When watching old 50s TV reruns, I notice people nearly always would enter/exit the cars from the nearest side. Was everyone really so lazy then that they would rather slide across the seat (even in T-Birds that always had a shifter in the way) instead of walking around? Or was that merely camera/time expediency, to save film? I could see where the driver might think sliding across the seat from the sidewalk/passenger side would be preferable to walking around into traffic, but would a passenger crossing the street ever enter the drivers side of any vehicle with a floor shift if they didn’t have too?

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA

That's TV for you.  No, we were taught to open the door for all females and that required they enter and exit their side.  
Joe-JDC

JDC

Only ever slid across if the door latch was broken on the other side. 

I'm not an old fella, so I don't know personally, but after buying a 59 f100 and noticing only one lock on the passenger side and wondering the reasoning behind it, I googled it and found some information suggesting that car manufactures in the day seemed to think it was safer to enter the passenger door rather than enter from the drivers side and risk being hit by a passing car. Some suggested that the roads may have been narrower and there was only side of road parking, not like today where we have car parks everywhere and wider roads.

Might be some truth behind it, why else would there be only one lock on the passenger door and the means to lock the drivers door from the inside only.


Thanks, Dennis.

56 F100 - 272 Y Block
NSW, Australia.

Safety on one hand, and on the other, reduce the cost of the vehicle with only one door having a key cylinder. I remember in the mid 50's being surprised when my cousin from Arizona came to Colorado to visit. His new car had no heater or defroster. Those were extra cost items. More expensive cars frequently had key cylinders on both sides. In the mid 50's I owned several cars and some had locks on both sides and some did not. '41 Ford Convertible (both), '38 scrubrolet Master (one), '48 Olds 98 Futurermatic Convertible (both) '36 scrubrolet Standard Coupe (one). The '36 had an aftermarket gasoline fueled heater and no defrosters. Some cars back then only had a drivers side windshield wiper.

I'm sure cost was a factor.
I also remember literally NEVER locking our car.  Granted, I grew up in a rural area and trips to the country seat (population 23,000) were somewhat common.
I only remember locking the car if there was something specifically valuable inside or if we went to a big city.

Only in the 70's did locking the car seem to become a routine.

I also remember (probably wrongly) that our '50 scruby pickup only had one key operated door lock.  I was thinking it was on the driver's door, not the passenger door.

Forget about door locks. One thing with 50s small town America, you never mislaid/lost your car keys. They were alway in the ignition!

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA