Cal Worthington
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Calvin Coolidge Worthington (born November 27, 1920 in Shidler, Oklahoma ) is a well-known car dealer throughout the West Coast of the United States. He is best known for his unique radio and television advertisements for the Worthington Dealership Group. He was usually joined with his "Dog Spot", except that "Spot" was never a dog. Often, Spot is a tiger, or elephant or bear. Spot was officially retired in the mid 1980's.
According to a profile in the Sacramento Bee published in 1990, Worthington grossed $316.8 million in 1988, at the time making him the largest single owner dealership chain. He has sold automobiles since 1945 and owns a 24,000 acre ranch located in Orland, California, north of Sacramento. His advertising agency, named Spot Advertising after the dog, had Worthington as the only client, and spent $15 million on commercials, the most of any auto dealer at the time. He acts much differently off the screen than the zany, grinning cowboy in the car commercials, being described as low-key and quiet.
Early Life
Worthington grew up in a family of nine children and dropped out of school at the age of 12. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps at the age of 15. Worthington served in the United States Army in World War II, flying for the Army Air Corps where he was the aerobatics champion at Goodfellow Field in San Angelo, Texas, and served as second lieutenant. During the war, he served as a B-17 pilot with the 390th Bomber Group, flying 29 missions over Germany, and was discharged after the war as a captain. He was awarded the air medal five times as well as the distinguished flying cross for his service. He has also been in recent articles in flying magazines as the man who trained some of our nation's astronauts while in the service.
After leaving the Army, Worthington wanted to be a commercial pilot, but was stymied by the requirements at the time for a college degree. He sold his car for $500 to purchase a gas station, which proved a bust, but was able to sell it for the same amount he paid, an indication of future success in sales. He began to sell used cars in front of the Corpus Christi Post Office by making a folksy pitch when people got their mail. He moved to a dirt lot rented for $25, where he made a $500 profit one week by selling three cars, and decided this would be his career.
Professional Life
In 1950, Worthington moved to Huntington Park, California with a Hudson Motor Car dealership, and purchased time for a three hour live country music show on television every Saturday and Sunday. When television became more established, and sponsorship of entire programs was unfeasible, he went to doing commercials. The "dog" Spot came to life to counter a Chevrolet dealer in the San Fernando Valley who was using a large German shepherd as a prop. The first "dog" Spot was a gorilla that roared. Later, Spot became a killer whale from SeaWorld; a lion; an elephant; a goose that in a memorable appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, ruined his suit; and a tiger.
Worthington appeared as a car dealer in the 1973 film Save The Tiger in addition to numerous appearances on The Tonight Show. According to a spokesman for the Television Bureau of Advertising, Worthington "is probably the best known car dealer pitchman in television history."
Personal & Professional Difficulties
In 1979, Worthington divorced his wife, Barbara of 37 years. The same year he married Susan Henning, a former Miss Teen USA, swimsuit model, and aspiring actress. They divorced acrimoniously in 1986 amidst a palimony suit, charges that Worthington lived simultaneously with Barbara and Henning for seven years, and a demand that Worthington split up the ranch and his estimated $100 million net worth. The palimony suit was dismissed. He has two children with Barbara, Rod and Barbie, and two children with Henning, Calvin and Susie. He married disk jockey Bonnie Reese in 1995, approximately 40 years his junior, and has a son, Coldren Wilshire, with her.
Worthington has been the target of various legal actions. In 1978, the California Attorney General charged him with deceptive advertising, which Worthington settled without admitting guilt for $50,000. He signed a consent decree in 1986 and paid $60,000 due to charges of deceptive advertising. He claimed that the consent decree would hamper his style by increasing the size of fine print and forcing him to explain financing deals verbally instead of through on screen disclosures. In 1987, Worthington was ranked last in trustworthiness out of 16 public personalities in the Seattle, Washington area. In 1995, General Motors refused to give Worthington any additional franchises because of weak customer service ratings at his existing lots. In 2002, he appeared in advertisements opposing limits on carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles for the California Motor Car Dealers Association. To counter the negative publicity, Worthington went on a publicity campaign to turn around any negative perception. Worthington annually holds a fundraiser at his ranch in Northern California to raise money for the local hospital. He has been awarded the "keys" to numerous cities. One such example is Long Beach, California where the city sign bears his name on the 405 freeway. Today, all of his dealerships have turned around their negative image for the most part and boast one of the highest ratings in customer satisfaction.
Life Today
The Worthington Dealership Group has outlets in Carlsbad, California, Long Beach, California, Folsom, California, and Anchorage, Alaska. Dealerships that have been sold were located in Federal Way, Washington, Sacramento, California, Sugar Land, Texas, Phoenix, Arizona, and Claremont, California. He was one of the first to abandon the traditional stand alone dealership into "auto malls."
In addition to automobiles, Worthington owns ten ranches (including his headquarters), including the PX ranch in Nevada, once owned by Bing Crosby. As of 2002, he also owned three shopping centers and one office tower, grossing $600 million a year.
Pop-Culture References
In the 1989 Weird Al Yankovic film, UHF, a commercial is shown with a used car dealer named, Crazy Ernie who promises that if "no one comes down within the next 15 minutes and buys a car", he's going to "club a baby seal to make you a better deal". Yankovic, who grew up in Lynwood, California, more than likely was inspired by Worthington's commercials.
This is also similar to the 'Crazy Gideon' commercials.
Sources
- Woodroffe, Pam. Seattle Times April 6, 1986, "Cal Worthington's 'depressed'"
- Hintzberger, John. Seattle Times April 15, 1986, "Trustworthy or Trustless? Poll rates people in the public eye"
- Stanley, Don. Sacramento Bee January 14, 1990, "The Dealer: By Golly, Cal Worthington Went From Dirt-Poor Ranch Hand to Millionaire Car Czar"
- Rivenburg, Roy. Los Angeles Times June 3, 2002, "Spot's Co-Star"