A Failed Pizza Delivery Experiment

Are you following your "career plan"? You know, the one all your school counselors insisted you needed by the time you walked out of their doors for the final time? Me either, although my "career plan" was as ephemeral as the wispy steam off your cars hood after a good washing in the bright sun. It went something like this; "I want to get a job that pays enough money so I don't have to move back home."  So in a sense I continue to follow my plan.
I knew my B.S. (how appropriate!) in English wouldn't open a lot of doors, but without a paycheck I was headed home.

So I got work cleaning the assembly line chains that carried frozen hamburgers through a tunnel of flames at the Ypsilanti Burger King. Sorry to say that doesn't even make the top ten list for my worst jobs ever. However, I vigilantly scoured the help wanted columns hoping for anything that didn't involve fries. Then my girlfriend's roommate mentioned her Uncle George was a New Car Sales Manager at a car dealership and needed salespeople. 

George was a very nice, down to earth gentleman in a suit and tie wearing a big, gold Masonic ring. 

We kind of hit it off and he hired me on the spot. I learned a lot from Uncle George besides how to sell Gremlins.He was a Southern gentleman you didn't want to cross. He'd spent years at different dealerships and understood how they worked from the front door to the bump shop.
I thought of him recently when I read this article in the Sunday paper.
George taught me that  when a dealer takes delivery of a new car, two invoices are sent from the factory: one to the dealership, the other to the financial institution that carried the dealership's "floor plan". The financial institution would pay the factory and the dealership would pay the institution interest payments every month until the day the car sold, at which point they would pay off the original invoice.
Usually the financial company also handled loans for the new and used cars we sold but we weren't under any obligation to  push their financing over any other bank or loan company.
It's a good thing too. An unusual feature that our
financial institution, Commercial Credit, saddled us with was that if our customer financed their new car through them and the loan went bad, the car would be repossessed and our dealership would get it back to sell again for the balance owed.
And trust me, repossessed cars are not cream puffs ready to be put on the lot for sale. Most often the cost of repairs exceeded the amount owed to Commercial Credit.
A couple of years before I started selling there, Tom Monaghan , the founder of Domino's Pizza, was trying to build up his business with fast, free delivery. Someone convinced him that the red, white, and blue Javelins AMC was making were just the eye catching type of car that would make Domino's "fast" delivery memorable, patterned as they were after Javelin's Trans-Am racers.
So he bought a whole slew of them. They were seen all over Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor racing around with vinyl bags on the seat packed with boxes of steaming pizza.
But the Javelins didn't hold up well with the fleet of barely post pubescent drivers and as the cars ran out of warranty, Monaghan ran out of patience and quit paying for them.
One by one the Javelins disappeared from the streets until finally there were none.
Fortunately for our dealership, Monaghan had used Dominos' bank for the car loans so our dealership wasn't strapped with a couple of dozen pooped out, dented up Javelins.
Reading about Domino's "new" delivery car made me smile...and wonder who's financing them.
In other countries Domino's uses less expensive delivery vehicles. That's probably best for everyone.

Selling the Cadillac Image

Ever since I saw a Chevrolet ad in the mid 1960s of a Chevy Impala driving slowly on the waterways of Venice I thought automobile advertising was the most original in the world. These Cadillac ads don't sell a car, they sell an image.

 

Posted: 10.26.2015

Cadillac: Standard of world advertising from 1930s-1970s
By: Robert Tate, Automotive Historian/Researcher
Images courtesy of Robert Tate's collection

