Ron the Yarn Spinner

 

Corinthian Leather

 

 

“I know my own needs” he says in a silky Latin accent as a flamenco guitar plays in the background. He picks up a set of car keys with a small gold medallion attached to the ring. The  well-groomed  pitchman stylishly dressed in light colored suit jacket with a large satin shirt collar splayed over the open lapel is Ricardo Montalban.

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Cut to a panning shot of the round headlights  and to the passenger quarter panel of the 18 foot long 1975 Chrysler parked in Ricardo’s driveway. A trio of trumpets sound off in exaltation as Ricardo  slides behind the wheel.

“The tastefulness […] the workmanship.”  His voice, smooth and sweet.

From our passenger seat, we see him roll up his driver side window with the touch of a button. He refers to the vehicle’s “thickly cushioned seats,”  and then…..watch for it,,,,,,here it comes! “…its available soft CORRRINTHIAN leather.”

A string section fills in with the flamenco guitar and trumpets as Ricardo takes a corner on an empty road before bringing the  automobile to a stop providing us with an ocean view.

 

The TV  commercial is intended to  imply that Corinthian was a Spanish leather. Afterall Spain is famed for exuberant flamenco (both the dance and the dress), but also for its exceptional leather. With a history spanning a few hundred centuries and family businesses that exist even today, Spanish leather is as rich and detailed as the material itself. Renowned for its affiliation with a craft that dates back to the Roman Empire, the town of Ubrique is famous producer of luxury leather.

All this sounds good to you, right?

Well, stand by, fasten your seat belt – ok lap belt – and imagine your luxuriating in 1975 Corinthian  leather.

While Ubrique is popular for its  leatherworks, it is actually the city of Córdoba that is really famous for its tanning and embossing techniques, as is renowned for its production of high quality Spanish rich leather boots that are favored by riders from all over the world due to their durability and luxury.

The only thing remotely Hispanic about Chrysler Cordoba was its name. Even the car's emblem is a stylized version of the Argentine cordoba coin, and there is also a Córdoba Province, Argentina.

 

But what about Corinth – Corinthian leather? Is it really Corinthian leather from Cordoba? But wait, Isn’t Corinth in Greece?

It took a decade before Ricardo fessed-up about his acclaimed Corinthian Leather. David Letterman went “Jack Webb” on Fantasy Island’s (Da Plane Da Plane) Mr. Roarke  on  Letterman’s Late Night Show one evening and Ricardo  reluctantly caved under pressure and essentially confessed. 

“The writers for the commercial wanted to find a word that I could say sounded elegant, so they created  a fake name : Corinthian Leather. In Dragnet parlance  he was  framed,”

“But does it (Corinthian) mean anything?” Letterman asks.

“Nothing.” says Ricardo.

 

¡Caramba! Gone was the mystique and romance veiled by a Star Trek level of cloaking of this  out- of - the word never heard of before luxury  portrayed via the Wrath of Khan’s pitchman’s dapper and gentlemanly persona. Poor Ricardo admitted on national TV  that Corinthian leather was just a marketing term. In fact, Corinthian leather was regular leather sourced from a company in New Jersey.

 

Era mentira – Yes it was all a lie.

But every lie seems to have some truth in it. Corinth cattle exist. The Spanish brought the breed in the 1500s. Drought resistant it has been said that Texas Longhorns came from the Corinth stock.

And to get “To the Rest of the Story’ (Thank you Paul Harvey) we have to turn the Cordoba around and go back – about 100 years.

George Washington Carver has become  famous for his research into finding a nearly limitless number of uses for the ordinary peanut. But Carver’s work was by no means “just peanuts.”  Here’s just one example: Carver  also performed research into various uses for cotton and cotton seeds. It was during his time at Tuskegee University that he first grew interested in  cotton seed. It had to be good for something besides filling holes on hillsides, but what? Carver went to work seeking practical ways to use the seed and he found the cotton seed could yield extremely large quantities of consumer safe  oil. Cottonseed oil has a neutral flavor and high smoke point, making it ideal for frying and baking. Too bad, at this time, everyone was frying food in either lard or bacon grease. (It wasn’t until Crisco came along that things started to change.)  So,  Carver figured there was little chance the Martha Stewarts of the time would promote it.  Back to the drawing board for a Plan B.  Ultimately, he cottoned on (sorry)  to a different use: The oil was useful in facilitating the quality  tanning of animal hides, but he needed help to market the process.

He called upon Trygve Luetkemeyer,  who was a pioneer in the leather industry, and Luetkemeyer was eager to try out Carver’s new processing.  But where to find the large, steady source of cotton seeds he would need to produce the oil? People in the southern United States had been discarding cotton seeds for so long,  so his interest in them was often greeted by “Are you nuts?”  He finally found a seed source of  seeds in  Corinth, Mississippi. Corinth, ravaged by the Civil War, was struggling to stay alive and the town elders shrewdly viewed Luetkemeyer’s business venture as a chance to jump start the local economy.  The Town’s Monty Hall said,  “Let’s Make a Deal,”  and the city fathers were able to negotiate a business arrangement  with Luetkemeyer, but with a catch. They sought some form of recognition for their town, so it was agreed  that the town would have naming rights for the processing product to help put it back on the map so-to-speak and  attract businesses and people to relocate there. Luetkemeyer became quite wealthy from using the process Carver discovered.  And, as agreed, Luetkemeyer marketed his product as Corinthian Leather. All of this occurring a century before anyone experienced Cordoba’ s trademarked  leather  upholstery.