The next best thing to being part of the 50s car culture when it happened is to read the magazines of the era to truly understand what they were doing 68 years ago.
Some things are familiar, while others are strictly 1959—here are some solid examples of what they were selling back in the golden era of street rods and customs.
Jerry Sutherland
The first item was an advertisement for Foxcraft ‘Cruiser’ fender skirts. Older car guys often refer to these in hushed tones because they were the top of the heap in the world of fender skirts.
Foxcraft stamped every fender skirt with a code that told you exactly what car they fit on, so there were no mysteries for buyers. They built them from the 1950s to the 1970s, then fender skirts went away—and so did the customers.
Mufflers were also a big piece of the car guy puzzle because a deep rumble was a badge of honor.
Arnold Haviland Company produced Sportsman mufflers and advertised them as “the original fiberglass packed muffler”. This meant you might squeak by scrutiny from local law enforcement and still have a bitchin’ sound.
Club jackets were the uniform of car guys in 1959, and the Stylized Emblem Company pumped them out with prices ranging from 6 to 25 dollars.
That might seem like a reasonable price in 2026, but bear in mind the minimum wage was around a dollar an hour in 1959. That’s a ton of hours pumping gas for a club jacket.
No 50s car magazine would be complete without an ad for a JC WHITNEY catalog.
This ‘Hot Rod Magazine’ had a large JC WHITNEY ad because it made sense. Every car guy on the planet in 1959 was destined to buy something out of their 300+ page catalog.
Nerf bars were almost mandatory in 1959, so the Hurst-Campbell Inc. ad was no surprise.
They offered a nerf bar for every potential customer and in 1959, they had plenty of them. Hurst-Campbell became Hurst and was bought out by Sunbeam in 1970—they became far more famous for their shifters than their nerf bars.
The Automatic Battery Company of America produced dual 6-volt batteries with 12-volt capability and advertised it in ‘Hot Rod’.
That makes sense because most car builders only started producing 12-volt cars three years earlier so you could crank your ’54 DeSoto over a lot faster by simply bolting in an ABCO battery.
Von Esser Speed Equipment was one of the earliest go-fast suppliers when they opened a Chicago-based shop in the late 1940s.
Von Esser was legendary for supplying quality parts, including the famous Hollywood muffler. The Hollywood muffler was notorious for its deep rumble, so it was a hot seller in 1959.
The Eighth Annual Detroit Autorama advertised in ‘Hot Rod’.
Who would guess that this event would still be a major event 68 years later? That’s an amazing tribute to the car culture’s interest in big events.
Cast aluminum car plaques were a car guy way of telling the world what club you belonged to in the late 1950s.
You could buy one from Chicago Metalcraft for a mere $2.00—that’s an amazing price even with inflation.
That’s also a great way to end a study of 50s car culture.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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