Suddenly, it’s 1964! Er, 1962! Ah – Nobody will notice…! Moving on…
Ed Wood would be proud.
In a new advertisement for Canada’s Rogers MisCommunications, the media and communications giant reflects back on its corporate history.
Prophetically, the ad says, “We’ve made mistakes… but the best is yet to come.”
Why is a ’64 Chevy used to depict the year 1962, when Rogers launched the first FM radio station in Canada?
It appears they had a small continuity problem… a ’62 Chevy Impala didn’t offer an AM-FM radio.
Screen grabs from the book Chevrolet SS by Robert Genat. (via amazon.com)
History is bound to never repeat itself if it’s reinvented.
The best is yet to come. Here’s the ad.
At 0:27 the video says it is 1986. Briefly at 0:27 and again at 0:29, the Mercury Colony Park wagon is a 1988 to 1991 model.
This video has a double tragedy!
When I was doing the research for this post, I wondered if the Mercury was period correct as well. Then I thought… CC’s best and brightest will pick up on it if it wasn’t. Good catch, Jason!
It seems like the whole ad is off when it comes to continuity. The ad shows a rocket lifting off in 1970. Yet on the timeline on the Rogers website, this scene is attributed to 1967, which IMHO makes more sense. By 1970 the space age hype had died down a bit… the Eagle had landed.
http://www.rogers.com/web/content/the-best-is-yet-to-come?asc_icid=home-whats-new_Rogers_slot-1
Goofs like this remind me of the scene in the movie Goodfellas where Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta are standing in a parking lot of a diner against the back end of a 1965 Chevy Impala and the caption reads Idlewild Airport 1963.
Or in “American Graffiti” set in 1962, but in one of the scenes, you can see a `67 Chevy in the background.
And I thought I was the only one who “caught” the ’65 Impala.
I caught that too. If I remember correctly it was even kind of beat up. I looked for that car on my DVD but they must have taken it out in later versions.
In “Awakenings” with Robert deNiro and Robin Williams, it was set in 1969 but there an apparition of a 1972 Chevrolet Impala. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_469239-Chevrolet-Impala-Custom-1972.html
It’s also funny because that diner is by LaGuardia – JFK is well to the south.
I noticed that also for the first time when I re watched the movie (Good Fellows) a couple of weeks ago. The CC effect is strong. Also noticed the 67 Impala in Graffiti, I think there were a few other slightly newer cars in a couples of other scenes, but I don’t recall what they were.
Also in the movie “The Wanderers”-set in the Bronx, NY in late `62, you can see the back of a `69 Olds 98, clearly visable in an open garage.Rumor also has it that in “Ben Hur”‘ one can see a Ferrari parked near the chariots before the race begins, but I`ve never seen it.
Not to mention what looks like a 65 Cadillac on the billboard behind them….
Signed in to note the same, but found your comment.
Just prior to that scene we see 747s on approach to IDL. They didn’t enter service until 1970. One of the 747s is in Korean Air’s current livery which dates back to the late ’80s. Hell, KAL didn’t even fly to the US until 1972.
Oh yeah, don’t even get me started on that part, that is some extremely sloppy film making, which is disappointing for Scorcese, and its not like they needed Ford Tri-Motors or something, all they needed to do was insert some cut shots of 707’s and DC8’s and they would have been fine, they could have even gotten away with a 727, and all of those planes were still very common in 1990 when this movie was filmed.
Did any auto manufacturer in the US offer a factory FM radio in 1962? I know that Cadillac did in 63, but not sure about before.
Good catch on the Grand Marquis hood ornament, Mr Shafer. These kind of “nobody is going to care” lapses irritate me. But they are all over the place in period TV shows and movies.
FM became optionally available from all US makes starting around the 1963 model year, which would seem to coincide with solid state car radios becoming universal. AM/FM Motorola radios were an option in Rambler Classic and Ambassador starting in ’63; other manufacturers seem to be on about the same timeline. Early factory AM/FM radios sell for big bucks these days.
A little online research indicates that Becker introduced the first car radio with an FM band in 1952, but this would have been in German imports only. The first U.S. cars with FM all seem to have hit in 1963, with some stragglers in ’64.
I found some references to an FM converter kit for a Lincoln in the late 50s, but did not follow up on these. So, it looks like the commercial should have featured a Mercedes or a Porsche if it wanted to highlight FM broadcasts in cars in 1962.
The commercial shows the life of an average Canadian couple (let’s call them Maclean Hunter and Mary Rogers) as they court, cavort, copulate, populate, radiate, navigate, next generate, and watch pros skate. The more I watch the ad, the more I wonder:
• How could they afford a new Impala convertible when they were a young couple? (If we have to suspend belief here, the car might as well have been a Mercedes or Porsche.)
