Meet the 1961 Oldsmobile 98, now with Accel-A-Rotor Action and generous headroom for men with hats.

So what is “Accel-A-Rotor Action?” It reads like something an ad writer made up out of thin air, but actually it refers to a new automatic transmission introduced by General Motors for 1961, the Roto Hydra-Matic. A simplified version of the original Hydra-Matic but with an aluminum case and three forward gears instead of four, the Roto Hydra-Matic featured an internal stator to serve as a torque multiplier, inspiring the colorful trade label, “Accel-A-Rotor.” Also known as the Slim Jim for its smaller size and weight, the Roto Hydra-Matic was not a favorite of transmission mechanics due to its clunky operation and propensity to leak, and it was phased out after 1964.

However, the primary mission of the Olds spot below is to alert us to the generous headroom available in the redesigned 98 for 1961—there’s even enough for a top hat for a night at the opera. But the timing seems odd, as hats were at that moment rapidly falling out of fashion for men, and it’s said that President John F. Kennedy, who went bare-headed in public in order to look youthful, hastened their departure. Here we are decades later and males appear to be wearing baseball caps everywhere.

Oldsmobile offered three different four-door body styles on the 98 that year: the post-style Town Sedan, the hardtop Sport Sedan, and the pillarless, six-window Holiday Sedan, and it’s the Holiday Sedan that’s featured here. All three sold in roughly equal numbers. By the way, in all its marketing efforts for this single 1961 model year, including in this spot, Oldsmobile referred to the 98 as the “Classic Ninety-Eight,” but we found the phrase cumbersome and resorted to shorthand: 98. Video follows below.