Edsel and Kaiser Sightings in Cuba

PrintEmailSave to Favorites

When I shot the image of this 1958 Edsel Corsair taking a bath in the Río Táyaba, outside the colonial town of Trinidad, I'd pretty much stopped getting excited about seeing Edsels. They're a dime a dozen in Cuba!

When was the last time you saw one rolling down the byways of your local town?

Launched on the eve of Castro's coming to power, the Edsel had Teletouch Drive transmission pushbuttons in the steering wheel, a cyclops-eye speedometer, and "enough flashing lights... to satisfy pinball machine addicts," thought Consumer Reports.

Its radical styling, however, drew as many guffaws as plaudits. A chiropodist remaked that the Edsel's fins resembled ingrown toenails. And its bold new horse-collar grill became a countrywide joke (even Madison Avenue promoted the Edsel for its "vaginal looks," while its designer, Roy Brown, claimed it represented "modern vertical thrust").

"The Edsel look is here to stay," brayed the ads. But Ford's great hope for the mid-price market was launched during the 1958 recession. Alas, the flamboyant folly fitted well with the last hurrah of Havana's heyday and, like Batista's regime, by year's end was already on the ropes. By 1959, when production was discontinued, only 81,446 had been made.

Nonetheless, I've photographed at least a dozen Edsels in Cuba.

And Kaisers? Heck, I'm English. I didn't even know what a Kaiser was until I hit Cuba to photograph cars for my coffee-table book, Cuba Classics: A Celebration of Vintage American Automobiles.

In all, I photographed six Kaisers that I can remember. I saw plenty more. Oddly enough, I was photographing Alain Lossano's 1951 Kaiser Traveler in the Camilo Cienfuegos suburb of Havana in 2001 when a MININT official stopped me and sent me on my way.

The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation was formed in 1945 as the last attempt by an independent company to challenge the Detroit dominance of the popular market. Although their cars were ahead of their time (they included a pop-out front window, a padded dash with recessed instrument panel, and other safety features that the federal government would eventually mandate), the company was undercapitalized and eventually succumbed to the Big Guns' sales blitz.

Still, Kaiser shipped hundreds of Traveler and Manhattan sedans across the Florida Straits, where most are still running down the highways to the rhythm of the rhumba on the radio.

For further information about travel in Cuba, buy Moon Cuba

For further information on Havana, buy Moon Spotlight Havana.

Disclosure: I occasionally accept free or discounted travel when it coincides with my editorial goals. However, my opinion is never for sale. The opinions you see in Cuba & Costa Rica Journal are my unbiased reflection of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Copyright © Christopher P. Baker