This cartoon was hanging on a wall at the now-defunct Walter P Chrysler museum when I had an unusually well-guided tour in 1998 or ’99. I took an underexposed, somewhat blurry picture of the panel with my film camera, and have finally managed to clean it up to something approaching original quality.
Its joke centres round the Forward Look logo—which I’ve only just now learnt is called the Flookerang—Chrysler used from 1955 through 1962:
They put it, in whole or in part, on everything from fenders…
…to filters…
…to frisbees…
…to floor mats…
…key heads…
…educational materials…
…dealer Xmas cards…
…parts packaging…
…and promotional tchotchkes like this lighter:
Naturally it was bound to appear in popular media of the day, and so it did. Could wish for a more complete presentation—a graphic novel, perhaps—of the adventures of The Gentleman From Chrysler (Flookerang Man!). Anyone imagine what his sidekick might look like, or their name?
“and his sidekick, Fratzog” perhaps?! LOL!! 🙂
The cartoon is a riot! Thanks for the laugh. I got it immediately – of course – I’m old enough to remember the introduction of “The Forward Look.”
I just bought these pale pink NOS rubber floor mats for my ’60 Dodge Dart. They look great in there! And they have a genuine Flookerang! (My vocabulary increased by 1 today.)
Cool! (And now you mention floor mats, you made me wonder why two of the intended pics in the post didn’t show up. I’ve fixed that now.)
Amazing! I’d never seen the word before.
Yosemite Sam would make a pretty good Mr Fratzog.
What does it say about me that I don’t know a single person anywhere who will understand this?
This is hilarious. And I loved that logo. It is the perfect mid-century design, both modern and not really signifying anything unique to the company. OK, it’s moving in a direction, but isn’t everyone?
I had not really thought about this, but could the new design (I too have learned a new word) have been the impetus for Buick and Pontiac to modernize logos? The Pontiac shield, in particular, seems to have come from this same school of design/promotion.
If Mr. Flookerang went camping, would his tent look anything like this?
And if a bad storm came along…..
I guess nobody could figure out how to do a cartoon of Pentastar Man!
I miss the Chrysler Museum. It was about an hour away from me, so I visited once a year or so, even though they never changed anything, which is probably one of the reasons they closed.
I only went the once—escorted around the place by Bill Weertman!—but would surely have gone again even with no changes.
Interesting how the Flookerang seems to have been a product of the Forward Look. Then, when that style fad was finally abandoned, the Fratzog made its appearance for Dodge.
At the same time, Plymouth got a simplified vertical Flookerang that was easily confused with the Oldsmobile rocket. They both lost their individual corporate symbols by 1981 after Iacocca came onboard, although I’ve seen a photo of Iacocca with a new Reliant that had a Plymouth spear hood ornament. Plymouth had been steadily losing its individual identity and the removal of its own emblem pretty much sealed the fate of the once proud Chrysler division.
The Plymouth version went back to at least 1959, when it spent a single year with a little sailing ship nestled under it. The 1960 version is the one I attached to a prior comment.
I just noticed that the “F” on Fury, as used on the 1956-59 cars used a single-bladed version of the Flookerang.
For ’81 only the Reliant hood ornament had the Plymouth “rocket” in a pentastar shape.
Anyone know what the ’81 Aries had for a hood ornament? I think the Dodge fratzog had long since been retired and I don’t think Iacocca was slapping a pentastar ornament on everything yet. Even the LeBaron’s hood ornament was a clear plastic ‘crystal’ pentastar.
It had no standup hood ornament at all. Instead, a flat badge above the grille. This one:
Better than having a “Fratzog Face”, for sure.
I’m glad I have just now learned (or been reminded of?) the name for this graphic as a “Flookerang”. I think it’s a very cool, dynamic-looking logo.
The image of the busty blonde secretary in heels is of its time. Around the time of this cartoon, I saw a “Sexretary” plaque, presumably for a secretary to display on her desk, at a gift shop.
The secretary has a great pair of Flookerangs!
The name reminds me of an old The Office episode where they play a bunch of made-up Olympic games and one of them is ‘Flonkerton’ which is foot racing using empty tissue boxes for shoes.
Oh my, those keys…. I hadn’t thought about those for years until I saw your pic!
Those were what we had for the ’61 Plymouth wagon. Which of course my mom kept on her keychain well past the time the car went out to pasture. And of course I still have the keychain. 🙂
(And Daniel, tell me that’s not YOUR lighter. ‘Cause if it is, we need to have a conversation about that. I covet it even though I don’t smoke…any longer)
Nope, not my lighter. I don’t smoke, and I’m making a real effort not to collect stuff Just To Have.
Chrysler always seemed to have the coolest ignition keys. Besides the ones with the flookerang, there were ones with the head in the shape of a pentastar. Then, when locking steering wheel columns were mandated, the pentastar was turned around 180° to fit into the steering wheel lock.
The Pentastar-shaped head on (some of) the door/ignition keys, after being one way round from ’64-’67, was rotated 180° for ’68—two years before the ignition lock moved onto the steering column.
Here’s a pretty good guide cadged from a key blank seller.
As an owner of some vintage Mopars, I have some working examples of these keys! 🙂
Hummmmmm. There was a photo, but it got snarfed. I’ll try again.
I’ve heard of the Plymouth emblem, especially with its’ original square background, called the “potato chip/Mayflower ship”.
I had no idea “the logo” got used as widely as it did—informative and entertaining!
I went looking for it in print—some Chrysler ads of Oct/Nov 1954–sample below–are built around “The Forward Look,” but the flookerang doesn’t seem to show up until closer to the introduction of the ’56 models in later 1955:
Great info and images .
-Nate
If you haven’t all heard, Dodge is reviving the Fratzog logo for upcoming Dodge electric vehicles.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/27/dodge-to-resurrect-fratzog-logo-for-new-electric-vehicles.html
Hey, neat! I hadn’t heard!
I bought this lapel pin years ago thinking it was a Soviet space related pin. Funny thing is I have a 66 charger AND IT TOOK ALMOST A DECADE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IT WAS. I cherished it. A friend, who happens to be a Chrysler mechanic, helped me with both my Charger and my son’s PT Cruiser. As a token of my gratitude I gave him this piece of MOPAR history.
That’s beautiful and will be a joy for any MoPar Enthusiast .