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Jeff Dunhams The Cars That Drove Us S01E08 Wait Thats Factory H 264
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00:00Howdy folks Hank Dunham at Dunham Family Motors and today I'm here with my boys
00:04Danny and Jeff. Boys say hi to the nice folks at home. Hi. All right fellas what
00:10do you want to be when you grow up? Danny? I want to run this dealership. Oh that's
00:15great. And little Jeff how about you? I want to be Ventura Quest. Son I've told
00:21you before you're not gonna amount to anything doing that. Now put that doll
00:24away. You want to sell cars that's what you want to do. Let's show the folks what
00:28we have. This episode isn't about what you need in a car. It's about what you
00:35want. And for automakers the sky's the limit. Not just the radio. Not just
00:41leather. We're talking options that make you say wait that's factory? If they
00:48could dream it they could build it and they did. Welcome to the wild world of
00:53factory options. And finally the creme de la creme of our dealership this week the
00:581954 Kaiser Darren. This is a rare beauty right here. Wait until you take a
01:02peek at those doors. It'll make you say wow that's factory? Come on down to Dunham
01:07Family Mortars where you're family too. Right boys? It's not that bad. Hey that was pretty good.
01:18Throughout time humanity has been obsessed with getting places using anything but their
01:23own two feet. We've tried all kinds of things. Until finally the greatest
01:29invention of all time. The automobile.
01:34Moron. These are the cars that drove us.
01:40Ah the 1950s. A glorious time when every lawn was trimmed with military precision. Every
01:47fence was white and picketed. And safely within the confines of that fence were
01:52exactly 2.5 well-adjusted children frolicking in domestic bliss. Yes sir the
01:59American dream is alive and well. Vacuum sealed in suburbia and powered by
02:04a healthy fear of communism. But while dad waxes the Plymouth and mom starts the laundry
02:13something cosmic was unfolding over those cookie cutter roof lines. Space. Yes space. The final frontier.
02:22Now featuring Soviet metal beach balls like Sputnik beeping ominously as they orbited overhead.
02:28You are hearing the actual signals transmitted by the earth circling satellite. Sparking a full-blown
02:34American innovation panic. And that same feverish excitement made its way back down
02:39to earth showing up in kitchens living rooms and of course car showrooms. This new futuristic technology
02:46that you were seeing in the outside world you needed to have that stuff in your car. It was a
02:51vision of
02:52what the automotive future could look like. Fueled by the same engineering bravado that launched monkeys
02:57into orbit the automotive space race often pushed creativity into overdrive resulting in designs concepts
03:04and factory options that felt more sci-fi than street legal. In the early days of the auto industry
03:12car makers weren't aiming for the masses. Automobiling as it was called was a hobby practiced by rich people.
03:20$12,000 for a car. This you gotta see. It was seen as something manly and you're an automobilist. Oh
03:27he's gone
03:2850 miles an hour. As cars became more affordable manufacturers found a new way to cater to the rich.
03:34Options come into the fold right there. If it didn't involve accelerating or braking it probably started
03:41as a factory option. Automatic transmissions, power steering came in, air conditioning became very
03:47popular, very common. In some cases paying for options was the equivalent of volunteering for a test
03:52flight. Volkswagen made a gas heater. You'd light it with a match and you'd use gas from your engine
03:59to heat the inside of the car. Yeah, what could go wrong there? Eventually heaters became standard.
04:05But ah, not that gassy VW one of course. There were also concepts designed to meet the needs of the
04:11moment. Some of the car configurations that were developed were really around the emerging mobility
04:17of Americans. It was a time when you know motels were starting to appear but there would be long
04:23stretches of American highway where you couldn't really find a place to sleep. Now you can sleep in
04:27any car but in 1936 Nash came up with a way for the whole family to take a nap just
04:33so long as it
04:34wasn't barreling down the road. You can even get your Nash equipped with complete twin beds. So now on
04:38long road trips you just sleep in your car. And road trips would be on the rise thanks to the
04:43Interstate Highway Act of 1956. The suburbs were getting popular. No one lives in cities. So now people
04:50were starting to commute to work. Some suburbanites were even buying two cars. And at that point the sky
04:55was the limit. Putting just about anything into a car seemed like a good idea. You know what was a
05:00big
05:00thing plug in electric shavers for your car. The GM in-car electric shaver. Plugs into your life.
05:06You can shave while you're driving. Brooming while driving. Safe time. You know you're looking in a
05:11mirror and get rear-ended. That is if the potholes didn't get you first.
