(By Eric Rood) – The hot rodding world is familiar with car-related pop songs and even with Oldsmobile-themed songs like “Rocket 88,” but it may be news that one of the first popular automobile songs was “In My Merry Oldsmobile,” a 1905 ditty penned by Gus Edwards and Vincent Bryan. While not necessarily intended as an ad, as far as I can tell, Oldsmobile nevertheless adopted the tune as a jingle for most of the century’s first half.
Fleischer Studios and Oldsmobile were odd bedfellows, but the new media of “talkies” led them to partner in 1931 to produce this rather dirty Depression-era promotional cartoon set to “In My Merry Oldsmobile” with a peeping tom, some serious booty, sinister insinuations, and other actions that go, well, a bit beyond suggestive. It’s all a bit titillating for its time and still entertaining to see 85 years later, though I’m not sure the song holds up so well.
