A bench-style front seat was very common in cars and pickup trucks through the 1960s, and even into the 1970s, particularly for sedans. Putting the shifter on the steering column was likely seen as a logical placement when you have a bench seat (which could impinge on a floor-mounted shifter, especially if the seat is adjusted forward).
More passenger room is the reason given at the end of this 1938 Jam Handy Chevrolet promo pushing vacuum-assist column shifting, with the baby! in the front seat. The video’s 5:20 mark skips the fluff from the beginning.
GM dumped vacuum-assist shifting, though not column shifts, after the war. Years ago, a guy with a '41 Chev told me that it never worked properly.
And yet, I’ve driven cars (van? pickup? don’t recall) with bench seats and a floor stick. A long, bent stick. Still way better than on the tree.
After driving on-the-tree, I’d never buy a vehicle that had it. Ick!
A bench seat makes floor-shift throws very long, which explains why drag races between 1927 Duesenbergs and 1930 Cadillac V16s are so rare.
I drove a few 3 on the tree cars in the late '70s and early '80s (in fact my first driving lessons were in one). None since then, but plenty of 4/5 on the floor. It’s been a couple of years since I drove a manual, and about 20 years since I owned one, but I have no trouble at all picking up where I left off.
Just noticed this thread. I learned how to drive a ‘three on the tree’ in a 1974 Chevrolet 1/2 ton (long wheel base) van. 
Perhaps because I learned it first, but I never found the column shifter particularly difficult or poorly placed or uncomfortable or awkward or any of that jazz. It worked. I had a slight adjustment when moving to my 5 on the floor Saturn, but the bigger issue was readapting to the clutch (I had several years of an automatic between the two).
As that video shows, bench seats without a gear shift in the middle allows one to slide across the whole seat. Enter/exit from passenger side if desired. Whatever.
That truck also didn’t have seat belts. Who needs those pesky things in the way? 
What I don’t miss about that truck: no A/C. No radio. Squeaky windshield wipers. Previously mentioned steering issue. Manual steering (no power steering). Long-throw clutch. Floorboard switch for bright/dim headlights (left foot switch).
Shifter? Not an issue.
Neither is the shifter’s position an issue with me, nor the floorboard switch. I never understood what the issue was with that, other than repairing it, perhaps.
The floorboard switch was handy when reading a broadsheet newspaper and lighting a cigarette while drinking coffee on the way to work.
I’m in my early 40’s. When I leared to drive my Dad had a Ford F100 pick-up with no power steering, no power brakes and a 3 speed (on the floor,) he said “boy if you’re going to learn to drive, you’re going to learn to drive.” My fondest memories of that truck with the bench seat was my girlfriend sitting nuzzled up under my right arm and her shifting while I drove.
My current ‘04 Chevy is the first automatic I’ve ever owned. In answer to the OP, my best friends’ Dad has a '63 Ford Falcon convertable he stores Abandonded at our shop that we occasionally take out to lunch or other odd errands. 3 on the tree that after the first 2 minutes I found no different than a floor mounted shifter.
Funny story about driving a 10 pallet sized International straight body truck. Had some bizzare 8 speed transmission. Some guys I worked with (crusty old bastards) had a devil of a time with the unsynchronized gears. 3 guys that I can recall, if they blew a shift, had to coast to a stop and start from a dead stop. I was terrified of that truck. If they couldn’t drive it, who was I, a 25 year old kid? Never had a problem, I could walk it 2-8, or 8 down to 2 without a clutch. Matching engine speed and gears just felt intuiative. Only needed a cluch at a dead stop.
Craziest thing I ever drove was a 1962 White. Big ass farm truck, holds about 50,000 pounds of corn/potatoes/gravel/dead bodies, you name it. It has a 20 speed duel transmission. 2 gear levers. The one one the left is 1-5. The second lever is 1-4. So, start and go 1 through 5 as normal, (Now you are doing 10 mph.) Reach through the steering wheel with your left arm to grab the left stick, with your right hand grab the other stick, engage both. The right is now in “second” the left is back to what should be first, it’s now 6th. Walk that up four more times and you are in 10th. Do that a couple of few more times and you are doing 50mph. Oh shit a stop sign. Do it all again.
In this case, Og love modern technology.
That second lever is a four speed “brownie”. It is named after one of the manufacturers of these “auxiliary” transmissions.
Yep, that’s how it is done. Only now add the two speed rear axles. Get to high gear as before, then shift the rear axles and start all over again. Top speed 55 MPH. Forty speeds!! In practice one rarely used more then thirty or so.
I’m 30, when I was 16 I drove my boss’s 3 on the tree truck for a landscaping business. I didn’t have my license, and it wasn’t on roads, purely off-road moving stuff around properties.
I drove exclusively manual transmission up until I stopped giving a shit about “being in control” at around age 25.
I was forced to learn to drive a 3-on-the-tree when I was 16 because daddy thought it was an important thing for everyone to know. I hated that pretty little red thing but the price was right (he paid for it) so I took it and it was mine for three years. I’ll never have another manual transmission if I can help it but I love having the gear shift on the steering column.
I’ve found that those of us who love manual transmissions would never be happy with an automatic and vice versa and I’ve known an awful lot of people who prefer a manual transmission.
When cruising on the highway, it’s not a problem, but with one foot operating the clutch, the other tied up on accelerator, it’s kinda hard to jump off to the side to flip the brights down. Not that it’s a heck of a lot easier to get the stick switch when juggling the steering wheel and shifter.
I learned to drive in a 1964 Buick LeSabre station wagon with 3-on-the-tree. It had no radio because that cost extra. According to Dad, it was the largest station wagon GM ever built. It was going to be a collector’s item. Dad died about 1997. Mom finally sold it five or ten years later.
Suburbans were about then, and GM marketed them as station wagons. The term SUV hadn’t been coined yet.
The last car I drove with the floor-mounted headlight dimmer switch was my grandma’s 1977 Buick Electra 225…
QUESTION about the stalk-activated high-low beams-
I drove Hondas (and Acuras) for years and you just clicked the stalk toward the steering wheel (without removing your hands from the wheel) to switch to high/low beams and again to swtich back. I even think my mom’s '86 Cutlass Supreme was the same way, although the click wasn’t nearly as crisp or effortless.
WHY the heck do all cars now require you to flip the stalk FORWARD for High Beams and pull it back for Low? My 2006 Mazda3 was the first car I’ve ever had with that setup and it makes NO sense to me! More than once, when flipping the High beams on, I’ve also hit the headlight control switch and turned them OFF inadvertently for a split second…WTF?
Actually, I was mistaken…
My mom’s '77 Cutlass Supreme Brougham Coupe was the last car with a floor-mounted dimmer…and the last car I drove with an 8-track player, too…
For some reason, Anne Murray’s Greatest Hits was one of the only 8-tracks we had and “Shadows In The Moonlight” always seemed to be playing every I got into that car…
Maybe that’s why I love/hate that song so much!??!?:smack:
My favorite stalk-mounted dimmer switch was on a '66 VW bug. It was a button built into the back of the end of the stalk. When you tapped it, it signaled a relay which changed the lights. The stalk didn’t move fore or aft at all.