05:17As more Americans got behind the wheel roads filled up and so did the hours spent in cars that had
05:23little
05:23to offer in the way of entertainment. Today we're used to the concept of having all kinds of great music
05:29in
05:29our car. But back then you pretty much just had an AM radio. Oh yes, nothing says I'm driving under
05:35power lines like AM radio. But for those who could afford a little more, Chrysler had an alternative.
05:41Plymouth has everything. Even a highway hi-fi record player. Chrysler had something called the highway
05:48hi-fi. And it was the first time that you could take music out of your house and put it
05:53in your car,
05:54which was at that time obviously an actual record player. Although you couldn't actually use your own
05:59records. It only worked with proprietary records from Colombia, so you were also very limited on the music
06:05that you could play. For those who wanted to hear something other than the soothing swoon of Percy Faith
06:10and his orchestra, Salvation wouldn't arrive until the 1960 Dodge Polera and the dealer installed Chrysler
06:17approved RCA Auto Victrola. What was great about this one was you could pick out your own records. It's a
06:23stack of
06:241445s from your own record library. Listen to that. Now that they had tunes, it was time to focus on
06:33the
06:33real innovations. Car manufacturers were simply experimenting. If somebody had an idea to put
06:38something in a car, somebody said well let's do it. Let's put a bar in a 1957 Eldorado Brougham. Name
06:44the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. Engineers were handed a free reign. And free-flowing American whiskey all around.
06:50In all fairness, vices in the 50s were different. Luckies, viceroys, camels were just what the doctor ordered.
06:57This resulted in a boom in aftermarket cigarette accessories. You're driving along, you press the
07:03button, the cigarette roll down, the thing would light it, and then the stupidest part, it would flick
07:11the cigarette up and you catch it, you know. Just the idea that you're in a car, the machine is
07:17throwing
07:18with cigarettes. But nothing goes better with cigarettes than coffee. Volkswagen enthusiasts
07:25know about the esoteric options that could be had on the Beetle, one of which is often talked about
07:31is the coffee maker. Oh, the Hertella Auto Cafe Machine. A coffee maker that mounted to the dash of
07:39your car. You're out here engineering portable kettles, but no one thought just to put in a cup holder.
07:46And while astronauts sip from high-tech Capri Suns, we Earthlings prefer a place to park our easily
07:52spillable drinks. So it's hard to imagine there was a time without cup holders. After three and a half
07:58decades of improvising... We came up with a doctor of cupology. We had cup holders that could hold anything
08:05and would clamp it like claws of a crab. You go to Europe, a cup holder holds a cup. Here
08:10it's got to
08:10hold a 44 ounce big cup. Now that's what I call a large. As Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard became
08:18the
08:19first men to voyage into space, their bravery inspired engineers and dreamers here on Earth to devise new
08:25and exciting ways to traverse the land. But one car dared to go beyond the land. With a flick of
08:31a switch,
08:32it becomes a boat. The Amphicar was marketed to the adventurous American outdoorsman. Lyndon Johnson,
08:40the president, made them famous. He had one on his Texas ranch. And whenever Khrushchev or world leaders
08:45would come, he'd take them and ride. And then he'd press the brakes. Oh, oh, oh, we've got to go
08:49in the
08:49water. Oh my god, the brakes don't work. And he would go in the water and they would go, oh
08:52my god,
08:53what's going on? And then they'd go across the lake, whatever. Yeah, that was his big trick.
08:57These themed cars were made for a very specific customer. But there's another kind of themed
09:01car, one that didn't have a target demo. In fact, it wasn't even for sale. Well,
09:06a concept car is usually an engineer or a designer's idea of vehicle of the future.
09:13We're all set for auto control. There were a series of three concepts
09:17back in the 1950s, Firebird 1, Firebird 2, and Firebird 3, which were coincidentally
09:22all powered by turbid engines. Everything had an aeronautical look. And the idea that you could
09:28have an airplane on the ground that flew at, quote, airplane speeds, well, that was just unbelievable.
09:35While the first Firebird was a single seater, the second featured two rows of seats,
09:40perfect for families that wanted to feel like they were heading into combat together.
09:44Then there's the Firebird 3. Firebird 3 from General Motors, with twin plastic canopies,
09:49it was brimming with concepts that would foreshadow things that are still maybe headed to production.
09:55Get ready for a ride in Firebird 3. Full autonomous driving. Want to sit back and relax?
10:01Set in the speed you want to drive. And switch over to automatic guidance. Release the stick. And
10:08Firebird 3 is on its own. Wait, a self-driving car in the 50s? Good luck with that. Considering this
10:15is
10:16what a computer looked like in 1959, you might be thinking, It's not possible. It's physically impossible.
