There's a lot going on in the ad. It's from that time period when Hollywood had a surplus of starlets doing double duty by serving as spokesmodels in advertisements, so here we have the lovely Elaine Stewart.
(Elaine is okay in my book because she starred with a trio of my favorite Western actors – Audie Murphy, James Stewart and Dan Duryea – in the movie Night Passage.)
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| Elaine (as a blonde) with Audie Murphy in a scene from Night Passage |
The image of elegant Elaine may have roped us in (it did me), but the main focus of the ad is the "Win a Chevrolet Corvette" contest. It's interesting that – like the Mother's Day contest that I wrote about here – you had to compose a short essay to enter.
Besides the image of the Corvette and some nice shoe art, we also get a cameo from Esky, the Esquire magazine mascot.
Esky always reminded me of both the rich guy from the Monopoly game, and Lord Plushbottom from the Moon Mullins comic strip.
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| That's Plushie in the middle, with Prof. Byrrd on the left and Moon on the right |
Here's Esky as a fully dimensional advertising figure.
