I've been interested in cars for most of my life (I was more partial to detective shows than westerns growing up because detectives drove cars and cowboys rode horses) and at one time I wanted to be a car salesman. I watch a lot of YouTube videos of the old television shows and like to see the ads from the 1950s and 60s. In this piece, I contrast the splashy intros to the old TV variety shows which were sponsored by automobile companies with the sometimes more down home nature of another fast-disappearing bit of Americana, the small town new car dealership.

Ladies and gentlemen,
tonight on our stage,
all brought to you by...

Who were those dealers?
And where were their cars?
Some were in big city and suburban
palaces of commerce and everything
state of the art for your convenience
and there were others where mom and pop
were the people to see.

Chevrolet and the more than
seven thousand authorized dealers
which include a little one-car garage
on the north side of a Southern Illinois village square,
or the edge of a little Iowa town,
or maybe a long red-brick place with cars
up the bluff next to the train tracks in Bradford.

Or a tidy little place with Buicks on
the side and a little old mechanic to
set you on your way.
Wheel alignments a specialty.

Paired with Pontiac, Cadillac
and Minneapolis-Moline, sold by
"Whip" in off the highway in Buda.
oh and the Rocket in your Pocket man.

Your Oldsmobile quality dealer,
with a sleek Ninety-Eight cruising Hollywood
right past the Oscars, there might be
one like it parked next to a plow under an OK Used Car
sign in Sheffield, or between a used Super 88
and an IH tractor over in LaRose.
Or maybe along the river in Browning.

Ed showed off the sleek new Mercurys on his really big shews
and you could drive one tomorrow at a tractor place in Henry.
That new DeSoto made Groucho wish he was a garage.
He sent you to a little place off the highway in New Harmony.

Fred hoped his show was as good as the cars
Fash and the old guys in Brimfield had for sale.
Mr. Ed's stall was almost as big as the Washington Lark's nest.
And now The Ford Show, with Tennessee Ernie, showing cars
like Davis and Downen have on a little corner of Poseyville.

Once they were all over, half a gas station, half a garage,
they'd sell you a car or service it, the old grey beards in work clothes.

And when the lights went on, they were in the group,
one of the quality dealers just like the big boys.
Who had their cars pitched to everyone.

From Television City in Hollywood!
Presented by Rambler and your local authorized Rambler dealers.
In Kickapoo...