Depictions of auto ownership in 1960's era sitcoms compared to the reality

[MARC Rider]

Well, one sitcom in particular -- the Andy Griffith Show, which purports to show life in a small town of a few thousand people in rural North Carolina around 1960 -1965 (I think the show ran through 1968).

Of course, I know this is Television Land, not reality, but one thing that struck me was how relatively few of the major characters owned and drove cars. Andy, the sheriff, only drove because he had access to the squad car, which he shared with his deputy, Barney. Neither of their girlfriends have cars, either, yet they are all depicted as being somewhat prosperous, as they all (except Barney) seem to be living in nice houses, and they all dress fairly nicely and they seem to eat pretty well. There was one episode where Otis, the town drunk (!) bought a car, but he sold it off by the end of the episode, which was fortunate for Andy and Barney, as I'm not sure whether the breathalyzer had been invented at that time. Yet there seem to be plenty of cars in Mayberry, one of the recurring characters, Gomer Pyle, seems to be able to make a living working at a gas station and both Andy and Barney spend plenty of onscreen time in traffic enforcement.

I did try to research for a reality check and found this: Old Urbanist: Was the Rise of Car Ownership Responsible for the Midcentury Homeownership Boom in the US?
The article has a graph (drawn from Census data) that suggests that in the early 1960s, 70-75% of American households owned a car. While that seems less than my recollection of the era, I was a suburban kid until 1966, and even after we moved into the city, we kept one of our cars. It would seem to me that a rural town like Mayberry would have a higher percentage of households with cars than the national average, as more households were located in cities than in towns like Mayberry where living without a car was more possible than in towns like Mayberry. I supposed if I really wanted to scratch this itch, I could dig through detailed census data from the 1960s for Mt. Airy, NC, which is supposed to be the model for Mayberry. I'm not sure I'm that motivated, but I do find it odd that the producers of the show chose to depict these rural characters from the relatively recent past as living without what now seems to be the quintessential marker of all-American culture.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

Of course, over in Hootersville, the farmers drove ancient trucks or Lincoln Continental convertibles.....

My mother grew up in Appalachia (in the 30's) and they always had a car, but never two (unless my aunts or uncles had one while living at home) since my grandmother never drove - or gave it up due to getting stuck on train tracks as one story went. Obviously only an anecdotal example so it would be interesting to actually track that. My mother certainly bought a car in the 50's when she was a single gal.

My gut feeling/reaction is that the homeownership rates were initially started during the war (as noted in the article you posted) by cooperative conversions - some buildings were worth less even in 1950 than they had cost to build and were sold off as co-ops, particularly large buildings. And after the war, with the housing shortage and many new households with high incomes and loan guarantee's, many would have bought anything - co-ops were available and for a while had favor but ran into headwinds (can't remember the details, but can look it up if anyone is interested). Many immediate postwar suburbs were dense and had bus service at the least - my parents, as an example, who were the youngest end of greatest generation (my dad was only in WWII because he was European, would've been to young here) never had more than one car except when a new one was purchased and the old one not gotten rid of yet. When we were reverse white flight in the mid-70's we spent about 5-6 years as carless, though we rented them for trips enough.

 

[Asher]

This

Well, one sitcom in particular -- the Andy Griffith Show, which purports to show life in a small town of a few thousand people in rural North Carolina around 1960 -1965 (I think the show ran through 1968).

Of course, I know this is Television Land, not reality, but one thing that struck me was how relatively few of the major characters owned and drove cars. Andy, the sheriff, only drove because he had access to the squad car, which he shared with his deputy, Barney. Neither of their girlfriends have cars, either, yet they are all depicted as being somewhat prosperous, as they all (except Barney) seem to be living in nice houses, and they all dress fairly nicely and they seem to eat pretty well. There was one episode where Otis, the town drunk (!) bought a car, but he sold it off by the end of the episode, which was fortunate for Andy and Barney, as I'm not sure whether the breathalyzer had been invented at that time. Yet there seem to be plenty of cars in Mayberry, one of the recurring characters, Gomer Pyle, seems to be able to make a living working at a gas station and both Andy and Barney spend plenty of onscreen time in traffic enforcement.