10:22Computing technology, on the other hand, was coming along in leaps and bounds. But still,
10:27well, in those days, America's space program was using something much more reliable. The computing power
10:34of women. You have a brain that I can work with. But meanwhile, the auto industry seemed to ignore
10:40women's intelligence and appeal instead to their vanity. A bunch of guys figured they designed a car for
10:46women. Think of it as a series of car options for women bundled into one lovely vehicle. Designed entirely
10:53by men. And what did the husbands in Detroit name this beautiful car for their blushing brides?
10:59The Dodge La Femme. That's great. It's French. It was just a regular Dodge. They offered colors like
11:06pastel pink and white. They had a rosebud interior. It even came with a parasol and matching raincoat and a
11:14purse. Came with this purse. You open the purse up and look at the stuff that's inside. What woman
11:20wouldn't love this? Lipstick. Oh, a lighter because back in the 50s, everybody smoked. The change purse.
11:26Oh, and the compact. I wonder if there's any makeup left in it. Hold on, let me see. Yes, there
11:31is.
11:31It's powder. Okay, there. I actually did that. Oh my gosh, what did I do? There's powder everywhere now.
11:40It's the 50s. Is it carcinogenic? Hold on.
11:47As the 1960s moved into the 1970s, style became important again. Leading the charge. American
11:55Motors, they were the fourth largest car company in America. You know, the big three,
12:00and then there's America Motors. They needed something to help their brand stand out. If you
12:05had to compete for the three biggest car companies in America, what would you do?
12:10So American Motors thought, how can we, how can we make these a little fancy? Maybe we'll get
12:14together with some fancy designer like Gucci. Gucci designed an interior for the AMC Hornet. It was
12:20the perfect blend of European and American. It was pretty successful. Turns out, the unlikely pairing
12:25made a lot of sense. It got a lot of people into AMC dealerships, so they reached out to other
12:30designers.
12:31As a result, the world's greatest designers weren't headed to Milan, Paris, or even New York.
12:36They were headed to Detroit. The AMC Javelin, a really outrageous
12:40looking muscle car, had an interior designed by Pierre Cardin, and there was an AMC Matador
12:46with an Oleg Cassini designed interior. On the other end were the Levi's collaborations that AMC also did.
12:54So you could get a car that actually was upholstered with denim. Well, they look like denim seats,
12:59but the actual denim didn't meet the fire safety protocols, and so they actually made spun nylon.
13:05So this is dyed nylon, but it feels a lot like denim. But then, look at this. You got the
13:09tags,
13:10just like on the Levi's jeans, and then you got the buttons. It's just goofy fun.
13:15Jeans are all about comfort, but when you want to impress, the idea of having leather in your car,
13:19well, you must be special. And along comes Ricardo Montalban, the actor.
13:25I know my own needs, and what I need from an automobile, I know I get from this new Cordova.
13:31That voice. Montalban's voice could make you feel welcome.
13:35Welcome to Fantasy Island.
13:36Or terrified.
13:37This is City Alpha 5.
13:39As to the car itself.
13:41It was a big, comfortable car. It only had two doors because it was for somebody who didn't have a
13:47family or wanted to pretend they didn't have a family. That's actually a pretty good tagline.
13:52The Cordova sold luxury on a budget. One thing that people wanted were supple leather seats.
13:58But Chrysler didn't line the Cordova with just any old leather. They used soft Corinthian leather.
14:05The name was infectious. Rich Corinthian leather. Rich Corinthian leather. Rich Corinthian. Rich Corinthian leather.
14:13Suddenly, I had to have Corinthian leather. America was obsessed, begging the question,
14:19Why didn't all cars have Corinthian leather? One question would lead to another.
14:24What was so special about Corinth that they had these special cows that made this unique leather?
14:29Yeah, about Corinth. It was something that an ad agency came up with.
14:34The writer, Jim Nichols, who wrote the commercial for Chrysler for me at that time,
14:39found, he wanted to find a word that sounded sort of elegant, that I could say with a little verb,
14:43you know. And so Corinthian. Oh, yeah. You know what it is. But does it mean anything? Nothing.
14:51Yeah. Corinthian leather was completely made up. It was just standard leather from New Jersey.
14:58Ah, Jersey cows. The Cordova somehow turned real leather into faux leather. But what came next was
15:05really real. Real undeniable change. By the 80s, high tech and digital tech started to invade the automobile.
15:13Please turn off your light. Thanks, Maxima.
15:17While the formal space race wrapped up in 1975 with the Apollo-Soyuz test project,
15:22the world's obsession with the stars was far from over.
15:25We have ignition. We have a liftoff.
15:28And in 1977, the universe was expanding and we were searching for ways to be a part of it.
