
photograph courtesy oakley ford
A two-day grand opening drew plenty of customers to the new Oakley Ford dealership on January 15-16, 1954.
Dear Vance: When I was growing up, my family only drove Ford automobiles, and I remember going with my father to view the latest models at our favorite dealership, Oakley Ford. Please settle a family dispute. I recall visiting that dealership on Poplar, but my brother insists it was on Union. Oakley is no longer in business, so we turn to you for help. — L.B., Memphis.
Dear L.B.: I generally avoid jumping into family squabbles, but in this case you and your brother are both right. Oakley sold Fords at Union and Poplar. For that matter, they also had a dealership on Lamar, and later opened one on Stage Road.
It’s interesting — to me, anyway — that so many car dealers stayed in that business for their entire lives. With new models coming out each year, and each manufacturer touting different models, colors, features, and prices, every dealer faced the risk of longtime customers lured away to competitors.
Oscar Oakley fell in love with cars at early age. You didn’t ask, but I’m going to tell you about him anyway because some of his sales promotions were quite unusual.
Born in Michigan City, Michigan, in 1906, he came to Memphis with his family as a youngster, and graduated from Memphis Technical High School. In his teens, he held odd jobs with neighborhood grocers, but in 1925, at the age of 19, found his true calling. He began working in the service department of a Dodge dealership here and moved up to manage the parts department. He soon became a salesman, and then distribution manager for all Dodge dealers throughout West Tennessee.
In 1929, he began selling cars for the Oldsmobile Motor Works, and three years after that he joined the sales staff of Kensinger Chevrolet. Every few years, it seems, he went with a different manufacturer, and in 1938 he was named sales manager of Hull-Dobbs Ford, the largest Ford dealership in America. Oakley was later named vice president, then general manager, traveling across the contiguous United States and to Hawaii and Puerto Rico, supervising the network of dealerships owned by James K. Dobbs and Horace Hull.
In 1954, though, he decided to branch out on his own, selling Ford cars and trucks at the Oakley Motor Company at 1048 Union, in the heart of our city’s “Auto Row.” The two-day grand opening — held 70 years ago this month, on January 15-16, 1954 — was quite an event. Present and potential customers received engraved invitations, and local newspapers ran full-page ads announcing the occasion. The Lauderdale Library has photographs of crowds jammed into the showroom, where banners promised “Door Prizes Every Hour! Flowers, Balloons, Cokes, and Ice Cream!” What’s more, they promised customers “The Finest Deal Ever Offered on a New Car.”
This was just the beginning of the unusual promotions I mentioned earlier. Full-page newspaper ads kept readers informed about Oakley’s daily inventory and promised, “We have 25 courteous salesmen to serve you!” What’s intriguing is the dealership’s desire for older cars “for our Texas and California markets.” When Oakley formed his own company, he maintained his connection with Hull-Dobbs. Instead of regarding them as business rivals, he became part of the Hull-Dobbs Supervision Service, where he oversaw dealers in other states and helped them locate cars at the best prices. The man stayed busy.
Oakley’s newspapers ads, always big and bold, were hard to miss. One year, an eye-catching ad admitted, “We fell short — 299 cars sold in March — but we WILL sell 350 new Fords in April or BUST!!” What’s more, “Oakley will give MORE for your used car than ANYONE — ANYWHERE, and we will stay open UNTIL EVERYBODY GOES HOME!”
Another ad practically shouted, “HERE WE GO!” and promised, “We’re off again on one of our wildest spending sprees! ONE HUNDRED factory-fresh 1955 Fords WILL BE SOLD before midnight!” Oh, and “No offer will be too ridiculous!”
Gosh, it just tires me out to think of the hard-working sales staff who had to meet these promises.
But the print ads were just part of their campaign. Every year, Oakley plastered his display windows on Union with signs proclaiming, “IT’S HERE NOW!” — meaning the new models — but customers didn’t just walk in and find cars lined up, as one would today. No, one year, he actually gift-wrapped the vehicles. Each car was boxed inside a giant clear plastic container, a red bow on top, with a tag urging customers, “Give your family a Ford from Oakley.”

photograph courtesy oakley ford
To promote the brand-new line of Thunderbirds, Oakley posed this Scottish driver on an eye-catching model, displayed outside the Parkview Hotel.
They didn’t confine their stunts to the showroom. One year, Oakley lined up more than two dozen new cars in Overton Park for a photograph for the newspapers. Individual salesmen were invited to decorate cars as they pleased. One painted a dachshund — you know, the little weenie-dogs — on the sides of his car, with a sign promising “Long Trades.” Another painted “Oakley Ford” and “Dubs McMillen” (his name) on his car, along with a banner, “Stop me for a demonstration.”
Last November, I shared the history of the Parkview Hotel. Remember it? The lovely grounds were often used for various sales promotions — for cars and other products — and in 1955 Oakley displayed a new Ford Thunderbird outside the main entrance, painted in an eye-catching Scotch plaid color scheme.
Strangest of all, perhaps, was the “Talking ’54 Ford” which they somehow managed to park on the second floor of Goldmith’s Department Store on Main Street. Customers were invited to “See and Hear!” the car, which I presume offered a recording of the vehicle’s various features. A mannequin stood next to the vehicle, clad in a “Motor-Mate Coat to Match Your Car.”

photograph courtesy oakley ford
Oakley Ford salesman Howard Burgess promised “long trades” on car purchases. All buyers had to do was stop him and ask.
In 1959, Oakley expanded, opening a dealership at 2253 Lamar, called Oakley East. Promoted as “The Big Ford Supermarket,” it stayed in business until 1974, when it became Tom Bell’s Chevyland.
As the years passed, the car business in Memphis involved complicated mergers, dealership moves, and family connections. Oakley remained on Union until 1972, when he teamed up with Thomas Keesee, a vice president at Hull-Dobbs. Known to his friends as Buddy, Keesee earned a law degree from Ole Miss, and during World War II, newspapers reported that he served as a special agent with the FBI. After the war, he worked here as an attorney, before he switched to the car business.
When he joined Oakley, they decided to move their dealership — now called Oakley-Keesee Ford — to a larger space at 2700 Poplar. Within a few years, they opened a second location just a bit farther east, at 2883 Poplar, a former Hull-Dobbs dealership, closing their operations on Union and Lamar.
Oscar Oakley, who had sold cars for almost half a century, passed away in 1973, just one year after the move to Poplar. Newspapers described him as “the man known around the country as a super-salesman for Fords.” Keesee kept that dealership open until 1996, when he moved to a 12-acre site on Stage Road, just west of the new Wolfchase Galleria. He passed away in 1998, at age 84. Members of his family took over the business, but here we come full circle again: It became a Dobbs Ford for a few years, but is now AutoNation Ford, part of a national chain.
The old Oakley-Keesee Ford dealership at Poplar and Collins was turned into a self-storage facility. The Lamar dealership site is now a Walgreen’s. No trace of the original Oakley Motor Company has survived; the site on Union was demolished to make way for the expressway.
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Mail: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis Magazine, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101
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