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Wherever they were headed, I’m sure they enjoyed the journey. Parked in the background is an attractive Belvedere ‘sport coupe’ 2-door hardtop in Orlando Ivory over Glades Green.

Plymouth paintsmiths offered a generous pallet of thirty hues for 1954 Plymouth buyers to choose from– a much wider choice than most of today’s offerings.

In addition to the aforementioned three Plymouth colors, FIVE blues were presented including:

Modesto
Miami
Avalon
Biscayne (ironic)
San Pedro

and EIGHT greens or blue greens, which included:

Tampa Turquoise
Bimini Blue Green
Berkeley Green
Tamiami Green
Shasta Green
Gulf Green
Glades Green
San Gabriel Green
Largo Green

Earth tones included:

Pasadena Gray
Palm Beach Gray
Cascade Gray
Pomona Beige
Sarasota Sand
Mohave Brown
Cypress Brown

Plymouth buyers who were less conservative could opt for:

Piedmont Maroon
Pompano Peach
Santa Rosa Coral
Seminole Scarlet
San Diego Gold (our feature photo car’s color)

Consumers who preferred lighter, brighter colors could chose from:

Orlando Ivory
San Leandro Ivory or
San Mateo Ivory

It must have been near quittin’ time on the day the marketing folks named the colors for 1954, for when they came to the end of the list, and it was time to name the black... they called it simply ‘Black’. You’d think after all that effort, they could have gone the extra mile and name it something like ‘Tuxedo black’ or ‘Raven black’! Oh yes... those names were already taken.

Can you name the American auto makes which used the names Raven Black and Tuxedo Black? (Answers in a minute.)

Plymouth came in three trim series for 1954 starting with the Plaza, a relative ‘stripper’ at the bottom end, moving up to the slightly more decked out Savoy and culminating, at the top-of-the-line, with the Belvedere. All three models shared the same 114" wheelbase, 193.5" overall length and rode on the same 6.70 x 15" tires.

Nineteen fifty-four models were just a facelift of the fresh, new body styles which were introduced the previous year. Gone was the prominent rear fender bulge... a dated styling cue which lingered on the fifty-three models.

Buyers may have pondered a dizzying array of colors, but when it came to power, there were only two available engines– both were straight-forward, straight sixes, the standard model displacing 217.8 cubic inches (3.6 liters for the Gen-Xers and later in my audience) and producing a modest 100 Sunday-go-to-meetin’ horsepower... and a 230 cube version with a slightly higher compression ratio (7.25) that squeezed out an additional 10 ponies. The latter engine was not available until late in the 1954 model year. The upgrade engine’s additional power was, for the most part, barely discernible, and definitely not enough to impress the spectators at Alton Dragway.

Plymouth offered a reasonably complete list of options for 1954 including:

• power steering ($139.75)
• power brakes ($37.00)
• overdrive ($99.55)
• semi-automatic transmission ($145.80)
• fully automatic ‘PowerFlite’ transmission ($189.00)
• AM radio ($82.50)
• heater ($56.25)
• directional signals (yes, they were optional for $13.30)
• Solex tinted glass ($21.00)
• ‘wood-weave interior door trim was available on convertibles and sport coupes (2-door hardtops) only ($37.65)

Although Plymouth was the most expensive of the low priced three American convertibles (Chevrolet, Ford and Plymouth were priced at $2,165, $2,164 and $2,281 respectively)... it was the only one that didn’t offer power windows or seat.

The full wheel covers, shown on the car illustration above, were a $14.00 option. Other wheel trim options included wire wheel covers at $59.15, real wire wheels (painted) at $102.15 and chrome wire wheels at $279.50. As you might expect, very few Plymouth’s were delivered with the real wire wheels. That figure works out to $2,227.00 in ‘09 dollars. The base price of the Plymouth Belvedere convertible ($2,281) equates to $18,131.00 in ‘09 dollars. A ‘Continental’ spare wheel mount was available for $129.00.

Other options included a windshield visor; bumper guards; grill guard; two-tone paint (sedans and hardtops only); backup lights and a ‘egg cup’ electric clock.

When I was barely out of the ‘curtain climbing’ stage of my life, our neighbor in the apartment below us had a plain, black Plymouth sedan. Charles (Chic) Longfield, was a shop teacher at a city high school and was frugal with his humble teacher’s salary. His choice of a Plymouth was wise, for ‘the number one car of Chrysler’ as the brochures called the line, was famous for value and durability. I can almost remember the sound of that trusty Plymouth in-line six as ‘Mr. Longfield’ (to me) cranked it over as he prepared to take me for a ride to the neighborhood Kroger store in the car he was so rightly proud of.

Mr. Longfield, along with 43,076 others, paid just a tad over seventeen hundred dollars for his 6-passenger, 4-door Plaza sedan. The natty little yellow Belvedere ragtop, however, would have run him almost twenty-three hundred dollars... a $600.00 premium that only 6,900 buyers were willing to pay.

Answering the earlier question of the black color names, Raven Black was used by Ford and Tuxedo Black was used by Chevrolet. That said, there well may be other manufacturers that used these relatively ‘natural’ names for black. I’m not sure the names were ‘trademarkable’ if you will.

There was a huge disparity in sales of ragtops for the big three in 1954. Ford was way out front with sales of 33,685 units for fifty-four... Chevrolet’s number was far behind at 19,383 and Plymouth only produced 6,900 convertibles for the model year. So, if my story has enticed you to look for a ‘54 Plymouth Belvedere convertible... all I can say is "good luck". You’re odds of finding a Ford convertible of ‘54 vintage would be about six to one over the Plymouth!

Trivia Questions (answers below)

Belvedere In-line Six
Trivia Questions of the Week:

1. What is the meaning of the word ‘belvedere’ and from what language does it originate?

2. What model years were included in Plymouth Belvedere production?

3. "Oh Belvedere, come here boy!" was the familiar cry of this bulldog’s ornery Southern Colonel master. What Looney Tunes cartoon shows included this canine character?

4. Belvedere is a brand name for what type of liquor made in Poland?

5. Mr. Belvedere was an American sitcom which ran on the ABC television network for five years. Can you name the British actor who played Mr. Belvedere and can you guess one or more of the five years in which it aired on American television?

6. Belvedere Stadium (Estadio Belvedere), home to the Liverpool FC (Futbol Club) is located in what city?

(answers below)

Illustrations courtesy of The Old Car Manual Project:

 

1. What is the meaning of the word ‘belvedere’ and from what language does it originate?
‘Belvedere’ translates to ‘beautiful view’ in Italian

2. What model years were included in Plymouth Belvedere production?
1951 through 1970

3. "Oh Belvedere, come here boy!" was the familiar cry of this bulldog’s ornery Southern Colonel master. What Looney Tunes cartoon shows included this canine character?
Belvedere was the bull dog who appeared in the Tweety Pie and Bug’s Bunny cartoons.

4. Belvedere is a brand name for what type of liquor made in Poland?
Belvedere is a high-end, premium Vodka distilled in Poland.

5. Mr. Belvedere was an American sitcom which ran on the ABC television network for five years. Can you name the British actor who played Mr. Belvedere and can you guess one or more of the five years in which it aired on American television?
Mr. Belvedere starring British actor Christopher Hewett, ran on the ABC television network from March 15, 1985 until July 8, 1990.

6. Belvedere Stadium (Estadio Belvedere), home to the Liverpool FC (Futbol Club) is located in what city?
If you didn’t pick up on the Spanish name, you probably said Liverpool, England... right? The answer is Montevideo, the capitol city of Uruguay.