[ last update: 07.14.2013 ]   

The (new) Cadillac Database©

Advertisements
Cadillac and La Salle

Index page

 

Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
or select a group of ads from the table, below

 

Frflag.jpg (773 bytes)
(en bas de page se trouve un résumé en français)

 

1902-1908 1909-1914 1915-1917 1918-1919 1920-1921
1922-1923 1924-1925 1926-1927 1927-1929 1930-1931
1930-1931 1932-1934 1935-1940 1941-1945 La Salle ads
1946-1949 1950-1954 1955-1958 1959-1960 1961-1964
1965-1967 1968-1970 1971-1975 1976-1980 1981-1985
1986-1990 1991-1995 1996-2000 2001-up  

 

When the Cadillac was first put on the market it created a sensation among dealers.It was the first machine offered at a moderate price,  with power enough to carry a family.  Dealers not not slow in "catching on". Not long before we got to turning them oput in quantities, our order book as full, our product sold, and dealers all over the country were trying to get the Cadillac. We failed to fully supply the demand, although we made and delivered over two thousand machines. This machine was put to all kind of test from Maine to California.  It was raced against machines of several times its rated power, and pitted against cars of twice and three times its cost. In hill; climbing contests it proved to be among the very best and far superior to anything in its class. It did almost every conceivable "stunt" from climbing the U.S. Capitol1 steps to pulling a five-ton load of railroad steel up a 4% gradient at Canton, Ohio.The Cadillac motor is rated at less than most "10 HP engines", yet we find it delivers more power at point of contact than any 10 H.P. motor we have seen. It has done the work of a 10 H.P. stationary and with power to spare. No other machine made that we know of has shown greater actual power than it was rated at. The Cadillac has all the power necessary, if the operator is skilful enough to get all out of the engine there is in it.
____________________________________________________
1
It was Cadillac engineer Alanson P. Brush who first demonstrated the climbing power of the Cadillac by driving a 1902 runabout up the steps of the Detroit County Court House.  A man (with a few drinks under his belt) drove a 1903 runabout, with tonneau, up the U.S. Capitol steps in Washington, early in 1906.  It was good publicity for the firm's products but they were careful not to mention the booze! [For more "feats" performed by early Cadillacs, go to this "Facts" page and look under "Reliability Trials"].

 

The above text is from a magazine advertisement published on February 11, 1904 in The Automobile, a trade journal from the earliest dayus of the horseless carriage.

From the earliest days of production, the manufacturers of the Cadillac and La Salle automobiles used the media to advertise their products.  In this section you will find a list of some 2000 ads featuring Cadillacs since 1902 and La Salles since 1927. 

Those listed on the "Wanted Ads" page are missing from The (New) Cadillac Database© and good photocopies or digitally scanned images are sought for reference.

Included in the list are some ads for products other than Cadillac or La Salle automobiles, where the advertisers have taken advantage of the Cadillac reputation to promote their own particular products.

The "Ads" section of
The (New) Cadillac Database© was converted from my original  Excel files by Ken Scherer, who also created the thumbnail links. Later I reviewed the layout and added also the background image, which is drawn from a contemporary advertisement for the 1998 Cadillac Eldorado model. For the time being, only the years up to and including 1980 are included.  The most recent years (and a greater selection of images) will follow ...if I ever find the time.

Only the ads of which the ID number is underlined and highlighted in blue currently are visible [click on those numbers to view the ad in question]. Regrettably, picture quality of illustrated ads sometimes is mediocre.  Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner and most of my photography was done a few years ago with one of the first generation, low-resolution digital cameras. I hope gradually to replace the very poor images with better ones, but that won't occur until I have uploaded a few representative ads for the first 100 years of Cadillac production.

Images are available for almost all ads in the collection (2000+) but space constraints prevent ads being pictured full-size and in high definition; nevertheless, the combination of the description (below) and the medium-sized image [when available] should be adequate to help the ad collector determine if a particular ad is already in his/her collection or not.

Should any Database user require an image of a specific ad that is not yet on line, I shall gladly send it as an e-Mail attachment.

 

Evolution of Cadillac Advertising

It is interesting to note the evolution of Cadillac's advertising themes and its intended demographics. 

What sold Cadillacs in the early years was the car's proven durability and reliabilty. From the twenties through the late sixties, you needed to "be somebody" (preferably with lots of money) if you were to aspire one day to owing the automobile Standard of the World.  In the seventies, Cadillac's copy writers aimed at a much broader spectrum of potential buyers; in addition to quality, founded on years of Cadillac's occupying the pole position among US luxury car vendors, volume sales were now the company's new aspiration. 

