Long-Time SoCal Car Dealer Cal Worthington Gone At 92

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ocdart

ocdart

Inland Mopars Car Club
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If you grew up, or spent any time in Southern California or the West Coast, then you undoubtedly saw many car dealer advertising commercials with Cal Worthington and his "dog Spot", which was never a dog. Cal passed yesterday at 92 after watching football on TV with his family according to the announcement I saw today.
I wasn't aware of his background but, according to Wikipedia, Cal was a B-17 pilot with the 390th Bomber Group during WWII and flew 29 missions over Germany earning the Air Medal five times and the Distinguished Flying Cross which was presented to him by Gen. Jimmy Doolittle. He was discharged after the war as a Captain.
He moved to California in 1949 with a Hudson dealership and got started with commercials on early television. At his peak he had 29 dealerships in California, Arizona, Alaska, Nevada, Texas and Washington. Most have since been sold but the company still has dealerships in Anchorage, AK, Carlsbad and Long Beach, CA.
 
Wow. That's actually surprising he was still kicking! I grew up in South Gate where Worthington Dodge was located. Huge huge presence in our community. I recall all the corny "Go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal.." commercials back in the 70's. That's still when Mopars were the real deal!.....and cheap!

Cal loaned out some new Dodge trucks to the South Gate parade and I remember sitting in the back of one, going down the parade route (pop warner football team champs....whooohooo!). Ol' Cal was a 110% So. Cal. legend!!
 
Guess he ate 1 to many a bug ....

He has a ranch south of me that includes a race track.

They have an annual fund raiser on the ranch for a charity .

I worked for a Dodge dealer in Van Nuys back in the 70's and we did a dealer trade with him. We sent him a pristine Dart and they sent us a Dart that had a slashed dash pad. :wack:
 
Sorry to hear this. Cal was a Legend,along with his dog Spot.
I'll stand on my head,till my ears are turning red.
Very successful business man. He'll be missed.
 
Some of my favorite commercials growing up. The only "celebrity" I ever spoke to when I was a service rep 10 years ago when I started in this company. I couldn't stop talking about it for weeks. No one gets out alive, but still... another part of my childhood kinda goes with him.
 
I believe the first time I ever saw one of his commercial was in a Chevy Chase movie. It wasn’t till 1985 when I moved to Southern California and got to see them on the regular.

The lyrics to the Go See Cal song is part of the American lexicon.

I knew the lyrics to the song before I moved to California.

[ame]http://youtu.be/YxUbgWdBM98[/ame]
 
Shame.Loved his commercials. In the early and mid 70's,those ads were eye candy,to a car crazy kid.
 
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