Phelps Chevrolet, Greenville, NC.
Starr Chevrolet.
Belmont Chev-Olds, Toronto, ON.
Tom Henry Chevrolet, Bakerstown, PA.
Stowell, Chevrolet, Rutland, VT.
O’rielly Chevrolet, Tucson, AZ.
Dunton Motors, Chevrolet-Pontiac-Olds-Buick-Cadillac, Kingman, AZ.
Feely Chevrolet, Needham, Mass.
DeHavem Chevrolet, Ft. Wayne, IN.
Feely Chevrolet, Needham, Mass
I would imagine many of the early dealers were originally repair shops or gas stations in the late 1910’s & thru the 1920’s. Someone came by and offered a franchise. Cars were delivered (on credit) and the owner suddenly realized what he gotten himself into. The family of the owner lived well as long as they kept the franchise moving and the manufacturer had something worth buying.
It and others like it explain why the Big 3 have about one-third of the number of dealers today compared to back then.
Hoo boy, do I ever remember DeHaven Chevrolet. They had a jingle that ran perpetually on the radio (which is how I can remember their address). Anyone here who was ever in the WOWO broadcast area will remember
DeHaven Chevrolet
DeHaven Chevrolet
DeHaven Chevrolet
2315 South Calhoun
Aaaaaaah, Aaaaaaah, Aaaaaaah, Aaaaaaah
DeHaven Chev – Ro – Lay
I looked them up – that dealership dates back to 1964 and is still very much in business (though at a much newer and bigger location).
Ah, WOWO in Ft. Wayne, IN. During the heyday of AM rock in the mid-late 1960’s, I would spend hours at night pulling in distant radio stations on my Motorola eight transistor from my Maryland home. WOWO, CKLW, WLS, WCFL, WABC and KDKA were all favorites from what seemed to me exotic places. Baltimore’s top station at the time was WCAO, which had something like an 80 share at its peak.
And, I miss the jingles many dealerships constantly played. “Hey, hey, Fox Chevrolet!” Was a favorite.
WCAO still exists, but it’s a way different format now. No more Wolfman Jack and Rock & Roll. They do Urban Gospel now, whatever that is… They’re still at AM 600 though.
So many cool ads at the time… There was “I Love Luby”, and so many more. Now all we have is “Jack says YES!” – So annoying.
The Fox Chevrolet jingle brings back a flood of memories though, like driving past the dealership and seeing the fox up on the roof of the building. As a kid, I thought this was SO cool. Like Nipper (another Baltimore landmark), only a different kind of Canidae. Maybe now that they’re called “Auto Nation”, the Fox got a new job over at CARFAX as their mascot. 🤣
And then there was Jerry’s Govans Chevrolet whose catch phrase was “5600 York Road at Bellona, the best place to become a Chevrolet Ownah.”
The building is still there, it’s a Maaco paint business today. Jerry’s too, is still around, it moved to a suburban location in ’71 and is still in the same place.
JO
yep! Jerry’s Chevrolet is less than 5 miles from my house!
CPJ…Maryland? So then you must remember the jingle that comes to my mind hearing JPC’s story about DeHaven.
You always get your way…deeply imprinted in my mind through constant radio and TV airplay in the late 1960s through early 1970s.
Yep, Ourisman was huge in Maryland’s DC suburbs. Heard their jingles, along with “battling Bert Lustine” Chevrolet while at U of MD in College Park.
“Congressional Oldsmobile, Washington’s best kept secret”. Another one from those days.
(was on “Rockville Pike”)
I grew up in south-central Pennsylvania, which meant that our cable company carried the television stations from Baltimore and Washington, D.C. I remember that Ourisman Chevrolet jingle to this day!
I better remember the older dealership, Hefner Chevrolet, on Fort Wayne’s north side where my grandmother bought a new 1962 Chevy II. I do recall the DeHaven jingles on WOWO.
In junior high I won some sort of contest on WOWO for rewriting the lyrics of the Dobie Gray hit The In Crowd to tell the story of mobster Joe Valachi’s role as a member of the Mafia’s “in crowd” and informant against them. Because the Valachi Hearings took place before the US Senate the year before, everyone could relate them to this 1964 hit song.
Good times.
My wife’s 65 Super Sport was purchased at Hefner. We owned the car until 1970. Olive green with cream vinyl interior. If you looked at it , it looked like it was dirty.
Felix Chevrolet in Los Angeles had a very similar jingle (repeat the name, give the address, some “aaaahs” and repeat the name.
Around 1970, Cormier Chevrolet in Long Beach took a different, softer very 70’s approach:
https://www.youtube.com
Well, that was dumb. Clicked on the wrong link (didn’t we use to have editing or deleting abilities if we goofed here?):
I saw that cute little Vauxhall Viva there at the end of those Oldsmobiles and through “hmm that’s weird” but then saw it was a Toronto dealership.
Hurry and take a photo before it turns into rust!
Actually that’s an Envoy Epic; a Viva a clone sold at Chevy-Olds dealers. C-O dealers also sold a Vauxhall Victor clone as well. Envoys were sold form 59-70.
