December 1, 1974: "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet"

A still photo from the original ad,

featuring a 1975 Chevrolet Vega

December 1, 1974: General Motors premieres at TV commercial that ties 4 American classics -- or 4 of what they perceive to be American classics -- together: "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet."

It worked: At a time when American cars, including Chevies, had not been doing well in the face of the rise of imports from former wartime opponents Germany and Japan, it became the most popular series of car commercials in American history, topping their own "See the U.S.A. In Your Chevrolet" (see, it rhymes) jingle, as sung by Dinah Shore while hosting The Dinah Shore Chevy Show on NBC from 1956 to 1963. And it did make sales rise -- for Chevy, if not for GM's other divisions: Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and GMC Trucks.

So, did they get it right? Certainly, while it had already fallen behind football in popularity, baseball was still "the national pastime," and the ad -- despite its timing, during baseball's off-season -- probably helped the sport recover. Hot dogs had been a classic American food since the turn of the 20th Century. And apple pie had been popular in America since the Revolution of the 1770s.

But... Chevrolet? The company had been founded by Switzerland-born auto racer Louis Chevrolet (1878-1941) in 1911, and merged with other companies to create GM in 1918. But it hadn't been especially popular until 1953, when the Corvette was introduced. The 1957 Bel Air helped to make Chevy more popular than Ford, and thus the most popular brand in America, but it wasn't by that much. It's not quite the same as Gussie Busch's push to make Budweiser the one distinctly American brand of beer.

My father drove a 1966 Chevrolet Impala from his return from the U.S. Army in 1968 until it conked out in 1976, while the aforementioned ad campaign was still running. It wasn't a very good car: He called it "the Blue Bomb." A few years later, the Midas muffler company aired an ad featuring a 1963 Impala, in which the owner said his daughter called it "the Blue Bomber." Anyway, no one in the family has owned a Chevy since. (We have had a couple of GM cars, though: My father had a 1984 Buick Regal that lasted into the mid-1990s, his mother had a 1977 Buick Electra until her death in 1983, and my other grandmother had a Pontiac Le Mans in the 1970s and early '80s.)

The original ad featured a man named Ed Labunski playing a piano. He had written the jingle. In 2006, Chevy brought the ad back, altering the song with more modern references, including "goat cheese pizza." Labunski had died in 1980 -- with some irony, in a car crash -- but a new voiceover recorded, altered to sound like the original clip, with the similar-sounding announcer sounding puzzled at the new items being included in the song: "Now, hold on: What's a 'Rally Monkey'?" 

*

December 1, 1974 was a Sunday. As I said, baseball was out of season when the commercial debuted. But the NFL played:

* The New York Giants lost to the Chicago Bears, 16-13 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The New York Jets beat the San Diego Chargers, 27-14 at Shea Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Green Bay Packers, 36-14 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 30-7 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium).

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Baltimore Colts, 6-0 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 13-10 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the New Orleans Saints, 29-9 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 17-13 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Because the football version of the Cardinals were in the NFC, and the Chiefs were in the AFC, and the Cards eventually moved to Arizona, the cross-Missouri matchup never became much of a rivalry. Nor was it much of one while the Rams were in St. Louis.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the San Francisco 49ers, 7-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the New England Patriots, 41-26 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Three days earlier, on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, the Dallas Cowboys beat their arch-rivals, the Washington Redskins, 24-23 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas. This was the Clint Longley Game, and I have a separate entry for it.

Also on Thanksgiving, the Denver Broncos beat the Detroit Lions, 31-27. This was the Lions' last game at Tiger Stadium. They played their last 2 regular-season games on the road, did not make the Playoffs, and moved into the Silverdome in suburban Pontiac, Michigan the next season.

And the day after this Sunday, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Miami Dolphins beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

There were 2 games in the NBA. The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 117-112 at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA (now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena). Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 35 points and grabbed 17 rebounds. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns, 111-105 in overtime at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

There was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The Memphis Sounds beat the Utah Stars, 101-88 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.

There were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers and the St. Louis Blues played to a 4-4 tie at Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Kansas City Scouts, 10-0 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. This was not that surprising: The Flyers were the Stanley Cup holders, and would win it again; while the Scouts were a 1st-year expansion team, and would move twice in their 1st 8 seasons, becoming the Colorado Rockies in 1976, and the New Jersey Devils in 1982.

Ross Lonsberry and Bill Barber each had 2 goals. Team Captain Bobby Clarke had a goal and 4 assists. Terry Crisp had 3 assists.

* The California Golden Seals beat the Washington Capitals, 5-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. The Caps were also a 1st-year expansion team, so it's not that surprising that the Seals, who didn't win that often, beat them.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-3 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 3-0 at the Chicago Stadium.

