This didn’t start out as the Sunday paper, it started out as the Thursday paper. It’s the Hanna (Alberta) Herald for Thursday, 4 October 1962, to be exact, and it’s chock full o’ news about the new 1963 automobiles, and ads for them. Also lots of farming and ranching news, because that’s most of what was doing in rural Alberta.
But today, over 22,000 days later, this is an honourary Sunday paper. Fetch your pipe and slippers; have a seat on the chesterfield (that’s Canadian for couch or sofa); put up your feet, and let’s read. Here’s the front page:
On page 2, we find this ad for Mister (International) Harvester…
…and this to-the-point invitation to grab a free cup o’ java and a doughnut at the Buick-Pontiac dealership:
Page 3 brings us this ad for the ’63 Comet. Interested to know more? Ring the dealership; their phone number is 18:
Page 5 has the small article at the top of this post, about the ’63 Chryslers, as well as this ad for the ’63 Mercury Meteor. That’d’ve been confusing, as Meteor-as-marque cars were also being sold in Canada at the same time. Bonus used-car ad adjacent:
Page 7 has this ad for the ’63 Mercury Monterey:
Page 8 has a gleeful article about the new ’63s in general, with some clues about the dealership structure at that placetime, and some car-unrelated articles to elevate your eyebrows and make your bowtie spin. Do you see what kinds of resolutions are to be presented regarding how the children are to be schooled; can you believe it? The Metric System! Auxiliary heaters in school buses! Hell in a handbasket! And just get a load of that piece about the lynx and the goose! (all sarcasm aside, younger schoolkids sold as ‘slaves’, heh-heh-heh, to older-student ‘masters’, heh-heh-heh: holy manure.)
Let’s, ah, turn that page, please and thank you. On page 9 there’s news and an ad for the great new ’63 Dodge:
On page 11 there’s this exciting ad for the new ’63 Acadians and the new Canso range:
And on the other side of the page, here’s the news to go along with:
On page 12, we’re back to talking about Dodges…
…then the majority of page 13 is about Plymouths. Alternators replaced generators as standard equipment for ’63 on all the –Mopar– Chryco models, and 313 isn’t a typo; the V8 engine for Canada had five fewer cubic inches than the US model:
On page 14, there’s an ad and news about the ’63 GMCs, large (independent front suspension!) and small:
P is for Page 15. P is for Pontiac. Coincidence? You decide:
And page 16 celebrates the virtues of the highly new Valiant. The valuest value ever…? 1963 was the first of two years in which Canadian Valiants used the US Valiant front end on the US Dart body. If I had been the editor of the Hanna Herald, I might’ve rewritten passenger comfort and convenience are stressed in the 1963 Valiant, which is kind of the opposite of what they meant to mean:
That’s the end; there were 16 pages to this newspaper. What’ll we do now we’ve read the whole thing? Maybe go take a look at…well, which dealership would you head for?
Hang on; there’s one more ad from this paper, on one of the pages without any car content:
They had to run ads like this for a reason; evidently other people spoiling everything is not a new phenomenon.
Great post Daniel, thank you. One of my hobbies is newspapers. So much carmaker advertising, presented as editorial content! In fact, many papers would later similarly present inserts designed and laid out to appear like genuine news articles, while presenting ad content. The publisher likely saw the value of this newspaper as a vehicle for community commerce, as much as presenting journalism at arms-length from advertisers. Alberta being a resource-based economy, this would make sense then.
I worked as the production manager at a medium-sized business newspaper. There was ever-going debate/battle been the publisher, editor, and sales manager, over satisfying advertisers, and maintaining our integrity for presenting unbiased news coverage. Those editors that fought the hardest for journalistic independence, consistently had the shortest employment duration. lol
The beautifully prepared corporate ads, like the ’63 Pontiac ad here, would be couriered from the manufacturer’s ad agency. The local dealer name and contact info added at the bottom, by the newspaper. As dealers would pool their contact info into one ad, to reduce costs. Newspapers loved these ads. As they paid the best, and required no construction or editing by the paper.
Sp.: “… ever-going debate/battle between the publisher, editor, and sales manager, over satisfying advertisers, and maintaining our integrity, for presenting unbiased news coverage.”
Sawright; as an editor myself, I can attest that errors creep their way into documents after they’ve been edited to perfection!
That said: among, because there are more than two. X-)
While I didn’t know it was a thing, the Don’t-Shoot-Insulators ad might just give some gun lovers of today new (or re-learned) ideas. If not insulators, maybe capacitors? I know there were some recent instances of electric company transmission sites being shot at with high powered rifles.