And what of today's Cadillacs? Well, if you look at the ad for the 2007 Cadillac DTS [an unfortunate acronym for someone like me whose late alcoholic father suffered from the DTs!], what seems to be most important is having a "nicely erquipped" car (whatever that means), with new-fangled gizmos like a "touch-screen, DVD-based, navigation [system] with voice recognition" and an "8-speaker, Bose sound system with CD/MP3 player."

Cadillac owners used to dream of places like Eldorado [a fabled land of untold riches], Biarritz [a vacation paradise on France's south-western Atlantic coastline, where Paris' nobility and aristocracy were wont to enjoy its temperate winters], Seville [capital city of Andalucia, in Spain; in the 16th century, already, Seville enjoyed the monopoly of all European trade with the New World], Park Avenue [the New York avenue that any Monopoly player worth his salt aspired to own!].   

 

Contributing Artists

In the following table are listed many of the artists responsible for the stylish advertisements published by the Cadillac Motor Car Division in newspapers and magazines, nationwide, from the earliest part of the century until the mid-sixties. At that point in time, photography took over from the paint brush and pen. I believe it was, in fact, an industry requirement because the manufacturers had gone completely overboard; the cars that the buying public were viewing on the showroom floors had little in common with the artists' renditions in both factory marketing literature and advertisements. There had to be a limity imposed on artistic license!

Many of the signatures on these old ads are totally or partially illegible. The names I have shown in italics are my best guess in such instances.

Artists Year(s)
BARCLAY, Unison 1926
BÉNIGNI, L. [French and U.S. ads] 1929
BORZOI Henry (???), "Window ads" in Country Life and The Sportsman

1929-30

BOSE, Neal [similar to Pierre Brissaud themes, or possibly copy?] 1930
BRISSAUD, Pierre [see CLC, 4/91, p.7] 1929-30
CHARLESON [?] (La Salle) 1936
CLELAND, T.M. 1928
DOHANOS, Stevan La Salle 1939
FANNELAS (La Salle) 1931
FAWCETT, Robert (La Salle 1931, Cadillac, 1932)

1931-1932

FRED [?] La Salle 1939
GANNAN [?] La Salle 1929
GARDNER, Donald 1923
GODWIN, Frank (?), Karl (?) 1918
GRAFSTROM ? [La Salle] 1936
HARPER, George 1925
HAYDEN, Hayden 1926
HORTER, E.A. 1929
JB (???) 1925
KARL, J. [?] La Salle 1929
LEMON [?] La Salle 1929
LEONARD [?] La Salle 1930
LIDOV, A. ?  
MARTY, A.E. (French ads) 1929
McCLELLAND, Barclay1 1928-29
McMEIN, Neysa 1924
MIZEN, Fred 1918-25
MONIQUE or MOURGUE 1929
QUAIL, Frank 1924
QUAIL, Frank, Jr. [son of above?] (different signatures) 1936
RE-MY [?] La Salle 1928
RICHARDS, Walter 1939
SAKHNOFFSKY, Alexis De [La Salle ad] 1934
SAMULA, I. 1933
SAW [?] [La Salle ads] 1933
SCHMIDT [?] 1919
SMITH, Irwin 1937
TAUCKE, G. 1926
TIMMINS, H.L. 1925
TYLER, W. [?] 1919
URBAN, Joseph 1929
VICKERY, John 1943-45
WHITCOMB, J. 1940
WILSON, Edw. A. [La Salle ads] 1937

1 He also drew ads for the Fisher Body Co.

 

 

0476

A sampling of the work of J. Karl

 

 

 

Contributing Jewelers

In the following table are listed many of the jewelers who contributed their talents and their wares to the successful Cadillac ad campaigns of 1949 through 1957 as well as 1960 through 1962.

Jewelers
CARTIER
LAYKIN & Cie
MAUBUSSON
STARR & GORHAM
TRABERT & HOEFFER
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
WARREN, Chas. H. & Co.
WINSTON, Harry

 

 

1091


Jewels by Harry Winston

 


Contributing Fashion Designers

In the following table are listed many of the fashion designers who also contributed their talent and their fashion statements to some successful Cadillac ad campaigns of the fifties and sixties

Fashion Designers
ARDEN, Elizabeth
BALMAIN, Pierre
BENDEL, Henri
BERGDORF GOODMAN1
BERHANYER, Elio
CASSINI, Oleg
CARNEGIE, Hattie
CARTER, John
CHAPMAN, Ceil1
DERBY, Jane
DIOR, Christian
DUSKIN, Nan
GALANOS
GARNETT, Eleanora
GATHE
GRAY, Amelia
HULITAR, Philip
IRENE
LANVIN-CASTILLO
LOUISE, Jean
MAGNIN, I.
NEIMAN MARCUS1
SAKS 5th [or FIFTH] AVENUE1
SAARMI [Count]
SCAASI
SIMONETTA
SMALL, Edith
TRAVILLA1
TRIGERE, Pauline1

