These folks sure look mighty brown to me. Not that it matters one whit, except it’s just a bit of an odd choice to make by the artist. If assume they were intended to be be “white” folks. If so then I guess that’s what riding in an open convertible will do to you, in that era before sunscreen. A precautionary tale.
As a contrast, here’s what happens to white folks’ skin if they chose an Olds wagon instead:
It stays white pink.
Well, I guess if you were going to transport a potted tree in your convertible, placing it directly over the rear axle would be the smartest place to put it.
LOL!
Take that Nissan Leaf.
We have a whole tree.
The guy at the back reminds me of Cary Grant’s shade of mahogany.
I’m guessing the ad agency was putting out feelers for how far they could go without getting backlash, given the era. I could be wrong, but I wonder…
Is it coincidence that the word “tanning” is the same one used to describe sunbathing and the processing of leather? And why do the pink people get the brown car but the brown people don’t get a pink(ish) car (like the “Autumn Mist” example below)?
Ignoring the life-choices of the occupants (who are surely adding plenty of alcohol and tobacco to the tanning process) I carry a serious flame for the 61 Oldsmobile. That is one of those out-there, one-year-only designs that I just love. This car is one of the few times that Bill Mitchell’s “clean up on aisle 5” wrecked a stunning design. The 62 Olds is a hash while this one is fabulous.
Everyone focuses on the back (because it’s awesome) but the row of letters that spell O L D S M O B I L E floating freely in the void between the bumper and the grille is possibly the best front-end nameplate design ever.
I like the 1961 Oldsmobile, too, but it was not popular with the stylists, who felt that the grille looked “punched in” and awkward. Oldsmobile sales were down for 1961, although there was a mild recession that year, which hurt new-car sales. Pontiac clearly stole the show, as it would for the next few years.
I grew up riding in a 1961 Dynamic 88 that was dark red. We loved it, but it was already pretty worn out by the time it replaced the Pontiac Tempest that was too small for a family of seven.
This car is much better looking in person than in the drawings. I loved waxing the skeg fins at the back and then cleaning up the tail light cut outs.
The speedometer was amazing.
Count me in as another fan of the ’61 Olds. It was one of my favorites of the new GM ’61 full size cars that came out very shortly after our arrival in the states. I had several ’61 Olds ads up on my bedroom wall.
Yet another fan here. I’ve told the story before of my aunt whose 1959 Chevy Bel Air was stolen and totaled by teenagers while she was on vacation in Wildwood, NJ on Labor Day weekend in 1960. She decided to replace the Chevy with an Oldsmobile, but the ’60 model was too long to fit in the 1935-era garage. So she waited a bit for the ’61s, which did fit (barely).
Hers was a Dynamic 88 bubble top looking like the one pictured from the brochure. My brother and I loved riding in that car, and I did get to drive it in 1968 once I got my learner’s permit.
JFK won the ’60 election partially on the basis of his tanned, healthy appearance on the televised debates compared to Nixon. I’m guessing the 88 convertible/mobile tree farm ad was just trying to tap into that vibe.
Not to mention the tsunami of “beach movies” filmed in colour during the first half of 1960s. Elvis Presley did a few of them, including Blue Hawaii.
Ads didn’t start to diversify until ’68.
We tend to forget that the typical Caucasian got a lot more sun then, and not just in convertibles. Before widespread air conditioning people spent more time outside.
A post-1990 American who time-traveled back to 1961 would be instantly treated as a jailbird. Prison pallor was rare and recognizable.
In the 19th century, a pale appearance was considered desirable, particularly among women. A tan was the mark of someone who had to work outdoors all day. Wealthy people could afford to hire someone for that work.
That changed in the 20th century, as the country became more industrialized and urbanized. Now factory workers stayed indoors all day, and the wealthy could afford to be outdoors, and even travel to the seashore.
In London and NY, a tan in winter meant you could afford to vacation (if you needed to work at all) far to the south, say Palm Beach or Monte Carlo. This and widespread smoking led to the invention of the facelift when these rich, glamourous, and vain women turned to prunes at 45.
The darkness of these figures has a lot to do with the white background. But I suspect the artist wanted to make our eyes focus on the car, so the people are nearly monochromatic.
Coco Chanel was one of the first to popularize tanning:
WIKI: “In the 1920s, fashion-designer Coco Chanel accidentally got sunburnt while visiting the French Riviera. When she arrived home, she arrived with a sun tan and her fans apparently liked the look and started to adopt darker skin tones themselves. Tanned skin became a trend partly because of Coco’s status and the longing for her lifestyle by other members of society. In addition, Parisians fell in love with Josephine Baker, a “caramel-skinned” singer in Paris, and idolized her dark skin. These two women were leading figures of the transformation that tanned skin underwent, in which it became perceived as fashionable, healthy, and luxurious. Jean Patou capitalized on the new tanning fad, launching the first sun tan oil “Huile de Chaldee” in 1927…”
It could merely be a lithographical matter and have nothing to do with being tanned. However, check out this natty gentleman in London in a 1930’s illustration by the commercial artist named Fellowes. He is also tanned. I note that all of the men that this artist illustrated, if shirtless, were also hairless. I guess a proper English gentleman is only natty when sporting a moustache, Fellowes rarely painted bald men. My poor visage – bald and hairy – Oh, to worry! Check out his cool car that he illustrated.
With the obligatory cigarette as well. Looks like a pretty crowded roundabout!
You’d think he’d be smoking with the ungloved hand.
That’s pretty smart, filling the top well with dirt and using it as a planting box!
Looks like Ann Landers and her sister.
“Come on guys, think, we need something juicy for tomorrow’s columns.”
