Pinto Car Club of America

Many many years ago I was co publisher of a magazine called "Ford Life".  Maybe a couple of you old timers remember it.  It was a high quality magazine with pictures and stories about everything that Ford did in the early years.  We had a writer who had a connection with Ford public relations and we found out that Ford was going to film a commercial in Pasadena CA, an upscale southern California city.  We went to the address given to us at the correct  time.  The commercial was in progress and they used a nice 1920's style house and the first thing that we noticed was a beautifully restored Model A Ford woodie parked in the driveway and an appropriately dressed 1930's family in the yard including two children.  They did all of the filming necessary and then moved to a large semi truck and trailer that was parked in the street.  We were parked somewhat behind the trailer and when it was opened I noticed a small station wagon in the trailer.  As they moved the car out of the trailer we saw that it was a brand new Pinto Squire.  We had no idea that Ford had one as obviously this commercial was to be for the introduction of the new model.  The coupes and runabout's had been out for about a year. The Model A was moved out of the driveway and the new Pinto was parked in its place.  The trailer was filled with props and the crew promptly erected a picket fence, added flowers bushes and small trees and the yard was immediately transformed and the family now appeared in contemporary clothing.  You could not believe how the crew changed the appearance of that yard in just a few minutes unless you could have seen it.  We watched the film crew do their work and it was really nice to witness the first showing of the new Pinto Squire.  It was probably a protype and I wish I had thought to check out the serial number but we did not dare to get in anyones way during the filming.  The whole thing took about an hour and the Pinto was promptly returned to the trailer and placed out of view.  If anyone has a copy of the commercial you can know that it was filmed in Pasadena CA as it looked like any mid western town.  Great memories that I will always remember.