"blue dot" taillights - what's the deal?

I've always wondered:

What is the history behind these things? When did people start installing these on cars / bikes?

Can anyone fill me in?

 

(scratching head) I dunno - I just know it's usually one of the first things I do when I get a car/bike...I'm curious, now that you bring it up!

 

I first started to see them on cars in the mid 50's, cycles early 70's.

 

Can't quite say I know either, but it looks *****in' on my Vespa!

 

I'm pretty sure they were used to help fight Communism.

People didn't like Reds, and didn't want glaring red tail lights.


It's like calling French fries "Freedom Fries" during the Iraq war.





I hope everyone realizes I'm just being facetious.

 

Try doing a search on bluedots... im pretty sure this was brought up a little while ago.

 

I can remember seeing them advertised in my dad's JC Whitney catalogs back in the early 60's.

 

Well, here I go aging myself, but I do emember them when I was riding in the back seat of dad 49 Dodge Wayfarer fast back tudor on trips back from my uncle's house, when I was about 5 or 6 years old. Dad would say there goes tham damn hot rod lights, this would have been in 53 or 54. Wonder if it might have come from the interstate trucking business so drivers from the same line could identify other company drivers on teh road at night???

Any way, here is a LynxEye aftermarket product board that may have been found in gas stations or auto parts stores in the late 30's early 40's

 

As far as I know they are now legal in CA although they did not used to be. In the mid to late 50's I recall that only the cops in CA had the blue dots/lights on their motorcycles. Cars could not have them, but lots of them did until they got cited. I got new tail lights for my '51 panel last year and they came with blue dots. I hadn't asked for them.

 

These days they're on everything. When you see them on PT Cruisers - like you do - you know it's time to dump 'em.

 

Back "in the '50s", the only cars that had them also had a sun visor, mudflaps with clearance lights, 4 antennas but no radio, a dead swan hood ornament, and a "Y" pipe. Then in the late 1960s, the old time parts houses that hadn't ever thrown anything away were selling them to rodders who hadn't seen them yet. Soon, as the fad caught on, any lens with a gl*** blue dot sold for $15 - $20, and they were installed in everything from Model As to Vegas. The repops are selling for $5 and up, some gl***, some plastic ...
Some 1932-33 Cadillacs had them (used as stoplights) as standard equipment, as well as a few earlier lesser known makes. Correct me if I'm wrong - I was told they were easier to see, and were supposed to be a safety device. The California police motorcycle explanation has been in circulation since the 1950s ...
302

 

its kinda like...other people will hate it thats reason enough for me.

 

Yes 302GMC, a gook wagon accessory!

 

So you put 'em on your brake light, parking light, back up light, or all 3 (3 since I have an Impala)?

 

I heard a long long time ago they were used to signify a doctor's vehicle. That way when they went speeding down the road the cops left them alone. Then hot rodders got ahold of them and tried to make themselves exempt by putting them on their tail lights. But then again, that doesn't seem exactly logical.

 

That sounds good to me.
Install a set, hall ****. When stopped tell the man you're not Dr. but you stayed the night in a Holliday Inn Express.

 

Blue Dot's were standard factory equipment on late 20's or early 30's cars.
I wish I could remember which car I saw them on.