Vintage 1950s Michaud Chrysler Flookerang Lighter Mint Unused MCM Tail Fins Car

Description

It’s 1955 and Chrysler (now Stellantis) is looking for a way to jump start car sales over GM and Ford (no foreign competitors then). They could have built better cars – American cars stunk in those days in so many ways. No, let’s come up with a totally bogus way of attracting more attention to what we sell. Let’s put huge fins on them, so they look like big, beached fish.
The rest, as they say, is history. Americans bought the new huge cars, and they guzzled gas, choked motorways, rusted almost while you looked at them, and made the entry of smarter Volkswagen, Datsun, Honda, and Toyota models so much easier into American society and culture. The emblem on this Chrysler lighter was called the Flookerang, a pair of Australian boomerangs superimposed on each other that was supposed to emblemize the Chrysler tail fin/design revolution. It is in the ad included in the pictures and the screen shot from a 1957 Chrysler TV commercial (neither are included with this lighter).
This lighter dates from 1957 to 1961, the years of the Flookerang and before Chrysler dropped the whole emblem (and tail fins) in 1961, the epicenter of the Mid-century Modern movement. The lighter was manufactured by the French Michaud company, which made metal things and borrowed (stole) the design from the American Zippo company. It is unused in that the striker and wick are clean and in perfect working order. Not sure if there is still a flint, but you could put one in if you wanted. Cover opener is fully operational.
Measures 1.875 x 1.25 x .4 inches (5 x 3 x 1 cm) and is made of solid stainless steel. A must have for any twentieth-century Chrysler collector, tucked away in a display cabinet. You could include this in a MCM collection (lighters?) but you’d have to explain the symbol to everyone. How many people alive today know what this is? Shipped free in U.S. Check out our other Chrysler and automotive collectibles at
www.ebay.com/str/agitpropshoppe
EH250034