Canadian Pontiac [and US dealers from 57-62] dealers sold Vauxhalls from 57-70. In 1971 the Viva became the Vauxhall Firenza from 71-73. When that ended the Pontiac Astre [Vega clone] came .
I think this might be the same dealer (Belmont Chev Olds) with that same Envoy / Opel on the far left. Pic is from 1964.
Belmont Chev was at 1945 Lawrence Ave., just west of Jane St.
The “Olds convert”, with the top down; makes me want to sit down and “motor”!
Strangely optioned 1966 Caprice at Stowell. 396 V-8 with blackwalls and no vinyl roof.
…isn’t it beautiful? I loved those “formal roof” ’66 Caprice coupes. I had a ’66 Biscayne sedan, 283/Potatoglide at the time. Very jealous of the roof, the engine, the transmission. Eventually installed a pantycloth bench seat in the Biscayne, but that was as close as that car ever got to being a Caprice.
Marginally familiar but very different to the one I remember, My dad worked at a GM dealership, the showroom when I forst snuck in as a child had one of those HA Vivas in it it was a brand new model, Chevys came and went, usually on display untill the customer turned up to take his new prize away Chevys had to be pre ordered, selling them wasnt usually difficult with the exception of MY 57 and 59, but there were more Vauxhalls sold than Chevys, they were about half the price even the bigger models, Chevrolet had turned into a luxury brand because of tariffs, then went away when local assembly stopped, the Stellantis agent nearest me has a NZ new 68 Camaro in the showroom NOW, with a 57 sport coupe nearby, not for sale, they have 3 workshop bays of classic cars to shuffle among the indoor new cars
A dramatic contrast in the way dealers presented themselves. How the product was promoted, was less out of the control of the carmaker. Why branding consistency, was so important to presenting better to the public.
I prefer vintage dealerships with a small collection of their most desirable cars, posed in their showroom. Or/and on the street front. With full wheel covers, or optional wheels. As the larger inventory is located in the rear, behind the primary building. As O’Reilly Chevrolet have done, with their posed Chevrolet trucks. I find the 1960’s/1970’s growing trend of a large row of cars upfront, facing the street, much less attractive. As seen at Phelps Chevrolet, and Belmont Chevrolet. Of course, space and dealer footprint, always influence how to best present cars. As the public wanted to have more auto selection, to consider. Architecture appears to be becoming less attractive, and less important here.
Would have been interesting if DeHavem Chevrolet, was a ford Dealer instead. The illuminated arrow flashing sequentially inward, would have been cool.
I always love spotting doppelgangers in a crowd. The sales representative at Starr Chevrolet appears to quite resemble a retired local popular news presenter (Graham Richardson).
The photo at Tom Henry Chevrolet in Bakerstown, Pennsylvania, looks as though it was taken on the day the 1963 models were officially unveiled.
There is a well-worn 1957 Plymouth hardtop coupe in front of Dunton Motors in Kingman, Arizona. This photo was likely taken in 1967 – note the window sign announcing “1967 Clean-Up Days.” The Arizona location explains how that Plymouth hadn’t rusted away over the previous decade.
In “63”, Tom Henry” moved into the “brand, spankingm new”, facitlty on “RT 8”.
Original building was a short distance away , on “Bakerstown Rd”. (intersection with “Heckert Rd”.
Original building, I believe is still there.
“New site go a big “redo”, in late “90’s 2000ish”.
Built a new place, reoriented showroom to face south as opposed to “facing Rt 8”.
Became a “Jim Shorkey”, franchise a good # of years back now. (Chevrolet north)
Bought my first car ((my name on reg-ttl)) from “TH” in spring “82”.
“81 Citation, V6”, new. Ah memories. lol
I’m pretty sure the building that once housed Dunton Motors in Kingman still stands. At least it was there last time I was in Kingman, pre-pandemic.
It’s a bit of a kitschy hot-rod shop. A lot of Kingman is similarly kitschy, as the town is on an easily accessible portion of Route 66.
The “over cooked, Plymouth” inn front of “Duston” is a bit forboding. Guess I’ve seen “Christine” a time too many.
Some Random Thoughts:
Picture No. 1 (lede): “Bitchin’ Camaro! Bitchin’ Camaro! Donuts on your lawn…” Dead Milkmen
Picture No. 2: I SO want that ’61 Impala Convertible!
Picture No… ok, I don’t feel like counting… The one with the dealer in Kingman, AZ… They could’ve saved themselves a lot of signage if they simply called themselves “Dunton Motors – All Things GM”. 😉
There was some dealers in Canada in small towns who got once both the Chevy-Olds and Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealer networks like Hamilton Chev-Buick-GMC in Wakefield in Quebec back in 2009 who have Chevy, Pontiac, Buick and GMC (and once Oldsmobile). https://maps.app.goo.gl/SMznZpzooTujpBXU8
In Baltimore, the dealerships were paired somewhat differently, if paired at all. Chevrolet was usually a stand alone brand, or sometimes paired with GMC. IIRC, GMC could be paired with Oldsmobile. Buick/GMC was common as well.
