The Fabulous 1961 Buick Flamingo- Made of Recycled Parts?

1961 Buick Flamingo Motorama Car

Recently I showed you Bill Mitchell's Buick 1956X Century, which had many custom touches including lowered suspension, wire wheels, a two tone metallic special paint scheme and special floating bucket seats including a passenger seat that rotated 180 degrees. I've been in touch with the current owner of the car who reports that it was found quite intact except that the bucket seats and rear seats were missing. In their place were conventional bench seats front and rear with the S. O. number of the 1956X on a tag underneath.

But where did the bucket seats go?

I don't have an answer yet, but I have an idea.

Enter the 1961 Buick Flamingo Motorama show car. Created for the final General Motors Motorama, It's basically a 1961 Buick Electra 225 convertible finished in a special Flamingo Pink color, with two tone pink leather interior and...floating bucket seats including a 180 degree swivel on the passenger side.

Were the 1956X seats recycled into the Flamingo?

Can't say for sure, but there is a precedent.

In my old files from Buick, I have most of the correspondence regarding XP-810, Mitchell's original Silver Arrow, S. O. 40210. Here is a quote from a memorandum of october 15, 1962, concerning the interior of the car:

"Astra" front bucket seats to be installed. These will be furnished by making use of the seats being removed from the 1962 Buick Skylark Convertible advance interior car (S. O. 40224). The existing six way adjuster on the driver's seat will be reworked to fit the Riviera underbody conditions, while the passenger's seat is to remain as a stationary seat.


The memo goes on to stipulate that the entire interior is to be retrimmed, so the appearance of the seats could change completely.

While I'm not claiming that the 1956X seats were used in the Flamingo, I'm entirely convinced that they were replaced with conventional bench seating and the floating bucket seats were retained for reuse in another car, whether it was the Flamingo or another car of the era.

I guess General Motors caught on to the idea of recycling before the rest of us did.

180 degree rotating bucket seats in the 1961 Flamingo Motorama Car

1961 Flamingo on its Motorama Display Stand

Were the rotating bucket seats adapted from Mitchell's 1956X Century?

Polka Dots and Moonbeams...and Power Tops

Okay, this one's a mystery- are we seeing that free expression has practical limits? Did someone get inspired by a loaf of Wonder Bread? Was the board game Twister secretly invented in the GM Styling Center? Did the "Damsels of Design" run amok?

Perhaps it is no coindicence that Brian Hyland's novelty tune "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" was a smash in the late summer of 1960 and sold almost two million copies- could someone in the styling dome been humming it late one night?

Good news, this 1961 Buick convertible is just a trip to the trim shop away from being good as new. And we could put it down for the drive over.

And just because we're good sports, here's that Hyland hit:



Not all design inspirations are good ones.

Flamingo- Pretty in Pink

Just a quick photo to celebrate our 100th post- from the final iteration of the legendary Motorama, Buick brings us the Flamingo- an Electra 225 Convertible in a rich Flamingo pink with two tone pink thin shell leather bucket seats. The passenger seat rotated 180 degrees for top down card games. One to remember when I perfect that time machine.

La Belle L'Universelle- Workhorse at the Waldorf

There was certainly a lot to talk about in the 1955 General Motors Motorama. That annual convention of glitter, girls, and gladiolas, the celebration of the superiority of General Motors products was at its zenith in 1955. The show opened at the Waldorf in New York in January, as was its tradition, and then moved on to Miami in February, Los Angeles and then San Francisco in March, and on to a final stop in Boston in April.


In addition to showcasing the "Golden Jubilee" Chevrolet- representing the 50 Millionth GM vehicle- there were a host of concept cars on the stage for 1955. Chevrolet showed its Biscayne pillarless sport sedan, Oldsmobile unveiled a low slung coupe called the Delta. Pontiac showed its futuristic Strato-Star Coupe, and Buick its red Wildcat III sport convertible. Cadillac showed its futuristic La Salle II in sport sedan and roadster forms, and the fabulous Eldorado Brougham which would lead to a production car in 1957.

Oh, and GMC showed a panel truck.

Stop the presses. Yes, GMC did show a panel truck in 1955, but that is about one-hundredth of the story. GMC created their only Motorama concept vehicle for the 1955 show, and it was far from any ordinary truck. Named L'Universelle, the truck was a long, low, sleek vehicle with 13 inch wheels. a mid mounted V-8 engine, and a revolutionary front wheel drive system.

It was drawn by legendary GM designer Chuck Jordan and represented the most stylish and though provoking cargo hauler GM had ever imagined. A wrap around windshield and streamlined side glass, unique bi-folding cargo doors on the side and the rear, and an extremely roomy cargo area were some of the special features. And lowness- extraordinary lowness resulting from the chassis design which incorporated front wheel drive and 13 inch wheels.

Finished in copper metallic with a copper leather driver's compartment, it was the most exciting and glamorous GMC truck ever conceived, which is why the story did not end after the Motorama. The public loved it. GMC dealers were clamoring for it. And so by late 1955, GM announced plans to produce it. Almost as soon as the glamour girl made its debut at the Waldorf, chassis engineers in Detroit began building a running prototype chassis out of a Buick Roadmaster. With the fiberglass nose of a L'Universelle attached to the body of a Roadmaster, the beast was hideous to look at but before long they had the chassis dialed in and the ride and handling were nothing shy of impressive.

Unfortunately, by that point they had realized that the production projections would not pay for the unique driveline they had created, so the lovely L'Universelle was quietly shelved. Many of the styling cues appeared a few years later in the Corvair based Corvan in 1961, and it was a popular and well liked little van.

But imagine what the L'Universelle could have been...

L'Universelle in the ballroom of the Waldorf for the 1955 New York Motorama

L'Universelle in Golden Gate Park

Cutaway drawing showing the unique FWD driveline of L'Universelle

Overview of the 1955 Los Angeles Motorama. Golden Jubilee 50 Millionth Car on Lower Right.
(Originally created for the Reynolds Buick GMC Blog)