Mr Granieri got a rare '57 Dodge! One where all the doors and chrome lined up, proving -- it could be done. Sometimes. Rare times.

As a young car nut of that era, I loved the styling. But a classmate's father ran the local Plymouth/Dodge dealer in a small town in Canada. Boy, was he an unhappy camper, because if ever a car rusted, Chrysler's various 1957, '58 and '59 cars were the winners. They just fell apart, and after having been so popular with rural folk used to sturdy Chryslers of yore they had sold extremely well. Three winters, and the front fenders were gone, the driver's front seat pulled out of the floors, and once a Plymouth had a front torsion bar spring snap right outside our ninth grade school window. It sounded like a rifle shot -- pandemonium ensued. Upset customers with fenders flapping in the breeze and front headlights falling out blamed, guess who? The dealer of course.

It took quite a few years of the unitized body cars from 1960 onwards before sales recovered. Sadly, my classmate's father's business could not survive the carnage. End of dealership by 1962.

Mr Granieri was wounded twice while serving in the Infantry in Germany. The first wound (thigh) is reported in U.S. WWII Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954.

He was wounded a second time March 30, 1945, also in Germany.

I just love the pillarless design. Also striking is the faint purple-ish color of the asphalt and the mountains.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/176976/antonio_m-granieri

Mr. Granieri's 1957 Dodge Royal Lancer was parked in the driveway, below. I also like the Tudor-style house, built in 1930. His phone number was HU5-3404 (Whatever HU was when pronounced).

He earned it, and deserved it

I am partial to the 1946/47 Ford pickup down the street, with the "waterfall" grille.

Representing Finnish interests in Utah?

Like Tony Granieri, my father was self-conscious about his WW-II injuries. He took 8 bullets in North Africa, and somehow survived. He was captured and taken to a prison hospital in Italy where he spent 6 months recuperating. Then he was sent to a Stalag near Leipzig, where he spent the next 2 years. All that time, he was listed as MIA, and the family presumed he was dead.

After the war, he was commander of a VFW post in Tiffin, OH, and late in life he was commander of an American Ex-POW post in Toledo, OH. He also testified before Congress about veterans' benefits.

Dad's abdomen was severely scarred, and he rarely took his shirt off in public.

The high-spirited look of this car and its sister makes from Chrysler Corp,, typical of the work of stylist Virgil Exner, clobbered the sales of the more ponderous offerings from front-runner General Motors -- to the point, by all accounts, of stampeding the latter into introducing GM's outlandishly finned 1959 designs.

Imitation, as has been said elsewhere, is the sincerest form of flattery.

So glad I grew up in the 50's and 60's and witnessed the glory days of the American automobile Yes, the were huge and impractical by today's standards but you must admit they were gorgeous. The music wasn't bad either!