SCARCE 1977 Chevy industrial musical - The Chevrolet Experience - weird & fun

$

55

If you've seen "Bathtubs Over Broadway" or read "Everything's Coming Up Profits," you know that private pressing "industrial musical" souvenir albums are some of the rarest and weirdest records in existence. These motivational musicals were only for dealers, salesmen, distributors and other industry insiders at sales meetings and conventions, and the souvenir vinyl records were not available to the public. And many of these shows boasted outstanding music and performances along with the bizarre corporate subject matter.

I'm the collector and historian profiled in the documentary "Bathtubs Over Broadway," and the co-author of "Everything's Coming Up Profits - The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals." I'm thinning out my stash of duplicates, and offering an assortment of records that range from the scarce, to the very rare, to the "you'll probably never encounter this again."

Here's "The Chevrolet Experience," a souvenir album of the 1977 Chevy dealer introduction show circa late summer of '76. Every year the car companies got their dealers together to unveil the new upcoming models, and these musical extravaganzas were among the biggest and most elaborate industrial shows.
This record has upbeat songs about the glories of Chevrolet and the various car and truck models written by the veteran industrial show team of Wilson Stone and David Blomquist (Xerox, Cessna, VW, etc), plus one song, "Chevrolet Proud," that had been composed some sixteen years earlier by Hank Beebe for a Chevy show, and which had become an established in-house anthem. Side two has an Americana medley and remarks by a Chevy executive. The cast includes SuEllen Estey, from the legendary American-Standard musical "The Bathrooms Are Coming."
The front cover shows scenes from the gathering, which was held in Oakland, and the back has photos of the show and concert. The gatefold album opens out to reveal inspiring messages from various Chevrolet bigwigs.
Minty pristine vinyl and beautiful crisp cover with an unobtrusive "50¢" in black marker in the upper right corner (ah yes, from when nobody wanted this stuff). Plus, a very special "flaw" -- a Chevy dealer filled out some paperwork on top of the album, and if you angle the front cover to the light you can see ballpoint pen imprints of jottings like "install am radio," "undercoat," "clean for delivery," "7/6/77," "Chevy Impala," "sold," etc. Pretty awesome, and definitely unique.
This is a lovely example of a top-line car company industrial with great packaging. Must-have for industrial show enthusiasts, Chevy fans, musical theater buffs, and anyone who likes weird vinyl.

Check out my other listings for many more killer examples of this deliciously strange and secret slice of American musical and corporate history, including another Chevy record.

Buyers of multiple records get a break on shipping charges.