 

 

1186


Gowns for mother and daughter by Jane Derby

 

 

 

Places of Interest
The Imperial Palace, Tokyo [1928-29]
La Scala Opera House, Milan [1928-29]
Norrbro Bridge, Stockholm [1928-29]
Paris Opera, Grand Prix Ball [1929]
White House, Washington, D.C. [1929]
Del Monte Lodge [1958]
Greenbrier Hotel, West Virginia [1959]
[ many more to be listed... ]

 

_______________________________
1   Thanks to the perspicacity of Database user, James R. King, I was able to correct the spelling of many of the fashion designers mentioned here [I had copied these names from ads of the time but I guess either they were mis-spelled in these ads or my eyesight is not what it used to be!] 

For the record:

-  Bergdorf Goodman [not Gomman] - Andrew Goodman was one of the founders of the store - it still exists on 5th Avenue in New York

-  Ceil Chapman (not Cecil) - she was a New York rather than Hollywood designer but was a favorite of Marilyn Monroe. One of Ceil Chapman's dresses for Marilyn Monroe sold for $100,000 at auction - this was the fairly recent auction where many of Marilyn's old gowns were sold. I believe there was another Ceil Chapman gown that sold for $30,000 or so.

-  Neiman [not Neimann] Marcus - Neiman was the married name of Miss Marcus

-  Saks 5th [not Vth] Avenue - is also spelled Saks Fifth Avenue

-  Travilla [not Travila] - William Travilla, now deceased; he designed Marilyn Monroe's clothes in most of her early 50s movies including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

-  Pauline Trigère [not Trighere] is very well known in fashion circles - she was recently in Metropolis (a design magazine) in an article about creative people who are in their 90s; she is still active but has retired from designing clothes; ad 1076 in the listing ("Pueblo by Taos Indians") is a 2-page ad featuring a model wearing a Pauline Trigère ensemble.

 

Sources of Cadillac and La Salle ads

Here is a list of the magazines and newspapers in which I found most of the ads in the collection. An abbreviation of the titles is given in the first and third columns (only the abbreviations will appear in the actual ad listings).

Abbrev. Name Abbrev. Name
A&D Art and Decoration IND Independent
AFD American Funeral Director L Life
AHB Australian Home Beautiful LD Literary Digest
AM American Motorist LK Look
ANJ Army and Navy Journal LPI Le Patriote Illustré [Belgium]
AR Automobile Revue [Switz.] M Motor
ASIA "Asia" magazine MAD Mad Magazine1
AT Automobile Topics MCL McLure's
ATM Atlantic Monthly MUN Munsey's Magazine
AUT The Automobiley NB Nation's Business
BHG Better Homes and Gardens NG National Geographic
C&S Casket & Sunnyside NW Newsweek
CEN Century NY New Yorker
CO Current Opinion P Punch
COL Collier's PEO :People
COS Cosmopolitan PPB Pennsylvania Punch Bowl
CG (The) Country Gentleman [PR] [in book by Peter Ruch]
CL Country Life SA Scientific American
CR (The) Crest [Cadillac in-house magazine] SCR Scribner's
DMN Detroit Motor News SEP Saturday Evening Post
ESQ Esquire SMI Smithsonian
FOB Forbes SNP Sun News Pictorial Melbourne, Australia
FOR Fortune SPRT (The) Sportsman
H Home SUN Sunset magazine
HB House Beautiful TM Time
HBZ Harper's Bazaar TT Table Talk
HIC Hearst's International Cosmopolitan TTT Tower Town Topics, Chicago
HG House and Garden ULT Ultra
HOL Holiday USN U.S. News
HM Harper's Magazine VF Vanity Fair
HR Hot Rod VO Vogue
HW Harper's Weekly WWA World's Work Advertiser
GH Good Housekeeping
ILL L'Illustration (France)
ILLi L'Illustrazione Italiana (Italy)

  1   Mad magazine ran a spoof of the 1961 Cadillac ads on its rear cover, in September, 1965

 

Notes for Users

1.  I have tried to divide up the ads into logical groups, for example the single-cylinder models, the early four-cylinder models, the new four-cylinder Model "Thirty", the V8 Types 51 through V-63, the V8 Series 314 through 355, the V12s, the V16s, etc.  Basically, however, they are listed in chronological order by year and actual month or date when known.  Please click on a box, in the table below, to view the list of ads available for your preferred Cadillac model year(s).  

