[ last update: 02.17.2014 ]

The (new) Cadillac Database©
Professional Cars

on
Cadillac Chassis

1955

Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
or go to the "Dream cars" section for 1955
or select "Professional Cars" years from the table below

 

Pick one   >

1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940 1941 1942

WW2 years

1946 1947 1948 1949
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999-up

 

 

 

1955

Eureka (USA) This company, like others listed below, specialized in commercial vehicles including hearses, funeral limousines, ambulances and flower cars.

 

Hess & Eisenhardt (USA) Skyview Limousine [6 were built as tour cars for the Broadmoor hotel, Colorado]. All were finished in Mandan red with Pecos beige upper side window trim. These wagons could accommodate twelve passengers. There is at least one known survivor; it was offered for sale in SSA89, p.32. Photo McC p.311 [test prototype] and SS 10/96, rear cover. Article in SSA96, pp.20-27. One more survivor (perhaps the same one?) was on sale in the Self-Starter issue for April, 2001. Look also at the Dream Cars section for 1955, to view other another creation by H&E, considered to be more a dream car than a professional model. Built to replace a group of aging Cadillac Series 75 sightseeing coaches built in 1947, the Hess & Eisenhardt Skyview limousines were built using a Cadillac Series 86 commercial chassis mated to a slightly altered Sayers & Scovill limousine-style hearse body. On some of the cars, four large smoked Plexiglas panels supported by a framework of exposed chrome-plated cross-members were inserted into the roofs for year-round sightseeing. The other Skyviews featured a roll-back canvas roof similar to the ones found in A.J. Miller's pre-war Broadmoor coaches. The Skyview's were built using a body-shell from a S&S Victoria funeral coach, but the Broadmoors's sloping C-pillars differed in one respect. Although set at an angle, they were perfectly straight and unique to the Skyview while the sloped C-pillars found on a Victoria funeral coach were noticeably curved. Skyviews shared the 3-piece rear windows found on most S&S professional cars (except for the high headroom ambulance and flower car) but the glass was fixed in place. The bottom half of the rear loading door opened into a small storage cavity behind the rear seat and the spare tire was stored in an under-floor compartment. A feature unique to 1955 Broadmoors was their Eldorado-sourced rear wheel openings, which did not continue into the 1956 editions. Six were built and three are known to survive. Surprisingly when the Broadmoor Hotel replaced the aging 1955-56 SkyViews in 1959, Hess & Eisenhardt's arch-rival, Superior Coach was awarded the contract.


This portrait of Messrs. Hess & Eisenhardt
is believed to be from the mid-fifties

55wagFac3.jpg (11435 bytes)    dr56bmo2.jpg (9053 bytes)
(Left) one of the first Skyview observation coaches built for Colorado's Broadmoor Hotel
(Center) artist's impression of the proposed Broadmoor Hotel Skyview tour car
(Right) this survivor was sold for $7,500 at a Kruse auction (lot #3663, Auburn, IN,
September 1999; the program asserted that only five units had been built)

Dr55sky3.jpg (9840 bytes)    Dr55sky1.jpg (11283 bytes)

Dr55sky2.jpg (19791 bytes)
Above: the Broadmoor hotel takes delivery of a full complement
of the year's Skyview observation limousines; five of them are seen here



Dr55viw2.jpg (11137 bytes)    Dr55viw3.jpg (8792 bytes)   

Dr55viw1.jpg (13537 bytes)    55bMoor2.jpg (8477 bytes)     55hessc.jpg (12566 bytes)

    55SkyV2.jpg (53138 bytes)      55SkyV3.jpg (50466 bytes)

          55SkyV1.jpg (62483 bytes) 

 dr55wag4.jpg (10934 bytes)   

55BroadB.jpg (5561 bytes)    55broad.jpg (4629 bytes)
A survivor needing TLC (2007)

dr55wag2.jpg (10599 bytes)    dr55bmor.jpg (4854 bytes)

55Bmoor6a.jpg (7569 bytes)    55Bmoor6b.jpg (7929 bytes)    55Bmoor6c.jpg (4763 bytes)
Perhaps this is the car ... after a full restoration?
[ Pics (immediately above): © and courtesy of "Grim Rides" ]

 

