This is the official 1965 Corvette post card, or at least one of them. But what is that setting? It looks like a poor lumber town or such. It seems a bit incongruous.
Vintage PR Shot: 1965 Corvettes In An Unusual Setting
– Posted on March 5, 2022
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Curbside Classics Archives
I wonder if it was part of a postcard series with a theme. There seem to be other postcard or promo shots of various 1965 Chevrolets in areas that look very coastal Pacific northwest to me, though I’m sure others might be better able to peg locations.
I’m going to guess a tie-in with the Route 66 television show, which featured a couple of itinerant guys driving around the west in a Corvette convertible. The original cars were late C2s but halfway through season 3, it got switched up to a C3.
The show lasted until 1964 so it would still have been fresh in everyone’s minds when the postcards were printed.
I agree- The message seems to be “Get away in a Corvette.”
It also reminds me of a scene in the movie “October Sky.” The movie tells the story of Homer Hickam, the son of a poor coal miner who went on to work at NASA.
During one scene, Homer is arguing with friends about their future when a Corvette pulls up and the young driver asks for directions. Homer points him the right way while Homer’s friends check out the Blonde riding shotgun.
As the Vette heads off to parts unknown Homer turns to his friends and says with disgust, “and you guys want to stay HERE!”
That was my first thought, as I recall one episode if not more where the guys spent time in the Pacific Northwest and even a town in Montana.
Even as a kid the show stoked my love of exploring, travel. I frustrated my mother many times as a three and four year old who would constantly leave the year and wander about the neighbourhood. After my father got his first car we travelled as a family. As a young man I really enjoyed travelling by car. Not being able to do a road trip with my wife or cross into the US of A has been stifling to my soul. Looking forward to hitting the road this summer. Doing that in a C3 Corvette would be quite the experience! Sigh…
And the opening of this Route 66 episode was filmed at Youngstown, Ohio with the old steel mills smokestacks.
Great youtube clip. I think GM was trying to broaden the Corvette from the live-axle, sports/drag C2 to more of a grand touring vehicle with the IRS, 4-wheel disc C3. It’s worth noting that the Corvettes in the postcard look like rather mundane base cars (with nice wheels), and not the storming big-blocks with factory side-pipes that most associate with 1965 and later Corvettes.
The only problem was where, exactly, was one going to travel in the US for that kind of lofty trip in a Corvette? It’s not like Cary Grant and Grace Kelly tooiing around the Riviera. That’s where the settings from Route 66 came in. Youngstown, OH was pretty typical in the good ‘ole USA. Seems like the show was tailor-made for Chevrolet’s Corvette marketing team.
Could very well be, and that show happens to be the “binge” on Decades TV this weekend.
Off the main road in a sports car…?
It looks like the typical Alaskan fishing village in my imagination.
As others have hinted, a relatively common behavior in the Corvette world is to drive off to parts unknown or off the beaten path. Thus, this ad speaks to me, selling a fantasy that sometimes becomes a reality.
I have no clue where the ad was photographed, but it reminds me at least a little of the working towns along the shores of the Pacific Northwest, such as Coos Bay, OR. We stopped there in our 2003 ‘vert on our 7,694 mile trip in April 2005.
The flora doesn’t quite look right, but the town does look much like some Northern California coastal lumber mill towns.
Now I have never been a GM fan, nor a Chevy fan, nor a Corvette fan, but the C2 chassis even I like. ’65 might have even been it’s peak, at least in relation to it’s competition. I had a cousin who was way into Corvettes back then, buying, selling, fixing, flipping, he had a bunch. He described the ’65 with a 396 as almost scary fast and faster than the later 427s he had.
But the postcard is surprisingly unglamorous.
Thanx for the clip .
Road trips are still out there, the ‘No Frills Iron Bottom Motoring Tour’ is April 9th…
-Nate
I agree..everybody in 65 is gonna be buying a 6 grand corvette while everyone left will be driving.a 56 bel air chevrolet….man in 61..you could buy a house for 6k.