1960's Muscle Cars & Drag Racing; Home Of The Strange, Land Of The Bizarre

I was spending a few hours yesterday putting the finishing touches on my book proposal that's being emailed out this week. No, this is not a selfish plug for the next coffee-table photo book on muscle cars. I emailed a copy to an impartial third party to check grammar, how it flowed, the formatting, the sample pictures that were included, the works. Their eyebrows were raised when they read the portion of the email that stated, "Remember two things; One, it was the '60's. Two, it is rated PG."

Comments went back and forth for a good portion of the afternoon as details were discussed and hammered out. When all was said and done, they liked what they read and added the following: "Wow - there was some weird shit back then. You couldn't do that today in regards to advertising." Nope, you can't. Not by a long shot. It still takes a number of people by surprise; In today's world where nothing seems to shock us anymore on television and radio, (the internet is it's own entity, so it can't be counted), that print advertising for muscle cars and the antics of drag racing from the late '60's and early 70's, here in the U.S., were more outrageous when comparing to modern times.

The first thing we have to remember is that the late '60's were a completely different time on so many fronts when compared to today. Never mind the psychedelic factor - the gaps between men and women when it came to money and purchasing power were disproportionate especially when it came to the automotive market. As a result, just about all muscle cars were advertised strictly towards men. There were some notable exceptions throughout the era; like ads for the '63 split-window Corvette and the '71 Cuda. Be that as it may, there were still some racy ads as well as promotions. And some bordered on the strange and bizarre.

Remember how conservative AMC used to be in the mid 60's? They're the ones that ran the classic ad where the "only race Rambler is interested in is the human race". However, by the very late 60's, little 'ol AMC teamed up with Playboy magazine and not only gave away a brand new Javelin to the Playmate of the Year, but also used Playboy Bunnies in certain advertising campaigns that appeared in newsletters that went out to AMX club members. Fifty cents a year never bought you so much eye candy.

Dodge also had it's muscle car club called the Scat Pack. Aside from the usual advertising pertaining to their latest muscle cars with the bumblebee stripes, they offered cool merchandise like jackets, patches, posters, literature, and more. But one of the more truly bizarre items was offered in 1970 - called the Scat Pack tickler. When you first look at the ad, it's a little confusing. The tickler, in fact was a small piece of jewelry that was pinned near the bottom hem on a dress, so that the small ball or bead at the end of the chain "tickled" the girls leg. And we won't even mention the expression on the woman's face. Yeah, we know - welcome to the 70's. The confusing part however, is the enlargement of the tickler that the girl appears to be holding. You have to read the print to realize that it's just a small piece of jewelry. The photo makes it look like a large Victorian-era sex toy.

Drag racing was really no different than muscle car advertising - speed and sex sold. While George Hurst made a star out of Linda Vaughn who was a staple at every major NHRA and AHRA event for decades, it was "Jungle" Jim Liberman who invented the occupation of what's now known as the "back up girl" in this particular motorsport. It goes without question that Liberman's back up girl, one Pam Hardy, put the "hot” in hot pants (what little there was of them at times) never mind her occasional see-through tops. In the nitro-fueled funny car circus, Pam became the gal who the took the mundane act of directing the driver in the backing up of a funny car a total of five feet into a show equal to, if not better than, the race itself. At times, it bordered on exhibitionism. All that, for better or worse, went away by the late 70's as more rules and sponsorship took over the track and the sport.

There is a saying where if you remember the 60's, you didn't live it. However, when it came to muscle cars and drag racing, high performance fans would probably disagree with that.

Until next time, peace out.
Dave