One of the odder details about the automobile business in the US during the 20th Century was that as soon as television arrived, car dealers began using the medium for advertising. Most of their ads were typical “buy your car from our dealership” appeals. But a variant arose sometime in the 1950s that was just weird — the dealer himself would usually appear in the ad spots, often doing something nutty. These ads weren’t very well documented, but Cal Worthington (born November 27, 1920 in Oklahoma) was one of the first to go in that direction. He and “his dog Spot.” The very first one, by the way, may have been “Madman Muntz,” but he was born in January so you’ll have to wait.
Worthington was born in a town called “Bly,” which is mostly memorable for not even existing any more. His family was extremely poor, and the Great Depression made it even worse during Worthington’s teens. He became a pilot during World War II and was evidently extremely good at it; he won five Air Medals, and the Distinguished Flying Cross, and after the war became a flight instructor who trained several pilots who later became the first astronauts.
After leaving the Army, he intended to become a commercial pilot, but because he’d never attended college he couldn’t get a job. So he moved to California and started selling cars. He was good at that, too. He began advertising on TV very early, in the late 1940s. At first he sponsored a whole three-hour music show presented on the weekends in Los Angeles. As television became more popular, though, the prices went up and sponsoring an entire program became more than a car dealer could afford. So Worthington (and many other dealers) turned to 30- and 60-second ads.
Worthington’s rival in TV advertising was Chick Lambert, whose ads featured his dog “Storm.” Storm was a large German Shepherd, whose job in the ads was to sit in (or sometimes on) the cars. So Worthington started making ads with “my dog Spot.” And that’s where the weirdness began; “Spot” was never, ever, a dog. Each ad featured a different version of Spot, from a gorillla to a tiger, seal, elephant, chimpanzee, bear, or hippopotamus. Spot’s job in the ads varied depending on their species at the time; sometimes Worthington rode on Spot, sometimes Spot would do tricks, and sometimes Spot just sat there looking…well, spotty, I guess. The chimpanzee version of Spot could roller skate.
Worthington also commissioned music for his ads (which ran from the 1960s through the 1990s), and had a jingle with the lyric “Go see Cal.” It was so ubiquitous on California TV that by the 1970s there were children who assumed his name was “Goseecal.”
In 2007, Worthington (who never personally owned a car) admitted that he never particularly liked selling cars; he just needed a job when he couldn’t become a commercial pilot. But for all that, he did quite well; by the time he passed away in 2013 the Worthington Dealership Group had 29 dealerships in a number of states in the western US. He also owned shopping centers and office buildings. And his ads made him (and his stunts) so well known that he appeared in several films as himself. His ads can be seen in the background of several more films. He appeared on TV, too, and an animated series from the early 1970s included a character named Cal Worthington who was a car salesman. According to the Television Bureau of Advertising, Worthington was “probably the best known car dealer pitchman in television history.”