Love the phone number “18”. I’m sure cave man expert Gary Larsen has a cartoon or two about old-time low digit phone number facts. The one I recall (Larsen has asked that we not copy his cartoons on the internet) has a stone age concert conductor raising his baton and the score has only one note.
I recall staring at pictures of the Citroen DS in 1950s “The NY Times” Auto section. Wow I thought, how cool would it be to have a car that looked like THAT? Truly space-age stuff.
Shooting insulators is a new one for me, but in doing a bit of research, there were similar US ads about this problem during the 1940s-’60s. That one just baffles me. I guess that happens when people get bored shooting signs, and look for a better challenge…
FRONT PAGE NEWS Alberta, 1962:
Mrs. Sam Steinbrecker – married women didn’t publicly use their given names in 1962 Alberta (or lots of other places) – won a $5 prize for growing a 4lb, 6oz Kennebec potato.
A Canadian inflation calculator tells me that’s worth CAD49.49 today, or about USD38.
That’s fancy money for a VERY large spud.
Yeah, eh!
Yes, it is likely a generational thing, but my Grandmother used to address people, even younger than her, as “Mr” or “Mrs” routinely rather than use their first name. Not just strangers, but her next-door neighbor was “Mrs. Adamchek” even though she saw her most days.
I got trapped into what to call people too…back when I was 13 years old, my Dad worked with one of our neighbors who was also the father of a boy who I walked to school with. Of course I’d call the father “Mr. xxx”. Fast forward 20 years, I’m working for the same company, in a different city, as is Mr xxx. I don’t see him often but have been in meetings with him where I’m at a quandry based on history I think I should still call him “Mr. xxx” but I don’t call any other co-workers older nor younger than I by other than their first name…if I make exception for Mr. xxx, what about co-workers even older than Mr. xxx…should I start calling them “Mr” when in meetings with Mr. xxx? Hard to break a habit from 20 years prior.
Back in ’63, my Dad had bought his 2nd Rambler Classic wagon (also had a ’61). New car introductions were a big deal back then, something I miss, also harder to get excited about changes in new model years for me anyhow. My Grandfather bought a ’63 Fairlane that year as well.
I used to see lots of those glass insulators, don’t know why, on the ground, maybe the workers found some problem or broke them and threw them on the ground….pretty large to put in a pocket if you’re climbing a telephone pole. Can’t imagine anyone using them for target practice when up on a transmission line, since power is for everyone’s use, kind of like someone trying to mess with the drinking water. Certainly a challenge to shoot one from the ground, but why not find something less critical to daily life if you need to find a target. If they had to climb the poles to fix their damage, maybe they’d reconsider. Don’t see these anymore, seems like there’s a different type of insulator used on poles these days.
Old mid-century newspapers are really fascinating to read today! All the current events that everyone was so charged up about–now totally forgotten. All the interesting commercial art (done by unknown artists) which had its own unique charm; advertisers (more sole proprietorships) who were trying SO HARD. It’s an odd feeling to look at this stuff knowing that virtually no one has seen it in 50-80 years.
The internet makes it easier to find these old pages–in the “old days” you had to go to the library and spool through microfilm–very tedious!
I love looking through these old newspapers. And although most dealers used rather sedate ads with factory-supplied images & text, there’s always a few who broke the mold.
Here in Northern Virginia it was Ted Britt Ford – Mr. Britt was originally from Texas, and he took the nickname “Texas Ted,” and had ads and promotions (many Texas- or western-themed) that are great to look back upon.
I’ve been putting together a few of them for a post, but who knows when I’ll get to it, so I’ll share my favorite here. The dealership had a steer penned up on their lot, and whoever could come closest to guessing the weight of the steer would win it – either “on the hoof” or butchered. We need contests like this these days!
There’s gotta be a power-steering joke in here somewhere.
Ha! Here’s another great one–everybody loves Edsels! “No wonder Edsel’s smashing all first-year records!” And you can win a FREE PONY too!
Image:
https://www.plan59.com/images/newspaper/580416W_edsel.gif
“Edsel is highest!” reads to me like “Carlton is lowest!”.
I’m in the market for a “Full Sixed Dodge” myself but there aren’t any any more in size 6.
By the way customers who are looking for a REALLY full sized Dodge could choose a Dodge 880 instead – unless they weren’t sold in Canada.
