Car experts, I need your help again on this postcard. Maybe you can help me come up with a date, by ID’ing some of those old cars, parked curbside.
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OUELLETTE AVE., WINDSOR, CANADA
Looking north on one of Windsor’s main throughfares,
with Detroit skyline in centre background.
Photo by Bob McDonald
A great shot of the Palace Marquee, something starring Marylin Monroe is playing… Look at the crowd of people out on the sidewalks…
A view up the west side of Ouellette, many storefronts with Neon signs out front.
These old post cards of Ouellette at the height of its dominance as a retail centre are sad too see. Decades of poor planing and lousy zoning have brought us to the point where we are today. Heck even the Freedom Festival is packin’ up and heading out to the edge of town. Construction or not… That’s lousy.
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Not 100% sure, but I am guessing this is 1952 or 1953.
me neither, got a mish-mash of 40’s and 50’s in there. I think Scott is right.
in the 2nd picture, the vehicle coming towards the camera looks like it could be a 1950 GMC pick up. i can’t help ya anymore than that. John will probly be able to get this for you i’m sure.
a great, and yes sad, shot of windsor’s past.
nice post Andrew, thanks!
With Marylin Monroe getting star billing you would have to see when she made it big and go from there.That might help a little on narrowing it down close to a date.I’m not a movie buff but I’m thinking maybe 55 56
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was 1953… However I’m not a giant Marylin Monroe fan, so I’m not sure when she became a “star”.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000054/#actress
I see a slight bit of white on the flag over the Martin Building – It’s really hard to see, If it is a new flag, that came into use in 1965. Can anyone else see it?
Can’t see any vehicles newer than 1949 vintage.
I agree with M.O.M. I think late 1940s.
Wow! Look at the traffic, crowds, on street parking
and all of the awnings. It sure would be nice today….
I’m with Scotty on the date. I see at least one ca. 1952 vehicle parked. Bernie could certainly give a date aperture as well based on that Twin Coach bus.
I would also say around 1952/53, I have a post card that must have been taken around the same time but at a different location south of the Prince Edward Hotel looking north on Ouellette Ave. In fact that Twin Coach bus is about the same location in it and the newest cars are 1951 Ford’s. I also have one taken in 1958, will get them scanned for you Andrew.
I think that flag must be something else – not the Maple Leaf. The official Canadian flag would be flying on top of the building and the flag you can see here flying from the roof, is definitely not the red and white. If the picture was from 1965 there would be at least some late 1950’s to mid ’60’s cars – tail fins and all. There are none in the photo. I’d say 1953, at the very latest.
I’m pretty sure it’s ’53. The poster above the marquee looks like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, for sure. The SO guesses the car northbound is a `52 – `54 Mercury and it seems to be the newest vehicle on the road. (He actually knows cars pretty well and has a number of vintage autos himself. Apparently, in `49 to `51, Mercury was still using the James Dean model`, whatever that means but it ain`t the one in the picture.)
Clare, your husbands description of the northbound car jogged my memory. I’m sure a few people still remember the Ford Assembly plant (long since gone) that straddled Riverside Drive. They produced the Mercury Monarch amongst other vehicles and I came across this link
http://monarchsource.com/wp/?page_id=3
Note some of the pictures taken at the Ford Test Track.
But getting back to Andrew’s post, it lends some credence to the late 40’s/(more likely) the early 50’s time period.
Blue one on the front left looks to be a 46-48 Plymouth or Dodge.
The two yellow/cream cars are the most modern ones in the shot, and look to have a 3-box design that came out around 49/50 (in general).
right hand side…53 pontiac with a 53 buick right behind it
Lots of parking on the streets back then…one lane of traffic in either direction and slow moving traffic = tons of pedestrians….we must have been idiots back then to not see the potential more cars, less parking and dryvit..intead of those ugly brick and stone facades and outstanding (i mean ugly and dumb) signage!
