JMPowers

Hello!

I am happy to discover this community. I am preparing to give a lecture with imagery on the history of Oldsmobile. This is a "look back" after ten years since its closing.

I am not an expert on Oldsmobile. I'm educating myself from all available resources. Any guidance that members of this community could provide would be appreciated.

The lecture will be at El Camino College, (Torrance, CA) Thursday, April 24, 6:30 PM. All are welcome, and we invite local Oldsmobile owners to participate in displaying their cars and joining in the follow-up discussion with Michael Anderson, automotive technology instructor.

Thank you!

1970cs

Welcome to C.O.! A noble project! You may want to read this book!

Pat

JMPowers

I will send for book from Amazon. None of my local library systems have it in their catalogs.

oldcutlass

Welcome to the site. Would this be a historical synopsis lecture, a financial lecture on why it's not here anymore, or ??.

jaunty75

I kind of wondered this myself. Who is the intended audience for this lecture? Car buffs attending the car show? College kids or younger who've never heard of the brand or are at best vaguely aware of it? General public? Senior citizens? While I'm sure your talk is open to everyone, I'm guessing there is a certain group that will be the majority of the audience. Also, 20 minutes or an hour in length? Powerpoint, or will you just stand up and talk? The answers to these kinds questions would go a long way in helping answer your question.

As oldcutlass implies, there's several ways a lecture like this could go. You could focus on Olds's early history and the significance of the Curved Dash Olds. You could focus on the development of the Rocket V-8 engine and its glory years in the '50s and '60s. You could talk about the muscle-car era and Oldsmobile's contributions to that. You could talk about the introduction of the first mainstream, U.S.-made front-drive car with the '66 Toronado and how Olds was way ahead of its time. You could talk about the peak years of Oldsmobile's popularity, when the division exceeded 1 million cars sold during several model years in the late '70s and early '80s. You could talk about the decline and death of the brand and what were the contributing factors and the debate about it that continues to today. Recent history has similarly claimed other long-time brands like Mercury, Plymouth, and Pontiac. You could talk about its legacy, and what people might remember about it 50 or 100 years from now. Or you could talk about any of 10 or 20 other different aspects of its history.

Setting the Pace is a great reference and probably all you would need to prepare a lecture on any of these topics, but it's almost 500 pages long, so be prepared for an effort to cull what you need for whatever you plan to talk about.

As far as a look-back after 10 years, what will you look back at? Other than Olds enthusiasts, I think that the general public has pretty much forgotten about the brand. If your audience is primarily under-25-year-olds, you might spend most of your time familiarizing them with the brand as most probably have little or no experience with it.

With the newest models now 10 years old, they're less and less common on our streets as they're no longer late-model used cars, but getting to be older beaters in many cases. Most of the ones I see are pretty used up, with faded paint, a dent here and there, and at least one corner sagging, although there is, of course, the occasional nice-looking Alero or Intrigue running around. But they're getting fewer and farther between.

Good luck. I would love to attend and see what you come up with.

wmachine

I suggest you go to Wild About Cars to brush up on Oldsmobiles. The Automobile History Preservation Society there houses the largest digital library of Oldsmobile documents in the world.

Wild About Cars. http://wildaboutcars.com. An information supersource, especially Oldsmobile. More Olds content than anywhere else on the internet and continuing to grow.
You'll find Chassis Service Manuals, Product Information Manuals (AKA Assembly Manuals), Inspector's Manuals, and other documents that will contain this and much much more.
Dealer Brochures, magazine ads and articles, and the Automotive History Preservation Society library growing daily.
Free to join, free to learn.

JMPowers

Thank each of you for your interest.

Oldcutlass, it will be a historical synopsis with imagery showing the key individuals, vehicles, and brand advertising.

Jaunty75, you raise many good questions. In brief, the target audience for the lecture is an adult audience who is familiar with the brand, but probably has little knowledge of the company history. The lecture will have a particular interest because it will be in contrast to a previous lecture in the same series that focused on the launch year of Facebook (the new economy, if you will). I look forward to reading "Setting the Pace" although I will only be able to use select portions from the work. The lecture will be 30-40 minutes with discussion going for another 40-60 minutes.

wmachine, thank you for the reference to Wild About Cars. I will check it out.

jaunty75

Interesting. The year Oldsmobile dies is the year Facebook is born. In fact, it's just within a couple of months. Facebook was started on February 4, 2004, and the last Oldsmobile, an Alero, was made on April 29, 2004. Talk about the new world order replacing the old!

jensenracing77

X2 on Setting the Pace and Wild about cars. Will there be a video of this? Most all of us would love to see it and even more so love to see the discussion.