Hess & Eisenhardt (USA) Special custom limousine for Mamie Eisenhower, wife of the then 34th US President, Ike Eisenhower. Features include elimination of "C" pillars, a Series 62 coupe rear window, a rear roof line with lower, Florentine curve, sabre wheels and a retractable roof panel over rear passenger compartment. Photo McC p.309. This car is believed to be today (2004) in the collection of French enthusiast, Olivier Delafon, at the Chateau de Monjalin, near Avallon, in Burgundy, some 155 mi. SE of Paris.   Olivier collects the cars of heads of state.

str55mamie.jpg (15056 bytes)
Factory publicity photo

55ikelim.jpg (7093 bytes)    55ikeli2.jpg (10580 bytes)
Left: behind the Renault Vivastella once owned by Marshall Pétain, who was
France's premier under the Vichy government, during the German occupation,
is the custom Series 75 limousine without "C" pillar (see enlargement)

orgike.jpg (11397 bytes)
These original showroom photos were found in an old album that the (Cadillac) factory had discarded;
recovered in a dumpster in MI,  the album was subsequently sold on e-Bay in 2003

 

Lehman-Petersen Coachbuilders (USA) Built for a handicapped Senator, this car incorporates a wheel chair and metal ramps that exit the passenger side, much like the invalid cars designed on Cadillac chassis by Schmidt & Bartelt in the early forties. It has the regular limousine divider window as well s factory air conditioning.

55invlid.jpg (6307 bytes)    55invli2.jpg (6118 bytes)     55invli3.jpg (5998 bytes)

 

Meteor (USA)

55metlim.JPG (9545 bytes)   


Even though they  may resemble creations by the larger commercial car manufacturers
(Eureka, Miller, Superior), in fact, this car and the one below are "nothing" cars,
drawn by Cadillac for their commercial chassis ads

.

Meteor (USA) This company specialized in commercial vehicles including hearses, funeral limousines, ambulances and this type of flower car, below.

Dr55mlfc.jpg (18233 bytes)

 

Miller (USA)

 

S&S [Hess & Eisenhardt] (USA) again built their famed S&S models on the Cadillac commercial chassis.  Two are shown below, in addition to a B&W factory drawing.

55SSa.jpg (7196 bytes)    55ssb.jpg (6811 bytes)

 

Superior (USA) This company specialized in commercial vehicles including hearses, funeral limousines, ambulances and this type of flower car, below.

55SUP1.JPG (7666 bytes)
Superior combination coach

55SupHrs1.jpg (8010 bytes)    55SupHrs3.jpg (5138 bytes)

55SupHrs2.jpg (5645 bytes)    55SupHrs4.jpg (4278 bytes)
This survivor was found on the Internet

55SUP2.JPG (6083 bytes)
Superior Super Rescuer ambulance

55SUP4.JPG (7195 bytes)

55SUP3.JPG (5153 bytes)    55SUP5.JPG (5848 bytes)
Superior ambulance attendant seats (left); compound curve windshield for greater visibility

55SUP6.JPG (8593 bytes)    55SUP7.JPG (3540 bytes)

55SUP8.JPG (8466 bytes)    55SUP9.JPG (3238 bytes)
The illustrations or this entry are from the 1955 Superior ambulance brochure

55supfrnt.jpg (6435 bytes)    55Surr.jpg (7364 bytes)
Surviving Superior Moderne ambulance

55SupAmb.jpg (12549 bytes)
Could this be the one in the previous row?   Although it carries '56 wheel covers,
it is a reconstitution of a '55 Superior  Moderne limousine ambulance
[ Photo: © Bud Juneau, Self Starter annual, 1998 ]

 

[Unknown, Greece?] Special funeral coach.   This one was photographed on the Greek island of Leros [sorry for the poor picture]

55GreekHrs.jpg (14106 bytes)
Photo:  courtesy Stefan Achilles, Aachen

 

[Unknown; possibly Meteor] Special flower car, photographed in Cuba


Photo:  Internet, 2014

 

[Unknown, Switzerland] Special ambulance body on Cadillac chassis. Used by Metropole Clinic in Lausanne.

Dr55gham.jpg (8664 bytes)

 

[Unknown, USA] Special ambulance

55AMB.JPG (8774 bytes)

 

 

Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
or go to the "Dream cars" section for 1955

or select "Professional Cars" years from the table below

 

Pick one   >

1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940 1941 1942

WW2 years

1946 1947 1948 1949
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999-up

 

© 1998, Yann Saunders [aka Mr. Cadillac] and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.
[ Background image:  1961 Crown Sovereign funeral car by Superior Coach Corporation ]