One of the gifts that I’m most grateful for is my memory. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but my earliest memories are from pretty young age (four or five), and based on the accounts of those who were older at the time, many of my recollections have been accurate to some degree. It can be a blessing and a curse. Remembering things can be great when it comes to things like relationship-building, and relating positive or humorous common experiences shared with loved ones.
A strong memory can be a bad thing when it comes to burying the hatchet. I’m humble and realistic enough to admit that I know I’m not perfect and have done bad things, probably as often unwittingly as on purpose. At the same time, I’m not a sucker, so even if it means that I swallow whatever pride may be necessary in delivering or accepting an apology, mental notes are still to be taken to try to avoid finding myself in the same situation again. I’m fine with an exchange of apologies and subsequent burning of bridges, if it means my survival or another benefit that’s significant on some level.
I love vintage games shows, and I’ve come to realize that the ones I like best often employ an element of memory as a skill. I’ve recently been watching old episodes of both “Concentration” from 1976 (above) and “Classic Concentration” from 1988. The former is simply fantastic on so many levels, for reasons that include a shiny, orange first-year Chevrolet Chevette as the grand prize and the dry, suave humor and clipped mannerisms of underrated host Jack Narz. Mr. Narz was pretty close to how I would want to be as a game show host, with his restrained-but-engaging sense of fun, economy with words, and direct way of keeping things moving. Narz’s younger brother, Tom Kennedy, was also a game show host, so apparently that set of skills ran in their family.
Alex Trebek did a decent job of hosting in the ’80s reboot, but he tended to persist with asking a lot of personal questions when introducing a new contestant. I often mentally project myself into such hypothetical scenarios. “So, is there a special lady in your life?” “No, Alex.” “Really? A nice-looking, young man like you doesn’t have a wife or girlfriend? Any special female you have your sights on?” “No, Alex. Do you see this earring? Do you know what it symbolizes? Do you have any other questions?” I’m the duke of diplomacy, but even I have my limits.
The premise of “Concentration” for those unfamiliar is similar to the board game Memory, which involves skills with matching similar objects (prizes) on a giant gameboard. There’s a giant puzzle behind the gameboard featuring a combination of pictures, letters and numbers that when pronounced phonetically and in order, reveal a popular or familiar phrase or saying. The solver of the riddle then earns a chance to win a new car. “We’ve seen that one before,” is a phrase commonly heard during game play.
At the end of last March, I was walking eastward on a local, neighborhood street after work when I saw this classic Thunderbird heading toward me. This might have been my first classic car sighting of 2019. In the moment, I was focused strictly on getting a few, decent shots of it, but I had a mental bookmark in the back of my mind. Just three years prior, I had both photographed and written about a ’65 Ford Thunderbird Landau in motion on this very same stretch of asphalt, except it had been traveling in the opposite direction.
That car was black, and even though this one was green, the thought did occur to me that it might have been the same car with a respray. The C-pillar, however, indicates that unlike that other Blackbird, this green example was not a Landau submodel. It was one of over 42,600 base model hardtops sold for ’65, out of almost 75,000 total (better than half, at around 57%). A convertible was also offered in base trim, with about 6,800 finding buyers. The rest were either Landau hardtops (21,000 units) or Limited Edition Special Landaus (4,500 unit). In terms of domestic competition, the Buick Riviera, then in its third model year, sold roughly 37,700 units with a starting price roughly 2.3% lower than the base Thunderbird.
In the midst of sheltering-in-place during the current COVID-19 pandemic, my weekly activities have also produced a sense of déjà vu. I’ve rewatched many of the DVDs in my collection, with only a handful of them still remaining unviewed. I have settled into a comfortable routine, both during the week and on weekends, as there’s only so much variety that can occur, with or without the assistance of technology, within the walls of my home.
This growing sense of familiarity isn’t the worst thing in the world, and if anything, all this extra time in front of my computer has given me a chance to revisit many photographs I had taken and not done anything with previously. I thus have been able relive those moments as captured in pixels on the monitor front of me. I look forward to a time when I can once again go about my business with my camera strap slung around my shoulder, waiting for the next opportunity to photograph an interesting car on the move. I would perhaps take the next, and third, ’65 Thunderbird photographed on this particular stretch of Bryn Mawr Avenue as some sort of sign. We’ll see.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Friday, March 29, 2019.
Concentration? That name alone rules it out for me, as I’m too impatient. I’m more of a Match Game guy.
With this spotting you found a T-Bird in an excellent color. It’s much better than another ’65 found locally in the unflattering hearing aide beige.
Joe, something tells me you have enough cars stored digitally to last four or five years. Hoarding can be bad, but not when it comes to cars or pictures thereof.
Match Game rules!
+2… Loved Match Game.
That was a go to game show for me when I was home sick from school. Match Game 73 & 74… Then they later tried a night time version called Match Game PM that lasted until like 1981 if memory serves.
I always thought that its host Gene Rayburn looked like Cro-Magnon Man however.
