Calvin Coolidge Worthington (November 27, 1920 - September 8, 2013) is an American car dealer, best known on the West Coast of the United States, and to a more limited extent elsewhere, from minor appearances and parodies to a number film. He is best known for his unique radio and television commercials for the Worthington Dealership Group, most of which begin with the announcement "It's Cal Worthington and his dog Spot!" - even though "Spot" is never a dog. Often, Spot is a tiger, a seal, an elephant, a chimpanzee, or a bear. In one ad, "Spot" is a hippopotamus, which Worthington rides on the ad. On several occasions, "Spot" is a vehicle, just as the Worthington aircraft will be seen standing on the wing while in the air. "Spot" was officially discontinued in the mid-1980s; However he is sometimes mentioned in later advertisements.
According to a profile published at Sacramento Bee in 1990, Worthington earned $ 316.8 million in 1988, making it the largest single owner of chain car dealers. His advertising agency, Spot Advertising, has Worthington as his sole client and spends $ 15 million on advertising, mostly automotive dealerships at the time. He sold the car from 1945 to his death and had a 24,000-acre (9,700 acre), 38Ã, sqÃ, mi. field located in Orland, California, north of Sacramento.
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Calvin Coolidge Worthington was born on November 27, 1920 in the city of Bly, Oklahoma, now, three weeks after his name, Calvin Coolidge, has been elected Vice President of the United States. Worthington grew up in gnawing poverty, one in nine children, and dropped out at the age of 13. His first job was as a water boy in the road construction crew for 15 cents an hour. He joined the Civil Conservation Corps at the age of 15.
World War II
At the beginning of World War II, Worthington was registered with the Army Air Corps. Commissioned Lieutenant Two, he was an aerobatic champion at Goodfellow Field in San Angelo, Texas. He saw the battle as a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 390th Bomb Group, flying 29 missions to Germany. He was banished after the war as captain. Worthington was awarded the Air Medal five times, and received the Distinguished Flying Cross, presented to him by General Jimmy Doolittle.
Worthington's military service is often revisited in the 21st century in aviation magazines, as he has trained pilots who will become some of the first astronauts in America.
Maps Cal Worthington
Business career
Initial years
After leaving the Army, Worthington wanted to become a commercial pilot, but could not because he was not a college graduate. He sold his car for $ 500 to buy a gas station in Corpus Christi, Texas, which did not work, but sold it for what he paid, an indication of future sales success. He then sells used cars in front of the post office in Corpus Christi, making a simple pitch to people who stop to pick up their mail. He moved to dirty ground, where he earned $ 500 a week by selling just three cars. He decided car sales were his career.
Moving to California
In 1949, Worthington moved to Huntington Park, California, setting up a Hudson Motor car dealership. From the very beginning, he entered the field of newborn television commercials, buying time for a 3 hour live music TV show every Saturday and Sunday at Los Angeles KTLA TV station, eventually titled Cal's Corral. A regular on the show is a flamboyant and eccentric singer and Hawaiian guitar player Jenks "Tex" Carman. When television became more established and sponsored the entire program then became unfeasible, it became a Ford dealer with ads one minute and 30 seconds.
In the 1970s, Worthington saturated commercial breaks during the night hours at four of seven television stations in Los Angeles, which had agreed to fill out their overnight schedules with movies. Worthington ads can be seen breaking into old movies overnight, from midnight to six o'clock.
One of Worthington's rivals in the early 1960s was Chick Lambert, a famous salesman with Ford City Brand Motors. As a pitchman of television dealers, Lambert always introduced my "dog, Storm" (big German shepherd dog) as a buffer in advertising. The storm will look good sitting on the hood, sitting behind the wheel, or walking with its owner along the row of cars. In the mid-1960s, Lambert had taken his dog's action to Ralph Williams Ford (formerly Leon Ames Ford), becoming famous for the Storm and his intro, "Some people call it commercial, I call it an invitation." Worthington revived the commercial war by fighting his first "Spot Dog" ad, a roaring gorilla. Her response was so positive that the new campaign was born, featuring "Cal Worthington and her dog, Spot!" (see below for more information).
