Storm was the dogs name in Ralph's ads. "My dog Spot" was Cal Worthington's name for every animal that appeared in his commercials, which parodied Ralph's.
Cal's first new car dealership (Hudson) was located at 2771 E. Slauson Avenue in Huntington Park. In 1955, Cal switched to selling Dodge's at this location.
In late 1969, Ralph Williams changed the name of his Encino dealership to Four Seasons Ford, then moved the store to Long Beach, the name then became Queen City Ford.
Ralph (at that time under inditment in CA & WA due to sales improprieties), sold all his CA, WA & AK Ford and Chry/Ply dealerships to Cal, who soon went bankrupt due to over expansion.
Cal was able to hold onto the Dodge store in HP...later rebuilt his empire. Today he owns 10 dealerships, a dozen ranches and lives in NorCal.
Cal is a down to earth good-ol-boy (born in OK), despite being an 'in your face' car dealer (his son Rod is a pal a mine). During WWII, he was a B-17 pilot, flew 36 bombing missions over Germany.
Rod got a "wild hair" decided to go onto the carbiz, bought the Ford dealership in Blythe. The dealership was located on a side street in a rundown former airplane hanger.
Cal flew into Blythe in his private plane to look the store over. Was picked up at the airport (a dirt landing strip out in the middle of nowhere) by yours truely.
Cal got out of the truck (1986 Ranger Super Cab), took a look, shook his head, never said a word, got back in the truck, then I drove him back to the airport.
I worked for Cal in Long Beach in 1986 as an "outside wholesale parts" salesman. Despite the excellent salary and the free use of the Ranger, it was just too damn far to drive from WLA.
I was working weekends in Blythe (doing a parts return termination, SOP when a dealership changed owners). The parts dept was a disaster, former managers had never returned anything to FoMoCo for credit.
What space there was a stacked high with old warranty parts that should have been disposed of years before.
Rod wanted me to go to work there as the parts manager, but...there was no way-none that I would move to Blythe, a carbunkle on the backside of humanity.
