Action! For almost as long as there has been the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, automakers have been trying to get some of that movie magic to rub off on their products by association. Sometimes this was done with actual movie stars, other times just the trappings of a movie set were shown in the ad.
This 1937 DeSoto ad featuring Gary Gooper embodies all the aspects that would come to define this trope: Paramount back lot? Check. Crane-mounted camera? Check. Klieg lights? Check. Really, the only thing that is missing is a boom microphone and a director wearing a beret and holding a megaphone.
Desoto actually ran a whole series of ads like this between 1937 and 1939 featuring a multitude of Hollywood celebrities, like Myrna Loy in the lede photo.
Here’s a 1946 Ford crashing a movie set filming what appears to be a southern setpiece. Or is it? Because there also appears to be a cowboy and a cabaret dancer off camera. I guess in the presence of all these non-sequiturs, a Ford driving through the set doesn’t seem so strange. In any case, the cameraman on the crane appears to be ignoring the car and is focused on the actress.
Here we see the trope distilled down to its bare essence: A car in a studio, two cameras, a boom mic, and a celebrity (in this case a young Ed Sullivan).
The 16mm movie cameras and Marilyn Monroe knockoff in the driver’s seat in this 1956 Chevrolet ad scream low-budget production. Maybe an Ed Wood horror film destined to end up on MST3K decades later?
More (or should I say Moore) CBS comarketing, this time with a Plymouth. An even more distilled version of the trope – A car, crane-mounted camera, and a pseudo-celebrity who I confess I had to Google, all on a plain white background.
Maybe not quite a movie set, but what exactly is going on with this 1961 Chrysler Newport? Did Project Blue Book somehow mistake its far-out styling for a UFO?
Gary Moore, back in the day, was a minor celebrity although I can’t remember exactly for what. Definitely not a dramatic actor, some reputation with comedy, although I certainly don’t remember him as a comedian. In fact, until you posted the ad, I’d forgotten that he even existed despite his being on a bunch of afternoon game shows back during my childhood.
I guess that a real definition of a ‘minor celebrity’.
Garry Moore was extremely well-known as a CBS radio actor for 13 years, prior to his prime-time variety show which ran on CBS television for another 17 years. As you mentioned, at the same time that The Garry Moore Show was on the air, he was also the host of the prime time game show, I’ve Got a Secret, for 15 years. I’d say he was very recognizable by my parents’ generation; not a “celebrity” like Marilyn Monroe or Frank Sinatra, but more of a “personality,” in a Dick Clark/Ed Sullivan sort of way.
In my opinion his greatest contribution to the entertainment industry was giving a break to a young actress/comedienne by casting her on his prime-time variety series. Her name? Carol Burnett.
I recall his nighttime show on CBS more so in the 60’s. Little tidbits are that Carol Burnett, Jonathan Winters, and Alan King got their starts on his show, much like others on Ed Sullivan, and Johhny Carson. I’ve Got a Secret, in the 50’s, would have been too early for me as I was more into the Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello as a young child.
The Chevy ad is indeed the weirdest of the bunch. I’m not sure if even Ed Wood managed to come up with a film that included sailors AND singing cowboys.
I think that the idea in the Newport ad is that the car is at some sort of movie premiere. Hence the spot lights. Let’s just hope that the family inspecting the car doesn’t turn around at an inopportune moment as blindness may ensue.
I’m not sure if Ed Wood would have put sailors and singing cowboys in his films, but I could easily see him turning the Chevy hubcaps into UFOs.
Good one!
As an official Geezer, Stage 2, I’ll weigh in. Garry Moore was an ubiquitous talk and game show host, a well known TV celebrity — kind of a Drew Carey or Steve Harvey for the 1950s to late ’70s. His presentation was part HS football coach/science teacher, part huckster and part wisecracking next door neighbor.
The sailor performing a “wolf whistle” in that strange, amateur movie set was apparently chosen as a joke, based on a meme of the woman-starved seafarers depicted in wartime cartoons and movies, like the musical, “On the Town” with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.
Some dealerships back in the day rented a spotlight to wave across the sky to draw people down on New Models Night.
The fellow in the watercolor of the deSoto is too stylized to resemble anyone recognizable. Presumably, people would agree it showed 6’3″ Gary Cooper from the lanky proportions of the figure.
Yes, another oldster here. I was quite familiar with Garry Moore when I was young, as our family tended to watch CBS programs more than those on NBC (and our TV with rabbit ears had a hard time picking up the ABC affiliate).
Gary Cooper though was not so familiar, so when Cooper’s death was announced in 1961, I had thought that Moore had died.
Leonard Nimoy and his 1964 Riviera.
Nice adverts .
-Nate
I love how some of these illustrations feature people whose looks are a composite of well-known actors and actresses of the day, or look almost like a certain one (like the “Marilyn” in the ‘56 Chevy ad).