Expansion on the West Coast
The physical reach of the Worthington Dealership Group will eventually cover most of the Southwest West and America. The company at its peak has 29 dealers. Among the markets served by Worthington include Anchorage, Alaska; Phoenix, Arizona; Carlsbad, Claremont, Folsom, Long Beach, Sacramento and South Gate, California; Reno, Nevada; Houston and Sugar Land, Texas; and Federal Way, Washington. The company has sold most of these dealers; still operates Anchorage and Long Beach outlets.
The company entered the Anchorage market at a time of frenzy in 1976, during the peak of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. In fact, the appearance in Alaska of a good California businessman coinciding with oil-related prosperity often enters Alaskans awareness during those years, although Worthington is not the only entrepreneur in this category. Worthington purchased an existing dealer, Ford Friendly, from the Stepp family, who continued to operate Lincoln-Mercury city dealers for years afterward.
He was one of the first to leave a traditional stand-alone dealer for "automotive mall".
In 2002, it also has three shopping centers and one office tower, the best-selling $ 600 million span> a year. "My Dog Spot" ads
For almost a quarter of a century, from the 1960s to the 1990s, Worthington ran a series of irregular television and radio ads for his loose car dealership after the pioneering "Early" pioneer of Earl "Madman" Muntz. They start as a parody of the competitors who appear in advertisements with puppies that have just been adopted from the pound. They are known as "My Dog Spot" ads because each ad will introduce "Cal Worthington and her dog, Spot!" However, the "dog" was never a dog. In many cases, it is an exotic animal guided by a rope, like a tiger or an elephant. These ads began as a parody of a series of long-term ads produced by salesman Chick Lambert, who worked for several Ford dealers in the Los Angeles area for years. These ads always start with "I am Chick Lambert, Sales Manager here at Ralph Williams Ford, and this is my dog, Storm." The Storm is a German Shepherd, who usually lounges on the hood of the first car to display in advertisements.
Worthington ads were seen on every television channel in Los Angeles during the 1960s and early 1970s, mostly through saturated advertisements over the hour of the night. (It is also played in Ontario Canada) The ad will be accompanied by a jingle for the song If You're Happy and You Know It, with the lyrics rewritten to refrain from "If you want a car or a truck, go see Cal, if you want to save money , go to Cal; "Here are some different lyrical versions, such as" Give your wife new car, she will love you for the rest of your life "or" I will stand on my head until my ears are reddened, "and ends with" Go see Cal, Go see Cal, Go see Cal ". When the idea of ​​a jingle was first exposed to him, it was conceptualized as slow with a large drum roll up; Worthington disagreed and felt the song should be fast and write the lyrics and record the song itself. Jingle succeeded. In the years that followed, Worthington discovered that there were children who thought his name was "Go meet Cal." Others successfully mondegreen as "Pussycow."
Among the many creatures featured as "Spot" are killer whales from SeaWorld, lions, elephants, geese, tigers, buffalo, snakes, rhinos, skunks, bears, chimpanzees, a carabao (buffalo) and a hippopotamus. In addition to the many animals featured, one of Cal Worthington's "Spots" is Deacon Jones, during one of the "Fearome Foursome" from the NFL Los Angeles Rams, which sings "Go See Cal" jingle. Worthington made a deal with two local circuses to get the animals for commercial shoots. He also makes use of individual owners who usually rent out their animals for film and television shoots near Hollywood.
In some commercials, Worthington will claim he will perform acrobatics for sales, such as eating bugs or "standing on my head" until my ears are flushed. " According to Television Advertising Agency spokesperson, Worthington "is probably the most recognizable car craftsman in the history of television."
Personal life and death
Worthington married and divorced four times. He never owned a car, but instead borrowed one for sale from his dealer. Worthington said in 2007 that he did not like selling cars, but "just trapped inside after the war I have no skills to do anything else I just want to fly." In May 2010, Worthington appeared in a political ad for California State Assistant candidate Larry Miles. Advertisement, setback to "My Dog" Spot, featuring Worthington and "Spot" with Miles.
Worthington died September 8, 2013, at the age of 92 years at his ranch in Orland, California. He survived by his sons Rod, Cal Jr., and Coldren; his daughters Barbara, Susan, and Courtney; and nine grandchildren.
Grandson Nick Worthington has become General Manager of the Worthington car empire. After Cal's death, Nick appears in the ad.
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Source of the article : Wikipedia
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