I remember growing up, it was funny to note that Oldsmobiles – which were all over the place in those strange Pac-Man/Reagan-era times (named for the two most influential figures in American politics) – tended to be driven by, you know, old people. This was A Thing. And it may have been a thing before I remember it, since this brochure is from 1969, and is working hard to reach the kids and get them to like Oldsmobiles.
That’s a bit odd in some ways, as Oldsmobile’s lineup back then had a lot more appeal to non-olds. The Oldsmobiles I remember being so ubiquitous growing up were huge, stodgy Delta 88 sedans and Cutlass Supremes, trundling along slowly on these never-ending loops between a dowdy colonial-style house filled with couches with complicated bucolic scenes on them, a Presbyterian or Methodist church, and the ABC store.
Oldsmobiles that forced the company into making ads like this, reminding you that you’re not, in fact, buying your dad’s car:
But back in 1969? Things were very different. They had cars like the 442:
And the Cutlass S:
Also, here you can see the sort of strange conceit of this brochure, this cinema/movie theme, where they have a big old film still in the back and a bunch of dinner theater actors in costumes around the car. Like this one for the F-85, with some sort of aviator theme:
Are these actual movie stills, or just photos shot for this brochure? Were the youths in 1969 that into old movies like those being referenced here? I’m not really sure.
Also, what is the cinematic theme for the Toronado here? It sort of looks like a Bond film mixed with a Zorro film?
There’s other fascinating stuff in this brochure, too. Like what do you notice about this seat?
Aside from the interesting Inca-petroglyph-like embroidered motif in the seat, what caught my eye are all the seat belt sockets. Look how many there are, all lined up! That bench seat seats three, but I count five sockets? What the hell is going on?
I think what’s going on is that the lap belts and the shoulder belts each have their own tab/socket setup. I’m not sure I’ve actually ever seen these in action, because on 99% of cars in this era, all those seat belt sockets would have been shoved down in between the seat back and bench and forgotten about, forever.
Seat belts may not have really been given too much thought, but ashtrays sure as hell were, because GM understood that some things matter. Oldsmobile takes bold action solving the plague of ashtray confusion! A button! Problem solved!
Also interesting is the idea of “simulated” stereo. I’m not sure if that means anything beyond “more than one speaker” but I can’t argue that it adds “pleasing dimension.”
Look at this lineup, too. This may have been Oldsmobile’s golden age. They had a ton of cool cars – coupés, wagons, sedans, convertibles, lots of colors and beefy engines and exuberant styling – and what makes this all so ironic is that in the 1980s, when they were reminding everyone they no longer sold their father’s Oldsmobile, the sad truth was that the Oldsmobiles of their fathers were way, way cooler than anything being sold at that time.
Oh, Oldsmobile. You fool.
I imagine the chief copywriter sitting his young colleague down and saying, “You knew this day would come. Face it like a man.”
The seatbelt sockets look like an early AI experiment gone awry. Like the driver would have six fingers growing out of an elbow.
Those metal buckles got hot in the sun! The bolts that held the front seat belts were on the center tunnel where they also got hot and could burn the feet of kids in the back seat.
When we were kids we called them Oldslowpeoples. There were Cardiacs on the road too back then, but they were to haul away the dead.
Ringo Starr and his daughter were in Olds commercials in 1990, he was 50 at the time. He throws in “not your father’s Oldsmobile” at the end.
https://youtu.be/1TFRxwmMwg4
She calls the car “a Fab Four door.”
The same was done with, iirc, Harry Belafonte’s kids, for the Trofeo. I remember this because I get the commercial in my head all the time. One caveat though: until I looked it up on youtube a few years ago, I thought the commercial was for the Toyota Paseo and I didn’t link it with the “Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile” campaign.
My parents’ first new car (and second of five Oldsmobiles) was a ’74 Cutlass Cruiser (Colonnade; no fake wood) wagon. Like that Toronado, the seat back had an embroidered pattern, but it was some awful brougham-ey filigree that I hated even as a young child who would soon become fascinated by the dual opera windows of the Ford Elite. That Incan petroglyph-Aztec brutalist (and the Aztecs were pretty brutal on their own with no need for assistance from a school of architecture then on its way out) in that Toronado was heaps better. I don’t think I would have needed the current reappraisal of Brutalism to have approved.
I love the late 60s Olds lineup. In fact, I owned a ’69 Olds Ninety-Eight Holiday Sedan. What a beauty she was in light blue.
But I’m not sure what to think about the push-button ashtray. I have a feeling that if they had touchscreens back then, they would have placed that button on the screen. And how would we feel about that?
