body style in no less than six different versions, including both two-doors and four-doors. Here’s the rundown in an original Olds commercial spot.
For 1955, Oldsmobile went all in with its sporty Holiday body style, offering the pillarless hardtops in no less than six different flavors, including both two-door and four-door versions. General Motors had pioneered the “hardtop convertible” style, as it was originally known, as a two-door coupe for Olds, Buick, and Cadillac in 1949. And when four-door versions of the pillarless bodywork appeared in 1955, Olds and Buick were the early adopters on GM’s behalf. In those days, the Holiday name signified an Oldsmobile hardtop model, much as Riviera for Buick or Bel Air for Chevrolet, although these distinctions were eventually discarded.
In this original 1955 commercial spot, the announcer clicks through each one of the six Holiday models that year: 88, Super 88, and 98 models in both two-door and four-door versions. The 88 two-door proved to be the most popular Holiday, with more than 85,000 units sold. One point we found interesting: Our announcer uses the original French term coupé, pronounced “coo-pay,” rather than our newer, Americanized word, coupe (pronounced “coop”). When did “coo-pay” fall out of regular use in the USA, we wonder? There’s one more item to investigate on our endless historical journeys. Video follows.
Flawless editing. You’d almost never know he was in the studio instead of right there at the country club.
ha!
The 1955 Olds 98 and Buick Road Master, Clearly the best looking G.M. products of 1955. One and one half styling cycles ahead of Chevrolet and Pontiac with “A” pillars swept back past 90 degrees ( Chevy and Pontiac won’t get this until 1958), roofs that Chevy or Pontiac will never get and with the Olds 98 Styling of 1954 continuing into 1955 a feature called “Sweep Cut fender styling” for rear fenders which Chevrolet won’t get until 1956 and Pontiac in 1957. Ironically some people unaware of this styling feature would put skirts on these cars. Ironically the Olds 88 does not have the feature so Olds put sweep cut into the skirt instead.
1955 Olds 98 Holiday Coupe below;
https://dealeraccelerate-all.s3.amazonaws.com/rkm/images/5/1/0/8/5108/396473e7b8195a_low_res_1955-oldsmobile-98-holiday.jpg
1955 Olds Holiday 88 Coupe below:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hu0EfyBj-uY/maxresdefault.jpg
Funny you should mention that. I have issues with the styling on some late Fifties cars. After watching the piece, I was thinking that this Olds was a better than average looking car. I googled its GM mates to refresh my memory, and I have to agree with most of your points. But I’d give the prize to the ’55 Buick. Same windshield, and I prefer the round wheel cutouts. I like the front end on the Buick more and have a distaste for the ziggity-zag side trim on the Olds.
I don’t guess I had ever realized the difference in the wheel cut-outs between the 88s and the 98s on this era of Oldsmobiles. I’m not so sure that I like the “cut-out” styling feature on the skirts for the 88. I do think that the cut-out on the 98 looks great.
Regarding the ’55 Chevrolet, I think I actually prefer the squarish cut-out of the ’55 over the “sweep-cut” cut-out of the ’56 and ’57. It’s all subjective, but I think that skirts blend into the overall look of the squarish cut-outs as compared to the sweep-cut. I actually think the skirts look better on the ’53/54 Chevrolets than the ’55. The wheel cut-outs on the ’53/’54 do not have the “lip” along the opening that the later models do.
The 1949-1954 Chevrolet which have G.M. pontoon rear fender styling are actually designed for the skirt. Those 49-54 pontoon wheel well edges have a double lip to help the skirt line up with the fender. The 1955 Chevrolet, although not sweep cut like 56-57 do have like the 56-57 a rolled bead of the fender lip and when you install a skirt it is not flush with the fender plus it cast a shadow line which makes the union even more pronounced and unnatural in appearance.
Below is a 53-54 skirt installed and it is flush to the body;
https://www.ecklersearlychevy.com/assets/ecv/images/size/600×600/sku/801012-A1.jpg
Here is a 57 Chevy with sweep cut with a skirt. Because it does not fit flush and cast a shadow line the image creates a conflict of unwanted interest. Thus sweep cut is considered a design feature. The 1957-58 Cadillac cars (except for the 90 series) all had sweep cut styling. Cadillac solved the issue of the skirt by installing wheel lip molding to make it plain no skirt is wanted.
1957 Coupe deVille image with sweep cut and wheel well molding below;
http://fiftiesweb.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/57.caddy_.coupedeville.xtra_.jpg
I forgot to show the 55 & 57 Chevy with the skirt and the distraction of the shadow line and the raised lip conflicting with the skirt;
1955;
https://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/1955-chevrolet-bel-air-convertible-with-continental-kit-tim-mccullough.jpg
1957:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5i9AwUZh93k/maxresdefault.jpg
I watched a similar early ad which may have been for Ford or… and the presenter pronounced Deluxe as “dee-lukes” in the European way. At some point it was also Americanized and became “de-lucks”
I remember saying coupe’ through the early Sixties. I thought “coop” was an aberration. Don’t remember how or when I switched to it. Although I never had one, I have always the the ’56 Olds was the finest looking of them all.