I did try to research for a reality check and found this: Old Urbanist: Was the Rise of Car Ownership Responsible for the Midcentury Homeownership Boom in the US?
The article has a graph (drawn from Census data) that suggests that in the early 1960s, 70-75% of American households owned a car. While that seems less than my recollection of the era, I was a suburban kid until 1966, and even after we moved into the city, we kept one of our cars. It would seem to me that a rural town like Mayberry would have a higher percentage of households with cars than the national average, as more households were located in cities than in towns like Mayberry where living without a car was more possible than in towns like Mayberry. I supposed if I really wanted to scratch this itch, I could dig through detailed census data from the 1960s for Mt. Airy, NC, which is supposed to be the model for Mayberry. I'm not sure I'm that motivated, but I do find it odd that the producers of the show chose to depict these rural characters from the relatively recent past as living without what now seems to be the quintessential marker of all-American culture.

Had to be more than a Few cars in Mayberry, Gomer and Goober both worked at the filling station.

 

[Willbridge]

In the metro areas where I've worked on transit plans the first postwar suburbs were fairly accessible by transit because they had been subdivided and streets platted before the war. The main obstacle to transit ridership was the incomplete sidewalk network.

My favorite was the McKernan Lake streetcar in Edmonton. It was built out from Strathcona to a view-property neighborhood overlooking the North Saskatchewan River. The in-between area was expected to fill in, but that was held off by WWI, then by the prairie economic collapse, then by the Dirty 30's, then by WWII.

It became the perennial target for budget cutbacks, but the UofA professors who found the neighborhood attractive fought off efforts to discontinue it. After WWII, it filled in quickly and when the streetcar system was replaced it became a respectable trolley coach line (Rte S1/Rte 41). Though built out in the auto age, the layout of the neighborhoods went way back.

These neighborhoods in Portland, or Edmonton, or Denver suburbs usually have diverse housing now. Some houses have been upgraded and others are showing their age and sell more for the land value. There are a few duplexes and there are 1950's and 1960's two- or three-story apartments. They don't generate the ridership that inner city lines do, but at least will warrant all-day service and some non-radial crosstown lines accessing non-CBD jobs and shopping.

Edmonton postwar neighborhoods on prewar street grids.

 

[BCL]

I watched a lot of these shows when I was younger because they were showing during the day in syndicated re-runs. I'd spend my summer vacations watching these shows.

I distinctly remember one episode where Barney buys a used car that supposedly really good, and bought from a "kindly old lady". Only it's a lemon and she's part of a group scamming buyers, where supposedly the scam artists used sawdust in the transmission to make it smoother.

There was also the fictional "Tarantula" convertible on the Dick Van Dyke Show.

 

[MARC Rider]

This

Had to be more than a Few cars in Mayberry, Gomer and Goober both worked at the filling station.

Yeah, but even back in 1964 in real life, guys like Goober and Gomer would own cars. Maybe clunker used cars, but they'd have wheels, especially if they lived in a rural area.

Heck, my grandfather lost his business in the 1929 crash, but even though he scraped by during the Depression, my Dad says he always had a car to drive, and that was before World War 2. My other grandfather also had a car through the Depression, but he didn't lose his business and used it for road trips throughout Appalachia and the Eastern Shore making sales calls. Come to think of it, the Andy Griffith Show even shows traveling salesmen (at least some of them) getting to Mayberry by bus or train and not driving their own cars. A lot of the people who are driving though are city slickers, who, of course, get their comeuppance in some way from the folks in Mayberry.

 

[MARC Rider]

Of course, over in Hootersville, the farmers drove ancient trucks or Lincoln Continental convertibles.....

Yeah, there is that. I love Television Land.