With modern technology in place, ideally the climate control would sense the smoke emanating from one or more of the passenger positions and automatically open the requisite ashtray(s). Lady Bird wanted to keep our roadsides beautiful, after all.
They tried this strategy until the bloody end…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWogAJJI_q4
Regarding Movies..yes. At that time we’d go to revival theaters and see movies from the 30’s and 40’s. It’s sad to me that the youngs I work with have never seen Casablanca nor do they have the slightest interest.
Regarding simulated stereo..it was a thing to have a rear speaker and a reverb unit that fed it. They were spring reverbs so over bumps you’d get that “Spriong!” sound.
Oughtn’t it be Youngsmobile since the Old in Oldsmobile is pluralized?
Could also go with Youtsmobile maybe.
Ash trays with buttons? Obviously, some engineer misunderstood instructions to find the best way to keep passengers’ butts safe.
I love how the 442 sports coupe is “Strictly for the man who has everything.”
is the only difference between the “Holiday” and “Sports” versions of the vehicles in that lineup the fixed rear quarter window? Why can’t we buy any “Holiday” editions today???
The Sport windows would go down in the back but the b pillar was fixed in place. On Holidays it would go down with the window.
Hardtop vs. Post construction. This was a big deal in the 60s, the hardtop option usually cost at least several hundred more than the post cars.
This applied to both 2- and 4- doors. Let’s face it, they’re all sedans.
Hardtops went away in the 70s as automakers feared tougher rollover standards- the same reason convertibles went away. The last true hardtops were the 1978 final C-body Chyslers, the car that (almost) killed Chrysler.
I notice that the seats are BLUE, and FABRIC, with an interesting pattern. Bring it back!
This Olds Man(TM) has a tear in his eye.
The film stills are referencing the car names. Cutlass = pirates, F-85 = fighter jets, and Toronado = bullfighters (toreadors). Now, why they’re old-timey black and white film stills, that I can’t tell you.
Because they are Olds films.
Excellent.
I had a 1968 Mustang in high school, and it had separate lap and shoulder belts. Like you said, the shoulder belt was never used by me.
And lest you think I am some kind of old, this was in 1998.
Ok Jason – what you really need to show is the 1969 and 1970 Dr Olds W Machine Ads – all the hot rod parts in one brochure.
Elephant Engine Ernie meets Doc Olds?
Oh…a 1st gen Toronado. I haven’t seen one in the wild in decades. Beautiful cars.
I knew someone who had a final gen Toronado/Trofeo. It was fine. It was a better ride than you’d think, but such a dated interior compared to say….a Toytota Cressida. But the Aurora that replaced the Trofeo was a big jump. RIP Oldsmobile.
Gods the first gen Toronado is a thing of beauty. Absolutely perfect styling.
1966 and 1967 at least.
In those days the shoulder belt was separate from the lap and either had it’s own buckle or it attached to the lap belt via a hole and a mushroom shaped clip. And nobody used them.
Often they were non-retracting and stowed in a clip over the door. To use them, you would have to unfurl and plug in. To get out, you had to either let them hang in the way or re-furl them. Try it once, then decide it was too slow and cumbersome to save your life.
Vintage typo with the Delta 88. It incorrectly named the sedan and coupe.
Glad I’m not the only one who noticed that.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who cares.
Those old brochures fascinate me, they’re a lost art. All designed and drawn and edited by hand. No computers to catch errors or typos. Plus, so many variants of the same vehicle.
truly is a lost art
That whole aesthetic in the top shot, that was supposed to be a very retro, turn of the century sort of thing, right? I mean, I know it seems to have pervaded for a while (shades of Monty Python’s Flying Circus intro or any amusement park that has an old timey World’s Fair thing going on), but I don’t know what to call it. Either way, what a way to get the young people, between that and the biplanes and pirates. Very modern.
Also, the Toronado is riffing on You Olé Live Twice.
Yep – I had a ’71 Dodge with discrete belts like that.
After buying it I tested the driver’s shoulder belt, and genuinely might have been the first person in the car’s history to use it.
I have been in a few GM vehicles that had the separate belts for shoulder and lap, and it is amazing how annoying they are. Both sockets sit right next to each on your body, and click and clank if, like some of those vehicles I was in, it has worn out retractor mechanisms. In the cars that didn’t have worn out retractors, if you hit a big enough bump to push your body down into the seat, the sockets would pinch your clothes or body in between them when your body went back up. The newer lap/shoulder harness design we use today is much, much better.
Yes, the ashtray button — developed by the same minds who make drivers use the touchscreen to open the glove compartment.
Oh, man. That ashtray is just solving all my ashtray-related anxiety. Glad that’s taken care of.
Victim of their success.
Much like Facebook with pictures of parents/aunts/grandparents sharing pictures of kids.