1960 Buick Factory Photos

[Centurion]

I found Walter Miller's completed auctions for 1960 Buick factory photographs very tempting -- although I showed restraint and did not bid on any. Still, I think these are interesting photos and thought that those of you who did not see them might enjoy a look. This set of photos concentrates on the Invicta series and standard Electra series four-door hardtops, which is a favorite style of mine.

Here are the Invicta shots:

Here are photos of the standard Electra series (4700):

And, finally, a '60 LeSabre interior shot:

[JohnD1956]

The thing about these photos is the cars are astounding in their simplicity. The door panels are so ...plain...and I hardly remember the body looking so thick ( from the rocker panels to the bottom of the windows ) in relation to the windows themselves. And I can't ever recall seeing so much ground clearance on any 60 Buick.

But that's what makes these photos so great and valuable.

Thanks for posting these babies. I love em!

[Guest 60Buick]

Awesome!

[72Buickguy]

In the book, Boulevard Photographic, about auto advertising, the authors described how they used a special camera that stretched the cars out horizontally. This made the cars look longer and lower. The cars in the factory photos look natural and not stretched out.

[55PackardGuy]

Buickguy,

Here's another old car advertising photography trick: For T.V. advertising, some cars that appeared to drive up toward the camera and stop were actually photographed going in reverse, with the driver looking forward. Then, the film was run backward for the final cut, showing the car stopping cleanly in front of the camera, without any nose-dive. Heck, they might still do it that way. Just something I picked up in "Advertising 1001" many years back.

[Centurion]

Lee Branum of Spokane, Washington sometimes posts here as TurbineDrive60. When he spotted this topic, he e-mailed me a photo of his beautiful, completely original 1960 Invicta four-door hardtop. As I recall, Lee's car has 24,000 original miles, and he acquired the car from the original owner in the Pendleton, Oregon area. In fact, Lee's car was originally delivered by Pendleton's Oylear-Howard Motor Co. -- a long vanished Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealership that once filled a space in the city's historic downtown area. I remember this dealership well from the late 1970's. The building and furnishings were straight out of the 1940's, and the old Buick and Pontiac authorized service signs still hung outside the service department entrance. The "sofa" in the showroom was the tubular chrome style with vinyl cushions. Visiting the dealership was like visiting the past.

The dealership was across the street from the Rivoli Theatre, where I first saw the film "Grease". We affectionately called this the "Revolting" Theatre, and its drab decor had received no upgrades for decades. Following the movies, we would stroll up the street to Oylear-Howard, and view whatever treasures could be seen in the showroom window.

Among the treasures in my collection of Buick and Eastern Oregon memorabilia is the original license plate frame from Lee's 1960 Buick. Here's Lee's fine 1960 Buick, and I hope that he will jump on here with more details about the car: