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Rough List of

CAR COMMERCIALS

and Sales films

Rough list of

CLASSIC CAR COMMERCIALS Vol. 1 (Approx. 60 min.)

A great long commercial for the 1960 Thunderbird and 1961 Ford is a dream, The National Auto Show at Detroit's Cobo Hall commercials from 1961, Atlas Tires, Goodyear Tires, Prestone Anti-Freeze, 1964 Dodge, Esso Gasoline, a Detroit factory making a Dodge, Task Force '57, the long and detailed Alpine run of Chevy trucks, 1959 Chevrolet with Pat Boone and Dinah Shore, Speedway '79 gasoline, Marlboro cigarettes and car repair, 1964 Dodge, Jane Russell for Lustre Creme's Cadillac getaway, Hess Gas, Shell 59 cent sale, 1960 Plymouth, The Wonderful World of Ford leading up to the 1960 Falcon, Volkswagen, Hertz puts you in the driver's seat, and many more surprises.

CLASSIC CAR COMMERCIALS Vol. 2 (Approx. 60 min.)

Rex Marshall for Esso Oil Company, Humble Research, Esso in Brazil, Chevy 1955, The Esso Story, Drive Safely spots, General Motors with Nelson Cass,, 1955 Chevy with air vents, Chevy Bel Air, GM Parts animated by Disney artist John Hubley, Used Cars by the OK sign, Delco Batteries around the world, 1964 Buick Riviera, 98 Olds for 1966, 1964 Grand Prix, Wildcat, Purolator Oil Filter, Buster Keaton for Ford vans, Firestone Tires, Chevrolet Corvette, Chevy II, Corvair, Chevelle and Chevette for 1964, Hertz puts you in the driver's seat, Plymouth Valiant for 1962 and more.

CLASSIC CAR Commercials Vol 3 (Approx. 60 min.)

Ford Power Steering, Ford Used Cars, 1957 April is Dodge Trucks Month, 1957 Plymouth Execler - Convertible -at the Drive-In, Dodge 1957, Plymouth rides over torture track, Volkswagen 1964, Goodyear tire, explosive test, Van Heusen Car Wash, Chrysler Simca, DuPont Anti-Icers, 1964 Ford with Bill McCutcheon, Dodge, 1967 Chevy, 1967 Chevy Truck, Hertz with Lou Jacobi, Hertz Survivor's Manual, Cougar Ford, Chemical Bank Car Loans, State Farm Insurance, Volkswagen, Goodyear Suburbanite with safety spikes, 1969 Rebel - for teaching driving crazy drivers, American Motors, 1959 Plymouth, 1956 Nash, Edsel Show - Various commercials, 1958 Edsel Ranger Series, Corsair Station Wagons, Edsel 1958 push button driving, and much more.

THE BEST OF OLDSMOBILE (Approx. 60 min.)

General Motors may be closing its Oldsmobile division, but there's no reason for the rest of us to forget about the car company and its history. Oldsmobile reflected American society after World War II as much as Ford was the symbol of America before the war -- the way it was sold, we can watch America change, along with the way we lived here, the way we dressed, and the way we saw ourselves across a period of 15 years, from 1950 until 1961.

In 1949-1950, when new car production finally got back on track, Oldsmobile was out in front with an ad campaign that appealed to men and women alike -- a mix of power and ease of operation that emphasized that wives as well as husbands would be able to use it comfortably. Apart from the familiar theme music, the early commercials were hooked around the theme of "rocket power" -- referring to the Rocket 88 engine -- and included then-new shots of V-2 rockets being fired on American test ranges; the hydramatic transmission appealed to women, as did the power steering. The company also turned to celebrities to help sell their cars with actresses Patricia Morison and Lisa Kirk, both of KISS ME, KATE. Later in the 1950's, as people became more mobile than ever, the advertising came to emphasize the Oldsmobile as a convenient passport to leisure activities -- that was also where Oldsmobile introduced its station wagon, and used future quintessential suburban mom Florence Henderson in their advertising, 15 years before The Brady Bunch.

