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Extra credit assignment: Identify the cars. (The answers: 1960 Ford Starliner on the left; 1960 Studebaker Lark on the right.)
Spring 1960. "Efforts of John F. Kennedy's campaign team, including members of his family, in West Virginia during Kennedy's quest for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination. Includes brother Bob at a drive-in in Bluefield." From photos by Bob Lerner for the Look magazine article "The Kennedys: A Family Political Machine." 35mm negative. View full size.
Bluefield is one of those areas where a savvy pol like our beloved Bobby could have worked two states while thinking he was in only one. The last time I was there (early '60s), my cousins popped me back and forth across the state line several times during a teenage boy's dream night. Good lord to be 14 again!
RFK's soles are carefully resting on the chrome trim so it's permissible.
This picture reminded me of the 2 convertibles that I owned, a 1958 Chevy Impala and a 1963 Olds Starfire. They looked great with the tops down and enclosed in the snap-on faux leather boots that covered them. The car in the photo has the top down but without the boot cover on. After a while I stopped using the cover because it was a real pain to fasten.
I'm almost sure the car on the left is a new 1961 T-Bird.
[As noted below, the car on the left is a 1960 Ford Starliner. The fender ornament and chrome thingamabobs on the roof pillar are the main clues.]
The car on the left is a new 1960 Ford Starliner two door hardtop. The one on the right is a Studebaker Lark. This is a top of the line convertible, but it has a radio "delete" plate on the dash.
I would love to see that "chicken on a bicycle" neon sign in action!
on the left, 1959 or 1960 Studebaker Lark on the right
Nineteen sixty was the first year Studebaker offered its Lark model as a convertible, like the one on which Kennedy is seated. Studebaker differentiated six- and eight-cylinder versions with a Roman numeral "VI" and "VIII," respectively, after the "Lark" badging on the front fenders (I can't quite make out if this one is a VI or VIII).
While sitting on cars wasn't always bad form, especially in the days of heavier-gauge sheetmetal, putting the soles of one's shoes directly on a car's paint job (as RFK is doing to that Ford product parked next to the Lark) is a definite no-no.
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