UPDATE: This dealer Advertising and Merchandising Bulletin from February 6, 1961, was sent to dealers explaining the Pepe Movie promotion and possible promotional tie-ins dealers could try. The package included a movie poster also.
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Original posted June 29, 2020: Instead of the usual eight pages, the 1960 issue of Jeep News is limited to four pages. Still, there’s some interesting information inside.
First, the front page article on the movie to-be-release movie “Pepe” described the forty-jeep-gala ballet filmed in Las Brisas as spectacular. I tried to find some clips from Pepe online, but have yet to see any. The CJ-3B page does a good job describing the Gala’s role, along with a few pics, in Pepe: https://cj3b.info/Siblings/SurreyPepe.html.
Second, on page three the article about the Hy-Rail FCs contains a noticeable goof. The title refers to the FCs as “FC-170″s, while the pics and text correctly show them as FC-150s.
Third, there’s a good photo of an FC-170 flatbed with a Mobile Drill mounted on it, the first example of an FC with a mobile drill that I’ve seen and the latest reference to the sale of a Mobile Drill.
Fourth, the article on the Fresno Four Wheel Drive Club underscores why so many jeeps continue to emerge from the Fresno/Clovis area. As of December 1960, the family-friendly jeep club had more than 350 members, likely making it the largest jeep club in the US. The club even had a newsletter, which at that time was edited by Mr. Otto Traeber and called “Four Wheeler”; sound familiar? This newsletter was also shared with other jeep clubs. One year and two months later, in February of 1962, a new vehicle magazine was introduced to the public, published out of Southern California: Four Wheeler Magazine.
Front page shows picture of CJ5 pulling a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade. Scheuer Motors was the local Willys Studebaker dealership located on Vreeland Ave. Paterson, NJ. Macy’s floats were stored and assembled in Hoboken, NJ just across the river from NYC. Some of the Jeep vehicles in these events were delivered to Scheuer Motors because of their close location to NYC. As a teenager back in the 1960’s, it was always exciting to preview the Jeeps at Scheuer then see them on TV. After these events, many were sold through Scheuer because of their TV stardom.
Mike,
I can imagine those events would make some fun memories! I was thinking the CJ-5 shown in the photo may have been colored pink with a white grille as part of the Pepe theme.
– Dave
First movie I was taken to see when we lived in Bethesda MD in 1960. The theme song still is in my head!
I’d love to find one of those life-sized cutouts of Pepe that they mounted on the back of the Surreys.
“Next on American Pickers, Mike and Frank find …” . By the way, the biggest home improvement in Bethesda in 1962….bomb shelters.
Barney, that would be a great find!
Wow, I’ve never even heard of the film.
That’s rare.