Mad Men Moments

Yesterday, I posted a variety of photos that depicted people posing with their Ford Fairlanes — and mentioned how many vintage snapshots I’d run across that displayed a similar scenario. The above shot was taken from an ad for a 1962 Ford Fairlane — sort of a real-life Mad Men moment. While Don Draper — lead character in Mad Men, for people who don’t follow the show (but try to catch it!) — is based on legendary ad man Draper Daniels, I’m going to include a quote below from another advertising icon.

“The creative process requires more than reason. Most original thinking isn’t even verbal. It requires ‘a groping experimentation with ideas, governed by intuitive hunches and inspired by the unconscious.’ The majority of business men are incapable of original thinking because they are unable to escape from the tyranny of reason. Their imaginations are blocked.”  …from Confessions of an Advertising Man by DAVID OGILVY

Redwoods, Fairlanes, and Steinbeck

“The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It’s not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.” Excerpt from Travels with Charley: In Search of America, memoir by JOHN STEINBECK

Photo: Northern California, late 1950s, driving through giant redwood in Ford Fairlane. 

Full Skirts, Saddle Shoes, and Ford Fairlanes

Photo: Girl posing with 1959 Ford Fairlane. (“Betty, go stand by the Fairlane and let me snap your picture.”)

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many people considered their Ford Fairlanes valued members of their families. The car boasted a beautiful design that inspired love and devotion among its owners.

Proud Fisherman, Proud Fairlane Owner

“To see a thing clearly in the mind makes it begin to take form.”

HENRY FORD

Note: The above photo is a found snapshot showing a man posing with his prize fish and prized automobile — the Ford Fairlane. I have been struck by how many photos I’ve run across of people during the late 1950s and early 1960s posing with their Ford Fairlanes. I believe the car was so beloved because, as the Keats poem tells us, “a thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

Proud Ford Fairlane Owners

“Vision without execution is just hallucination.”   HENRY FORD

Photos: Stoskopfs with 1957 Ford Fairlane, John C. Stoskopf, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Art of the Ford Fairlane

While reviewing found photos from the late 1950s and early 1960s, I’m amazed at the number of photographs I find where people are posing with their Ford Fairlanes. I assume this occurred because they were proud of their cars and considered them beautiful. I have to agree. The Ford Fairlane of the late 1950s was a classic — a design that many consider a work of sublime art.

“I invented nothing new. I simply assembled the discoveries of other men behind whom were centuries of work. Had I worked fifty or ten or even five years before, I would have failed. So it is with every new thing. Progress happens when all the factors that make for it are ready, and then it is inevitable.” HENRY FORD

Ford Fairlanes, Found Photos, and Wikipedia Poems

“And then the car was beside him, not idling but panting like a deadly animal which may or may not be tamed.” STEPHEN KING, The Stand

Photo: Java1888, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Note: The above photo of man and car belongs to Java1888, who states on Flickr.com: “I recently found this awesome 50s photo album at an antique store. Its full of extremely hip 50s people and their stuff!”

The dashing man in the cool suit and jaunty hat is a few years pre-Mad Men. My best guess is that car is a 1957 Ford Fairlane (a model sold from 1955-1970). While reading about Ford Fairlanes on Wikipedia, I was inspired to turn some of the words into the zen poem featured below.

ZEN POEM:

1957 FORD FAIRLANE

by Wikipedia

For 1957, a new style gave 

a longer, wider, lower,

and sleeker look

with low tailfins.