The Cadillac name plate belongs to a distinguished and honorable luxury car brand that many automotive historians and consumers have enjoyed for a very long time. Cadillac enthusiasts have always highlighted a proud history of great and popular automobile designs. Over many years, Cadillac has compiled a unique and interesting history of engineering and styling innovations that have created a loyal consumer base. During the early days when the Cadillac Motor Car company was getting started in Detroit in 1903, this automotive journey would start Cadillac's great success and heritage for the history books and for the future. This story is about the legendary advertisements that Cadillac had introduced from the 1930s to 1970s and later how the Cadillac automobile was promoted for the consumer market. During the fall, magazines are a showcase for new and exciting vehicles. They show images and descriptions of your new vehicle into nearly every American household to be looked and studied, reviewed and talked about and compared. Shortly after the Cadillac Motor Car Co. was founded, the decade following (1920 to 1930) witnessed some of the the greatest developments in Cadillac’s Motor Car history with its great eye catching automotive designs. During World War II, Cadillac did not focus on needed advertising but did feature great artistic work from the great Thomas Cleland, who illustrated some of the most beautiful automotive prints in the world. It was also during this time period, that the 1927 Cadillac La Salle became the first automobile designed completely by the late Harley Earl. Cadillac advertising in the early half of the 1930s continued in the pattern of simplicity and elegance. The 1938 Cadillac model was introduced as a practical motor car that featured advanced styling. After the war had ended, Cadillac continued to focus their advertising campaign on the consumers highlighting style and elegance. In 1948, Cadillac introduced the first fin, which the advertising community highlighted within their great advertising campaigns, “Cadillac presents the new standard of the world.” Another important factor in advertising after the war was television. This would change the playing field for marketing and selling automobiles. 1950s bring changes to Cadillac marketing, relationship with Boulevard Photographic The 1950s brought more glamour, fashion and women buyers into purchasing new Cadillac vehicles. In 1956, Cadillac offered new colors that attracted more women buyers to the dealerships such as Princess Green, Duchess Green and Mountain Laurel, which was a very soft pink color along with Taupe. These were all popular colors manufactured for Cadillac in 1956. The years, 1953 to 1962, Cadillac advertised more female designers and fashion trends than any other car manufacturer in the United States. The year 1959, was also the year that the Cadillac tailfin rose to new heights in design. The advertising featured many beautiful women along with the slogan “Take a lovely lady, place her at the wheel of a new Cadillac car and you have a delightful picture indeed.” The 1960s to 1970s was a decade of change. Cadillac still held on to its great symbol of design, the 1963 and 1964 models were great looking automobiles and the advertising theme was “Sometimes when a man steps away from his Cadillac, he'll steal a glance back at the car in his life.” One of the most recognized Cadillac advertising images popular among historians and collectors would be the print for the 1967 Fleetwood Eldorado (see image below). The headline stated, “Only one car can make a Cadillac owner look twice.” The advertising featured a man looking outside of his car window observing a 1967 Eldorado, and this became the most talked about and classic Cadillac advertising among historians even today. During the 1950s to 1970s, Cadillac automobiles were photographed by one of the best advertising agencies in the world in Boulevard Photographic. In the mid-1950s, talented photographers Jimmy Northmore and Mickey MeGuire launched Boulevard Photographic to service Detroit's auto industry. They set about proving the power of automotive photography that was used to bring consumers into the showrooms to purchase new Cadillac automobiles. Boulevard Photographic was considered the best in the automotive industry. In conclusion, Cadillac has always had a rich heritage along with many great milestones throughout its history. Cadillac advertising will always be a great part of our automotive history and heritage for generations to come. A special thanks to Robert Tate, Automotive Historian and Researcher, for contributing the story to the MotorCities Story of the Week program. Photographs are courtesy of Robert Tate's personal collection. (Bibliography: Mc Call M.P Walter. “80 Years Of Cadillac La Salle,” Crestline Publishing 1988; Hendry D. Maurice/Editors of Automobile Quarterly “Cadillac standard of the world The Complete history,” 1979; Williams, Jim. “Boulevard Photographic The art of automobile advertising,” 1997 ) For further information on photos please visit http://www.detroitpubliclibrary.org/ or email nahc@detroitpubliclibrary.org. Please do not republish the story and/or photographs without permission of MotorCities National Heritage Area. If you would like to contribute an article for the MotorCities newsletter, email Communications Coordinator Austen Smith at asmith@motorcities.org   Join Our Story of the Week Email List Email:

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Phone: 313.259.3425  |  Fax: 313.259.5254

Working the Line at Pontiac

I worked in the Engine Plant (Plant 9) the summer of 1967. We built the 326 c.i. engine until July when they changed the line over to the 350 c.i. engine. I was in the inspection department and did a lot of jobs on a lot of shifts. More on that later. This is a brief overview of that industrial complex which has vanished from the landscape.