 

[Willbridge]

Yeah, but even back in 1964 in real life, guys like Goober and Gomer would own cars. Maybe clunker used cars, but they'd have wheels, especially if they lived in a rural area.

Heck, my grandfather lost his business in the 1929 crash, but even though he scraped by during the Depression, my Dad says he always had a car to drive, and that was before World War 2. My other grandfather also had a car through the Depression, but he didn't lose his business and used it for road trips throughout Appalachia and the Eastern Shore making sales calls. Come to think of it, the Andy Griffith Show even shows traveling salesmen (at least some of them) getting to Mayberry by bus or train and not driving their own cars. A lot of the people who are driving though are city slickers, who, of course, get their comeuppance in some way from the folks in Mayberry.

I may not have the quote right, but I believe that Will Rogers observed that "Americans will be the first country to drive to the poor house."

In the Depression, my maternal grandfather was a salesman for H. J. Heinz in Oregon and SW Washington and always drove a black Buick. During WWII he sometimes walked between small towns due to rationing of tires and gas.

After WWII, my father was a country district circulation supervisor for the Seattle Times and always drove a Studebaker. The Times paid mileage rather than actual expenses, so an economy car was a good move. Studebaker was a sponsor for the tv show Mr. Ed, and as my father is Edgar, he took some kidding during that period. A Lark appeared in the program.

At family get togethers, I loved listening to my dad and my grandfather swapping stories about certain small-town merchants and questionable law enforcement practices. For example, they could predict where the local traffic enforcement would be posted, at a location least likely to ticket locals (Kalama, during I-5 maintenance, I'm looking at you!). It turned out to help me when I worked for Oregon DOT. My favorite motor pool car there was a Chevy II.

We all used rail and bus service at various times. My dad's first location for the Times was Yakima and he once rode Greyhound home to Portland over the Maryhill Loops (old US97) as a standee as far as Camas. I believe that he also rode the UP overnight Portland<>Yakima train. I know he rode the SP Coos Bay>Eugene>Portland sleeper in an open section. On overnight trips on Pool Trains 401/402 in WWII he had to stand. Later on his monthly PDX<>SEA trips (mostly UP457/458) he would run into raconteur Jack Steinberg, a music instrument salesman.

Riding Greyhound or Amtrak on my State of Oregon job used to startle some people. In Coos Bay, a county commissioner stated that "they must really be in budget trouble." At that time, however, it wasn't too bad. Oregon did not allow smoking anywhere on the bus and many of the rural connections were being cross subsidized by the main lines, so I almost always had seats to myself. The 35-foot highway coaches had more legroom than later models, likely because they were built to compete with rail coach seats. I could read, work, sleep or enjoy some of the most beautiful places in America. All of that is gone now, aside from the Willamette Valley and bits and pieces.

Into the 1970's, business travel by intercity bus continued in small amounts. Work-related trips included religious workers, deadheading truck drivers, highway construction workers, forest fire fighters, farm workers, etc. A common thread was that someone was meeting them with a vehicle or a short walk to where they could pick up a vehicle. When I rode Amtrak or Greyhound between SLM or PDX and KFS I would pick up a Highway Division car in K. Falls for my project.

Photo: On my way from SLM to meetings in KFS on a route that has segments now with no service.



I recently turned up the 1975 slide below. (Remember High Speed Ektachrome?) There was a ranch hand waiting to ride the Red Ball Stage to Lakeview from KFS once the mail and express was loaded.

 

[87YJ]

Thanks Willbridge, having been raised outside Portland We would "drive" to the Sandy Blvd route for a ride into town. Then the Buses later.

That made me remember my first train ride when I was 7yo. in 1955. Buses & Trains

 

[Willbridge]

Thanks Willbridge, having been raised outside Portland We would "drive" to the Sandy Blvd route for a ride into town. Then the Buses later.
That made me remember my first train ride when I was 7yo. in 1955. Buses & Trains

You may remember the Kenworth in the photo below, then. The Sandy Blvd. line was the premier trolley coach route and was assigned these post-WWII buses. Before your and my time it had Express trips, as well as short turns to 28th, 47th or 62nd. (Short turns to 28th survived for school trippers to the Polytechnic schools and to 60th for Diesels running late.)

