In refering to his cars, I think it was Henry Ford who said, “You can have any color you want as long as it is black.”[^] The time of all black cars has passed! [:)]
We have all noticed that every year or two there is one or two (maybe three) colors that seem to dominate the scene.[8D] In modeling some particular time, I guess we should make sure that our autos conform in color.[tup]
In your opinion, what were the major colors in the 40’s, 50’s 60’s etc.?[2c]
Thanks ahead of time.[bow]
Walter
You can see the most popular colors for 2006 at http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story.jsp?section=top&subject=colors&story=colorSUV . I suspect that would hold true for at least the last 10 years. White has always been the perrenial leader in other decades as well. The earlier the era, the less color choices there were so basic colors like white, red and black dominated the 50’s by my memory. There may be other sources on-line that list the most popular colors by decades.
Not the years you wanted, but:
Most Popular Car Colors, 2003-2006
No surprises, white, silver, blue, grey are up there in most categories.
White was generally a very popular color in all decades since WWII, so you can’t go wrong with that - but now you may have to factor in the 2-tones paint schemes of the 1940s & 1950s, the bright funky colors of the 1960s (oranges & yellows galore), the earth tones of the 1970s (beige? harvest gold? tan?), and…well, actually by 1980 we’re back to white, silver, blue, grey, black…
Aha, a bit more:
[quote]
According to the Socionomics Institute in Gainesville, Georgia, color trends provide insight into the larger public mood in North America. “The popularity of silver has correlated with the optimism that attended the twin financial manias of the past nine years, the stock market boom surrounding the year 2000 and the housing boom since then,” said Mark Galasiewski, a senior analyst at the Institute. “The spread of silver’s popularity worldwide since 1998 has also mirrored the synchronization of global equity markets.” The Institute’s research into historical financial and social trends suggests that such synchronization eventually tempers as society enters a period of dynamic change.
The coming period could be remarkably similar to the late 1960s and early 1970s, when white, a color that had championed a long economic expansion, suddenly faced challengers. White’s market share, which had peaked at 20.8 percent in 1963, eventually slid to the mid-single digits by the early 1970s. From 1968 to 1972, earth tones such as medium brown-gold, copper-bronze, and medium and dark green dominated the top positions.
The mood of the late ‘60s also initiated the design of brightly colored muscle and racing cars highlighted with yellow-influenced colors such as orange. In the positive mood cycle that bega
I can say for certain that in the late 1950’s and 1960’s there is no doubt that “white” was the most common color by at least 4 to 1, and I could guess almost 10 to 1. This is because back then white was a standard feature, while colored paint was an “option”. Both our 1957 Ford Fairlane, and 1964 Galaxy 500 were white. On cross country trips we children would pick colors of cars to count and see who could get to 100 first. We were not allowed to pick white because white would always win. Black was the 2nd most common color on the road. In addition to being popular in its own right that count was influenced because of the number of old 1940s cars that were still out there driving around.
Nobody ever reads what I post [xx(] - “White’s market share, which had peaked at 20.8 percent in 1963” (figures were for North America); that means 1 white car for every 4 other colors, or 1 to 4 (1 out of 5) - NOT 4 to 1 (and certainly not 10 to 1)
Commercial trucks/delivery vehicles (but not Tractor cabs (trucks)) do run much heavier toward White than non-commercial vehicle (hence the British stereotype of the ‘White Van Man’). - edit, and here’s a justification for White commerical vehicles “**…**commercial vehicles. Such vehicles are almost always painted white at the factory - in order to facilitate easy sign-writing on the panelled sides - and as such, the colour is very popular among van buyers.”
I’ve long held the theory that our color choices in the 50’s and 60’s were heavily influenced by television. When we first got the Magic Box in our homes, everyone started wearing gray. Light gray, dark gray, gray gray, it was the color we saw on TV. The TV people didn’t plan that, of course. They just shot pictures of everything, but black-and-white TV, which was all we had then, sucked all the color from life (think of the Blue Meanies in Yellow Submarine) and left us with … gray.
Then, technology came to the rescue, and suddenly we had color TV’s. Not just color TV’s like we see them now, but the primitive first-in-the-neighborhood color TV’s, where everything was literally bolder than life - redder reds, greener greens. And we, the Boomers, the generation raised on The Tube, suddenly blossomed into flower-totin’ hippies, eager to cast off the establishment gray and transform the world with color, singing “All You Need is Love” as we woke up to the colors of Oz, somewhere, over the rainbow.
I think there’s a regional component in this, also.
Back in Tennessee, I used to refer to my “Evergreen” (Toyota’s name for Brunswick Green) pickup as, “The Stealthmobile.” On roads through the pervasive local forest it would virtually disappear. Now that I live in the Dessicated Desert it stands out like (the inverse of) a lighthouse on a dark shore. Among my neighbors, white and light colors predominate - presumably because they lessen the load on the air conditioner. I DO know that, after a few hours parked in the sun (even with the windows open 1/2" at the top) my truck can get hot enough to bake bread! You touch the bodywork at your peril.
OTOH, my wife’s RAV4, parked right alongside, is at least 20 degrees cooler. Of course, it’s white.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Hi all,
Walter, in a lot of ways the real answer to your question is, what Harley Earl liked in the 40’s and 50’s, and what Bill Mitchell liked in the 60’s. Harley Earl was a California born auto designer who grew up working and designing in his father’s custom body shop in the teens and 20’s. In 1927 GM hired Harley to design the new La Salle “companion car” to be sold by Cadillac dealers. By the 30’s Earl had been named a VP of GM (the first stylist named a VP by any major auto maker) and used his position to found the “Art and Color” division of GM. Art and Color was responsable for styling and color selections for all GM brands. When GM started their touring Autorama show Earl used it to gauge public reaction to new styles and color combinations. Earl retired in 1958 and was succeded by Bill Mitchell, who lead Art and Color throughout the 60’s.
