A Flying Falcon Might Help a Guy Score

A Flying Falcon Might Help a Guy Score by Shannon Lee Mannion
Bill McCracken who lives in the wilds of Ontario somewhere is not a household name. However, thanks to Ford, his car, a 1964 Falcon, might linger in your mind, especially if you spent any time a couple years back watching Hockey Night in Canada.

ar guys are funny this way. The call went out from an advertising agency and someone knew someone who knew someone who knew Bill. They definitely wanted a ‘64 but even I, who own a ‘63 Ford Falcon, caught wind of the request. I venture to say, if you had a Ford from the early sixties, no matter what colour, and they wanted light blue or white, then you found out about this commercial in the making.

And the spot turned out great. Think moony music, schmaltzy even, as the mellow tenor voice of Tony Williams and the Platters croon, Only You. Hum along, “Only you can make my dreams come true, only you can make my dark skies blue, only you....” It’s Do Wop music from the sixties and the Platters sung it like no one else. It’s music that brings back memories of what was and what might have been.

Ford may have produced the commercial with this idea in mind. Bring up the music and on the screen a young couple is shown in the idylls of love. A white Falcon is omnipresent. They are seen lounging on top of the car’s hood at the drive-in and in the car having a burg as they cuddle on the front seat. Time passes and the man’s thoughts turn towards his first love. This sets him on a quest.

It isn’t until the last scene the audience is struck by ambiguity. It’s not the girl he was seeking but the car. And what he goes through to find it: a long journey, country bumpkins leading him astray, ogres and dogs guarding, what? A rusty hulk? There is a look of self-satisfied stupefaction as he tears off the dusty, leaf-covered blanket. Up with the music, “Only you....”

Bill, how did you get into this TV thing?
I got a call at work on a Tuesday in July. They wanted me to be in Peterborough with my car on Thursday.
What sort of remuneration were they offering for you to go out of your way like this?
They said they’d pay $300 but I asked them for $375 because it was such short notice.
How did they find out about you and your car?
The production company went to Toronto and looked for two weeks but could not find anything presentable. Finally, they contacted the Falcon Club of America and since I used to be a member, they were able to locate me through them.
But why did they want to use a Falcon when there are many other cars that are more recognizable?
The writer of the commercial had a real affiliation with Falcon’s. Although I didn’t know him, he knows friends of mind and he’d been telling them stories about the practical jokes they used to play on a guy who’d owned one, like pushing the car out of sight from where it’d been parked or removing the front seat, things you do when you’re a kid. When he wrote the commercial, he thought of that car and how much fun he’d had.
How did he interest Ford in his idea?
He pitched them the idea and they loved it. However, they insisted that the car in the commercial must be white or blue. Preferably blue.
How did you get around this?
They asked if they could paint it blue with water-soluble paint. I said sure. They even wanted to break the windshield to make it look like the car had been abandoned. I had no problem with this. They were prepared to repair everything.
What did they end up doing to your car?
They asked me to replace the wooden steering wheel with the original red plastic one I’d taken off. They took out one headlight, cracked the hood open and threw some mud concoction on it to make it look dirty. They had a dusty, leaf-covered blanket on it that they whipped off in the end.
Did you get to be in the commercial too?
I tried but I didn’t fit in. Everything was circa 1970 so all the clothing was different. For instance, the girls had on bellbottoms, the guys flowered shirts, and there was the typical nerd guy, a cool guy and tons of people dressed in costumes running around with cell phones.
Where did they shoot it?
They shot for two days at the Mustang Drive-in and then did the final shoot at Lakefield, ON. At the drive-in shoot, there were other vintage cars, trucks full of clothing and props, a catering truck, professional detailers running around, and at least six police cars. They shut down major roads and brought in a water truck to wet down the shooting area. It was something else.
What was the scene in Lakefield they shot?
This was where they shot the final scene where the man looking for the car approaches a run-down place and a big-bellied guy in an orange t-shirt looking pretty mean comes out and points off to the distance. There was a German Shepherd dog there that was the friendliest dog but it was trained to bark on command so that it seemed like a junk-yard dog.
You didn’t get that much richer doing the commercial but you’ve garnered a certain amount of fame out of it. How’s this been working for you?
Someone on the Falcon discussion group on the net saw the ad and thought that Ford was bringing the Falcon back out. I had to tell him that it was just my car being in a commercial. And the guys at work had a ball reworking the story that came out in the Brockville Recorder & Times. They changed the headline that read, McCracken’s car is famous to McCracken’s car is junk. Instead of the subheading, Restored Ford Falcon appears on Hockey Night in Canada, they put, Three-cylinder car needs major work and they said I was laughable with rabies instead of affable person who is a rabid hockey fan. I thought it was hilarious.
Now that you’ve got a ‘67 Fastback that you’re restoring and a Boss in the works, do you think you might sell your Falcon?
I’ll probably never sell it because I’d miss it, for one thing, and where ’d I ever get another rust-free car. I’ve got such a perfect starting point. And what with the commercial and all, I’ll probably never get rid of it. However, if anyone wants to make me an offer, the car comes with free video. That’s gotta be worth something.