2. The individual listings lists include the following columns: (1) the number of the ad in my collection1 , (2) an indication whether it is a B&W image [blank box] or in full color [box marked "C"], (3) the year, month or precise date of publication of the ad, when such is known, (4) the title or headline on the ad or the introductory words of the promotional text, (5) an indication of the Cadillac or La Salle model(s) displayed [if any], (6) the source of the ad when such is known (abbreviation).  In the last column are the numbers of any footnotes; these are explained at the foot of each listing.

3.  Advertisements in a language other than English are listed in italics.  Many La Salle ads include a title in a foreign language (usually French); the titles of these ads also are shown in italics.

4.  Only a representative selection of images of ads in the collection is currently on line; where the number of the ad (in the LH column) is highlighted and underlined, clicking on that number will bring up an image large enough to see the essential graphics.  Space limitations prevent my displaying larger, high-resolution images enabling users to read the actual text of each ad (better a small image, even of poor quality, than no image at all, right?)  

5.  Don't be fooled by the poor quality of some of the images: the ORIGINAL ads in the collection all are EXCELLENT.  I photographed the earliest selections with one of the first Olympus digital cameras I bought in PA, back in 1997; image quality, therefore, is not up to today's standards.

6. The La Salle automobile, built by Cadillac from 1927 up to and including 1940, was also the object of an equally impressive advertising campaign.  Click here for a listing of the La Salle ads in the collection.

7.  Note that there is an interesting Article on Cadillac advertisements in the magazine "MOBILIA", for February 1994, by Ken Ruddock of "Memory Lane Automobilia", Shartlesville, PA.

 

Adl112.JPG (14267 bytes)
Typical La Salle ad of 1933

 

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1  The ad listings were prepared already in 1983-84; new additions since that time are given a letter, "a", "b", "c", etc. to avoid breaking the original numerical sequence.

 

 

Frflag.jpg (773 bytes)
( résumé en français)

Dès 1902 les fabricants de la Cadillac firent appel aux medias pour vanter la qualité de leurs produits.  Dans ces pages vous pourrez consulter une liste d'environ 2000 pubs illustrant les voitures Cadillac dès 1902 ainsi que les La Salle de 1927 à 1940. Pour savoir ce qui disaient des Cadillac et La Salle les publicistes francophones de l'époque, cliquez ici.

On trouvera également dans ces listes, des pubs vantant des produits autres que les automobiles Cadillac, produits pour lesquels les publicistes ont choisi à bon escient de faire figurer une ou plusieurs Cadillac.   La Cadillac fait vendre, tout le monde le sait!

Les pubs qui figurent dans la liste "Wanted" [recherchées] manquent à la collection et je souhaiterais en trouver de bonnes copies, ou des images numerisées, de façon à compléter ce chapitre.

A l'heure actuelle seules les pubs de 1902 à 1970 ont été prises en compte.  D'autres viendront s'ajouter lorsque je trouverai le temps.

Dans les tableaux ci-dessus on retrouvera la liste des nombreux artistes-publicistes à qui l'on doit la plupart des pubs d'avant la 2e guerre mondiale, de même que les joailliers et maisons de mode qui ont prêté leurs créations à certaines de ces campagnes publicitaires.  Dans le dernier tableau, ci-dessus, figure également la liste des revues dans lesquelles sont parues les pubs citées (l'abbréviation seule est utilisée sur les listings).

En arrière-plan des pages consacrées aux pubs Cadillac figure un montage réalisé à partir d'une pub pour la Cadillac Eldorado, modèle 1998. Elle est superposée sur l'aile arrière d'une Cadillac Eldorado de l'année 1960.

 

 

Cadillac Advertisements
(main sub-sections)

The Pre-WW2 Period
(1902-1945)

 

1902-1908 1909-1914 1915-1917 1918-1919 1920-1921
1922-1923 1924-1925 1926-1927 1927-1929 1930-1931
1930-1931 1932-1934 1935-1940 1941-1945 La Salle ads
1946-1949 1950-1954 1955-1958 1959-1960 1961-1964
1965-1967 1968-1970 1971-1975 1976-1980 1981-1985
1986-1990 1991-1995 1996-2000 2001-up

 

La Salle Advertisements
1927 through 1940

1927-1928 1929-1931 1932-1937 1938-1940

 

 

lit_ads.jpg (8259 bytes)
Montage, with sample ads and a 1:18 scale toy
from my former collection

 

 

 

Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page

© 1996, Yann Saunders and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.
[ Background image: 1998 ad for the Eldorado model ]

This Web page was prepared by Ken Scherer, USA and subsequently modified and updated  by Yann Saunders