If we’re trying to create a feel for those decades on our layouts we may want to use verhicles in some of the colors that were specific to each decade, but didn’t remain popular. In the 40’s (pre and post war) most colors were darker shades of red, blue, black, green and brown. Burgundies and midnight blue were very popular on 40’s cars as well as 40’s and 50’s trucks, but were rarely used on 50’s cars. In the 50’s, very light shades of primary colors, and white became popular. Also, the use of two tone paint schemes with highly contrasting colors like pink, orange and turquoise were uniquely mid-50’s. By 1957 Harley Earl had tired of the two-tone schemes and he favored single color designs with wide panels of bright metal, al a the '57 Chevy Bel Aire. When Bill Mitchell took over in 1959 the use of metallic paints grew substantially. Three metallic colors that Mitchell popularized in the early 60’s that didn’t last were called Persian Sand (a rosey pink), Azure Aqua (a light greenis
For the 30s - Black, navy blue, tan, maroon, and dark green. Maybe gray?
It’s interesting to see what colors were popular in many things. For example, artificially colored paint was first produced in 1859. Suddenly, the cost of a color wasn’t dependent on the rarity of the plant or animal or mineral that went into the paint - they all cost the same. So people in the 1860’s-90’s painted their houses eight different colors, railroads painted freight and passenger cars yellow or white or who knows what!!
One thing I’ve noticed in clothing is that colors seemed to be brighter in the 30’s-40’s. Blue pinstripe suits were actually BLUE not dark Navy like now. I think that did extend into the fifties, it’s true gray was a popular color (charcoal gray sweatshirts were a big deal) but I think colors in clothes were pretty prominent too.
Re cars I guess there must be a regional affect here, I’d say in my lifetime (1958-now) here in Minnesota white cars were never 20% of the total, more like 2%. BTW an interesting tie in to my other too-expensive hobby (music/guitars) is that many early “custom color” electric guitars from the 1950’s-'60’s were painted in automobile paints…for example, you could get a Gretsch “Country Club” guitar in “Cadillac Green”. I believe many of the Fender custom colors were also from car colors, like Lake Placid Blue, Dakota Red etc. though they changed the names from what the car companies called them.
Yep! 1 in every 4 pick up trucks where I live in Tn. is painted camouflage with spray cans or brush paint.[:-^]
I had always heard that red was the most popular color back in the 70’s and 80’s. Don’t know how true it is but I believe the data came from the insurance companies.
One that’s been showing up only in very recent years, and pretty much only on SUVs, is what I would call “taxicab yellow.”
The two-tone I remember most from the 50’s and early 60’s was red-and-white. We called them “Campbell’s Soup cars.” And there were a lot of them. It was a popular choice for the ubiquitous 56 an 57 Chevies.
My wife, too, had a “Stealthmobile.” Despite the preponderance of lead in her right foot, she never got ticket, never even got pulled over. The car was a pale yellow Sunbird station wagon. I figured no self-respecting gendarme would stoop so low as to pull over a car like that.
Actually, I believe that was the Bell Telephone System related to standard wall or desk phones.
Why do you say that? Just because my empirically derived data differs from book data you posted? At that time, counting cars on the real highway, if someone had “white” they would often (and I’ll even go as far as saying usually) have their 100 cars before anyone except maybe “black” had more than 10.
Interesting theory, but I somehow doubt it. We still had technicolor in the theaters. Also if this theory was true wouldn’t all the old black-and-white movies made everyone start wearing sepia? I think the brain fills in the colors where it can. I mean when one saw a fire truck on a black & white TV they still thought red - at least I did.
Yellow has always been a desireable but rare color on the pony cars. It has always cost quite a bit extra and doesn’t hold up to the UV radiation from the sun well. (Well I guess it still costs a bunch extra as a 2004 Blazer in yellow was about $1
Does anybody know where one can find out what colors manufacturers offered on what models for any given year?
Nope, Attributed to ol’ Henry himself:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Ford
Nah, I say it due to a lot of previous experiences that have nothing to do with you or your observations. However, I see you are using my favorite gambit: The plural of anecedote = data fallacy (Rocky: “That trick never works!”)
Hmm, don’t ‘VW New Beetles’ have bright yellow finishes - although in NY, Taxi Cabs tend to have a yellow that trends toward brown (in my eyes).
Gandy Dancer you said,
Actually, I believe that was the Bell Telephone System related to standard wall or desk phones.
I JUST CHECKED THIS ON A GOOGLE SEARCH - IT WAS HENRY FORD!!!
I’m sure that many people have said this about many different things.
Thanks everyone for pitching in. It was very kind of you to supply all that information. [bow]
Walter
It’s what ever the color of the new car I just bought is…
Have you not noticed that you pick out a car color hoping to be somewhat distinctive, and invariably as soon as you get out on the road you immeadiately notice 100+ vehicles that you never noticed before, all sporting exactly the same paint job?
Ahem…
And now you know why I said that…
chutton01, I read your first post. I was looking up on a Google search when you made that 6:13 post and it wasn’t on my computer at that time. I also was haviing trouble getting my 6:15 post up because of a note that I didn’t have my quotes right. This was my first time trying to get someone’s quote up, but I messed up somewhere. Thanks for your support on the Henry Ford quote.
I didn’t read your last message until a few minutes ago, as I’ve been off line since my 6:15 posting.
Thanks again to everyone for their help.
Walter