For example, the driver in the ‘46 Ford ad (the third one) strongly resembles Fred MacMurray.
Yes, nothing says (or said) glamour like the movies, and if those glamourous people like the car, who are we ordinary folks to disagree? “Here’s the car all the cool people like!”
I think the advertising people found the one really good angle on the ’61 Plymouth.
In the early days of television, the “talent” often emerged from the corporations, the business people behind TV itself. And then, through exposure, became ‘celebrities’ themselves.
I believe Garry Moore was like that. He had an afternoon variety show when I was a kid. I had a crush on his singer, Denise Lohr.
Much later, while doing specialty woodworking at gated communities in South Carolina (Hilton Head), I ran into him. Just an ordinary Joe, retired in posh suburbanville.
I would imagine that where there was an official endorsement contract, the studio (or TV network) transportation department would have to run a mixed fleet, in-house car service since it wouldn’t have done for, say, Milton Berle to be picked up in a Cadillac when he was “Mr. Buick” or Dinah Shore to be seen in anything but a Chevrolet. Sending a Caddy to pick up Ed Sullivan (sponsored by Lincoln-Mercury) or anyone with a Mopar deal was right out.
Back in the days of network radio and early television, shows usually had a single sponsor, like the way that the Jack Benny radio program was “brought to you by Lucky Strike” (or Jell-O before that). The sponsor had a lot of say-so in the show’s content and if the sponsor lost interest, the show died or had to find another. So the car sponsorships were not about the network, but about a particular show and its star(s).
Here’s another: From the 1967 Volkswagen brochure, featuring Paul Newman:
My favorite ad with my favorite actor and car. That VW Cabrio has Porsche wheels, hubcaps and a Porsche engine. It was no slouch.
Did he really drive one? If so, for how long?
There’s pretty extensive coverage of that VW here:
https://www.oldbug.com/newmanvw.htm
It reminds me of a somewhat similar story about Paul Newman’s Volvo from many years later. Here’s some info on that after the car was inherited by Jerry Seinfeld.
http://pjholmes.com/?portfolio=comedians-in-cars-paul-newman-volvo
In the late 60s he had it completely rebuilt, with a new chassis and a hot 351 Ford V8 in the back seat.
And here’s a great shot ho him with it when it still had a Porsche engine.
LOL, I don’t think he is exactly the “typical” VW owner.
WOW! Look at that glamorous 1937 De Soto with standard one windshield wiper! Adding optional equipment and a disclaimer would have been better, I think. I have attached a 1939 De Soto ad with Ginger Rogers. Out of my way! I’m in a rush to get to my De Soto – Plymouth dealer now! Auto companies also have for decades given cars to film makers for the exclusivity of their vehicles in a movie. Lots of fun in these ads and many thanks.
Hard to tell it was Gary Cooper in the Desoto ad, if they didn’t tell you.
It wasn’t “ actually Gary Cooper”, it was a cartoon character made to look kind of like him. Lame.
I know it’s just an ad, and 85 years old to boot, but by what literary style guide was it OK to write “… smart new DeSoto” as “… Smart, New DeSoto”?
I appreciate your point but, OMG, FWIW, IDK. This passes as some sort of English today. Yes I had to look it up. Why is everyone so afraid of Spanish?
Besides the movies mid to late 60’s TV shows featured cars from their corporate sponsors. From the Baxter’s Country Squire wagon to the good citizens of Mayberry and their stables of Fords you could tell the season by the cars being used. Chevrolet supplied some of the hottest cars to the Stephen’s over on Morning Glory Circle in Westport Connecticut. A steady stream of convertibles: Malibu, Corvair, Camaro, then finally an Impala. Honorable mention goes to the Tate’s with Larry’s Corvette and Louise’s Caprice Sedan. I cannot leave out my favorite TV Dad, Steve Douglas and his collection of Pontiac wagons or wife Barbara’s Bonneville convertible. Honorable mention goes out to the Chrylser’s of The Beverly Hillbillies: Milton Drysdale’s Imperials and Miss Jane Hathaway’s Dodge convertibles. There is a Chevrolet commercial on You Tube that features the cast of Bonanza and Bewitched in promos for I believe the 1966 model year. Just a few memories from a kid who spent way too much time in the den watching TV.
Yeah, I”ve seen that Chevy ad with the casts of Bonanza and Bewitched. Just great! Chevy sponsored both shows I think. Chevrolet also sponsored the first few seasons of My Three Sons and you can see Chevy wagons just like you see Pontiac versions in the later seasons. Love them all.
As to the Newport ad — searchlights were used back in the day to herald a noteworthy show or event. They’d be placed outside the venue, and fill the sky with weaving beams to let the locals know something special was taking place…