Old promotional newsreel films are always a gas. This collection of Chevrolet-centric films from 1936 does not disappoint. There’s a bevy of bathing beauties using the car as a water slide and then a diving board, and then packing about 20 of themselves inside. There’s a seven foot tall Chevrolet plant employee, an old guy who put 250,000 miles on a 1920s era Chevy and then got a freebie ’36, and a whole lot more. 

The bottom line is that the films are fun, and they served as an obvious marketing and promotional tool for the company. They would have been shown at movie theaters before the feature presentation. There’s nothing an advertiser wants more than a captive audience that has no other distraction but their ad or film to see!

Dig the guy who parks his car in the river to catch herring! The beauty of all this stuff is that there wasn’t anything close to a “camera trick” back then so this is all campy, honest footage. It is also interesting to watch because in other parts of the world, badness was brewing that would ultimately see the USA being dragged into WWII just five years later.

Simple movies from a simpler time. We dig.