92. RIP

Cal Worthington Dead -- Famed Car Dealer Dies at 92 | TMZ.com

 

Yeah, he started looking kinda' frail here in the last few years.

I wonder if there has ever been anyone that made more money in the car dealership business.

Dummy would know!

Pop

 

That whole "Go See Cal" thing takes on a different meaning now.

 

That's too bad. Been living with the commercials all thirteen years of my life in SoCal. RIP Cal!

 

I remember his commercials from my teenage years.

Jim

 

As with many of these old fellers, there's more to his history than I would have figured. 29 B17 missions for example. Quite a life.

 

Roger Penske and Bruton Smith would give him a run for his money (so to speak)

 

Y'all didn't read this in the papers.

After WWII ended, Cal came home to OK, bought a two-bit gas station with 2 old style glass reservoir pumps. Coupla months later a new 'Super Service' station opened a block away.

Cal hunkered down in the mud bemoaning. Coupla months later, Cal found a sucker, sold the station to a former US Navy Commander. He didn't fare any better than Cal did.

Cal moved to CA and opened a Hudson Dealership @ 2771 E. Slauson Avenue in Huntington Park. When Hudson folded, Cal switched to selling Dodges.

Circa 1971, Cal bought out all of Ralph Williams' Ford/Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge dealerships in AZ/AK/CA/WA, but over extended himself, lost all but two (Long Beach/Anchorage).

When the economy improved, Cal opened a coupla dozen new stores.

Early 1980's: Cal hired a ghost writer to help him write his autobiography. Writer was an idiot, copied verbatim what Cal told him, than had book published in paperback.

1986: Ford partsguy looking thru piles of junk located on 2nd floor @ Long Beach parts dept, found 100's of cartons with 1000's of these paperback books in them. Probably still there today.

btw: Autobiography sez 36 missions over Germany. The USAAF flew mainly daytime bombing raids, while the RAF flew at night. Guess who suffered the most losses?

btw part II: I worked for Cal and for Ralph-twice, so I watched the commercials being filmed. Tuesday evening at Ralph's, the dog "Storm" was rented, Chick Lambert was a hopeless sot.

Hours before filming, two porters drove to Marina del Rey where Chick lived on his yacht to sober him up. Ralph didn't want Chick to drive as he had already totaled two new demo's, both Chrysler's.

It was interesting to watch the filming, cuz one never knew beforehand who would P on the tires, Chick, Storm or both!

 

Great stories, Bill.

Keep 'em coming!

Funny stuff!

Pop

 

Bill, saw your post on the 9th--happy birthday a couple days late. You feeling ok? You aren't really fixing to "go see Cal" now are you?

Hope all is well.

 

Ralph Williams was a well reknown crook....I remember my dad worked in the San Fernando Valley, one of the secretaries had bought a new mustang...had nothing but repeated engine problems.....eventually she was told she was somehow responsible.......my dad (a mechanical engineer- aerospace) went out to check the vehicle....he got a couple other engineers with test equipment out there.....determined the cylinders on this "new' car were "out of round"....long story short, one of the dealer mechanics squeeled that they had pulled a used engine out of another car and dropped in the "new mustang".....and there was a "side-business".....

There were a lot of tales like this..... IIRR, After Ralph Williams got 20 years for fraud, when he came out he initially went to work for Cal...but that only lasted a couple of months an he was "off the property".....

Cal also discovered the way to make $ was in the finance business.....which eventually led to be his "prime interest" (no pun intended) with the dealerships being the "portal" for the customers.

 

Ralph never worked for Cal and AFAIK, Ralph never spent a second in any jail.

Ralph owned Rudolph Ford in Seattle, was indicted for fraud, but the case has gone nowhere, as once this occurred, Ralph has stayed away from WA, as he's subject to arrest to this day.

Ralph began in the biz in the LA area as a finance manager at College Rambler, located near SC, then went to work for Frank Taylor Ford in downtown LA.

Taylor's newspaper ads crowed: "No Sunday Selling so we can give employees a day off!"

Uh huh, the Catholic Church owned the property, in their lease, forbid Taylor from opening up on Sunday. When the property was sold, Taylor wasted no time opening up on Sunday!

Ralph married actor Leon Ames' daughter, Ames was also a longtime Ford dealer. Gossett-Ames Ford located in Studio City, then in 1962, Ames built a new store in Encino.

Before Ralph bought out Ames, Ames changed the name to Ralph Williams Ford, as many of Ames' actor friends were being screwed by Ralph, ruining his reputation.

When the new signage went up, Ralph's Markets sued Ralph, saying the R was a direct copy of their R. Ralph lost in court, had to change the R.

1967: Barge with 300 new Mustangs sank in the Mississippi River. Ralph bought all of them, had them shipped to Encino. Used car shop across the street from new car store spent months fixing them up, then all were sold.

Customers soon returned, complaining about a foul smelling odor. Used car detail dept was never able to solve the problem, customers never received any sort of refund, were stuck with the cars.

Fellow that ran the detail dept later became half owner of Cerritos Ford (Ralph had nothing to do with it).

Ralph had 'front-men' running Ford dealerships in Huntington Beach, Woodland Hills and 'Ron's Chrysler-Plymouth' in Downey. Ron indicted for fraud, stood trial, lost...served 10 years in the Big House.

There's an owner of a Ford dealership operating today that also served time in the Big House for fraud, but this occurred in the '50's when he was a Dodge-Plymouth dealer.

Owner had a well know radio jingle: " ******** he's the greatest!" Was also a sponsor along with Jim Clinton Clothing stores, Eddie Grivertz Furs...of the Oscar Levant TV show.

I noticed recently in a full page ad in the LA Times Sports section that the longtime dealership name was recently changed to the name of the owner. But, I ain't sayin' who or where located.

Y'all wanna know LA dealership history, I'm the one to ask, was raised in this biz, cuz my family owned Olds/Cadillac/Mercedes-Benz/Citroen dealerships. But, I'm really a Packard nut!

 

Hate to tell ya this.....he was a guest at the CDC for many years, my uncle had a dealership right down the street from the Williams Ford lot and was jumping for joy when they convicted him!

 

Why would you hate to tell me? I have no love for Ralph, Cal, or anyone else that works in this biz.

What state are you referring to? Ralph had dealerships in AK-AZ-CA-TX-WA and probably other states as well.