Providing history, asking for history

[Gwendolyn Ann Smith <gwen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ya'll,

I'm sure some get tired of this stuff, but well, I'm still trying to pull 
together some '64 American Motors history, and I figure that this is 
probably the only place to ask.  I'll also provide some of what I *do* 
have already.

Specifically, I'm trying to get a better idea of what and how AMC 
promoted their cars/products/innovations during the 1964 Model Year.  
It's a spot where many of my interests combine, being a '64 Rambler 
owner, a bit of a history buff, and someone who was trained in marketing 
and graphic design.  Also, I am drumming up more content for the ol' 
website.

I assume they either had "modern" television commercials (though I've not 
seen any examples of such) and/or "branding" during the Danny Kaye Show 
(also something I've never seen copies of anywhere).  They did fairly 
extensive print advertising, particularly early in a model year.  They 
also did a lot of radio spots: from the examples I've heard, they were 
likely produced by American Motors, with space allowed for a local 
promotion "tagline" at the end of the ad.  Still very common today. They 
also were no stranger to press releases, in an attempt to drum up 
interest in their products.

Monthly, this breaks down as follows:

September 25th, 1963:
First press releases go out to the media, touting the new cars.

October 1963:
Start of new model year, with dealer announcement in Chicago, Illinois.  
This announcement included the "Goin' Great" broadway-style presentation 
and a theme movie.  Dealers were also provided the soundtrack to "Goin' 
Great" for in-dealership play as part of a Dealership Training Release.  
Further, dealers could arrange for publicity photos of them with top AMC 
brass at the Chicago roll-out.

American Motors News Illustrated does an issue dedicated to the new model 
year, complete with full color photos of each model and special features. 
 Much of the content matches the dealership brochures for 1964.  These 
magazines were provided to the dealership by American Motors, with a 
customized header promoting the specific dealership: the dealer would 
then distribute these to their customers.

November 1963:
The Rambler Parts and Technical Guide also promotes the new cars and 
features in this bimonthly (every two months) booklet again printed by 
American Motors, and distributed by dealers to local garages.

December 1963:
Another American Motors produced product goes out to the dealers: this 
time, it's a 1964 Calendar, marked "Seasons Greetings from your Rambler 
Dealer."  It also features a local dealer overprint, and presumably was 
sent to customers in a similar fashion to the American Motors News 
Illustrated issues.  Each features the standard images of the 1964 model 
year cars.

January 1964:
AMC starts their "$3,000,000 Surprise Party" promotion, featuring Danny 
Kaye and a large list of possible prizes. This requires that a card be 
brought in to the dealership from the magazines that carried the 
advertisement (Life had them, likely others), and checked in the "Magic 
Ray" machine. This is where all those "Danny Kaye - Presented by your 
Rambler Dealer" albums come from: it was "ninth prize."

March 1964:
(This may have happened in February: maybe someone can pin this down).  
The American Motors Tarpon is shown at the Chicago Auto Show, on American 
Motors' "Carrousel."  Additional showings include the New York Auto Show 
(April) and the Detroit Auto Show (??).  Also shown was the 1964 
"Marquesa" (largely a 1964 Ambassador) and the 1964 "Westerner" wagon 
(and idea initially floated with regional Metropolitan concepts, later 
used with the regional Rebel wagons).

April 1, 1964:
The "Typoon" with its new "Torque Command" 232 engine is touted in a 
press release.  The car began sales in late April.

May 1964:
Rambler promotes both its win in the Mobil Economy Run, and the 3,000,000 
Rambler rolling off the assembly line. Dealers also have a "Rambler 
Owner's Month" promotion, pushing for used car trade-ins.  Likewise, the 
"Spring Selling Spree" is used to promote new ownership of Rambler cars.

American Motors skips on the 1964 New York World's Fair (Ford used the 
event to promote the Mustang, and other car companies promoted their 
wares in the Fair's "Transportation Pavilion."  American Motors did 
advertise in the official guidebook, but nowhere else on the fair grounds.

June 1964:
??

July 1964:
??

August 1964:
The "Official Rambler Dealer Clean-Up Sale" begins, in order to move out 
1964 stock.

September 1964:
Most promotion at this point begins to focus on the 1965 model year, 
released in October.

Now then -- what I'd love to find is some of the hole filling.  What sort 
of summer promotions did American Motors push?  What promotions did I 
miss?  

I know that American Motors also started to push some concepts with a 
Rotary engine late in 1964 (an idea they kept working on 'til the Pacer, 
I believe), but I've not located anything specific.  Further, I know 
there were some concept cars built on '64 chassis (including a possible 
AMX-type concept), but not part of the '64 auto show line-up.  

Also, I'd love to find out what other things the company did to make sure 
their dealers had all the needed to sell those cars.  They provided 
filmstrips, sales kits, and so on -- but was there any other dealer 
training, particularly dealer service training going on at this time?

If there is any resources you might have (piles of press releases, other 
AM News Illustrateds, etc.) I'd love to hear about 'em.

Cheers,
Gwen Smith
(Who now knows just how big & well-illustrated that HCC article will be!)

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(O|O) =RAMBLER= (O|O) Gwen Smith * gwen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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