Re: unusual '56 Color "Flamingo"

Posted by BH On 2010/2/10 20:07:33

Owen -

I had the luck of meeting Ed Cunningham many years ago at Perrsyburg - namely because he had a '56 Caribbean Hardtop (painted MES) that I was admiring. I had no idea exactly who he was, then, but he told me that he had worked for Packard in the mid-1950s.

Then, he opened the trunk and, among many artifacts, pulls out a chart that he said he had made to identify color and trim by models for 1956, but it never made it into the showroom album. I offered up my hypothesis that they may not have felt it necessary because the showroom albuum upholstery section covered that.

Only years later, when I examined a complete '55 showroom album, would I recognize and fully appreciate his handiwork. Many examples of that album are missing the paint chip sets, which includes just such a chart for the 55th Series cars. It is a brilliant 2-axis table that concisely depicts the regular production combinations of those three variables that Ed had mentioned, covering all standard single-, two-, and three-tone paint schemes.

Ed was a most pleasant fellow to talk with, and he had a good sense of humor. One of the funniest articles I ever read was his story about a new color/finish of leather. It was an off-white that had been rubbed with a shade of brown, which collected, naturally, in the grain of the leather. As a prank, he called it "Phartedon White" in some printed matter that he had prepared for a jigh-level management meeting, but that name almost made it into the literature for that year!