Cadillac was rarely paired with anything… maybe Oldsmobile.
Pontiac usually had its own dealerships too.
Now please take this with a grain of salt: I may be remembering this all wrong, because a) these are old memories, and b) dealership pairings are anything but normal nowadays. For example, my ex-wife was a tech at a Pontiac dealer that sold Daewoo cars at one point. When Pontiac went away, they switched to Buick when the smaller Buick dealer down the road, Miller Motors, was culled when the great GM fell. Then they themselves found themselves culled as well a few months later.
In our area, there seems to be a few mega companies that have multiple brands in different locations. This is the new norm. Sometimes these are even competing car brands under that same company… i.e. Heritage Honda (Parkville) and Heritage Mazda (Fallston).
I noticed all the Camaros in pic 1, have vinyl roofs. I want the Buick Riviera parked on the curb in pic 7, outside Dunton Motors and/or the red SS Chevelle in pic 8, outside Feely Chevrolet.
I’m impressed by O’Rielly’s truck center display area. Ahead of their time?
O’rielly back in the early 1950’s opened a separate satellite sales site for trucks on the corner of 22nd and Park Avenue, as their overall sales were outgrowing the main location’s abilities (415 N. 6th Avenue). Both locations were reintegrated into one in 1966 when a new site that could accommodate their volume was opened at 6100 East Broadway. They remain at that East Broadway location to this day
I’ll add that when O’Rielly moved the whole dealership to Park and 22nd, another Chevy dealer came to town, Murray-Bryant. They moved into the 6th Avenue location. When O’Rielly moved to the Broadway location, Murray-Bryant took over the 22nd & Park site. Eventually they became Watson Chevrolet; they eventually moved to Auto Mall Drive along with a whole bunch of other dealers.
Personal note: my brother bought a brand-new Corvair Corsa in August 1965 from Murray-Bryant, having failed to reach a satisfactory deal with O’Rielly.
Starr Chevrolet was located in Buchanan, Virginia. The building is below.
This was a long-time Chevrolet dealership (first Scott-Green Chevrolet, then Buford Scott Chevrolet) before being purchased by a man named N. Starr Beaton, Jr. in 1954. This is confusing because there was also a Starr Beaton Chevrolet in another part of Virginia, but I believe that dealership was owned by Starr Sr.
It appears that this dealership became Keyes Chevrolet some time in the mid 1960s, and shortly afterwards moved to a larger facility in another town.
Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dbLjhwnS9inFikev5
I see a light colored stripper Chevy two-door sedan prominently located in front of the Stowell Chevrolet building in Vermont, apparently a Biscayne with a V8 callout on the front fender, not too different from our ’67 Bel Air from back in the day.
Architecture of Phelps Chevrolet, is reminiscent of how early/mid-twentieth century multi-purpose arenas appeared. With the semi-circular roofing, almost looks like two adjacent community centres, or hockey rinks.
The Feely Chevrolet picture is throwing me off.
The cars mostly appear to be new, untagged vehicles, but we have a ’68 Impala, 2 ’69 Impalas, but a ’70 Impala parked Curbside that appears to be licensed.
Perhaps the ’69 Chevys are leftovers, the ’68 is an “OK Used Car” (Remember that? We call that “Certified Pre-Owned” now), and the ’70 was sold to someone, thus tagged.
Oh, and that Chevelle is a ’70, so early Winter of 1969-70 maybe?
I remember Dehaven Chevrolet on WOWO. It came in at night when CKLW would rotate their antenna. GREW UP in Lima Ohio
Here in GR Michigan we have a Chevrolet dealer that started in 1925. Berger Chevy is one of the largest Chevrolet dealers in the country.
Feely Chevrolet appears to be in an old AMOCO filling station .
-Nate
Up in the Pacific Northwest in the ’70s and ’80s we had some great dealer jingles.
South Tacoma had an Olds dealer named Russ Dunmire, who ran ads 24/7. Their jingle repeated “Russ Dunmire” three times along with a jazzy vibraphone. Still can’t get it out of my head after 40 years.
On the other hand, there were some really terrible ads from California transplant Cal Worthington. Go See Cal! Go See Cal! Go See Cal! I think not.
There’s a school of thought in advertising and marketing that it doesn’t matter if you’re obnoxious as long as it makes people remember you. The worst exponent of this was arguably American Tobacco Company president George Washington Hill, who pushed for various obnoxious Lucky Strike cigarette catchphrases repeated ad nauseam (“LSMFT, Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco”). If you’ve ever seen the movie The Hucksters, with Clark Gable, the Sydney Greenstreet character was a fictionalized version of Hill, and I think the most famous scene — the Greenstreet character begins a meeting by spitting on the table and declaring, “I have just done a disgusting thing, and you are going to remember it for the rest of your lives” — was inspired by something Hill had done.
Was there really a time when you could walk into Phelps Chevrolet, plop down $3,300 on the desk and drive away in a new Camaro SS?
Oh, the good old days!