A couple of the commercials here, on New York's Fifth Avenue and Washington Square Park, as well as up in the Bronx, were amazingly involved -- hundreds of cars are driven with ballet-like accuracy around the city in elaborate choreography on New York's streets, in productions that couldn't possibly be mounted today. And as people began getting second cars, or replacing their old cars, or buying a used car as a first car, the company added the resale value of Oldsmobile’s and also the quality control that its dealers put used Oldies through. Finally, in the 1960's, Oldsmobile starting selling -- in color, no less -- to younger, more stylish drivers, especially women, while still appealing to men. Thus, their ads showed young 20-somethings using Oldsmobile’s, but also featured endorsements from NASA's Shorty Powers.

CAR STUFF #6 (approx 60 min)

Two automotive promotional films from the 1930's. In the first, John Hamilton (Perry White from THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN) plays a family man planning on buying a new car, who gets an argument from his wife and son, unhappy with the old car ("the interior was decorated like a chorus girl's apartment"), who want to have something to say about what he buys. Hamilton turns up at a Dodge dealership, where he tells the salesman to skip the sales pitch and give him facts--the next 15 minutes are a detailed look at the virtues of the new Dodge (circa 1936), "conservatively beautiful rather than conspicuously flashy." We get all kinds of footage, including animation, explaining the virtues of redistribution of weight and the shifting of the engine placement, as well as bits of engine design, intended to trumpet the virtues of the Dodge. There's also extensive footage of the Dodge at a test track being put through its paces, including an intentional crash.

The second, THE SCARECROW TAKES UP MAGIC, is downright strange. A scarecrow (Edward Ferguson) named Oscar on an Ohio farm intervenes with magic to get a gruff old farmer and the neighbor boy who loves his daughter together, so the boy can explain the virtues of rubber tires over steel on tractors, and Goodyear tires over all other rubber tires. There's a lot of talk about tire lugs, while the scarecrow (a sort of WIZARD OF OZ-type scarecrow on battery acid) casts spells to keep them talking and soften the old man's hard heart, and they come to an understanding. The boy gets to work with the farmer's daughter on his essay about rubber tires on the farm, and at the square dance a month later (where the scarecrow magically appears dancing to "Pop Goes The Weasel"), it's announced that the boy has won a scholarship to an agricultural college. The scarecrow almost shakes himself apart jumping for joy.

CAR SALES FILMS (approx 60 min)

DESIGN FOR DREAMING: Absolutely stunning 1956 General Motors musical featurette, with lots of production numbers, tons of special effects, and a depiction of female ecstacy around a car that could only have originated in a male mind of the era. A woman (Thelma Tadlock) awakens in a futuristic bedroom and proceeds to dance and sing her way through a '50s style high-tech kitchen into a World's Fair-type "Futurama" setting, with beautifully stylized cars and lots of crowds watching them as they are paraded in front of her and her male partner, who dance and sing their way above the crowds. Cars featured include the Eldorado Town Car, the Buick Centurion, the Oldsmobile Golden Rocket, and the Pontiac Club de Mel, and a turbine-powered Firebird 2 that looks like the souped-up Delorean from BACK TO THE FUTURE. In this car, the couple floats down the highway of the future singing "Together we'll make the world new," as they plunge into the outer boundaries of time and space in their Firebird 2.

CARAVAN--GENERAL MOTORS PARADE OF PROGRESS: "We should be interested in the future," the head of General Motors says at the opening of this documentary, "because that's where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives." With that Ed Wood-like opening, this documentary examines the newest developments in cars from General Motors, set against the backdrop of a fairground opening for a GM exhibition. Taking us back to Detroit, the movie gives us an old car as narrator--that klunker is soon junked, but not before we're told that old cars make new ones possible, because of the scrap metal salvaged from them--the old car supposedly becomes part of the new Chevy Bel-Air Air Sport Coupe, one of a series of new models that are caressed and fondled by a succession of exotic dancers. The movie ends with a "Hooray For Hollywood" dance number for the Motorama Chevrolet.

1955 GENERAL MOTORS MODELS: A presentation of the 1955 models as examples of "Greater Achievement For Tomorrow." Featuring Buick Riviera, Cadillac 60 Special, and Oldsmobile. FRANK FONTAINE INTRODUCES THE 1962 PLYMOUTH: Frank Fontaine (Crazy Cuggenheim from THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW) plays an unhappy service station owner, lamenting the good mileage, low maintenance easy-to-drive 1962 Plymouth. This gives him a chance to delineate the virtues of the car in most comical fashion, and have some fun with the audience by periodically slipping into his "Crazy Cuggenheim" persona.