Dodge 880 for 1963: It doesn’t have last year’s Dodge front end on it any more, just the old Chrysler rear end and the old Dodge dashboard!
Maybe they called them Clodges or Dodglers there.
Well, Canadians could get a 225 Slant Six in their C-body Dodge; perhaps that’s what’s meant by a full-sixed Dodge. More fun along the same line: look just below the masthead on the front page; what day of the week is it? That same day was declared at the top of all 16 pages.
For a long time Canadian Dodges were full-sixed, using the bigger Chrysler/DeSoto six instead of the Plymouth/Dodge six.
And is that Red Green Kilowatt on the last page?
That character was known here as Reddy Kilowatt, and Tucson Electric Light, Gas, and Power Company (today known simply as Tucson Electric after the natural gas part was sold off to Southwest Gas) used it for many years. I had no idea as I was growing up that Reddy Kilowatt showed up in other locales.
American Electric Power licences Reddy Kilowatt for use by for-profit electric companies.
The Rural electric Co-Ops have their own licensed character, “Willie Wiredhand”.
Correction, the Edison Electric Institute is the licensor of Reddy Kilowatt.
I take it in Canada new cars were unveiled in October. In the US it was mid September, soon after the school year started. Here the new auto ads fattened up the papers twice a year, in the fall and in February when the Chicago Auto show opened.
It’s possible places like Montreal-Toronto-Vancouver got to see the new cars before places like Hanna and Cereal.
“Think I’ll go out to Alberta. Weather’s good there in the Fall.”
What, no Studebaker? Canada, eh. Looking south, but rarely east or west (trade-wise, anyway)….
Big chuckle of the day: the expression “Full-Sixed Families”… Oh, that’s a keeper.
Remarkably, through all the anti-Eastern bloc rhetoric from the South, Ladas were successfully sold here from the 1970s and ’80s. Volvo had been assembling cars in Nova Scotia, from the early 1960s.
Germany’s economy is in recession, as someone recently ended their source of cheap energy. Most countries answer to bigger, more powerful players, unfortunately.
If a local Toyota dealer existed, and wanted advertising promotion, doubtful this publisher would have turned him or her away from a flattering ‘news article’.
I meant interprovincial trade vs trade with the US, especially trade with the US state(s) directly south of each province.
The ad revenue from that issue of the Hannah Herald allowed the proprietor & the missus to spend a month in Arizona after Christmas. 🙂
Small town Alberta. I’ve never been to Hanna but knew a young lady who was from those parts.
My early days in radio started in Westlock NW of Edmonton and then to OK Radio in St. Paul. A lateral move but a good career move. St. Paul had a very good newspaper owned by a family which had been established there for many years. The publisher was a well dressed gent who always wore leisure suits with an slightly open shirt to expose a gold chain thing dangling from the next and many grey chest hairs. He drove a very large, light blue Lincoln Mark IV…of course.
He wasn’t happy that the radio station took advertising dollars from his newspaper until another started a Bargain Finder style paper in town. After that, he and got along just fine.
A lot of print journalists got their experience writing for small town papers. I stuck with broadcast journalism but have many good memories of small town Alberta.
Thank you for the feature!
Used to have binders full of ads cut from the Sept/Oct papers.
I’ve been collecting vintage car ads from magazines for a long time now. But back in the day when newspapers were still a major news source, I guess car makers ran a lot of ads in the dailies. These are more rare than magazine ads now because of the fragility of newsprint so that makes them all the more interesting to me! Some of the newspaper ads are similar to the mag ads, but some are totally different.
Dad must have seen the “Wow!” ad – or similar in Ottawa Ontario where we lived – and brought home a brand new ’63 Red Valiant with the cool push button transmission and trusty slant 6 engine. Great car and I think I may have had my first solo drive in it. Older brother’s fender bender meant it sported a bent left front bumper until it was replaced with a new ’68 Oldsmobile Delta 88.
Meteor as it’s own marque took a 2 year hiatus between 1961 and 1964. So there was no overlap. Not only were these 1962-63 versions terribly unpopular, Canadian L-M dealers were baying for blood after the big Meteor was dropped after ’61. They rushed in a precursor to it,
the mid-year 1963 stripper Mercury 400. These can be spotted by the solid 1 piece glass pane in the normally 3 piece Breezeway window. They were fixed in place. Very low rent.
Even ’64 Meteors without the power rear window option still had a 3 piece glass.
Ah! Didn’t know; thanks for that.