15:36This was the era of Star Wars.
15:40Even legendary interior designer John Shetler was captivated by the space drama.
15:46What was the most exciting part of the Star Wars movies?
15:49I have you now.
15:51And they were in the Starfighter, trying to take down Death Star.
15:58Although, John appreciated the sequence from a certain point of view.
16:01But it was all interior, looking to drop that missile.
16:05Great shot, kid. That was one in a million.
16:07The 80s was packed with legendary sci-fi vehicles, each with their own futuristic interior.
16:13A cue the real-life auto industry would begin to pick up on.
16:17You had things like digital dashes. No more were there analog gauges. Those weren't cool.
16:21Those weren't futuristic enough.
16:23While some of the vehicles Hollywood envisioned were odd,
16:26one would border on prophecy.
16:29Amazing. And it's like mission control.
16:32I'm into gadgets.
16:33When Nightrider came out in 81, yeah, I thought that was fantastic to see the car.
16:39You could talk to it.
16:41Come on, kid. Say something to the bear.
16:44I'm sorry, Michael. I have nothing to say.
16:46It was wonderful.
16:46While you couldn't banter with the cars of the 80s,
16:49the 1981 Datsun Maxima offered a one-sided conversation.
16:53Maxima!
16:54Datsun Maxima.
16:55Lights are on.
16:56Thanks, Maxima.
16:57Your door is ajar.
16:59You know, when I was a kid, the car talks down. It's cool.
17:02You know, that was the idea.
17:03And then after your third conversation with the car, he shut up.
17:06The 1984 Nissan 300ZX.
17:09I have an affinity for this vehicle because this very car right here is the first thing
17:13that the dummies paid for that was kind of expensive.
17:16I love this thing because some of the factory options are great,
17:20but the number one is the talking car.
17:22It was one of the first talking vehicles.
17:24For example, let's leave your lights on.
17:29Lights are on.
17:31But the conversation was just getting started.
17:34From advanced technology comes a new kind of luxury car, the Chrysler New Yorker.
17:39That's right.
17:40Corinthian's biggest leather man was back.
17:42And Ricardo Montalban had become the voice of Chrysler cars.
17:46With electronics so advanced, it even monitors itself.
17:49But unfortunately, not the actual voice of the actual talking Chrysler car.
17:54All monitored systems are functioning.
17:57A real missed opportunity.
17:59Love is the creative energy of the universe.
18:02Without it, life would be hell.
18:05Anyway, the options of the 80s and 90s brought the focus back to comfort.
18:09Meanwhile, the auto industry took a slightly more down-to-earth approach,
18:13offering features people actually wanted.
18:15They're old ideas.
18:16The technology is new.
18:18The reason why we're putting them in the car is the same reason that we put record players
18:22in cars in the 1950s.
18:24It was to make the car feel more like the home.
18:27What else did every home have?
18:28In 1984, Buick actually offered, as an option, a car phone.
18:36To be able to talk on the phone in your car really felt like the future.
18:39Now you were a member of the elite.
18:41The name Buick has always stood for automobiles that are well above the ordinary.
18:46And in some ways, it set the table for what was going to happen over the next 20, 30 years.
18:50I mean, it wasn't until 2004 that you could finally send a fax from your Audi A8.
18:56Just in case your Blackberry was on the fritz.
18:58I think the car industry is most exciting when there are new vehicles coming,
19:04when they're challenging each other.
19:06The goal is, let's do something that nobody has ever done before.
19:10They push boundaries.
19:11They challenge conventions.
19:13It's an exercise in exploration.
19:15From hybrids to EVs.
19:17Augmented reality windshields and self-massaging seats.
19:21From self-breaking to self-parking.
19:24The car packs itself.
19:25It's smart.
19:26It's wicked smart.
19:27Today's cars are packed with tech once reserved for sci-fi.
19:31Shields at 60%.
19:33Auto manufacturers are still chasing that space race energy.
19:37Only now it's software over steel and battery hum over engine roar.
19:43Even what we could have imagined back in the 50s, the 60s, 70s, the 80s, even the 90s.
19:50The cars we have today, they're not just cars anymore.
19:54They are mechanical and technological marvels.
19:58The mission, go further.
20:01Do more and spark the imagination.
20:04Ideally without catching fire.
20:08Kids, don't smoke.
20:10And whichever element we conquer, be it space, sea, or land,
20:17we're all set for auto control.
20:19We'll be there, embracing whatever the future holds.
20:23As long as it still holds a cup.
20:25If you don't have good cup holders, you don't have a car.
20:39I kill you!
20:40Oh.
20:40Oh.
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