Right Under the Platte City Water Tower
While it looks little different than similar structures, the Platte City water tower enjoys semi-legendary status among long-time Kansas City residents. It's possibly the area's most overlooked landmark. Television viewers of a certain age will never forget the affected hillbilly screech of Sonny Hill, who proclaimed that his now defunct car dealership was "right under the Platte City water tower."
posted by Happy In Bag @ 8:37 AM
11 Comments:
At 11:48 AM,
kcmeesha said…
I bought my 1st car from Sonny Hill in Olathe and I remember the old commercials. I never understood why dealership commercials have to be retarded. One of those American things, I guess.
At 12:16 PM,
Happy In Bag said…
I want to buy a car from this guy, Meesha. Warning- Highly offensive! Not Safe For Work!
At 2:43 PM,
WLIB said…
Here's a piece of trivia for you: The Sonny Hill in the commercials was played by a guy named Austin Van Zee (as I recall). He did commercials for car dealers all over the the midwest back in the 80s-90s, including my hometown of Sioux Falls, where he was also a minister of some kind at a Christian Reform church. He did a pretty straightforward albeit uber-confident pitchman in the other commercials. So when I moved to KC I was kind of appalled to see him play this cheesy pseudo-shitkicker for Sunny Hill. Wonder what he's doing today.
Thanks for this blast from the past.
At 3:17 PM,
WLIB said…
Of course, I could be totally wrong about this, too.
At 5:25 PM,
Happy In Bag said…
As usual, Lee, thanks for the valuable perspective.
And seriously, delicate readers, don't follow the link above unless you appreciate crude, wildly inappropriate humor.
At 9:32 AM,
pom. said…
ahh. memories.
At 10:54 PM,
Donna. W said…
It doesn't hold a candle to the Wellington Mo water tower, under which my daughter's family lives.
At 3:07 PM,
Anonymous said…
How far is that from "that swingin' Red Bridge exit"? Beuller? Anybody?
At 6:52 PM,
Anonymous said…
"that swingin' Red Bridge exit!" LOL. Bet yer boots, Colonel Billy!
At 12:51 AM,
Adam Smith said…
And who was the local African American car dealer that used to advertise back in the..I wanna' say late 80's/early 90's?
I think he would some times include his family in the ads.I remember in one of them,his son saying,"Gosh Dad!You're easy!"
Didn't Sonny Hill get in to some trouble with the I.R.S.?The guy that ran the dealer ship,not the actor.
And how is it that Ray Adams is still on TV?His ads used to play almost constantly during Friday Fright Night,nearly 40 years a go.
At 3:49 PM,
Anonymous said…
OMG Friday Fright Night!!! I used to have sleepovers with friends and we always watched that! I kinda forgot about it.
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