“Match Game” is hugely entertaining, especially the earlier seasons. The way they used to set up the questions for the contestants to give one of maybe four or five regular R-Rated answers was priceless. I suspect that the contestants’ hesitation in most instances was in trying to find a non-dirty answer. LOL
I thought Rayburn was a great host and sorely underutilized outside of this show.
Dick DeBartolo was the writer for the questions. He also worked as a writer for MAD magazine.
Here’s a documentary you may like:
Fantastic. Jason, thank you for this. This will be *good* quarantine watching.
I just switched my Firebird out to storage and brought my T-Bird home yesterday. After I parked it in the garage, I stared at it for a moment or two and pondered whether I should have bought a ’65 rather than a ’63. I never did come to a satisfactory conclusion; I like them both.
I’m with you, Aaron. Being asked between to choose between a Flairbird and a Bulletbird would be like being asked which child is one’s favorite.
Speaking of parking your Thunderbird in your garage, I’d be sheltering-in-place in the garage a lot if I had a nice classic Ford sitting in it! Just to be there. I remember sitting in my non-classic ’88 Mustang after one of my thorough detail jobs, with the windows down in the garage, just looking at it. Sitting inside my own, clean car was a very content place to be.
I love both of these generations of Thunderbird but the 65 was a better car in many ways, especially for the front disc brakes and modern flow-through ventilation system. My Dad bought ours lightly used in 67 and to this day it is at the very top of my all-time favorite cars our family has owned. As a teen I washed and waxed and vacuumed that car so often it looked showroom new! And I got to drive it more often as a result though affording premium gas at 7-8 miles per gallon was a problem even in those days. Speaking of garages, no way would our Bird fit in this narrow Depression-era garage built by my grandfather on the little family farm my Dad bought from him. Instead, our lowly Falcon got sheltered from the storms…
I agree with JPC below that the details on the 65 are the best – the bird emblem on the hood rather than the 64’s lettering, the segmented sequential turn signals in back, the sleek and clean wheel covers, the script on the rear fenders. The 66 restyle was not to my liking: a busy grille, not a fan of full width taillights or the huge C-pillar. I think these cars look best in solid colors without vinyl tops.
Aaron, your 63 is a beauty and I like the details on all three years of that generation of T-Bird.
Joseph, great find and great writing as usual.
I think the 65 has the best details of this series. And the color is great for the car.
It is funny how I associate quite a few places with the notable cars I have seen there, like the location of the Outback Steakhouse that never fails to make me think of the 55 Chrysler New Yorker I saw there. But surely the cars on certain major streets compete for your attention?
It occurs to me that I have been shooting pictures of cars for quite a few years now, but have yet to bag either a Flairbird or a 61-65 Continental.
CC Effect… maybe just a little… I spotted a 67-69 Lincoln Continental 2-door that I “failed to bag” this morning on my commute. It’s a little tough (and unsafe) to shoot when you’re driving.
We were both entering the Fort McHenry Tunnel, he into Bore 4, and me into Bore 3. There was just no safe way to get the shot, sadly. When exiting the tube, I never saw it again. The car was a deep rust color, and not in the bad way.
My state just passed a law (that goes into effect 7/1, I think) that outlaws holding a cell phone when the car is moving. I think my through-the-windshield shots may be a thing of the past.
The radio game shows of the ’40s were also marred by overly personal questions. Every time the host was interviewing a female contestant, he asked the same question: “How do the boys in New York compare with the boys back home?” He obviously wanted to hear “Oh, the NY boys are vastly superior!” But he never got the answer he wanted. Most of the girls were diplomatic: “Oh, I don’t try to compare.” Some were honest: “NY boys are annoying and aggressive!”
I love that some of the contestants’ answers ended up being that unfiltered!
Like you Joseph, I enjoyed games like “Concentration” back in the day. I had no idea that Alex Trebek hosted a version of this, remembering only the original host Jack Narz. This was another game show I liked to watch if I was home sick from school.
Your synopsis of Alex Trebek asking too many personal questions was priceless.
Great catch as always on this Flair Bird. You’re in motion shots are always great. You’re definitely quick with that camera.
One minor nit, since we’re playing “Concentration” however. Your linked previous ’65 Thunderbird looks black to me rather than silver. ;o)
Thanks, RS Rick – and my misquote of the color of the earlier Flairbird would have been an embarrassing mistake to make on the game show!
I think I know what happened. There was a different, silver Flairbird I had photographed on Memorial Day weekend four years ago that I had considered writing up. It must also have been on the brain.
Just to really pick nits, I remember an even earlier version of Concentration. The host was Bill Cullen, if I remember correctly, and the show was in black and white. At least on our tv, in the mid-60’s.
Bill Cullen was also a great host…with some of the thickest “Coke-bottle” glasses I’ve ever seen on a person. I did know of the first iteration of “Concentration”, but I’ve never seen it – not even on YouTube.
I think the last game show he hosted was one called “Child’s Play” that would have been in first-run when I was around the same age as some of the kids they would interview for use on the show.
