Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Midweek Matinee: Ford Threefer, 1960

Ford Three-fer

All photos are frame grabs from videos below.

A trio of Ford commercials: Together, they offer a little something for everyone.

Ford Three-fer

Two-Ford Freedom: “Why be stuck with one expensive car, when you can enjoy all the fun and freedom of two fine Fords?” That’s modern suburbia in a nutshell: The lady has a boatload of things to do and people to see. . .

. . . and if she and Dave can pull off buying a new Ranch Wagon and a matching Customline Victoria the same year, well then, more power to ’em.

Ford Three-fer

Ford Three-fer

 Economy Twins: Members of the Peanuts gang introduce Tennessee Ernie Ford, who introduces Ford’s “economy twins,” the 1960 models Falcon and Fairlane 500.

Ernie exudes a certain down-home appeal to middleclass America, even while waggling his cee-gars at us, and the Peanuts affiliation helps cement the deal with the whole family. But Linus lipping a cigar—even a chocolate one—clearly would not fly in later, more culturally sensitive times as these.

Ford Three-fer

A Wonderful New World of Fords builds upward from the previous piece, adds the big-dog Thunderbird to the set and takes a decidedly theatrical, upscale approach. Neither a Peanut nor an Ernie are to be found within this swirling, affluent, black-tied and ball-gowned soiree under the stars. In this fantasy sequence, the chorus and orchestration are all a bit too much, but three minutes is tolerable. Barely.

Public domain archival footage courtesy of the Internet Moving Images Archive, in association with Prelinger Archives.

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