The Early Days of Pontiac Labor/Assembly Lines

 By: Robert Tate, Automotive Historian/Researcher

Images: Courtesy of the National Automotive History Collection

The Oakland Motor Car Company was organized in 1907. Later, they began manufacturing Pontiac automobiles for the consumer market. In January, 1926, the first Pontiac vehicle was manufactured for the auto industry. It was created to fill the gap between the Chevrolet and the Oldsmobile production vehicles. The company name was changed to Pontiac Motor Company in 1931-32 when Pontiac took over all production facilities.  Final Inspection on 1939 Pontiac At a cost of $15 million, the Pontiac manufacturing facility was located on 135 acres. The plant was known as the daylight plant because of the amount of glass used in the construction. This facility in Michigan was one of the homes for Pontiac until it was closed in later years.  It was a modern production facility where many of the men and women were highly trained and skilled craftsmen that always accomplished great quality results as they assembled Pontiac automobiles. For example, the men and women would work within the factory at Pontiac with over 150 powerful Pontiac engines from aluminum pistons to crankshafts along with connecting rod and pistons that could be produced in one single hour. Other Pontiac assembly line responsibilities included giant presses that were capable of exerting pressures up to 2,500 tons which were used in stamping out fenders, hoods, bumpers and other manufactured parts for the assembly line workers. Pontiac workers also had to work with small parts for assembly line production. The small parts sometimes were supplied by outside firms that had to be constantly checked to insure an adequate stock at all times. The lack of one tiny part could cause the entire assembly operation to be suspended until the part was restocked.  1958 Pontica Body Drop Pontiac factory workers also participated during the war time efforts as well. After the last vehicle rolled off the Pontiac assembly line, the Pontiac factory workers began to take a part mile after mile of overhead conveyors. Huge machines were then torn from concrete areas by Pontiac factory workers and placed into storage yards. Workers with drills would cut gaping holes in the floors to set a foundation for heavier machinery that was needed for Tank and plane production manufacturing. Word had come from Washington that all existing war plants were to be enlarged. One of the Pontiac Motors war production assignments was the manufacture of the Bofors 40 mm field gun along with parts for tanks for the U.S. Army and high-volume production of aircraft-launched naval torpedoes along with other parts as well. After the war had ended, post-war Pontiac models began their manufacturing process on Sept. 13, 1945. However, the full line of 1946 Pontiac models did not appear until June 10, 1946, due in part to the United Auto Workers Union striking General Motors on Nov. 21, 1945.  1965 Factory Worker Striping the GTO One of the first factory workers that started with the Oakland Motor Car Company was Charles J. Long, who had been with Oakland/Pontiac assembly since 1919. He worked as a foreman, tool trouble-shooter and on special assignments and was considered a great factory worker and was very much a part of Pontiac manufacturing assembly line operations for many years. To all the men and women, including Charles Long, who were a part of our great automotive heritage and its great labor movement, who helped to build and shape Pontiac automobiles on the assembly line; honor is given. 1966 GTO on Production Line Pontiac sales continued to increase during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1959, Pontiac Motor Division had to hire over 3,000 factory line workers along with adding an extra factory shifts just to keep up with factory sales for the consumer market demanding over 217,303 Pontiac models. On March 14, 1962, General Motors celebrated its 75 millionth vehicle. This special milestone in Pontiac’s history was a joyful occasion for many Pontiac workers. As the 1960's moved forward Pontiac began manufacturing the popular G.T.O models along with the first generation Fire-birds, and the popular Grand Prix models as well. The assembly line workers became very busy manufacturing Pontiac's for the high demand throughout the 1960's and the early 1970’s. 1970 Pontiac Grand Prix Assembly Line By the time General Motors celebrated its 75th Anniversary, technology, robots and lasers were a part of the Pontiac assembly line process featuring scanners that could verify dimensions of openings in car bodies or even check dimensions of a windshield. It was the beginning of the new age technology and computers being featured within the work place at Pontiac Motor assembly. Today many of the Pontiac manufacturing plants and processes are no longer with us. However, the great men and women and their families who contributed to the legacy of assembly line workmanship will always have a special place in automotive history. A special thanks to Robert Tate, Automotive Historian and Researcher, for donating the story to the MotorCities Story of the Week program. Photographs are courtesy of the National Automotive History Collection. (Bibliography: Gunnell John. “75 Years Of Pontiac Oakland” Crestline Publishing 1982. GM Folkes No. 2 February 1940. Published by Public Relations General Motors News.) For further information on photos please visit http://www.detroitpubliclibrary.org/ or email nahc@detroitpubliclibrary.org. Please do not republish the story and/or photographs without permission of MotorCities National Heritage Area. If you have a story that you would like to donate to be featured as a MotorCities Story of the Week, email asmith@motorcities.org

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MotorCities National Heritage Area
200 Renaissance Center, Suite 3148, Detroit, MI 48243
Phone: 313.259.3425  |  Fax: 313.259.5254