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Cal Worthington Dead At 92

T

Thomps2525

Guest
From 1950 to 1959, Cal Worthington was a country DJ on KXLA. The station became top-40 KRLA and Cal Worthington became the most well-known automobile dealer in the United States. At one time, he owned 29 dealerships. In 1971, Worthington started doing commercials with "Spot." His commercials were parodies of the ads of competitors Ralph Williams and Fletcher Jones, who often posed with puppies that were available for adoption. At first, Worthington used dogs, then started using snakes, frogs, tigers, hippos, bears, elephants and other animals, always referring to each animal as "My dog Spot." He composed the jingle that ended with "Go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal." He became so well-known, he even made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Worthington had a goose in his lap and when the goose defecated, Carson said, "Be glad it wasn't the elephant." :)

Cal Worthington died September 8 at his ranch near Orland, California. He was 92.

http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-cal-worthington-20130910,0,3935712.story
 
In the category of misunderstood song (or jingle) lyrics, I remember a poster on this website saying that when he was a young child, he thought "Go See Cal" was "***** Cow."

A few years ago, I went to visit a friend in Anchorage, Alaska. There, as big as life, downtown - to the extent that Anchorage has a "downtown," was Worthington Ford. I was somehow comforted by that.
 
He was an American original. Loved his commercials when I was a kid.

I didn't know he originally used real dogs (maybe before my time?) but I always liked the gag that the dog was actually never a dog, but something crazy like a tiger or elephant.

He was good at always changing the lyrics to the same jingle too. Keeping the same unforgettable jingle with different lyrics, impelling the viewer to pay attention instead of tuning it out due to repetition was genius! Best of both worlds - fresh content and yet completely recognizable jingle.

"If you want to buy a truck, and you need to save a buck, Go See Cal, Go See Cal, Go See Cal..."
 
I don't remember that Cal ever actually used dogs, just chimps, elephants, bears, etc. It was a parody of one of his competitors - Ralph Williams Ford. Williams' shill - Chick Lambert always appeared on commercials with "your friend and mine, the dog Storm."

This is the only clip of Lambert that I know about - appearing for one of Williams' dealerships in the Bay Area. Obviously, Chick was having some fun here, and never thought the clip would see the light of day. Notice Storm sitting on the hood of the Ford station wagon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkr5SOxjihI
 
Wow!! I honestly didn't think he was still alive. I certainly remember those commercials in the late 70's and early 80's....***** Cow, ***** Cow.....Or actually, Go See Cal, Go See Cal.

Sorry to hear this.
 
I wonder what will happen to his empire of car dealerships, now that he's passed on to that great car dealership in the sky.
 
At one time, Worthington owned 29 auto dealerships. At the time of his death---while watching a football game on tv---he still owned dealerships in Long Beach, Carlsbad (California) and Anchorage.

Of course there would be a Cal Worthington website known as "My Dog Spot." Of course!

http://www.mydogspot.com/
 
Did he do a movie or TV cameo? I also remember Ralph Williams who was on the TV from the 60s to the late 80s Is he still around? i could not pull up anything on the net.
 
Keen on becoming a pilot, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942 and flew B-17 Flying Fortresses on 29 bombing missions over Germany. He left the military with the rank of captain, a Distinguished Flying Cross and hopes of becoming a commercial pilot, but lack of a college degree disqualified him.

Rod Worthington is Cal's son, and like his dad, has a real love of flying planes (Cal was an airborne traffic reporter in the 60s). Rod turned it into a career, using the handle "Captain Rod" and doing traffic reports from a Cessna 150 for various Southern California stations in the early 1970s. In the early 1980s, he bought his own station in Needles and set up the studios in a Ford dealership
 
MC said:
Did he do a movie or TV cameo? I also remember Ralph Williams who was on the TV from the 60s to the late 80s Is he still around? i could not pull up anything on the net.
Click to expand...

No obit in the L.A. Times archives, which I'd expect. Ralph got himself in a lot of legal trouble over the years...the most recent I can find is after he lost his own dealerships and was General Manager of Wilson Ford in Huntington Beach. Always deceptive business practices. The state suspended his dealer's license twice before 1989, which is the most recent stuff I can find on him.

If he's alive, it looks from the legal docs I can find that he'd be 89 years old.
 
I was watching The Office late last night on KCOP and during one of the breaks, like clockwork, a Cal Worthington ad came on. Cal was still doing the voice over and pitching the sale prices on various cars in the Worthington fleet. He must have had a week or two of commercial load taped in advance. Since by then I knew he had passed on I listened closer to Cal's delivery and it certainly sounded like age had caught up to him. His delivery wasn't as peppy but his down home folksy timber was still there sort of. It reminded me of Lee Greenwood of Bedspread Emporium when in one of his last ads he looked like the cryptkeeper.

Still, it was kind of weird to have Cal pitching cars from the grave.
 
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In a letter printed in today's Times, a man noted that a 1965 Cal Worthington television ad began with the words "I hope you're enjoying the show." When Cal recorded the commercial, he had no way of knowing that the scheduled movie would be pre-empted for coverage of the Watts riots. He never again began a commercial with those words.
 
LARadioRewind said:
In a letter printed in today's Times, a man noted that a 1965 Cal Worthington television ad began with the words "I hope you're enjoying the show." When Cal recorded the commercial, he had no way of knowing that the scheduled movie would be pre-empted for coverage of the Watts riots. He never again began a commercial with those words.
Click to expand...


I smell an urban legend. I think stations went without commercials for their riot coverage.
 
Robnoxious said:
His delivery wasn't as peppy but his down home folksy timber was still there sort of. It reminded me of Lee Greenwood of Bedspread Emporium when in one of his last ads he looked like the cryptkeeper.

Still, it was kind of weird to have Cal pitching cars from the grave.
Click to expand...
Lee Greenwood IOU
Al Greenwood Bedspread KING!
 
All I remember of Ralph Williams is that he was fairly large, always wore a suit, and began every commercial with "Hi, friends---Ralph Williams, owner and operator of Ralph Williams Ford."

And I never considered myself to be his friend.
 
That gave me my best laugh of the month. I wonder what Williams thought of the parody? And where was that ad ever shown? At a roast or a stag party or maybe an auto dealers convention?
 
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