1940 Buick display car in "Hawaiian Orchid" paint?

[John_S_in_Penna]

Has anyone heard of a 1940 Buick painted

in 2-tone "Hawaiian Orchid" paint?  It's a 

mauve color and is shown on the following

1940-era video in a showroom at time-marker 1:42.

Clearly, the car was new at this time, and the

name of the color is shown on a plate at the front.

 

Interestingly, that color must have had some

popularity in that California clime, because the

"Ambassador Lido Club" exhibits the same colors

on its architecture at 2:04.

 

Also, for your enjoyment at 1:32, is a hilarious

mechanical laundress on a billboard.  Very clever!

 

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[Y-JobFan]

Now that is a statement car 

[TxBuicks]

Amazing film and interesting to watch.  I noticed how everyone was so well dressed. No matter what they were doing, there seemed to be a pride in their appearance.  That's something I'd like to see come back.

[NTX5467]

A time when most people in metro areas wanted to appear "upscale" and "well-off", I suspect.  When owning a Buick, ANY Buick, meant you were "destined for better things in life".  Certainly a different time, back then!

 

Wonder how many "Hawaiian Orchid" Buicks were built back then?  A bit of thin, red pearl on top of it would make it fabulous in the brighr sun, I suspect.

 

NTX5467

[JohnD1956]

11 hours ago, NTX5467 said:

A time when most people in metro areas wanted to appear "upscale" and "well-off", I suspect.  When owning a Buick, ANY Buick, meant you were "destined for better things in life".  Certainly a different time back then.

 

Well, I, for one, opt to still think it is true.   😃

[MrEarl]

10 minutes ago, JohnD1956 said:

 

Well, I, for one, opt to still think it is true.   😃

 

Here, here!!! 👍

[Larry Schramm]

I would guess that the car was a special paint for The Charles Howard Automobile company.  The same distributor for Buicks of Seabiscuit fame.  Up to a few years ago, you could order any color you wanted for a special charge.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Larry Schramm (see edit history)

[Malo48]

Wow, I really like that color combo.  There's no more info about it?

 

[JFranklin]

I liked the movie, had a bicycle that color when I was a kid and got embarrassed once in a while.

[Bhigdog]

On 10/1/2020 at 10:57 PM, NTX5467 said:

Certainly a different time, back then!

 

Sure was. No homeless camps lining main streets. No streets littered with syringes and feces. Few folks "sleeping" on streets. Wonder what "Feminine Conditioning" was or did. Sounds sexist to me. Time to protest?......................Bob

[Malo48]

That color has really piqued my curiosity.   Were these ever GM colors or was this something never put into production?

[NTX5467]

NO intention of hi-jacking this thread, but to Bhigdog's homeless comments . . . over the past 10 years, there have been many large non-profits formed in Dallas, TX and a few other large metro area to help address the issue, especially homeless veterans.  Help, job search counselling, AND a stable address they can put on a job application.  And it has been working, but just too many potential applicants. 

 

Homelessness also extends into the ranks of high school students, who sleep/live in their cars and have a part-time job.  Seems like there were about 50 such students, locally, a few years ago?  "Battered" spouses have many protective places to go, but what about the homelsss students?  End of my comments in this area.

 

Respectfully,

NTX5467

[NTX5467]

When ever an OEM comes up with a different and interesting color, we never really know why.  One thing that has been hidden from normal view is the "Fleet Colors" for some vehicle brands.  I discovered this in the 1980s in the Chevrolet Dealer Order Guide.  In the very front, where new information normally went, would be a page-chip chart of "fleet colors", colors used by natoinal fleet accounts (only available on vehicles these major customers might order, to prevent mistakes in ordering as they had their own order codes.  It took a sales volume of at least 1000 units, or there-abouts, to get this continued recognition.

 

ALSO on this Chevrolet chip chart wou;d be some "next year's colors", in a few cases.  Regional dealer groups could pool their orders to get to the 1000 unit minimum.  Which gave them something different on the lots that other regional dealer groups didn't have to sell.  This happened one year in the earlier 1990s when we got a group of pickups in with a beautiful dark green metallic color.  Customer came in desiring some tough-up paint for his new truck.  Looked for the codes, which were not in the parts book.  After chasing that deal to many dead-ends, the sales manager talked to a paint supplier to get a quart mixed and put into non-factoryl touch-up bottles.  A fleet color that year that was regular production the next model year, when the paint code worked as it should in the parts book!

 

In the case where multiple brands of veicles were built in the same plant, but one brand had a particular color the other brands didn't, the other brands might have a "Special Color" option, where, say, an Oldsmobile-signature-color-that-year might be ordered on another btand of vehicle built in that plant.  Used to be an aditional $75.00 or so tp have, in this case, an Oldsmobile color on a non-Oldsmobile vehicle built in that plant.

 

We might never know how the Hawaiian Orchid color came to be, but somebody at "corporate" had to approve it for production.  The mind's-eye image of a beautiful Hawaiian (perceived "exotic" plant) flower on a stylish Buick.  What better way to lift one's spirits?

 

Enjoy!

NTX5467

[John_S_in_Penna]

On 11/15/2020 at 9:14 PM, Malo48 said:

That color has really piqued my curiosity.   Were these ever GM colors or was this something never put into production?

On 11/17/2020 at 8:38 AM, NTX5467 said:

...somebody at "corporate" had to approve it for production.  The mind's-eye image of a beautiful Hawaiian (perceived "exotic" plant) flower on a stylish Buick.  What better way to lift one's spirits?

 

Pondering that orchid-colored Buick a bit more:

It must have been something special, since it was

on display somewhere--even on a revolving turntable--

with its own front plate that indicated its color.  And

someone making home movies in 1940 thought it

special enough to record it for posterity.

 

Thank you, home movie-maker!  If he hadn't taken that

movie, knowledge of this special car might have been lost

to history.  I hope it might still be around today.

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[Brad Conley]

Hawaiian Orchid was a color that was used for New Car Show Cars at various shows around the country, much like the special Pearl White my GSX was painted in the day.  It as never to be a production color as way too many blends of color (my own has at LEAST 12 different layers of paint.  Talk about difficult to duplicate!!).