Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.After Clint Eastwood's "Halftime in America" commercial for Chrysler in the Super Bowl, car dealer Roy Neneman was reminded of a story from 20 years ago.
Chrysler's then-chairman, Lee Iacocca, had spoken so persuasively to customers in print ads and TV commercials that an Omaha man decided on the spot to buy a vehicle — and sent a blank check directly to Iacocca in Detroit.
The Chrysler chief routed the check with the notation "Pls. call and close! Lee." It ended up on the desk of longtime Omaha dealer Jim Earp.
Roy, then a 41-year-old general manager for Earp, contacted the Omahan who had sent the check and sold him a Jeep Wagoneer for $19,000.
Last week Roy recalled my visiting the Omaha dealership in 1992 to write about the transaction — and about Earp, a gruff boss whose advertising nickname for himself, ironically, was "Old Smiley."
Earp, who had met the iconic Iacocca more than once, noted that he and Lee were the same age (within days) and that both had appeared in their own car commercials. Those weren't the only similarities.
"He's a tyrant. He's very demanding," Old Smiley told me, not smiling. "He's kind of like me."
Roy and I shared a chuckle at the memory of Earp, from whom Roy said he learned so much. And although he himself never met Iacocca, Roy recently met Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat and Chrysler — at Roy's dealership in Grand Island, Neb.
"Jim Earp had the honor of meeting Lee Iacocca," Roy said, "and now I've met Sergio. I think Jim would be proud."
Soon to turn 61, Roy isn't ready to retire, but he and wife Lucy recently became grandparents, and he wouldn't mind starting to slow down and let younger staffers take more responsibility.
Speaking of the "Halftime in America" commercial, Roy said he regrets that Democrats and Republicans politicized it in a presidential election year.
Some Republicans objected to the ad, saying that it amounted to "an auto bailout ad," a thanks to the Obama administration, with a re-election being a "second half" for the president. Some Democrats said the ad extolled a government action that worked.
Chrysler's Marchionne said the commercial, which appeared just before the Super Bowl's second half, had "zero political content." In the spot, Eastwood, a former mayor of Carmel, Calif., says that America may have been knocked down, but when it gets back up, "the world is going to hear the roar of our engines."
The most controversial ad in America's biggest football game became — a political football.
Neneman, who owns Roy's Grand Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram in Grand Island, said he believes most people understood the ad's intent.
"I didn't feel it was a political ad at all," he said. "It was saying, 'Hey, America, we can bounce back.' We did it in the early '80s."
Yes, federal loan guarantees back then helped automakers bounce back. And now, with Michigan holding its GOP primary next Tuesday, the 2008-09 auto "bailout" of GM and Chrysler is an issue — as it will be in the 2012 general election.
Republican and Democratic presidents approved the recent bailout — starting under George W. Bush and increasing under Barack Obama. Chrysler emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in June 2009 and formed an alliance with the Italian carmaker Fiat.
Though the bailout wasn't a blank check like the one the Omaha man sent Iacocca 20 years ago, the merits of the bailout remain controversial. Last July, the Obama administration said Chrysler LLC had repaid all but $1.5 billion of the taxpayers' $12.5 billion, though critics say the accounting is more complicated than that — and that the government shouldn't have been involved in the first place.
For automakers, things are looking up. Late last week, GM reported it had earned $7.6 billion in 2011. Chrysler last year earned its first full-year profit since emerging from Chapter 11. Ford, the only one of Detroit's Big Three not to take a bailout, also is thriving.
Automakers are hoping to write a new chapter in their history. And in central Nebraska — where Roy has run a dealership since 2001 — a number of people have more disposable income. Although the Rural Mainstreet Index of 10 Midwestern states last week showed a slight drop in the rural economy, farmland prices are rising.
"My business is going pretty well," Roy said. "I had my best January ever."
Roy grew up in Omaha, graduated from the old Ryan High, attended UNO, worked in his dad's South Omaha bakery for a year and then at the old Western Electric plant. He got a job in the car business in 1973. He has seen good times and bad.
"I started working for Jim Earp in '79, and those were not the best of times," Roy said. "Chrysler was going broke, and Iacocca came in and turned it around."
Last Nov. 4, Marchionne was in Grand Island for a meeting at Case IH, the city's largest employer, which also is owned by Fiat. He stopped by Roy's dealership and "blew the room away" by meeting employees and then remembering everyone's name.
If Old Smiley were around, he'd be grinning. But Jim Earp, a self-made man who grew up poor in west Texas and served as a radio operator on B-29s in the South Pacific in World War II, died in 2008.
Whether or not it's halftime in America, Roy Neneman looks forward to watching how Americans of varying political allegiances forge a future — even while disagreeing on policy.
"I don't think you can keep us down," Roy said. "This is still the best place to live on the whole planet. I just think we need to get everybody pulling together."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1132, michael.kelly@owh.com
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