• That’s a pretty nice house to own when just starting out, too.
• Where is Mary later on in the ad? Did they divorce? Do we insert “separate” somewhere in there? Did she commit an unspeakable sin and subscribe to satellite?
How could they afford a new Impala convertible when they were a young couple? (If we have to suspend belief here, the car might as well have been a Mercedes or Porsche
Especially in Canada, where in those days even people with good jobs and nice homes still tended to buy base model strippers.
There was a piece in Motor Trend in the last few years that featured, I believe, a late 50’s Mercedes diesel. It had an AM/FM.
don’t forget the 1958-1960 Continentals that offered FM – in a separate pod by your feet
What do you expect from the cable company?
Speaking of, I have never sent any cable company a penny of my money. I’m a life-long cable hater. Monopolists inevitably become ass-hats.
I haven’t paid for cable since 2006. I don’t miss it. I do hate the digital switchover. You have to do all kinds of stuff to get a signal that doesn’t pixelate. I haven’t watched TV at all in six months because my apartment is in a dead zone for digital signals. Even my cell has trouble here.
Amen.
A ’64 in ’62? That is indeed a bit of automotive miscasting worthy of Edward D. Wood himself. My favorite cinematic continuity error of all time is in Plan Nine From Outer Space, when cops leave the police station in a ’56 Ford, but arrive at the graveyard in a ’57. The cops apparently stopped off at the dealership and made a quick deal on their way to a homicide investigation. Makes sense to me.
I remember watching a movie with Burt Lancaster about the assassination of JFK.
Think the movie was called “The Executive.”
Anyway, in the movie Burt is walking down a city street around the time of the assassination, or shortly after . He then walks by a parked Ford Econoline van of 1968-or 1969 vintage.
Its called “Executive Action”. Good movie.
Rogers is evil. End of story.
My ’63 Continental had the AM/FM. I believe they were standard in the Lincoln in 1963.
Dad’s ’64 Continental only had AM. The brochures show AM-FM as an option starting in ’63.
The first FM Stereo tuner available in a US car appears to be not on a luxury make, but the ’65 Chevy Caprice.
My father’s 70 Mark III had an AM radio. In my 63 Cad Fleetwood, the choice was between an AM signal seeker and an AM/FM.
1963 is also when many brands started to offer transistor radios. I know that Buick first offered them in their 1963 models, along with AM/FM radios (there were AM transistor portable radios offered as an option in 1959 on several GM cars)
And don’t forget that by September of 1962, 1963 models were being sold so they could have selected a 1963 model with an AM/FM!
Here’s the AM/FM two speaker radio in my 1965 Buick. Still no FM multiplex that year in most GM cars but Chevrolet had it for the first time that year. In 1966, most GM full size cars were available with a FM multiplex radio but Olds had it only on the 1967 models.
The early GM multiplex radios often had a relay in the remote amplifier/multiplex adapter that turned on the FM stereo if the signal was transmitted in stereo and if it was strong enough. That means you hear clicks from that box if you’re listening to a FM stereo station in a remote area where the reception is getting weak. My 1968 Buick Wildcat had the same “Delco Stereo” box as my 1967 Riviera but the relay was replaced by a solid state control so no more clicking sounds coming from that box!
Nice Riviera. The first time I’ve seen that generation with an interior colour other than black!
It’s true that black seemed to be very popular on this model but I got 3 1967 Rivieras over the years and none had a black interior. I had a GS that had a green Strato bench seat, this GS (that I still have) with aqua Strato bucket seats and another non-GS that also had aqua bucket seats (aqua wasn’t available with bench seats).
In “Cabin Fever” (which is an absolutely terrible movie by the way) there is a yellow 70’s F-100 that is, I think, portrayed by at least three trucks of slightly different years over the course of the movie. One of them is a square-headlamp ’79, quite noticeable given that it had round headlamps and a *completely* different grille just a bit earlier in the movie…
Also happens in “The Sound of Music”, as mentioned in the CC on the Steyr 380 recently. Maria boards a 380 bus in 1939, which is interesting given that the 380 was a postwar truck! There is also a ’51 Opel Kapitan in one scene, but at least it’s far in the background.
factory FM on 1958 Lincoln???
There was an episode of “Leave It To Beaver” in its last season (1962-63) where Eddie Haskell puts in an FM radio in his heap in order to impress girls w/classical music. If the episode was 4 yrs. later, he would have put it in to impress girls w/the “groovy sounds” of Jefferson Airplane & Cream 😉