BusTalk

[Q65A]

Cute ad, no?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1963-Volkswagen-VW-Bus-Microbus-New-York-City-NYC-Bus-photo-vintage-print-Ad-/361629968045?hash=item5432d366ad:g:oPYAAOSwP~tW2yN-

[traildriver]

Great ad! I remember when it ran. Especially like the clever ending where they say the 'big boys' learned from them, obviously referring to Dodge, Chevy, and Ford's early vans...only Chevy had a comparable rear-engined one (the Corvair based Greenbrier)....

[frankie]

Can anyone ID the Mack? Other than being fictitious, I did some research and can not find any Queens company with this 4 digit fleet number, nor one that used alpha routes instead of the ubiquitous "Q" prefix.

Frankie

[Q65A]

I think you're right, Frankie: this ad was probably "Photoshopped" before there even was a real Photoshop in existence.
Probably a good example of artistic license, the Mack in the ad looks like an "aesthetic hybrid" that is composite in several ways.
The destination sign shows Route A, operated by Jamaica Buses, who had used lettered routes a long time ago.
I recall that when I attended elementary school in Jamaica in the mid-late 1960's JBI still used alpha route designations long after NYCTA, GBL and QTC had shifted to Q prefixed route numbers.
This line might be equivalent to today's Q111.
Route B is today's Q110 to Belmont Park.
I recall that Route C was the Richmond Hill line, which eventually became today's Q112.
The color photo on the front cover of Guy Martin's "NYC Transit Buses: 1945-1975 Photo Archive" is that of JBI 513, a postwar Mack C-41GT working the Q-111. In that shot, it shows JBI was using a cream and red livery similar to that shown on the Mack in the VW ad, except JBI's Macks had chrome trim on their front panels, which are not shown in the ad. Also not shown in the ad is the oval Mack script logo badge (probably to avoid potential trade dress infringement issues).
The livery in the ad also looks like the cream and red paint scheme used by Avenue B & East Broadway on their Macks of the same era.
Their Macks did not have the same elaborate chrome trim on their fronts, but they did have the round red Mack emblem bearing the classic bulldog image.
That the image of a NYC bus operated by a Queens-based carrier is rather unusual; very few visitors to NYC probably ever saw a JBI bus in action, unless they were visiting Aqueduct or Belmont Park, both of which horse racing venues were served by JBI from their curbside stands at Parsons Blvd. & Hillside Avenue, adjacent to the Parsons Blvd. IND subway station.

[traildriver]

VW's admen probably selected a Mack, because it wasn't a GM...in other words a non-competitor of automobiles.
And they liked the way JBL's paint scheme matched up with their microbus...

[frankie]