An emotionally charged Chevrolet commercial unleashed for the holidays during the Detroit Lions vs. Green Bay Packers football game on Thanksgiving is stirring hearts and surging through social media.
It also is confusing some people who've asked Cowboy State Daily what's up with that big “Wyoming” sign at the top of a drive-in theater featured in the ad.
Spoiler alert, the Wyoming drive-in it’s not in the state of Wyoming.
The 5-minute “Holiday to Remember” is really a mini movie. It shows three generations of a family gathering for the Christmas season. The grandmother, apparently suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, sitting in a rocker staring ahead and not responding to the activity around her.
There are shots of members of the family as grandma sits. The woman’s daughter asks her father about the mother’s condition and the mood is somber.
A granddaughter takes it upon herself to initiate action to provoke memories from her grandmother’s life. She goes to grandma and helps her to the garage. There she pulls goes to the cover off of a vintage 1972 Chevy Suburban, sticks in an eight-track of John Denver’s “Sunshine On My Shoulders” and takes grandma for a ride through town.
That part of the commercial was shot in Holly, Michigan.
Sparking Memories
As the drive continues, they end up at a big drive-in theater with word “Wyoming” emblazoned across the top on of the entrance. It’s actually the Ford Wyoming Drive-In Theatre, a five-screen drive-in located in Dearborn, Michigan, that’s billed as the nation’s largest. The city is the home of Henry Ford’s historic “Greenfield Village” and the Henry Ford Museum.
The theater’s Facebook page has a post about its role in the ad: “Happy beginning to the holiday season! We are thrilled to be one of the locations chosen for this short film. Thanks Chevrolet for including our theater in such a special project.”
In the ad, it is at the theater that the hold on grandma’s state of confusion melts and she starts to remember events — especially her first kiss with grandpa.
Wyoming, But Not Wyoming
The confusion may begin for those who may not know that the state of Wyoming does not boast the nation’s largest drive-in theater and that its only connection to the Cowboy State is its name.
To get even more confusing, the state of Michigan boasts a city called Wyoming, which doesn’t have a drive-in. There are 13 other cities in the nation called Wyoming.
And there is still a drive-in theater active in Wyoming. The Powell Chamber of Commerce confirms the American Dream Drive-In continues operating in the summer.
Meanwhile, for those who want to see Wyoming in the Alzheimer’s ad and avoid an emotional tug at the heartstrings, check out the YouTube version of “Holiday to Remember” at the 3:04 mark in the ad. Or, watch it all and have a hankie ready.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
