The car belonging to Marcella is actually a '51 Champion rather than the Commander. This was the first year for the Studebaker V-8 and only the Commander and Land Cruiser had the eight and the Champion was the Six. The hood medallion on the Commander was a V8. The one in the photo shows the Champion crest. Last year for the bullet.

Here's a picture of my dad's Studebaker which I now know to be a '51 thanks to this thread. I love the side air vent. I believe this photo was taken by my father in the summer of '54.

The Studebaker "bullet nose" was actually produced two model years (1950 and 1951).

Personally, I prefer the 1950 nose, especially as seen on the Commander and Land Cruiser line. Those two models had longer front sheetmetal - including unique head/parking light trim (different than the Champion). The longer front end exaggerated the already caricatured appearance.

For 1951, the nose was given flush-fit chrome grilles, a multiple ring bullet with a plastic center (versus the simpler looking all-pot-metal 1950 bullet), and make/model script on the leading edge of the hood (versus heavy chrome "brows" above oval vents). Also, in 1951, the shorter front-end sheet metal was shared between all three models.

Just the other day I happened across what must be among the earliest examples of the Studebaker jokes that proliferated after the introduction of their novel post-war design. Actually, five of them get rattled off in less than a minute during the December 15, 1946 Jack Benny radio show. There are the usual "you can't tell which way it's going" variety, but also a couple that riff on the vast expanse of glass in the Starlight Coupe model. "There's so much glass it looks like a Silex with wheels," which at the time everybody would know referred to a brand of vacuum coffee pot. That was followed up with "It comes in four models: Champion, Commander, regular and drip."

Model year of this Studebaker is 1951. Miss Welsh still had reason to be proud.

The car seems as happy with her as she with it.

It's actually a '51 -- the only years Studes had the bullet nose that seems most remembered by folks who remember any Studebakers were 1950 and 1951. The '50 had four vanes around the bullet. The '51 had only three, a precursor to the Tri-star emblem of early 1953. Seems Mercedes found that a bit too close to its emblem.