1961 Rambler American - Red Dead with Engine.

Here's another Rambler you can't buy any more, because the brand is dead. However  you can always go to Ebay, where the current bid price for a squeaky clean white '61 convertible is around $8,000 (reserve not met yet). I don't know why, but the stubby looks of compact cars from the Sixties looks better than the smeary, stretchy lines of current compacts.

Of course, if the roads were filled with cars that looked like this Rambler, I'm sure I'd pine for the day when I could look at swoopy little cars with pointy headlights. The grass is always greener.

Check out this honky lollipop mascot they have here. He's about as square as you can get, not that you'd notice in '61. Lawrence Welk could still be found on the Billboard Hot 100 list for February 1961 (the month this ad ran in LIFE).
















Here's the Lawrence Welk orchestra rocking out with Calcutta, the hit that had Welk on the charts that month. What does it say about me that I both know and like the song? Well, It means it appears on one of my Ultralounge CDs and it makes me laugh. Any song that has a chorus going "la la la la" gets my vote for sheer courage, even in '61. I still insist I'm cooler than Lollipop Rambler Honky Man. I do have a few Zeppelin albums.



Two more things: A) Apart from the clapping at 1:45, they don't seem to be dancing to any particular song, let alone the one the orchestra is playing. B) Since when was the Lawrence Welk show shot in a gymnasium?

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