Mrs. F and I are doing something very similar though on a smaller scale. For an upcoming parade we’ve built a stand in the convertible well of our Miata for flowers. And with more sun maybe we will tan as nicely (as long as I get my base burn completed).
Biggest pain-in-neck wheel cover design ever.
The cover was held to the wheel by hidden spring clips that flipped over center.
So to remove a cover it first was raised away from the wheel, then each clip “blindly” individually unclipped. Reverse to install.
Ha! I remember them!
I’m assuming that was true for the full wheel covers? My aunt’s Dynamic 88 had dog dishes with separate trim rings.
Yes, full covers for the mousetrap retainer.
The dog dish… not sure if because it went unchanged for several years, or why, but seems like one of the most common caps in every old cap collection.
Olds loved big 14″ rubber, didn’t they?
Maybe with this site one day we’ll finally learn why in the world Olds decided to move speedometer cable drive to the front wheel.
Thanks, that’s what I thought. Definitely did not have the full wheel covers on my aunt’s car.
Ha, I know on those 14-inch wheels! IIRC, only Buick and Caddy among the GM makes retained 15-inchers during the lower-longer-wider years.
More like people off-color to me – they all look basted, and wasted.
There were magazines aimed at Black audiences at the time, and there were Black folks who could and did buy brand new cars. Could it have been for a print ad campaign in Black mags?
Now we know that the 1961 Oldsmobile didn’t get the KKK Parade Car endorsement that year.
Does the convertible have body color in the wheelcovers like the Cadillac of that year, or is just a reflection? That was a neat effect which didn’t last for some reason. Did the paint wear off quickly?
No, those are the dog dishes with separate trim rings, like my aunt’s car had. The wheels were body-colored which as you recall was customary back then, so that’s what you’re seeing.
I would think the convertible would have full wheelcovers standard, but I guess not.
I don’t believe for a second they’re meant to be anything but white.
Look at this contemporary Englishman.
Back in the 60s when I was an adolescent you were a social pariah if you didn’t have a good tan. Tan meant young, hip, with it, groovy. Pale was old, stale, square, dull. So every summer I tried to tan. I’d always end up with a nasty sunburn sine I have pale skin naturally. Eventually I’d tan, only to have it fade when school started in the fall. Fast forward to 2011. I got a nasty melanoma and other skin cancers. I caught the melanoma in time, it might otherwise have killed me. My dermatologist said “did you burn every year while trying to tan as a kid? That’s why you got this.”
Now when I go to the beach I look like the Great White Whale and Greenpeace tries to tow me back to see. But I’m happy to be pale, since I’m alive and not dead from the melanoma.
With me it was bright red on Sunday, alabaster white on Monday.
Fortunately I’ve never developed melanoma.
But there is still time.
I too loved the 61s.
The top ad depicts white people with a deep tan (intentional or not, I don’t know). But it makes sense for a convertible. As has been pointed out here, black people weren’t depicted in ads or commercials until the late 60s in the US.
Well, ok…while I agree that the people in the first illustration are simply tanned Caucasians, I do take issue with the notion that no Black/African American people were portrayed in car ads until the late 1960s. That may be true in media aimed mostly at White audiences, but not so for Black media. To ignore that would be to ignore the significance of Black folks in the economy…particularly by mid-century.
Here’s an article that touches on that: https://www.motorcities.org/story-of-the-week/2020/a-history-of-african-americans-in-auto-advertising-from-1957
I’m guessing that more could be dug up along those lines, even if what’s online may be slim pickings.
Here’s what can happen to the car itself:
I always wondered what it would look like if you put the front clip from a 61 Buick on a 61 Olds. Which way is it going?
Speaking of color, my second cousin- an Olds dealer- drove a ’61 98 Holiday Sedan back then. This was the six window hardtop. The color was Twilight Mist- ” a silver gray metallic color with a slightly lavender hue”. Actually, it was very lavender. Thankfully, I never saw another ’61 Olds of that hue. Chalk it up to the good taste of the American people I guess.
That exact car – down to the color and body style – was regularly displayed at the big Das Awkscht Fescht car show at Macungie, Pennsylvania, every year. It was all original, and in good condition.
Either your second cousin’s car has survived to this day, or there were two painted in that color.
Was the tree an option? Real wood trim indeed!
The lavender hue’s exact name was Twilight Mist Iridescent. Iridescent is a color that will “appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or angle of illumination changes, I.e., soap bubbles. So this was a GM experiment that obviously didn’t have legs.
I think that the driver of the convertible in the first picture is Caesar Romero.
I love that station wagon .
I’m another who goes from pink to red like a lobster so rag tops are not my thing no matter how good they look .
All of the artwork shown is fantastic .
-Nate
They look about the same skin tone as Burt Lancaster in 1968’s The Swimmer. White, for sure.
Have to love the many extra inches of dash-to-axle length the artist just happened to add to the overall stretched and lowered profiles. Looks like about 235″ OAL versus the actual 212″ OAL the 88 line was.
Here’s an interesting take on this CC story: https://www.indieauto.org/2021/08/25/when-did-u-s-automobile-ads-start-to-display-more-racial-diversity/
The author states that as “automotive marketing literature ages, it can often get darker, muddier and even yellowish in tone.” Below is the closeup of the first ad, edited to what the author believes is truer to the original tone.
A lot of interesting discussion here.
I remember seeing some downright peculiar skin tones in adverts in Readers Digest back in the sixties, but I always put it down to poor quality colour reproduction. Some almost had a bit of a purplish cast – hope I didn’t offend anyone who actually has purple skin……. 😉