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 remember one of my elementary school teachers owning a Cutlass coupé like one in the roster sheet. The seat belts weren’t three-point variety as found in the modern vehicles. She had to buckle the lap belt onto one anchor then extract the shoulder belt from its holding bracket in the ceiling and buckle it onto the lap belt.
What a really clumsy way to buckle up! No wonder many Americans in the 1970s didn’t bother to buckle up until the state nannies told them to do so under the penalty of death.
Jason, if you looked closely at the Olds brochure, it says something along the line of ‘Oldsmobile recreates classic scenes from the movies…”In other words paying homage to the silent movies of yore. Comparatively, imagine Honda referring to your treasured 80s Sit Coms.Or, you know, mentioning Reagan and Pac-Man.
Truth be told, silent movies enjoyed a great revival during the 50s and 60s. They were played on TV during the off hours because there were no royalties to be paid.So, they filled the slow hours with lots of silent and early talkie comedies.
As Lew Schiller pointed out,there also were lots of revival movie theaters that people flocked to. Lew might also remember going visiting the local head shop where one could buy rolling papers, pipes and a black and white poster of Buster Keaton,or Lon Chaney in the 1925 version of Phantom of the Opera.
So, this was quite a trendy brochure intended to show the kids that Oldsmobile was telling it like it is…while alluding to the bygone days of its core demographic. Quite a trick thats lost on today’s youth.
I miss Oldsmobile!
I miss Dr. Oldsmobile…
When did GM stop using those metal seatbelt sockets? Because i can still remember the distinct searing pain of touching them in the summer.
The metal sockets had lot of technical issues that could fail under certain circumstances as they were poorly designed and not very robust. Sometimes, pressing the sockets at certain angle could cause it to unbuckle. Chrysler had the same problem, too.
Switzerland did the analysis on them in the 1970s and demanded that they be replaced with ECE-compliant belts if the American vehicles were to be registered for the road use. Daniel Stern did mention the issues with GM and Chrysler seat belts, but I cannot locate the article or comments (Google search isn’t what it used to be before).
Additionally, the release buttons were too small and did not stand out as the larger orange/red release buttons did. The buttons were also easy to push with light touch.
I remember cursing how hot they were during the scorching hot summer days when I lived in Texas.
I know Oldsmobile is named for a guy, but I just feel like the name, over time, becomes automatically dated and less marketable.
Yeah we would say “no sh!t” when those commercials came on in the 80’s
They should’ve rebranded to Ransom.
I thought the same thing, the name “Oldsmobile”, at least in its latter days, came off sounding more like a descriptor than a namesake. I was a little torn on the idea of calling it “Ransom” but it was the guy’s actual name after all.