Gary M

With all the aftermarket parts available for these muscle cars you would think they affect many people and are expected to for years. Seems like a good topic for a lecture. Cant hurt if it sparks interest in a younger generation audience.

JMPowers

The lecture with imagery and follow-up discussion will be recorded and cablecast locally by Torrance CitiCABLE.

I will record the event independently and post that on YouTube for members of this community to experience.

Thank you for your interest!

76 Regency

This is very cool and I'm so glad to see that people will be educated on Oldsmobile in present day. I wish this was happening on the east coast because I would have my car there in a heartbeat. The cars that are owned by the members of this forum are from the best known years of Oldsmobile but there is so much more to know about the company's past and its place in the automotive world.

Setting the Pace is definitely a GREAT source and you'll soon learn just how big Oldsmobile really was. I'm looking forward to seeing your video. I hope you get a good turnout of cars. People do need to see and learn more about Oldsmobile from their glory days. This is not a company to be forgotten.

Fun71

And the reason for that was Olds was the premier R&D division of General Motors at the time (until it was llater decided that Chevrolet would take over).

JMPowers

76 Regency and Fun 71

Thank you for your comments.

The lecture is at the end of April, so the video record of it will post in early May. I will keep this community informed.

jensenracing77

In your research, I will bet you discover that Oldsmobile was first to do alot of things that Ford gets credit for. I am not going to give any examples because I am not the expert but there are some.

starfire

Assembly line.

jensenracing77

That is one that I had in mind. Not trying to take anything from Ford but the truth is that he got credit for more than he should have. Most people still think Ford built the first car. Oldsmobile was first in the USA but not even Olds was first world wide.

rustyroger

I understand that the Springfield rifle from the Civil War was the first mass assembly of interchangeable parts on an industrial scale as we know it.
I think "Armoury Way" was synonymous with mass production for a while.
Oldsmobile probably was the first automaker to use this method, but Henry's contribution was the MOVING assembly line.


I know, I'm being pedantic, and might not even be correct.



Looking forward to watching your lecture, I find it refreshing to see an impartial observation of something I am a fan of. Most of us would have a very Oldscentric view of our favourite cars.


Roger.

JMPowers

Thank you, rustyroger!

I will keep this community informed during the weeks going forward.

tru-blue 442

The lecture is at the end of April, so the video record of it will post in early May. I will keep this community informed.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for what you are trying to accomplish.
I for one will be looking foward to the video.

JMPowers

You are welcome, try-blu 447.

I hope that there are local Oldsmobile owners at our event to add their perspective during the discussion that follows the lecture and imagery.

JMPowers

If Oldsmobile owners in the South Bay area of Los Angeles are interested in showing their cars prior to our lecture and discussion on April 24, please contact me. Thank you!

1970cs

How did your lecture go? Also could you post a link to the youtube video of that lecture!

Pat

slantflat

Hm, I see the last time Mr. JMPowers was on here was the instant he posted that last comment. I hope he did well with his lecture, but I'm thinking he forgot about posting the video.

slantflat

rustyroger

Thank you on behalf of all who followed the original thread Mike.
I must confess I'd forgotten about it until now.


Roger.

slantflat

Roger did you watch the video? I only watched the first few minutes. Dry. I had forgotten about it until Pat brought it up. I'll watch it sometime when I can sit down and relax a little. I'm kind of surprised I found it so easily.

Tedd Thompson

Mike.I thought it interesting and found a few things that I didn't know about Olds but I think it was presented for a audience( class ) more intended to show the rise and decline of a corporate business than the love and devotion that we on the board express. In all it was worth the hour it takes to view it. Thanks for the post....Tedd

wmachine

I listened to the whole thing. As far as I'm concerned it was a pointless and partial recounting of the chronological history of Oldsmobile. No relevancy to anything is particular and no context to anything presented. You're better off reading setting the pace, as nothing was presented here that gave any angle or perspective to Oldsmobile. The brief comparison to Facebook in the Q&A at the end was sadly laughable and far from the least any resemblance of a professional comparison.
Don't waste you time listening to it. Just another example of noise on the internet.
Of course he did not come back to tell of his results. Just another indication of the shallow work that it is. He got what he wanted and left. Here today, gone tomorrow.