Thank you to Gary Licko for providing this image which has been distributed all over the internet but now the above image is an improved restored version.
Anyone who grew up in Miami in the 1950's and 1960's has memories of seeing this showman's commercials for Municipal Auto Sales on the back lots of WTVJ Channel 4, WCKT Channel 7 and WLBW Channel 10. Municipal Auto Sales was located on NW 36th Street across the street from the original first Burger King which blossomed into a worldwide chain, second only to McDonald's.
The following story was written by Jumpin' Jack O'Brien on his Facebook account and I'm reposting it here because a huge number of people want nothing to do with Facebook and it will be seen by far more people on this site:
The Municipal Years
by Jumpin' Jack O'Brien
There was nothing easy about working at Municipal Auto Sales! First of all, you had to have nine drivers, minimum, to get three cars to the three television stations, where we did “Live Commercials.” There was no tape yet, so every commercial was live! And they all were one minute in length and if you were late getting to the stations, you still paid for the commercial that was missed…so you NEVER were late. NEVER!!
The nine drivers were college guys who were going to an aviation college to learn how to work on aircraft. “Fuji” was their “Boss” and he lined them up and showed up with them every Monday thru Friday at three o'clock. I was HIS boss and he learned never to show up without eight guys and himself no-matter-what!
Meanwhile, I was getting the list of cars and prices of same that would be appearing on television that day - we had 10 to 12 spots between four o'clock in the afternoon and seven o'clock in the evening. The shooting took place at the TV stations, out back, so to speak, where we had big signs with MAS on them etc. to show above the cars as they drove by. The salesmen on the lot and I got the nine cars pulled into one area so Fuji and his men to get out fast - get to the gas station at the corner, and put four gallons of gas in each one. Then off to the three stations to wait for me to show up. I had made up the master list of which cars went where and when so we didn’t show the same cars at the same stations all evening. Timing was everything, but soon it became quite hairy…I would get to one station with maybe a minute to spare and then get caught in traffic and go nuts trying to get to the next station on time, what with the four o'clock traffic. Finally, we had so many commercials that there was no way to make them, so we hired a helicopter to fly me from Channel Four downtown…to Channel 10 at Biscayne and 38th Street and then up to the 79th Street causeway for Channel 7 and then up and back again! The drivers were also having trouble getting to all the stations, believe me, it was no fun and games time every day! And weekends were even worse, we averaged about 20 commercials a day on Saturday and Sunday for a total of about one hundred spots a week!
The cars sometimes were sold sight unseen to people who went to the lot while we were still on TV.
They really were bargains and we sold a lot of them every week. Fact is, we sold over three hundred cars some weeks…had thirty (30) salesmen and thirty five (35) factory trained mechanics in our huge service department…something unheard of in the used car business. So it was a good place to do business and business was good!
My first raise was within a month of doing the commercials. My second one was within two months and my third within six months. I was pretty happy with myself. The owner did all the buying of the commercials and when business slowed down, he didn’t cancel them, he added ten more…or twenty!
He kept me hoppin! One day he paged me over the loud speaker system: “O’Brine (that’s how he pronounced my name: O’Brine” …sheesh) come to the office.” That usually meant bad news.
“I am tired of having to choose what goes where on television” he said.
“You went to TV College, You know how to buy spots don’t you? So YOU buy the spots and let ME run the car business. You think you can handle that?”
I said, “Certainly”
And he said “And don’t even ask!”
And I said, ”Don’t even ask WHAT?”
And he said “Don’t even ask what you were gonna ask … about a raise … NO raise!”
“More work, no raise?"
“Exactly! Here.” And he handed me a box of business cards.
I was just thrilled to see that I was, from that time on, Vice President in charge of Public Relations for the newly created Municipal Advertising Agency. No raise and only VICE president. I asked “Who's President?"
He smiled and said “Guess?”
I did get my own office however. They cleaned out a storeroom across the street next to the world's first Burger King (really) where I could smell the burgers cooking all day and hear them when they said, “You want fries with that?”.
Little did I know that I had just taken my first step towards a TV Kids Show that was my dream! Funny how things happen. My life was about to change, wonderfully!
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