Every so often, a car ad is enshrined in American pop culture—as with Chrysler’s “Corinthian leather” commercials. Here’s the story behind the ads, including one of the original commercials starring Ricardo Montalban. Fun car lore, watch.
Oddly enough, the first Chrysler product to be equipped with the automaker’s famed (but utterly fictitious) “Corinthian leather” was the 1974 Imperial LeBaron. But nobody remembers that. Instead they recall the phrase from the new Cordoba introduced one year later, thanks to the kitschy television commercials starring actor Ricardo Montalban (1920-2009). Today, Montalban is celebrated for three great roles: as the proprietor of television’s Fantasy Island of 1977-1984; in the title role of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; and as the star of a whole series of Chrysler commercials in which the phase “soft Corinthian leather” r-r-rolls off his silvery tongue as though he were reading from Cervantes.
In truth, there’s no such thing as “Corinthian leather.” The Wall Street Journal would later determine that the leather goods used in Chrysler products were procured not from an ancient city in Greece, but from a wholesaler in New Jersey. The “Corinthian leather” phrase was reportedly invented by Bozell, Chrysler’s Omaha-based ad agency. Chrysler used essentially the same middling-grade treated hides as the rest of the Motor City.
No matter. In the 1970s, personal luxury coupes—Pontiac Grand Prix, Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Ford Elite, and so on—were a red hot market segment, and Chrysler was cashing in. Based on Mopar’s B-body platform and originally sketched as a Plymouth, the Cordoba was moved upmarket, upfitted with more features, and rebadged as a Chrysler. There it sold more than 150,000 units the first year, huge volume for Detroit’s third largest automaker. In viewing this commercial (captured for posterity, fortunately, by Nick at Nite’s Retromercial series) we found the first-generation Cordoba much as we remember it: as a pretty darned handsome car for the time. Video below.
The 1975 ‘small’ Chrysler; 215.3″ in length. 14 mpg
The ‘full-size’ 2015 Chrysler 300; 197.8 in” 15mpg
I remember for years people thought he said “Fine” or “Rich” Corinthian leather, but he never said that, as the commercial sez, “Soft” Corinthian Leather.
As I remember it there were a whole series of commercials over some years and the words fine and rich were also used. It stands to reason they would change it up a bit.
In the original 1975 commercial he said “soft corinthian leather” . In a 1980 commercial he was talking about “rich corinthian leather”. Needless to say that the leather (?) was cheapest of the cheapest….. :-))
Nice! Thanks for sharing this.