And there were 5 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Houston Aeros beat the Indianapolis Racers, 7-3 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Minnesota Fighting Saints beat the Phoenix Roadrunners, 4-3 at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Quebec Nordiques, 3-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the New England Whalers, 8-4 at the brand-new Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* And the Toronto Toros beat the San Diego Mariners, 3-1 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

November 30, 1965: Ralph Nader Publishes “Unsafe At Any Speed”

November 30, 1965: Ralph Nader, then 31 years old, publishes Unsafe At Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile. It accused car manufacturers of resistance to the introduction of safety features, like seat belts, and their general reluctance to spend money on improving safety.

In particular, the book profiled the Chevrolet Corvair. As the name suggested, it was a combination of the sporty Corvette and the full-size Bel Air. It was produced for the model years 1960 to 1969. Like the Volkswagen Beetle, it had a rear engine. This, along with rear swing axles, seemed to make it, as the title of Nader's book suggested, unsafe at any speed. For the 1970 model year, Chevy replaced it with the Vega.

1965 Chevrolet Corvair

The book resulted in the creation of the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1966, and the predecessor agencies of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 1970. Along with the gas crisis of 1973-74, it also led to the national speed limit of 55 miles per hour, which lasted from 1974 to 1995.

Ralph Nader did a lot of good with this book. The consumer-advocacy group he led, nicknamed Nader's Raiders, did some more good. A pity his ego led him to run for President in 2000, causing the Administration of George W. Bush, the most un-Nader-like President we've ever had.

As of November 30, 2022, Nader is still alive.

*

November 30, 1965 was a Tuesday. Actor Ben Stiller was born, the son of the husband & wife comedy team of Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. No games were scheduled in the NHL. There were 3 in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the St. Louis, Hawks, 138-119 at the old Madison Square Garden. Dick Barnett scored 36 points.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 129-108. Despite the loss, Wilt Chamberlain scored 41 points and grabbed 33 reboounds.

* And the Cincinnati Royals beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 126-120 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Oscar Robertson matched Wilt with 41 points.

September 16, 1908: General Motors Is Founded

September 16, 1908: General Motors Company is founded in Detroit. From the beginning, it has been not so much a designer and builder of automobiles -- that's for its individual divisions -- but a seller of, advertiser of, and advocate for them.

William C. Durant was worried that automobiles would put his horse-drawn carriage company out of business. He remembered the old line, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." He had a better idea: "If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em out." In 1904, he bought the Buick Motor Company. It had been founded in 1899 by David Dunbar Buick.

William C. Durant

Durant founded GM as a holding company, naming it after General Electric. Two months after he did so, he bought the Olds Motors Works, makers of Oldsmobile, which Ransom Eli Olds had founded in 1897.

Olds had previously called his car a Reo, after his initials: REO. In 1987, Oldsmobile had an advertising campaign with America's favorite old person, comedian George Burns: "Burns and Olds. I get top billing: I'm older."

Cadillac was founded in 1902, by Henry Leland. He sold it to Durant in 1909. In 1917, he founded Lincoln, America's other well-known luxury car brand. In 1922, he sold it to Ford Motor Company. Also in 1909, Durant bought the Oakland Motor Car Company, headquartered in nearby Oakland County, Michigan. The division was renamed for a Native chief from the area: Pontiac.

In 1910, Durant tried to buy Ford from Henry Ford. But he had bought up so many small car companies -- eliminating them from existence, not just competition -- that he had several loans due, and the board of directors removed him.

In 1911, with Swiss auto racer Louis Chevrolet, he founded Chevrolet. The co-founders had a dispute in 1915, and Louis sold his share of the company that bore his name to Durant. By 1917, Chevrolet had become so successful that Durant bought GM out, and fired the board who fired him.

In 1918, he made his most important decision, as far as the company's future was concerned: He bought United Motors, maker of car parts, owned by Alfred P. Sloan Jr. In 1919, GM bought Frigidaire, makers of refrigerators. Why? Because enclosed cars were now more popular than convertibles, and Frigidaire made machinery that could air-condition the cars.

Durant had financed his financial comeback with the help of one of America's richest companies. duPont, which helped supply GM with cheap oil. By 1920, the post-World War I economic downturn was threatening to wreck the company. duPont leaned on the board of directors, and Durant was out again.

Sloan was in. In the 1930s, he became a big supporter of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. He established the best workers-pension plan in American labor history, and avoided violence in 1937 by recognizing the United Auto Workers, rather than fighting them, figuratively and literally. In 1939, GM put the 1st automatic transmissions in America in Oldsmobiles, which ended up making cars much easier to drive. And the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation was founded, and it remains one of America's leading charitable organizations.

Alfred P. Sloan

But Sloan was villain as well as hero: Under his leadership, GM supplied cars and their parts for both sides in World War II. America would not have won without GM's participation; but, through GM's Opel division, neither would Nazi Germany have gotten as far as it did.

