For Volume 4 of this series exploring travel-related ads with automotive themes, we’re firmly in the 1960s, and we’ll travel to the US West Coast and South, as well as to Italy, with a generous gas discount. Get ready for a bumpy ride back in time!
SAN DIEGO, 1960
The 1960s were likely a peak of an ad trope involving drivers asking directions from horseback riders. Here we have a tourist couple perched atop a Corvette and chatting with a charro (a Mexican term for an expert horseman).
Charros and Corvettes have a few things in common. They’re both fun and flashy, and both have demonstrated great staying power in the 60+ years since this ad was published. Corvettes are among the few 1960 car models that are still made, much in the tradition of its earlier forebears. Corvette still follows the same formula it has for decades… an exclusive, flamboyant and fast 2-seater sports car. Similarly, charro culture still thrives in Mexico and in the American Southwest.
Illustration of the Leap of Death by my daughter Audrey
Like the Corvette, charro culture is almost timeless. A main feature of charro culture is the charreria, similar to a bullfight or rodeo and featuring all the machismo one might expect. Different than North American rodeos, the charreria features multiple events such as bull riding, bronco riding, horsemanship demonstrations and more. The illustration above shows the capstone event, called El Paso de la Muerte (The Leap of Death), where a rider leaps from his own horse onto the back of a running untamed horse and rides it until it slows down.
Come to think of it, Corvettes are the Machismo Car, so there we have another similarity. Plus, central casting here did a great job of matching the Classic Cream Corvette with a palomino horse.
ITALY, 1962
The thought of visiting Europe had some of the same drawbacks for Americans in 1960 as it does now – the price of fuel, for instance. Italy, however, offered an incentive to lure travelers who would otherwise be unnerved by high gas prices, namely a coupon scheme where tourists pay less at the pump than do Italian drivers. While not featuring any actual cars, this ad, with its inviting open road scene (and very artistic animated sun) aimed to catch the attention of magazine readers who were wishing for a European road trip vacation.
Through this program, tourists received a reduction in the price of gas by buying coupons at border fronts or at Automobile Club of Italy offices, at certain banks, and at the Italian State Tourist Office, which paid for this ad. Each tourist car was allotted 4 gallons of gas per day (down from 7 in 1950), and could save drivers 25-30% of the price of gas. Millions of dollars of coupons were provided to tourists annually.
Whether it was due to gas coupons or something else, Italy did something right in attracting tourists. This 1963 French cartoon lamented how within a few years Italy became the dominant Continental Europe tourist destination. I doubt Italy’s success was attributable solely to gas coupons, but the program was deemed successful enough to be continued into the 1980s.
MISSISSIPPI, 1963
I’ve been told that long ago, a family of four could embark on a camping trip without an SUV. It’s hard to believe, but this family of four seem to be having an enjoyable time with their compact canvas tent and their Buick. It’s tough to tell from this picture, but the Buick happens to be a convertible as well.
Another ad in the same series shows the same family enjoying the Magnolia State’s many offerings, but pay attention to the photo in the upper-left. Not only are they taking their vacation in a convertible with the top down, but it sure looks like Junior is sitting up in the back seat and gazing at whatever’s behind them.
I was born ten years after this ad was published, and by the time I was these kids’ age, convertibles were nearly extinct, and the thought of standing up while a convertible’s in motion was almost unfathomable. Times change awfully quickly. In the early 1960s, however, convertibles still accounted for between six and eight percent of US auto sales. After this period, it would seem truly unrealistic to feature a convertible on a family vacation.
VIRGINIA, 1966
This Virginia ad also featured a convertible, though it’s a couple in this shot along the Skyline Drive, and not a family. Still, romanticized travel ads featuring convertibles were becoming much scarcer.
Two vintage postcard scenes from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel
What’s also interesting is that this ad highlights (in the text beneath the beach scene) the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, billed here as “Virginia’s newest world wonder.” For those not familiar with this roadway that connects Virginia’s Eastern Shore with the Hampton Roads region, it’s a 12-mile long engineering marvel completed in 1964. As its name implies, the connection contains a series of both bridges and tunnels, and itself was a tourist attraction for years following its dedication.
Once again, times change awfully quickly. A few decades later, it’s hard to imagine even the biggest public works project being either a source of civic pride or a tourist attraction.
Other installments in the Auto-Related Travel Ads series:
Volume 1: New Mexico, Germany & Oregon
Haven’t checked out the other installments just yet – but it’s interesting that the Italy insert didn’t or couldn’t refer to a program where a buyer could pick up their Fiat etc. in Italy, drive it for their stay, then ship it home.
I knew folks who did this with their Volvos and MB’s and they really enjoyed this feature. How widespread was it?
Our family went from Ohio to Virginia Beach in 1968. If that white ’63 Impala had Ohio plates, that could’ve been us entering the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. 😉
I had not really thought about how Italy was so much more popular of a tourist destination than France or Spain, but it seems that Italian influences were big in that era while those of France and Spain seemed to be ebbing, at least in the US. I suspect that there was a much larger population of Americans of Italian heritage than was the case for those of French or Spanish backgrounds. And you have to admit that ancient Rome would be a heck of a draw.
I have never been able to look at old pictures of families traveling in convertibles in the same way since I spent a short highway trip in the back seat of a convertible with the top down. That was when I realized that the designers of the old dual cowl phaetons had a pretty good idea. Without a windshield, the wind beat me to a pulp.
I’m enjoying this series, as it combines two lifelong passions, automobiles and geography.
I’ll go on record as saying I’ve never really enjoyed driving or riding in convertibles, even in resort areas such as Hawaii and Miami; a sunroof will do me just fine.
Given the era, I’m surprised the family camping in Mississippi wasn’t in a Country Squire or some other wagon.
With respect to Italy, I’ve driven there once before, in a VW Polo in which we traversed the Alps, coming down from Munich, Salzburg, and Innsbruck. I do remember filling the tank once in Italy, near Lake Garda, doing the math and calculating that gas prices were roughly 2.5x the going price back home in the U.S. Good thing that the Polo was consuming at a rate of 35-40 MPG!
Note the Travel South photo. That tent looks mighty small for a family of four.
In the Mississippi montage, the same family is in one of the pictures, except the little girl is standing next to her Mom instead of her Dad.
Memories, not always good ones of traveling by Auto in the 1950’s & 1960’s .
-Nate
Memories are so often not “good memories”.
Just so J.T. ;
The trick is to learn from the not so happy memories…….
-Nate
The only vehicle that has stayed true to form longer than the Corvette is the GMC Suburban.
My Dad had 4 different convertibles in my childhood. A 1960 Corvette, a 1961 Thunderbird, a 1963 Cadillac Series 62 and a 1965 Buick Electra. I was only 9 with the Vette but I rode on the center console from VA to Boston! We picked up my new step-mother in VA. He ordered factory air on the 1961 T-Bird which the dealer (Boston MA) wasn’t even sure it was possible but it was. The Cadillac (bought in Boston) didn’t have factory air so he had a below dash unit installed. The Buick did have factory air (Herb Connolly Buick on Commonwealth Avenue). We had convertibles but when the going got tough up came the top and on came the a/c. In reality, the Buick was the best car as it was in the family for 8 years.
My aunt’s brother’s in-laws owned the construction company that built the Bridge-Tunnel. He saved the company by convincing them to insure their heavy equipment at full replacement cost before most was lost in a storm.
Richmond VA has started running tourism ads on Pluto TV without reference to the Confederacy or the Civil War–or Jefferson’s handsome Capitol.