Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > Los Angeles
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 10-03-2022, 09:33 PM
 
Location: South Bay Native
16,225 posts, read 27,425,008 times
Reputation: 31495

Advertisements

When I think about someone or something that is iconic, specifically for Southern California/LA area, Go See Cal and his crazy commercials come to mind every time.

I don't think we've had anyone else that I can think of or remember that was this recognized and successful in any profession - this clip is like a montage of many of his most infamous exploits, with Cal wrangling "his dog, Spot" which was always some exotic (and often wild and dangerous) animal, or flying around strapped to the outside of a biplane. Watching the tiger and bear gnawing on Cal and clawing him - now that's dedication! Or craziness - he easily could have been ripped apart by these animals.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOsLdT4slsk

Will we ever see anyone else come close to Cal Worthington? His Worthington Ford dealership is still there on Bellflower Blvd in Long Beach, even though the pop culture legend himself passed away years ago. Sharing here for anyone old enough to remember )and appreciate) these wacky commercials.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-04-2022, 06:37 AM
 
Location: So Ca
26,726 posts, read 26,798,919 times
Reputation: 24786
Quote:
Originally Posted by DontH8Me View Post
Will we ever see anyone else come close to Cal Worthington? His Worthington Ford dealership is still there on Bellflower Blvd in Long Beach, even though the pop culture legend himself passed away years ago.
Probably not! I never knew that his name was Calvin Coolidge Worthington. He was funny. He certainly had a long (65 year) career.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2022, 10:02 PM
 
Location: So Cal
10,029 posts, read 9,504,253 times
Reputation: 10452
Certainly do remember those commercials. Very smart businessman and successful salesman. Interesting things that he said later in his career that he never liked selling cars and wanted to become a pilot. He started out selling cars after WW2 out of necessity. Just he happened to be a natural salesman.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2022, 10:33 PM
 
Location: Northern California
4,606 posts, read 2,996,667 times
Reputation: 8374
Quote:
Originally Posted by DontH8Me View Post
Will we ever see anyone else come close to Cal Worthington? His Worthington Ford dealership is still there on Bellflower Blvd in Long Beach, even though the pop culture legend himself passed away years ago. Sharing here for anyone old enough to remember )and appreciate) these wacky commercials.
Haha! What a hoot... what a character.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2022, 11:43 PM
 
Location: Sacramento
1,231 posts, read 1,662,123 times
Reputation: 1821
Go See Cal!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-05-2022, 11:50 PM
 
1,824 posts, read 800,633 times
Reputation: 5310
He was a popular speaker at local universities. IRL at those well-attended events, he was nothing like his boisterous commercials, he was soft-spoken, modest, very approachable, a class act.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-06-2022, 08:50 AM
 
11,022 posts, read 6,870,183 times
Reputation: 18015
Loved him growing up! I lived out east of L.A. growing up. Then I moved to Long Beach in recent years and would take Spring Street every day to the Dog Park at El Dorado Regional Park. First time I passed the famous car lot I thought WOW so that's where it was all these years! He was a cool guy with a shtick that worked because that's who he was as a person. RIP Cal.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-06-2022, 09:13 AM
 
Location: Encino, CA
4,563 posts, read 5,416,094 times
Reputation: 8234
I have a lot of his old commercials on vhs. Back when I was a kid, I used to record the kung fu theater movies that aired on the weekends and his commercials always ran during those movies. I'd just set the timer to record for two hours and never edited out the commercials.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-06-2022, 08:56 PM
 
Location: Retired in Malibu/La Quinta/Flagstaff
1,607 posts, read 1,944,063 times
Reputation: 6029
I miss Chick Lambert and his dog, Storm, for Ralph Williams Ford in Encino.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-11-2022, 12:20 PM
 
Location: Pahrump, NV
1,080 posts, read 2,257,207 times
Reputation: 981
Default Worthington Ford

We moved to Anaheim from NY in 1976 and we needed to buy a car. We saw so many of Cal Worthington's commercials, so we went to his dealership and bought our first car as a married couple. It was a 1973 Toyota Celica, which turned out to be a great car. I remember it like it was yesterday. Oh, for So. California to still be like it was back then. It was such a great place to live.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > Los Angeles

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top