Reports are in that the legendary car dealer has passed today at the age of 92. For those who didn’t live in southern California or Washington, Cal was a pioneer in crazy automobile dealership ads, from his wing walking to the “My dog Spot” commercials. So for those of you that never saw them on your local station here are a couple courtesy of YouTube.
Above is a great compilation of the many “dogs” he had in his commercials over the years.
One featuring quite a range of used cars. The Firebird with the ram air hood really speaks to me. Today it would be a prized CC but at the time it was just a bargain used car.
Here is one from his short lived Ford dealership in Washington.
Now Cal is most famous for his Ford dealerships but in his prime he sold Chevrolets and Dodges using the same antics and jingles.
Finally one for Cal Worthington Dodge.
RIP Cal.
I loved Cal Worthington as a kid. In elementary school, I used to rush home from school so I could watch the B movie they always played at 3:30 PM on KVOS TV12 in Bellingham. Can must have bought all the spots at that time slot. His commercials were always really entertaining for sure!
He certainly lived a full life!
I’d presume it was for the Federal Way dealership, so you might have seen the one linked above when it was first played. It is a little surprising that he bought spots on KVOS considering the distance between Bellingham and Federal Way and the fact that at that time KVOS wasn’t carried on Seattle area cable.
I grew up in the Tri-Cities (Pasco, Kennewick, Richland) in Eastern WA back in the 1970s and we also had KVOS on our cable system (and NONE of the Seattle stations except for public TV KCTS). I used to watch all of the 1960s reruns on this channel or KSTW from Tacoma which we also got. We also had a CBC station from Vancouver on which I learned about Curling!
Yep! Gotta love cable back then, you could get KTPS, KCTS, KVOS, and the CBC, even if you aren’t in that market.
I live where KTPS (now KBTC), and KCTS are in my TV market, but KVOS and CBS, not so much.
That said, I remember being in Everett to visit former in-laws of my oldest sister and they could get KVOS off air if I recall right and for a time we got it in Tacoma via cable, and I recall they had the Monkees, this being in the mid to late 70’s.
Then we got expanded cable, and got the CBC (CBUT out of Vancouver) and watching You Can’t Do That on Television, and Do It For Yourself with Mary Bellows, and later, Nickelodeon had YKDTOTV for a good long while.
As for Cal Worthington, I do remember his commercials and notice how he’s advertising the used cars cheaply and with no money down. On one commercial, he had a brand new ’84 white Ranger, no money down, and I think he said, 199/Mo deal. He was famous for that, and there was one of his Ford dealers that also I think sold Yugos for a time. I think he once had a dealership on South Tacoma Way for a time too.
However, I think his dealerships all shut down by the late 80’s, if I remember right.
He did indeed looked to have lived a long life, as a shiller of cars!
The Ford dealer in Federal Way made it until at least the late 80’s or early 90’s. Cal Worthington Ford in Long Beach CA and Anchorage AK are still in business and I believe those are the only two that remain.
We used to get the same ads in the Okanagan valley back in the ’70s. KVOS had a large viewing area. I remember saying to my Dad that it looked like a fun place to work. He told me they probably fed the salesman with the lowest month to the animals! I didn’t realize he had as large an empire, but I sure recall the ads for the Ford store in Federal Way.
Cal’s ads were usually much better than the shows that he sponsored. You’d take a bathroom break during the movie and hurry back before the start of the commercial. I’m exaggerating, but not by very much.
He also sold Yugos and Suzuki Samurais for a while. Cal could put you into a brand new Yugo, yes A BRAND NEW YUGO for only $4999!
Cal’s passing makes me think of another Federal Way dealer who had comical ads: Dick Balch of Dick Balch Chevrolet. His gimmick was to take a sledgehammer and damage the car, while laughing like a nut. This was back in the 70’s.
Ah yeah, Dick Balch, totally forgot him, however, I don’t recall his ads as much as I do Cal Worthington’s, however, I DO recall he would use the sledgehammer though.
I saw my Cal Worthington ads on KVOS’s 4:00 pm movie, where they always ran some gawd-awful B movie. They were perfect, designed for double features so they fit in the 90 min time slot. Even at age 12 I realised good, funny schlock and these films were cornball to the extreme, titles like the Swamp Thing and of course, Ed Wood classic, Plan Nine from Outer Space, most certainly the worst film I have ever seen.
Seeing these kitch classics with Cal Worthington was really surreal. There’s be this really schlocky movie and then equally schlocky ads from Cal. He bought every space on many shows, non-stop dog spot.
Yup, watched same (KVOS) over here in Victoria during early ’70’s. I do recall the Cal W. ads, but can’t place them to the KVOS afternoon movie slot. But jeez do those YouTube spots bring back a time.
Alistair
Ha! I remember those ads too. its the only reason I knew Federal Way existed. .The only way in Federal Way…..
I remember the spots where he was wing walking on a bi-plane (probably a Stearman-Boeing 75) and playing the jingle. His commercials even made it all the way out to Sunnymead at one point.
