I grew up in Chicago and remember those commercials very well. Bert operated a Ford dealership for 40 or so years until the lot was sold to a developer. Dealership declined in its later years, too. I remember my uncle who only drove Fords - he bought a couple from Bert before we went to another big dealer (Schaumburg). He did not have a good opinion about Bert and his dealership. My dad bought Chevrolets from Gateway on Milwaukee (closed a few years ago) and Oldsmobiles and later GMC's from Castle in Morton Grove - still open as a Honda dealership.
Bert was cool. every month, he had a new ailment "January jam up", "February fill up" "March madness" & "Aprilitis" to name a few. HE was an institution on WGN.
The commercials were so much louder than the program I was watching that I had to turn the t.v. down until the commercial went off. I laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny then.
The Ribs n' Bibs/Linn Burton/Bert Weinman Ford Auto connection. Many times when I'd walk into RnB in Hyde Park to order one of those $1.25 bags of barbecue fries, I'd be surprised to see Linn Burton from Bert Weinmann Ford working behind the counter.
I moved to a small lake resort town in Arkansas in 1975. Hooked up to the local cable service...had four channels, the three network stations out of Little Rock...and WGN. Little Rock TV on Sunday mornings were always religious broadcasts so I watched a lot of the old WGN and man do I remember this guy and these commercials. For a guy living in Arkansas back then, I sure knew a lot about the happenings in Chicago from their news broadcasts. Before FM took over, at night there was only one station to listen to down here....W"L"S (double u L s), the "Rock of Chicago". Fred Winston, Larry Lujack and John "Records" Landecker are the ones I most remember. The rock station at night while cruising down here in Arkansas believe it or not was WLS. And before my time cruising, I remember (not much tho) of a guy in the 1960s named Dick Biondi, who I seem to remember got fired for some reason and it really pissed my older brother. UPdate: I just googled WLS and it says Lujack was only on in the mornings/afternoons, one then the other. If thats correct, I have NO idea how I remember his show as the "skip" on AM signals doesnt occur during the daytime..only at night which is how WLS was THE top station for Rock in the 60s and 70s down here. But I remember his show, the promos for his show. Maybe someone can refresh my memory..it was a LONG, long time ago. My listening hours would have been anywhere from say 8 till well into the morning hours central time.
I'm an expat Chicagoan, graduated HS in 1967 so I'm somewhat ancient, and I used to watch the Late Movie on WGN, sponsored by Bert Weinman Ford. Linn Burton's commercials were sometimes the best part of watching the movie as he was quite entertaining. I remember he'd have a rubber dollar bill and start the commercial by pulling the ends and intoning, "Stretch your dollar at Bert Weinman Ford." Sometimes, there was a car on a turntable and while Linn was singing its praises, you could see the wrinkles in the sheet metal quarter panels as it turned...The good old days. Additionally, WLS: Larry Lujack was late drive time, 2PM to 6PM, IIRC in the early '70s, then was the morning drive time guy in the late '70s - early '80s. And Dick Biondi was hired and fired a few times from WLS a few times. Again, IIRC, he was fired once after an on air joke when miniskirts came out. He cracked that "If skirts get any shorter, women will have 2 more cheeks to powder" and, in the '60s, this was verboten. I still remember 1966 when Lou Christie came out with "Rhapsody in the Rain" which had, for the time, suggestive lyrics like "and in this car, our love went much too far..." and the good Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago went positively batsh!t and leaned on both WLS and WCFL to stop playing it. Well, such were the 1960s. Best regards as there aren't many of us who remember Bert Weinman anymore. (BTW, WLS is still in biz, but it's talk radio now. ;^(
Look at what you could get for your money back then.all you can buy used today.is high milage junk.all loaded up with computers and sensors and recalls.all most every make and model.is under recall.
This had to have been during the winter of 78-79. The oil embargo hit later that year and those long gas lines would have made it impossible for fill up those cars!
Notice how each of those cars LOOKED different from one another? Today's cars all seem to look alike. And the price! Each of those used cars were just a couple of years old at the time, and you could get one for less than $2500 - can you do that at a car lot today? If you find one, make sure it has an engine!
My sister (1958) and I (1956) grew up in Chicago (533 w 129th Place). We loved Saturday morning cartoons -- and the commercials. However, Sundays were somewhat crummy for us, as school was the next day. That said, we detested "Sunday commercials", including Linn Burton/Bert Weinman. Now, however, they smack of nostalgia, lol.
I recall that those Skylarks were rather large. It's amazing what passed for "compact" at the height of the Land Yacht Era. Nowadays, I equate "compact" with a Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, or Ford Focus.
Oh believe me, there are a LOT of $2488 cars still on the road around where I live in Arkansas !!! Problably some of the same kind in this old commercial.
