History blue dot PHOTOS from back in the day?

So I have seen several threads on the HAMB over the years debating whether or not blue dots are period-correct. Everyone agrees that they existed and were OEM on some cars in the 1930s but no one seems to agree if they were used on kustoms in the 1950s.
A bunch of guys say "no" but a few always say "yes" and my dad and uncle both swore they were The **** when they were in high school in the mid-to-late 1950s. I ***ume it was a regional thing, or state-by-state depending on the laws of the time.

FINALLY today I saw a photo from 1942 the clearly shows them on a car. (I stole it an posted it here.)

Does anyone else have any photos taken before 1960 showing a car with blue dots in the taillights?

 

I really can't remember blue dots back in the day. They are in use more right now.

 

i wonder if cops will h***le anyone that runs them now? I'm considering doing blue dot lenses for my 56 Ford F100

 

The short time I've been a member this has been in one or more threads I've seen. Being from the Midwest i don't remember bluedots either. That is until after the return of customs and rod shows in the late 70's and into the present.
Another thing us Midwesterners didn't do much, or any that I remember, was flamethrowers. But we were always a little behind and not so much into copying what happened on those two coasts.
Now that I am retarded and living in Florida I see several cars with blue dots. So much that after local cops began ticketing guys, they are now legal because of the past useage. With our cops, I'd probably still get a ticket.
I actually bought blue dot lenses for several of my cars but after being behind others (Pre LED) I saw they are not very bright.

 

Modified old cars and loud Harleys seem to be mainstream and middlecl*** now, and around here cops are much more likely to give a thumbs-up than to express concern about official street-roddy type equipment violations. They are probably much harder on kids with Hondas and ninja type cycles...those are todays delinquents.

 

Personally, I don't remember them used in Virginia back in the Fifties . Depending upon which county you're in , regardless of running "Antique " and / or Vintage tags , it WILL net ya a chance in the State- wide REVENUE ENHANCEMENT Program! Yeah, besides serial **** , purse ******ers , and muggers , our brave Crime stoppers seem to focus on serious crimes , like Blue Dot tail lamps ............. scrubba

 

When my uncle p***ed away, I found a set of 39 Ford tail light lens in a old out building of his. I wonder why he had them and why he kept them. I found a old family photo of this 38 Ford sporting blue dots. It this time he was operating heavy equipment at a WV coal mine.

 

Now all you need is a 38 or 39 Ford to put those lites on in memory of your uncle.
By the way, post that photo.

 

Yeah, post that photo!
I am guessing that this had to be a state-by-state or at least region-by-region thing. Either that or my Dad and Uncle both had lousy memories!

I get the impression that they were seen on mild or near-stock cars, but never on full kustoms? At least in Northeast Ohio.

 

They were not popular in the early sixties because cops would pull you over in a heart beat. We could not go down the street with out getting pulled over. They called them cat's eyes. It was in the 70s when somebody decided to sell just the blue dots for 10 bucks a pair. Some were plastic and some were real gl***. Every vendor in the world carried them. My buddy got pulled over and got tickets with his in a modern 70s P/U. He'd buy spare lenses to swap when the heat was on. They quickly became a fad and the cops were younger and they did not pester us with old cars anymore.

These are genuine after market factory made blue dots for the original 50 Pontiac tail lights. The lens is gl*** and the blue dot is gl***. I've never been pulled over in the last 30 years. It was not always that way. Once the fad took over the cops found better things to complain about. I actually think that they are easier to see than factory lenses. I don't think that they are legal just that don't press the issue.

 

Well, there is a well-known rockabilly tune from 1956 called "pink Cadillac" by a guy named Sammy Masters that features the lines;

"well I picked up my sweetie just to take her for a flight
and to show the other cats my blue taillights".

So it looks like they were using them somewhere in 56.
Paul

 

Found this out there.....no year listed but the newest lens is 1939.

 

Yeah, Lynx Eye sold them in the late 40-50's

 

I think a lot of that depends

Depends on where you live
Depends on what your car looks like (POS or nice)
Depends on how you act
Depends on if the cop gets laid, or not. Or respected enough to suit his/her ego

personally I have run them on cars and motorcycles as far back as 1984..and right up intil today..and knock on wood..Ive never gotten pulled over for it, or ticketed for it..