Classic television! Probably the only car dealer that had ads worth watching.
I did not hear this, very sad. I saw Cal in a TV spot fairly recently and it gave me goosebumps that he was still around (hadn’t watched local TV in a while). Everyone in LA knew that jingle, the guy was an icon.
Love the orange Pinto with the white vinyl top in the video.
RIP CW
Cal eventually made it to Sacramento and he had (still has) the Ford dealership in up Anchorage. Loved the commercials.
I remember him from Sacramento. He had a reputation of being very hard sell. He had those one-way tire puncture things in at least one driveway. Can’t say he used them, though others said he did.
He came to Anchorage around 1976 and purchased John Stepp’s Friendly Ford, the local dealer since 1962. I left in 1978 and have never returned, but I know Cal has remained there, and currently has the Mercedes dealership, a used car lot, (Cal’s Park & Sell), as well as the Ford/Lincoln store, all according to the ‘Anchorage Daily News’. I had heard of him before he came to town, but I don’t recall where.
He certainly was an interesting fellow, quite the salesman. Check out the Wikipedia entry for more info…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_Worthington
RIP Highpockets Cal. I loved his commercials on KVOS when I was a kid.
Cal was all over the place in L.A. in the early days of television during the 50’s. I could never figure out why you would want to buy one of his cars that his dog “Spot” had been lounging on. I remember seeing him on all the local L.A. stations, at all hours of the day and night, but mostly saturating the late night hours during old movie commercial breaks. He appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on many occasions. Always thought he was pretty over the top, but quite the showman, nevertheless. He was part of that genre of tacky TV “used car salesmen” (I use the term loosely, no offense to any car salesmen here!) that included Chick Lambert and Ralph Williams. Hadn’t thought about him in years, kind of a survivor in his own right. Go see Cal!
I’m really surprised how many of you that have commented saw his ads on KVOS, I didn’t expect that. I expected the bulk of the comments to be from people who live in or lived in CA not WA.
If it wasn’t for KVOS and all the other stations out of Northwest Washington, we would have been stuck CBC and CTV – and ‘The Littlest Hobo” and “Mr Dress Up”. Chilliwack would have been an even more boring place.
The Cal Worthington ads were a lot of fun – it was always great to see what sort of animal his dog Spot would end up being. I remember the lion and a chimpanzee. And it truly did put Federal Way on the map.
I LOVED The Littlest Hobo when I was 10! (in the mid 80s…) I’d forgotten all about it until you mentioned it, but thanks to YouTube I’ve just relived bits of it. Ah, childhood, seems so long ago…
I remeber seeing Worthington’s ads in Houston in the early 1990s, he had a Chevrolet dealership there. I can’t remember what station he was on, but the “go see Cal!” jingle is stuck indelibly in my head. From those ads, it seemed like he was having a lot of fun doing what he did.
Came to comment on that… That’s where I saw his commercials — in Houston. IIRC, he took over the Richardson Chevrolet site in SW Houston. Houston already had their own huckster — Mattress Mac Jim McIngvale. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofb9wPCq2Wk&list=PL1114F14D973B353E&index=1
He really will save you money!
Oh gawd! Now that guy was seriously deranged.
i would love to travel back in time and walk around one of those huge lots circa early 1980s
I lived in Los Angeles from 1956 through 1990. I feel like I grew up with Cal. He was always on the tv.
I was an aircraft mechanic working at the Beechcraft aircraft dealer in Van Nuys from 1980-1983. Cal had a King Air back then that he used to bring in for us to work on. He was actually kind of a quiet guy when the cameras were not rolling, and he was very tall. It was kind of strange seeing a celebrity like Cal in person in our modest little office. Way back when.
RIP Cal.
“go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal”
I had no idea Cal’s auto empire extended beyond So. CA. He was certainly a fixture there, a classic American hard-seller. His Wiki bio says he wanted to be a pilot, no surprise he was able to make good on that. If you want to build, sell, or fix planes, be grateful there are rich folks around with money to spend.
How many other interstate dealer empires are there? Jim Click is one (Irvine CA & Tucson).
Now there are lots of big corporations with dealers across the US but if you are talking owned by a sort of little guy I know Galpin Ford had a store in AZ in addition to their CA store. Ron Tonkin had a dealership or two in WA in addtion to all the stores he has in OR but I think he sold the WA stores. Dick Hanna had or has dealerships in both OR and WA but they are in the Portland and Vancouver area so right across the river from each other.
But when Cal’s empire was at its largest I don’t think there was anyone bigger, as there weren’t big corporations in the dealership business at the time.
The empire started with Worthington Dodge in South Gate, CA and sponsoring Los Angeles channel 9 “Million Dollar Movie”.
Cal came to my college and gave a motivational speech (about 1974). He refused to sell Mitsubishi-built Dodge products in his dealership at the time. Interesting guy.
His dealerships were in other places besides CA and WA.
Anchorage, Alaska.
And Guam for awhile!