I know my parents bought a new 1956 Plymouth, but don't recall anything about the mirror as such (not old enough to worry about those things back then). It seems that as things progressed, the more upscale cars had OSRV mirrors as standard and the lower trim levels and models had them as optional. If they were a factory accessory mirror, there would have been a paper template of where to position the mirror according to factory specs. Of course, if it would work better for the customer to have it farther out front on the fender, that was an option too. Might even have been two templates, one for the door and one for the fender. Some on the door did just barely miss the vent windows, it seemed.
It was not until much later that right hand OSRV mirrors became popular, either as a factory option or a factory-approved accessory item. Seems that pickups had dual mirrors before cars did, though.
I do recall the various "fancy" mirrors that were out back then, some had "wings" around them with the mirror seemingly floating in the structure and then there was the one that was on the backside of a spotlight/mirror combination. Lots of variations and creativity back then.
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