Monday, July 7, 2008

More old Taxis

Alright bare with me here, I can't stop surfing the internet finding examples of old New York taxis. I promise this will be my last post of old taxis, but promises are made to be broken. All the pictures were found on IMCDB.org. Can you believe there is an entire site dedicated to finding the cars used in movies and naming them all!!! Did I die and go to heaven? I know a lot of movies get their history wrong, or they just don't care about history, so if you see any car I posted, and want to add some info about how it really looked, or it never being a taxi, don't hesitate to comment.

Again I must remind you if you don't know already, that the NYC taxi wasn't always yellow. Each cab company would choose their paint scheme. The yellow dominance was introduced by John D. Hertz, a national taxi company owner (Yellow Cab Co.), and later of rental car company fame. He believed that yellow was the most noticeable color.

By the way I just saw my first Chevrolet Malibu hybrid taxi yesterday, I think it was owned by a fleet, so there should be a handful of them within the year. 



72' Dodge Polara
"The Seven-Ups"










Nothing says, I live in the era when everything
sucks, quite like this car.



Everything about this car is genuine. the red number 83 indicates this as the 83rd car of a particular taxi company. The taxi fare decal on the front doors and even the medallion number on the roof-light are very accurate.







57' Dodge Coronet
"The Best of Everything"










77' Dodge Coronet
"Murder She Wrote"








Could this be the ugliest car ever made?







55' Dodge Coronet
"North By Northwest"













80' Chevy Impala
"The Confession"




In the early 80's the Impala and the Caprice were virtually the same. 







59' Checker 
"Breakfast at Tiffany's"






Note the green and yellow colors, beautiful.






37' Buick Special
"The Natural"






I wonder if cabs ever had white wall tires?






36' Buick Special
"The Pantom"











This roof sign seems very accurate. I don't think any taxi was satisfied with a simple "Taxi" sign. I wish more movies would get this right.







36' Cord 810 Westchester
"The Shadow"









This car is amazing! Pop up headlights inside the wheel well?!!! How cool is that!!!!!??? Again the roof-light is very comparable to the DeSoto Skyview taxis, very historically acute. 









Right when aviation was getting started, everyone wanted to be a pilot. That dash makes the driver feel as though he were flying. I wouldn't be surprised if it had an altimeter. 

But my main question is: Was this ever really a taxicab?








42' DeSoto Skyview
"Saboteur"



The Skyview was aptly named for a glass roof in the back. Both the glass roof, and the ample room in the back made it the most desirable cab.










46' Plymouth De Lux
"The Shadow"
















53' Plymouth Cambridge
"Funny Face"


Location: Washington Square Park. that's right, 5th Avenue went right through the arch and around the fountain.







65' Plymouth Fury 3
"Blindfold"
















57' Plymouth Plaza
"Breakfast at Tiffany's"













55' Plymouth Plaza
"Funny Face"












37' Pontiac Delux
"The Natural"












57' Studebaker Scotsman
"The Best of Everything"

4 comments:

LKB said...

This is amazing!

Bruce drove an some of the caprices, various years.

We've been fans of the cash cab. Do you see it around?

Hope you had a good 4th and are staying cool! Keep going on the great blog. I bet you have a following.

- leslie

Anonymous said...

bonsoir les photos sont superbes
j'en ai repris quelques une dans mon blog (saison 5) taxilondonien.blog.lemonde.fr
merçi
Pascal

NYC taxi photo said...

Merçi beaucoup!

Anonymous said...

Does anyone is collecting Taxi roof top lights ? ,if you do take a look at my web site , click on assorted antiques and you will find some more are coming very soon
vintagephone.com