- Cal Worthington, a car dealer whose off-the-wall commercials, first broadcast in the 1950s, bombarded California television viewers for more than half a century and made him a pop culture legend, died on Sunday at his ranch in Orland, Calif. He was 92.His family confirmed his death.
Mr. Worthington sold a lot of cars — more than a million of them, by his count — and at his peak in the 1960s ran an empire of 29 dealerships from San Diego to Anchorage. But it was the way he sold them that made him a byword for creative hard-sell salesmanship in the great American tradition.
Stuck with a dud location when he bought his first dealership, Mr. Worthington decided that the only way to attract customers was to hit the airwaves hard with radio and television commercials that stood out from the pack. This turned out to be his ticket to fame and fortune.
If anyone's wondering what these commercials were like, here's a few examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QeWO9K7Egs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOsLdT4slsk I was wondering if his ads were the kind that inspired this kind of parody, but his pitch is pretty different. Wild character, it sounds like. Never saw his commercials on TV though.