In 1941, Charles Erwin Wilson was named President of GM. He became known as "Engine Charlie," to differentiate himself from Charles Edward Wilson, President of General Electric, who was known as "Electric Charlie." Too many similar initials: GM, GE, CEW, EC!

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed "Engine Charlie" to be America's Secretary of Defense. During his confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate, he was asked if he could make a decision as Secretary of Defense that would be adverse to the interests of General Motors. He said he could, but he added that he could not conceive of such a situation, "because, for years, I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa."

Charles E. "Engine Charlie" Wilson

That statement has frequently been misquoted as, "What's good for General Motors is good for America." Although Wilson tried to correct the misquote, he left office after Eisenhower's 1st term, and was reported at the time to have accepted the popular impression.

Under the Chevrolet banner, GM introduced America's most popular sports car, the Corvette, in 1953. The 1957 "Chevy" Bel-Air became the most memorial car of the 1950s. Other legendary GM cars of the postwar era included the 1951 Oldsmobile Delta 88 (a.k.a. the Rocket 88), the tailfinned Cadillacs (or "Caddies") of the 1950s, 1957 Buick Roadmaster, the 1964 Pontiac GTO, the 1968 Chevy Camaro, and GMC pickup trucks.

In 1996, GM bought the Renaissance Center, Detroit's tallest skyscraper and biggest office complex, from arch-rivals Ford. GM uses "the RenCen" as its headquarters.

Oldsmobile remained a popular brand into the 1980s. GM let Olds reach a 100th Anniversary in 1997, but declining sales led them to phase it out in 2004. The Pontiac brand was phased out in 2010.

David Buick died in 1929, Louis Chevrolet in 1941, William Durant in 1947, Ransom Eli Olds in 1950, Charles Wilson in 1953, Alfred Sloan in 1966.

In the post-World War II auto boom, a saying developed: "What's good for General Motors is good for America."

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September 16, 1908 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2 at the Polo Grounds. James "Doc" Crandall went the distance pitching for the Giants, and also went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI at the plate.

* The Brooklyn Superbas beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-0 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. The Superbas, named, while their manager was Ned Hanlon, for a circus troupe called Hanlon's Superbas, became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Boston Doves, 5-0 at the South End Grounds in Boston. Jack Pfeister pitched a 5-hit shutout. The Doves were named for their owners, the Dovey brothers. William H. Russell bought them in 1911, and renamed them the Boston Rustlers. He died after his first season, and they were bought by James Gaffney, who was an official, a "Brave," in New York's Tammany Hall political organization. He renamed the team the Boston Braves.

* The Philadelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates split a doubleheader at National League Park (later renamed Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia. The Phils won the opener, 5-2. The Bucs won the nightcap, 2-0. Over the 2 games, Honus Wagner went 1-for-8 with an RBI.

* The Cleveland Naps beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-1 at South Side Park in Chicago. The Naps were named for their manager and 2nd baseman, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie. He went 0-for-4 in that game. After he left in 1914, they changed their name to the Cleveland Indians.

* The Detroit Tigers St. Louis Browns, 4-1 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Ty Cobb went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The New York Highlanders, renamed the Yankees in 1913, were not scheduled. Nor were the Boston Red Sox, the Philadelphia Athletics or the Washington Senators.

January 17, 1953: Chevrolet Introduces the Corvette

January 17, 1953: The General Motors Motorama is held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. GM takes this opportunity to introduce a new car: The Chevrolet Corvette.

The Chevy Corvette, or the 'Vette for short, has become known as "America's Sports Car," particularly in its cherry-red color. It's one of those cars that is immediately identifiable.

It's also worked its way into popular culture. In 1958, a doo-wop group named themselves The Corvettes, and had a minor hit with a song titled, of course, "Corvette." In 1960, the TV show Route 66 premiered, with Martin Milner and George Maharis driving the eponymous highway in a Corvette convertible.

In 1963, the Beach Boys mentioned a Corvette Stingray in their song "Shut Down." In 1964, fellow surfing/hotrodding singers Jan & Dean mentioned a Stingray in their disaster song "Dead Man's Curve."

1964 Chevy Corvette Stingray

In 1982, the TV show Cheers premiered, in which bar owner and former major league pitcher Sam Malone (played by Ted Danson) owned a 1964 Corvette. In 1983, Prince hit the Top 10 for the 1st time, with "Little Red Corvette." And in 1985, George Jones released "The One I Loved Back Then." It's not about a woman: It's about a car, a 1963 Corvette.

2022 Chevy Corvette

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January 17, 1953 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 3 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 84-76 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Indianapolis Olympians, 82-66 at the Baltimore Coliseum.

* And the Rochester Royals beat the Minneapolis Lakers 109-101 at the Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester, New York.

There were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 1-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. And the Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings played to a 1-1 tie at the Montreal Forum. The Boston Bruins and the Chicago Black Hawks were not scheduled.

Also, Arsenal defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers, a.k.a. Wolves, 5-3 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.