 

I was only aware of one car with blue dots in the middle '50's. I grew up in a suburb north of Cincinnati, and a cl***mate's dad had a '53 or '54 Ford sedan, lowered in the back, fender skirts, with some type of aftermarket taillamp extensions (slightly tapering metal tubes maybe 5 or 6 inches long painted body color) with a bullet type red lens with a blue dot. His family and his uncle's family lived on the wrong side of the tracks and were known as tough guys, and his uncle had a '51 Mercury 2 door, lowered with skirts, but no blue dots. I was maybe 10 at the time, and these were the only customs I'd seen first hand but I still remember them.

 

OK; who on here, in the geezer division, SAW blue dots in use on the street in the 1950's or '60's, before the Streetrod revival of the early '70's when they suddenly went on EVERYTHING?

My experience: Born in '48, certainly interested in cars and large enough to see over the window sill of our '48 Ford by 1953. I watched everything, and focused immediately on anything old or strange that was on the road. I would certainly have noticed dots at night and probably would have spotted them in daylight as well. We lived in Virginia, traveled throughout central Atlantic area and made holiday forays by several routes into the deep south. By the late '50's I was hyper aware of anything even related to hotrods or customs, and had always been interested in anything unusually old.
NO BLUEDOTS ANYWHERE, nowhere, nohow. The only ones I ever saw were a pair new in a cardboard box for '42-8 Fords, sitting on a dusty shelf next to the radiator flush and such in a filling station in eastern Tennessee about 1962. I tried to get my Father to buy them as a curiosity (I did not want them on our Ford, but realized I had found an interesting oddity) and he just looked in the box and said "Illegal"...so that was in the folklore at least.
Then...Streetrod magazine, maybe 1972 or so: Suddenly they were all over every car show, always ***ociated with fake drive-in trays, fuzzy dice, and so on.
Either no one wanted them...or they were so thoroughly effective as cop-callers that they could not be used.

 

awesome thread concept...I'll try to dig up some.

I have real deal gl***/gl*** pontiac tails myself...
had a set of teardrops too on my '57.

 

As a kid in the '50s I remember the odd/rare car having them. Not necessarily customs, but just cars someone had personalized. My dad was a cop so he tended to comment when he saw them. You almost never saw them in the '60s and '70s. It seems they were illegal most places and not tolerated like today.

 

My dad had them on a '55 Chevy Belair sedan; they came with the car. It was around 1960 or so. I remember seeing them before that when we hung around 'uptown' (I was born in '50). The rough guys had them on their cars. Another thing I saw at the local hangout was a late 40's coupe with a headlight mounted on the trunk lid, facing backwards, like the style on a '41 Chevy. WTF?

I've had them on my '58 Yeoman, and I've got a set for the '41 Poncho, when (if) it gets done.

 

In 1973 I put a set on a Datsun truck. Was real proud of them and showed my dad, He said what's the big deal, I had them on my 33 Chevy coupe when I was a Senior in HS (that was 1948, Glendale, CA )

 

This is good information. The one question I have not been able to answer is, "Why did someone come up with the blue dot tail lamp in the first place?" Aesthetically, they don't thrill me. Was there supposedly some functional benefit?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvpbNAiEf9w

Sammy Masters, "Pink Cadillac"

 

My Dad had them on his Hudson and they were on my Uncles DeSoto. I remember seeing poloroids and even though the photos were black & white you could still tell there was a jewel in the middle of the tail light lense. I also remember them on my Dad's Apache shop truck, in the early 60's.

 

I hope someone is charting the sightings on a map!

 

my girfriend has them in her 50 pontiac no h***les yet had for over 2 years

i remember a few cars having them back when i was a kid (70's)

seems like every car at the cruises had em in the 80-early 90's

theres aletter to the editor in the new mustang monthly from aguy that just bought a 69 fastback with bluedots he asked if his care was some kind of a 1of soo many because of the tailights .......lmao

 

just to be different from behind

cause in most states its illegal to not have red lights on the rear

 

If the blue dot was centered over the bulb it will give off a purpleish glow that is actually very bright. It was done in the late 50s and early 60s to indicate that this was not daddys car, I had them on a 54 Merc in 1964, and have them on my roadster now, I just like the way they look.

 

With all due respest Bruce, just because you didn't see 'em dosen't mean they were not around. I do believe it was a regional thing, I say that because like you I would be on the look out for anything "hot rod" driving on the roadways. I remember asking my dad to "follow the car with the purple lights" many times. Blue-Dot tail lights were very popular here in New England back in the day. By the way, they were illegal then and today.
I'm only a little older than you sir and I can't remember a day that I wasn't interested in cars..........
Thanks
Tom

 

I had them on my 55 but took them off last week.....they are illegal in Ontario...STUPID ONTARIO!!!!!!!

 

I have the old little page mags with adverti*****ts for them from the 50s and 60's.