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Chapter 3 Cuttin’ donuts, bars, used cars and jail sales Shakin’ utility districts,
Reagan, and Nader Excerpt from around page 4….. Cannonballing Since Roseville was a railroad town, one of Ed's first goals as General Manager was to establish a railroad connection that would pull in car buying railroad crews. Southern Pacific switchman Jimmy Berg was just what Ed needed, a guy determined to develop a lucrative second job to cover his wife's uninsured medical cancer bills. Jimmy Berg augmented his Southern Pacific work pay with an extra hour of pay each day earned by connecting the air hoses that ran from the engine to the cars that pressurize the brakes, referred to in the industry as 'Cannonnballing.' By afternoon, Jimmy would move to his second 'air bagging' job, where Ed had Jimmy's advertised name all ready for him 'Cannonball Berg.' Between cannonballing at the railroad and schmoozing at the dealership, Cannonnball Berg’s days were filled with hot air. Koupal's ads added his own brand of hot air to Cannonball's. "If you don't want to be railroaded, call Cannonball Berg for the best used car deal west of the Golden Spike!" Ed never lacked for original spiels, be they for broadcast or one-on-one debate As Jimmy says, "He was a terrific salesman. He convinced you that you shouldn't leave without this car, you were made for it, you know. He was a friend to anybody he did business with, and he didn't browbeat ‘em, but he convinced them that they just had to have that car."
Ed not only would fill
customers' ears with warm, languid desires to buy a car, but he also would
fill the skies with stunts to bring customers ever closer to his hill of used
cars. Saugstad's biggest
used car lot was on a Roseville hill near where I-80 now runs.
Over the hill, Ed often
had parachutists wafting down onto Ed’s farmhouse office showing downtowners
the way. No one ever knocked Ed
for lacking stage flair. Back then print ads for the 'Perfect Circle Piston Rings' featured a tough, square jawed, guys making the point that their product was "Tough.. But, oh, so gentle!" To Ed's staff, Ed was the double for the 'Perfect Circle Guy, “tough but ohhhh sooo gentle.” His almost perfect closing skills as a salesman would adapt and
grow for later initiative campaigns. For
those campaigns, Ed was the guy who, in the middle of a crowded shopping mall
could encompass a passerby so that everything was blanked out except the need
for the stroller to sign this petition. He
was a guy who, with his eyes and conversation set on you, could be driving
home an important political point -- when you'd suddenly be goosed.
Walking away, his mimicking
catcalls would echo through the rooms about how seriously "you all took
yourselves," as he moved to the print shop or darkroom. And the gooses or
pinches, in that PPC Age (Pre-Politically
Correct) would be non-gender specific.
This was a salesman who was fun to be around, but oh,
praise the Lord, the havoc his humor would play in the politically
correct, uptight 90's. And ohhh...
how much fun the 00's crowds are missing... Jail Even when cold winds blew on Ed's car selling parade, Ed had a
knack for finding the warm, silver-lined jet stream. One of those days happened early in Cannonball's career, as
four Placer Sheriff cars screeched into the Saugstad lot. Officers charged the office as though they were squashing a
Miami Heat drug deal. The owner, his top staff, office crew and the 'suede
shoe' salesmen, seven or eight in all, were arrested. Only salesman Bill Belau, Joe Pony, Cannonball Berg and Ed
were not served warrants and arrested. As
the owner was being lead away to one of the Plymouth police cars, his protest
was heard, "Wait a minute, if I got to go to jail, I wanna go in style...
Put me in a Ford." Switching
cars, the sheriffs drove him to the clinker in style. Some of the salesmen
were doing illegal stuff that probably included improper registrations and
mileage recordings, while the owner may have been shorting the state their due
on sales taxes. The Saugstad
Dealership did not have the cash bail, and the resultant bad publicity would
put the dealership at the brink of bankruptcy.
However, by using a hill
full of waxed metal on wheels as collateral, Ed posted bail. Bailing the boss and his cronies didn't bail out the dealership.
That rescue over stormy seas was left to Pirate Captain Ed, who while
lurching about on the troubled and treacherous seas of debt and jailings saw
a: "Great
opportunity to raise grands in a grand Jail Sale!” "'If it's cars or jail, the cars will go!...
“Clear the jail house lot, sell
the cars!' says the boss!... "Legal costs soar as our car prices plummet!...
“Take advantage of
highway robbery at our jail sale!.... "Keep us out of
jail, steal a car from us today!... "Drive away with a car today, so we can bring the
boss home tomorrow!... "
Ed had a field day doing radio ads, filling billboards, winding
tales with words and ideas like those above.
His huge Jail Sale made everyone, but the competition, happy.
Ed's Jail Break and
Highway Robbery plan were, like many of his approaches to problems and
growth, different. It also
elicited
what was often the typical institutional response. As Joyce Koupal remembered, "The 'Jail Sale' was so successful
that other Ford dealers made Ford Motor Company pay a visit to the dealership
and order the sale stopped. Too
many of the other Ford dealerships weren't getting enough business because
everyone was going to Roseville's Jail Sale. Ford Motor Company said the Jail Sale had to stop because it
wasn't dignified." Rumor has it that the seedlings of "political correctness" were planted by Ford Motor Company that day due to “politically correct” disdain for a hip-shooting salesman who, using clowning paratroopers falling on a Roseville hill and descendants of European convicts as salesmen, sold four- wheeled boxes to grinning country boys. |