Hi,
The cream-coloured car on the right-hand side of Ouellette is either a 1952 Chevrolet or a 1952 Pontiac. The trim suggests an Oshawa-built Pontiac. The two makes shared body shells. The cream-coloured car on the left side of the street is a 1946-1948 Chryco product–probably a Dodge or Plymouth.
My blog- http://oldcarscanada.blogspot.com/
My guess is August 1952. I followed the imdb.com trail and “Don’t Bother To Knock” has the following promo photo: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4032862208/tt0044557 . Looks like it could be a match. P.S. Hello Clare!
oh, Marilyn…
Paul is correct. The film is Don’t Bother To Knock from 1952. It was released in New York on 18 July 1952 and LA on 30 July 1952. The pic looks like that time of year as well.
Early 50’s. The 3rd car on the left (yellow) is a ’50 model of I’m not sure what (Chev)?
Hey Me your right it would be nice to see those kinds of crowds on ouellette but we will never see that! downtown in the photo again another thing i noticed look at how wide the street was back then now! think abouthow narrow it is now and less parking too the downtown BIA and city council are fools if they think they can get the downtown we had back then
Hi gary. That is what people in Times Square (NY) thought as well and look at it now. I would say they would be fools for not continually trying.
That is not so say that the downtown of the future will be similar to downtown of the past. I am just hoping for the return of the crowds once again. No reason why it couldn’t
Crowds of people aside… the downtown of the future will never be like the downtown of the past…. will it?
Too bad Windsor doesn’t have the kind of political leadership we had back in the 50’s and 60’s. It’s time to for King Eddie and the village idiots on council to pack it in.
May be the down fall of shopping in Windsor dates back to the good old days. Restictive shopping hours, Wed. afternoon closure of grocery stores, only Friday night open till nine pm.
this was the good old days of retail, that spurred Dorwin, and Gateway plaza, Yorktown was there also.
Do not blame the present mayor and council for the death of downtown, the grave was dug before they came. Remember Mile Hurst, my way or no way, and the ones before him.
Lots of mistakes in the past, that not a new phenomonon in Windsor.
Okay folks this is the answer to when was this picture taken.
It was in July of 1953.
How I arrived at this conclusion.
The newest autos in the postcard are a couple of GM products looking like 1951 or 1952,therefore the picture could not have been taken before 1951.
The marque with Marlyn Monroe’s name would mean that the movie she started in would have to be
somewhere around 1952.Marilyn’s first movies where she received top billing was in 1953.Prior to that other actors were the headliners for movies that she also acted in.
Ms Monroe had two movies out in 1953 that gave her top billing, one was “Niagara” which was released in February of 1953,and seeing that this pic does not have people in cold weather clothes,I would conclude that the pic was not taken in winter.
The other movie was Gentleman Prefer Blondes(and the marque sign does look like it has a longer title than Niagara) and this move had a release date of July 18th 1953.
So my guess would be that it was sometime at the middle or end of July,1953.
sweet jeebus Geo, that’s some damn fine P.I. work there!
thanks!
I have long been searching for a photograph showing the corner of Maiden Lane and Oullette Avenue, the west side. This was directly across from the pedestrian exit from the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. Specifically, I am searching for a photograph of Lyttle’s Bakery, a very popular place in Windsor, Ontario for shoppers, etc. for restaurant food and superior baked goods. Can you help, please?
doug Jeffrey
Doug, did you try this?
http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=641
http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=641
LOL. We both posted at almost the same time, Andrew.
Reading all the comments I would say it probably was 1953 . No 1954 cars in the picture & anything later than that had newer body designs . Anyway these pictures bring back pleasant memories . Too bad they don’t last forever .
The cream color car enroute not parked is not a Pontiac but probably a 1953 chevrolet .
Does anyone have a picture of my grade school ( St. Joseph catholic elementary ) East Windsor close to Wyandotte & Pillette North of Railroad . They tore it down .
The poster above the marquee is “Don’t Bother to Knock,” which was released in July of 1952.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/Don't_bother_to_knock.jpg