For non-Portlanders, Sandy Blvd. is a diagonal road that carried old US30, was the preferred route for presidential motorcades, and bisected the first auto-oriented district, named 'Hollywood' after the movie palace that still is located there.

 

[ehbowen]

Henry Ford built and sold 15 million copies of the Model T by 1927...a year in which the total United States population was less than 120 million. And he wasn't alone; in fact, the reason the Model T was succeeded by the Model A was because General Motors was outselling Ford. So, roughly, there was at least one car for every 8 persons in the United States.

While most of those Model Ts had been retired and scrapped by the early 1960s, I consider it a safe bet that only a miniscule percentage of them were retired without being replaced by a newer and more capable automobile. Vehicle ownership was widespread even in the Mayberrys of the day...in fact, you had to be in a largish city before car ownership became more of a burden than a blessing.

 

[87YJ]

You may remember the Kenworth in the photo below, then. The Sandy Blvd. line was the premier trolley coach route and was assigned these post-WWII buses. Before your and my time it had Express trips, as well as short turns to 28th, 47th or 62nd. (Short turns to 28th survived for school trippers to the Polytechnic schools and to 60th for Diesels running late.)

For non-Portlanders, Sandy Blvd. is a diagonal road that carried old US30, was the preferred route for presidential motorcades, and bisected the first auto-oriented district, named 'Hollywood' after the movie palace that still is located there.

View attachment 26502

And the rails still in the road for the trollies, seam to remember them still there in the late 60's. The smell of Franz Bakery @ 12th & Sandy Blvd as a kid.

Owned by Portland Transit Co. went out of business with car ownership. City owned buses now that run @ a loss, like trains.

 

[BlackDiamond]

Into the 1960s it was pretty common for there to be one car in a family. My mom didn't even drive until I was in high school so she got her license just before I did. We lived in the city within walking distance of several supermarkets and could take the bus or subway to go downtown for the department stores. Once she started driving my dad got her a lime green 1960 Ford Falcon. That got traded in a few years later for a '68 Camaro with the 327 engine

 

[flitcraft]

In the early 60's we didn't have a car at all, so twice a week, Mom bundled up the three kids along with a couple of pillow cases of laundry and a closed and full diaper pail and we took the bus to the laundromat. Good times...

 

[Willbridge]

Owned by Portland Transit Co. went out of business with car ownership. City owned buses now that run @ a loss, like trains.

Close! If you blow up the photo it is one of the first buses with the Rose City Transit Co. logo. Portland Transit was the holding company that made money right to the end. Portland Traction Co. and the successor Rose City Transit Co. were the regulated operating companies holding the city franchise and they lost money. The system since 1969 is the regional Tri-County Metropolitan Transit District.

It was interesting as a kid to have my dad explain how the fully depreciated buses were sold from the right hand to the left hand and thereby depreciated again. The president of Portland Transit, which had several more subsidiaries, was a CPA.

For people from other cities, I should underline that there was no evidence of law-breaking, just business practices that permit making money in a declining industry right up to the point where the most essential remaining service is handed over to government or non-profit entities. That's happening to the newspaper industry right now. The trick is to use the tax laws as much as possible and cut service before it goes into the red.

Returning to the auto ownership issue, I found a memo discussing whether or not the separate interurban division should be replaced with buses. The conclusion was that the decline would continue, so there was no point in trying. The interurbans' peak ridership was growing in the post-war move to the suburbs, but the one-car families used their car on weekends and at night, so off-peak ridership was declining. It's hard to make money with all the infrastructure needed for that.

 

[87YJ]

Thanks for the info, I was just a country boy living close to the big city.