Darby Everest Cadillac - Oklahoma City - 1955

[okccadman]

Its April of 1955 and the new owners have just taken over from Greenlease-Moore.  You are invited to a reception and showing of the 1955 Cadillacs.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CADILL-IKES/photos/album/234651670/pic/list

I found these great pics at the Oklahoma Historical Society.  Can we still place a parts order?  How about a test drive in that 55 Eldo?

Enjoy everyone!

P.S. be sure to use the options in the upper left to blow them up to original size.  They are huge images and the detail is incredible!

[Mike Josephic CLC #3877]

Great pictures and thanks for posting!  They are especially nice for me since I hae a '55
Eldorado and the 55 model is featured in their showroom in several of them.  Really
neat to see that!

Question:  How can I download copies of these?  I tried, but instead get a "link"
rather than the pic itself.  BTW, I'm a CaddyIkes member.

Thanks,

Mike

[Joe Manna]

Excuse me Mr.Crimmins,your Eldorado is ready for you to pick up...............

[Otto Skorzeny]

Mike, I clicked on the title just below each photo and it opened right in my Picasa photo viewer, from which I can place the photo anywhere I want to on my computer.

Picasa is a free photo managing software. It allows you to alter, enlarge, shrink, email, etc. photos you take yourself or those people email you or that you find on the web.

Here is a link in case you want to download it for free:

http://picasa.google.com/

[okccadman]

If you enlarge and look closely at the shop pics, there is another 55 Eldo in for service.  OIt appears to be white with a black top.

Any members have a 55 That came from Oklahoma City originally?

Great pictures and thanks for posting!  They are especially nice for me since I hae a '55
Eldorado and the 55 model is featured in their showroom in several of them.  Really
neat to see that!

Question:  How can I download copies of these?  I tried, but instead get a "link"
rather than the pic itself.  BTW, I'm a CaddyIkes member.

Thanks,

Mike

[Otto Skorzeny]

Which photo has the white eldo with black top?

It looks like the 55 masked for painting had an under-hood fire. look at the hood insulation.

Interesting that they're working on a '53 Ford as well.

[okccadman]

The one entitled "Building 2 Service."  It is on the right.

[Otto Skorzeny]

I don't see a photo with that title.  Whazzup wiiddat?

[okccadman]

Sorry, its one of the 16 posted on the Cadill-Ikes site.  I wasnt able to reduce their sizes to post them here yet.

[Otto Skorzeny]

"I see", said the blind man.

[Charles D. Barnette]

These pictures have great historical significance to our club. It was here at this same building located at 400 N. Walker Street when the dealership was Greenlease-Moore that the show car, the 1953 Cadillac LeMans #2 (serial number 03), was last displayed in public in November of 1953 before the car literally fell off the face of the earth! This is the only Cadillac LeMans out of 4 made that cannot be accounted for at the present time! The car was once owned by Harley Earl, and at the time of the display at Greenlease-Moore was black in color externally with yellow interior. Tragically also this is where Mr. Robert Thomas Moore (being one of the owners of Greenlease-Moore) was found in a locked bathroom on the second floor of the building with a fatal gunshot wound from his own shotgun in August of 1954. The police ruled the death as "either accidental or suicide". These pictures posted by Jim made in 1955 are probably as close to 1953 as we can come to get a good idea as to what the entire premises looked like in 1953. These pictures are in my mind "Holy Grail" items! Charles D. Barnette

[Charles D. Barnette]

As luck would have it, sitting under my very nose in Texarkana for many years was my dad's 1966 Cadillac Sedan DeVille. Jim Jordan had viisited our museum here in 2006 and saw my dad's car. My exhaustive research on the 1953 Cadillac LeMans for David Temple's Motorama book had me leaving LeMans number 2 at the Greenlease-Moore dealership in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1953 with the trail ending there. As we now know the dealership Darby-Everest in 1955 took over the same building ( as Greenlease-Moore) and remained in the same building during Darby's entire existance. When I told Jim how iimpressed I was with the 1955 pictures he posted on this thread, he informed me that my dad's 1966 Cadillac had been bought at Darby-Everest according to the nameplate attached to the rear of the car (my dad being the second owner). I told Jim "you have got to be kidding". Sure enough, my dad said the car had been bought by the original owner in Oklahoma; and then my dad bought it from the original owner many years ago in Texarkana. A quick check of my dad's car last night indeed shows the nameplate "Darby-Everest-Okla. City" attached to the left rear! I feel like my research on the LeMans has come full circle with my dad's car being sold from the same building that LeMans #2 was last publicly displayed! I now have new respect for my dad's 66 Cadillac! I will photograph the nameplate, and Carla will post it tomorrow on this thread. Cadillac wonders never cease! Charles

[Barry Norman]

Love these pics ! Any chance we can see the others ??

[okccadman]

There are 16 large files posted on the Cadill-Ikes yahoo site.  As time allows, I will try to resize them so I can post them here.

Jim

[PHIL WHYTE CLC 14192]

Great photos,
As an aside, I have tried to join the Cadillac-Ikes discussion group about four times now and can't seem to get on there. I have the same problem with another Yahoo group I'm a member of [the Gene Vincent discussion group] and the only way I can participate in that is by replying from my email account. I haven't even got that far with the Ikes group! I was a Cadillac Ikes member when it was a subscription pamphlet.
All the best,
Phil

[Carla Tynes]

Here is my Dad's 1966 Cadillac with the famous Darby-Everest name plate.  The next post will show a true close-up of the logo name plate.

[Carla Tynes]

Here are the close ups of the Darby-Everest name plate on my Dad's 1966 Cadillac.  When I get to heaven, my first question to the Lord will be who shot JFK.  My second question will be what happened to Cadillac LeMans #2!  Charles D. Barnette

[Otto Skorzeny]

Interesting to see all these cars when they were new. Also notice that the white and black Eldo has the narrower white walls  (2 3/4?) that presumably were standard while some of the other owners opted to buy the full side wall whites (4"?)

[Doug Houston]

This thread has been very interesting to me. One of my cars was sold in this dealership in 1941. It is a club coupe, and by serial number, one of the last '41 Cadillacs made.It has the factory air conditioner in it; one of three known survivors.

I'm the sixth owner, and it was in Oklahome all its life until a lad in the Army owned it, and drove it to Detroit. He sold it shortly after arriving here, and I have had it since then, about 1968.

[Barry Norman]

I would love to see some pics of your car-especially the AC setup !