I remember Bill Cullen and pictured him immediately when Steve mentioned him, but not from Concentration… it was another game/quiz show that I watched back then, but its name escapes me at the moment…
Wonderful shots with the period sympathetic architecture playing along, thank you Joseph! ..and a car that oozes style. My photography options have been severely curtailed since mid March, basically to what is going on at home, and the idea of being able to roam without a care is a long way in the future.
We didn’t have a TV when I was growing up so I haven’t watch many quiz shows, though I sometimes watch Jeopardy even now, and I surprise myself with what I don’t know, and but what I do remember. But a lasting memory of mine, related to entertainment and cars and memory, goes back a few years when my mother was well into dementia and memory loss, to the point that she often wouldn’t recognize me. One day I was driving her to an appointment, and we pulled up next to a Chrysler Sebring, or maybe a 200, at a light. She glanced over at it and said “I recognize that logo, that’s a Chrysler. They used to sponsor my favorite radio show when I was a kid, Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour.” And I looked it up, and she was right. Myself, I remember building an AMT model of a FlairBird in 1966. And I will probably remember that when I can’t recognize my own kids. It was a convertible.
Dman, this are great memories of your mom. I’m sure that many of us car fans who may later face the same matters personally may have memories that come roaring back as triggered by cars we remembered.
I’m a fan of a lot of seventies shows as well Joseph. I agree times were different then but I think we have all moved along. In the seventies admitting to being gay on national TV was effectively a death wish socially and professionally.
A personal example is as a teenager in the seventies I was a big fan of Elton John and although nothing “official” was ever sad took heat for listening to his music. Forty years later he’s married to a guy, has a family and nobody blinks.
And I’m still crocodile rocking!
These days if such personal questions were asked (thankfully even asking is more guarded) the question might be more “is there someone at home cheering you on?” or in a similar vein. And admitting you have a same sex partner would not be as big a deal.
I may be looking through rose coloured glasses but I like to think the world ( although having a long way to go ) has improved a lot over the decades.
All of this. And I do think things have improved over the decades.
Things are much different now, where I’ve seen a winning contestant of some show (male or female) be joined on stage after the big win by their significant other of the same sex.
The thing is, though, and thinking of one particular contestant on the ’80s version of “Concentration”, Alex Trebek didn’t really seem unlikable in asking his relationship questions. It would have been nice, though, to mix it up and ask different things. He always seemed to ask about relationship status. Many of the game show hosts did. He doesn’t do that on “Jeopardy”!
I feel like that part of me is easily one of the most uninteresting out of everything else there is.
I prefer the 66 Bird, front bumper is not the big chrome jaw of previous years, I would pull the rear bumper and have it painted to match car. I like chrome as trim, kind of a monochrome guy.
These have aged surprisingly well. 1966 was the year that the conventional “Landau” was replaced by the “Town Landau” and the conventional hardtop coupe was joined by the “Town Hardtop”. The “Town” body-style featured a very thick rear pillar which eliminated the rear side window. It probably made rear visibility (which was already questionable) worse. I had a neighbor who owned a 1966 Town Hardtop in light brown metallic up until the 1980s or so and I really thought it was a handsome car.
Joseph, every time you write, I feel I’m getting to know you better.
My memory’s not so good, especially these days, but I’m sure I’d remember if I saw one of these. There was a ’66 go through my town a few years back, though. Your photos reminded me how tiny that Thunderbird looks compared to later versions. Tiny and right-sized for a personal car. Bloat has a lot to answer for.
Nice catch, Joe! Growing up in small town Ohio, once cars wore out, no one hung on to them. Then, when I lived in Atlanta, very few people kept or showed their old cars. Upon moving to the Upper Midwest, I have never been more amazed at the folks who not only keep but lovingly show their old cars every chance they get.
I had no idea moving to the Western edge of Michigan and this part of the country would yield so many classics. I must pass 10 CC-able cars almost every day, but I can’t get my camera out quickly enough.
A major metro area like Chicago has so many great cars, I don’t think you’ll ever run out of subject matter!
I had one of these in ice blue over a blue fabric interior. My aunt Cathy had a ’66 convertible when I was a little kid, and I thought the switchgear looked like something out of James Bond, and the sequential taillights were way cooler than ordinary flashers. I got mine when it was 14 years old, and I sadly had it only about two years before I lost it in an accident. Even though filling the 22-gallon gas tank was daunting, I loved that car and miss it still.
I think I’ve found my new favorite car color! While not color blind I have difficulty differentiating between close colors. So it could be either blue or green for me depending on time of day light refraction. It’s just right in the middle of the beautiful ocean color gradient. Always loved Thunderbird’s especially the dual cockpit layout interior.
I also love the “dual-cockpit” theme of the Thunderbird’s interior. I imagine that in the mid-’60s, any aerospace connotations were still seen as technologically advanced / up-to-the-minute.
And that picture makes me miss the beach. Sigh. Hopefully at some point.