Before she was TV mom Carol Brady, Florence Henderson was an Oldsmobile spokeswoman. Here she is to sing the praises of the sporty 1962 Starfire.
If you’re a child of the Sixties, you remember Gary Moore as the host of the evergreen TV game show I’ve got a Secret. But from 1958 to 1964, he was also the star of The Gary Moore Show, his popular Tuesday night comedy-variety hour. Likewise, you probably know Florence Henderson as TV mom Carol Brady on The Brady Bunch, but she first made her name as a successful Broadway singer and actress. Both celebrities enjoyed long-running associations with Oldsmobile, and in this spot from The Gary Moore Show, Ms. Henderson joins in to sing the praises of the jazzy new 1962 Starfire.
The first Olds Starfire was a 1953 Motorama show car, then became a luxury version of the 98 convertible for 1954 and soon proliferated across the 98 line. But for ’62 the badge was applied to a glamorous personal-luxury job based on Oldsmobile’s shorter B-body 123-inch wheelbase. In this iteration, the Starfire was to Oldsmobile as the Grand Prix was to Pontiac, you might say.
The 394 CID Rocket V8 was now producing 345 hp, but in our video the spotlight is on the memorable cockpit with its leather-trimmed bucket seats and console, tachometer, and floor shifter—still eyecatching even now. This Starfire was available as both a Convertible or a hardtop Sport Coupe, a smart move by GM’s Lansing division as the hardtop outsold the ragtop by a five-to-one-margin. Video below.
From a time when Hollywood stars had some credibility. I’d run away from a car touted by todays stars.
I never pay the slightest attention to what any “celebrity” says about anything when they are being paid to say it, then or now. I’ve always found it amusing that people are swayed by things like that.
Same here, Barry. In this case I can overlook the use of Florence because she was relatively unknown at the time, and being used more as a model than as a celebrity spokesperson.
It’s especially amusing when local “celebrities” (and I use the term lightly) are used to promote things. I’d lived where I currently live for 15 years or so when I started seeing a TV commercial for a new subdivision with a woman saying, “I’m Carolyn Long, and I call Vicenza Village ‘home’!” Which led me to post on social media, “Who is Carolyn Long, and why should I care where she lives?” Turns out a native of the area informed me that Carolyn was a former anchor on the local news – years before I and over 50% of the local population lived in the area.
So yeah, I’m not particularly influenced by celebrity endorsements. Now that college athletics is allowing student athletes to enter NIL (name, image, likeness) contracts with businesses and be paid for it, it’s even more absurd. Do I really care that a 20-year-old college kid – who happens to be good at throwing a ball – is standing next to a certain brand of truck?