1955 & 1956 Dodge La Femme: The Story of My Own 1955 Dodge La Femme

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Our '55 La Femme

I found my car through a bizarre coincidence in June, 1982. It's been my hobby to read automobile classified ads since around 1977, and my favorite type of car has changed regularly. I had never gotten sufficiently excited about any single old car to bother buying it.

Late one Saturday night, I was having difficulty getting to sleep, so I went out to the living room and began reading a car book that I had on the shelf. As the evening wore on, I was becoming sleepy, but my eye was caught by a quote from Frank Wylie, in which he somewhat inaccurately described the Dodge La Femme ("It was ALL-PINK, with a hook for hanging the purse!").

I was fascinated with the idea of such a rare car. I set the book down and went to bed for the night.

Next morning, the Sunday edition of the San Diego Union didn't arrive, and I was impatient to read my traditional weekend auto classified ads. So, I walked to the nearby supermarket, bought some groceries, and picked up the local edition of the Los Angeles Times. Within it, I found an ad saying: "Dod'55LaFemme purse/rain hat/umbrella 69M."

Yes, I am a gay man, who thought that a car for women was hilariously good fun!

I couldn't believe the coincidence of finding such a rare car so soon after hearing about it, so I went up to Los Angeles to look at the car. I liked it, and spent the next few weeks getting together enough money to pay for it. I then drove it down to San Diego, photographed it, and parked it in the driveway while deciding what to work on first.

When the electrical system gave out, I realized that the whole wiring harness needed replacing. Being young and poor, I stored the La Femme in a series of rented garages.

The Little Jewel

This particular car was bought by the original owner during the time that she was working on the Dodge assembly line. She worked in the wiring harness department. She had ordered a regular Custom Royal Lancer Coupe, but changed her order after seeing a La Femme in the Dodge Detroit factory showroom.

Image credit: Tony Lindsey

Tough condition, but solid, rust-free and original.

She paid $145.30 extra for the La Femme trim option over the plain Custom Royal Lancer price. She received a fat $739.00 Dodge employee discount, and only paid $2816.86 for her La Femme. She received it on April 1, 1955, and drove out to live in California about a year later.

Image credit: Tony Lindsey

This car was her pride and joy from the very first day of ownership. A friend nicknamed the car "The Little Jewel", and the name has stayed with it to this day. She fended off many offers from strangers who wanted to buy the car, but was forced to sell it when her husband died.

Image credit: Tony Lindsey

She sold the car in about 1980 to her neighbor, who drove it as a transportation car for a year or so, and then sold it to a lawyer who collects cars. He knew the value of the rare La Femme option, and probably got a good deal on it. He drove it to his house, parked it in front, and left it there until he sold it to us, perhaps 6 months later. The car had 69,000 miles on the odometer when we bought it. I believe that this car is one of the very first La Femmes produced (#71), though I have no solid proof yet.

The 1980's Old-Car Market

Even though I was the youngest, least-experienced new member of the local San Diego Walter P. Chrysler Club, I rapidly became the club's president. Being extroverted and self-confident will do that for you. I wanted to know how to restore my La Femme.

However, I kept getting side-tracked by what was happening in the local car-culture. In the early 1980's, San Diego had a vast supply of old, rust-free and all-original cars on every street, and they were CHEAP. My head was spinning around and around as I saw deals too good to miss.

For example:

At one point, I had so many old cars that my neighbors were furious with me, and kept having my overflow of old cars on the street towed away. I wasn't rich, and the hobby was rapidly making me poorer. I had JUST MADE a firm commitment to myself that I was going to get rid of the excess of cars and get serious about restoring my favorites — particularly, my favorite, the La Femme. I had fantasies of restoring every nut and bolt, and doing a "rotisserie restoration."

Then I got a phone call. "We'd like you to buy Grandma's old Chrysler." "I'm sorry, the best that I can do for you would be to let you post a free ad in our club's newsletter." "No, you don't understand... Now that Grandma's dead, and we've sold off her belongings, the car is the only thing left, and we are flying back to Connecticut tonight."

I reluctantly went to the address. They handed me the key to the garage. I opened it, and suppressed a gasp. Being a car nerd, I immediately knew what I was looking at — A 1961 DeSoto two-door hardtop, in immaculate condition. Being one of the last-ever DeSotos, they were only made for 47 days.

While I am standing and gaping, one of the family says, and I quote:

"If you offered us four hundred dollars, we'd take it."

So, one more car to throw on the pile. I drove that car for years as my stylin' daily driver. Why not? It had 14,000 original miles. Grandma had stopped driving when her vision went, but she was quite concerned about the battery. Once a week, she would go out and run the car with the garage door open, to keep the battery healthy.

I could go on and on for hundreds of pages, relating fun car-hobby stories. I let my eagerness get away from me over the decades, buying and selling extremely rare and desirable cars, and collecting rare car parts (the cars and the parts are all long-since sold). I started the world's largest Imperial collector's club. Yes, I am The Imperial Leader!

Bottom line? I never even started restoring the La Femme. I sold the rust-free car to a gentleman in New York State, and I sold the purse, rain hat and umbrella separately.

Now, THAT's a story worth relating...

Selling the Accessories

By this time, my La Femme article had been out for a few years, and it had made the old-car collectors stand up and take notice. Now, lots of people knew about the La Femme.

Here in San Diego, an older gay-male couple were collecting cars, and somehow, they had found a perfect 1955 La Femme with ridiculously low, original miles. I am 99.999% sure that it is the same car in the following picture. I will explain why, shortly:

Image credit

Without warning, one of the men in the couple died, leaving his husband seven million dollars. The survivor was dying of AIDS, and he WANTED A PURSE for his La Femme. So, he kept trying to trick, hornswoggle, bullshit and deceive me.

Finally, he wore me down, and asked what I wanted to charge him for the purse, rain hat and umbrella, still in the factory box.

I told him "I want twenty-two thousand dollars, in hundred dollar bills, in a paper sack, tomorrow night." Oh, how he belly-ached about my unreasonable ways, but that is exactly how it went down. The following night, I handed him the box with one hand, while he handed me the bag with the cash in the other hand.

All was well for a couple of months, when he suddenly died. His sister flew out from Kansas, and nobody knew what had become of his gorgeous cars. I had nightmares of his sister getting rid of the purse and such at the local Goodwill, and selling the car without realizing its significance.

Then I saw the images of the car above, displayed at the now-closed Walter P. Chrysler Museum, along with these accessories:

So, why do I think that the series of photos depicts THAT car and MY accessories?

Because those accessories are brand-spanking new. My La Femme's accessories were the only ones that had never been used. How do I know? Because I created a La Femme Registry in the early days, and I knew who had what, worldwide.