Hi ho | One of Maine's most recognizable auto dealers takes a breather
Photo/Tim Greenway
Jolly John Pulsifer refuses to switch to auto pilot as he considers what's next after selling his Saco dealership
It was a job he could do in his sleep.
That’s how John Pulsifer remembers his gig as manager of the Atlantic Motors Ford dealership in Saco back in 1976, a job he found so boring he one day answered a phone call from another dealer with, “Hi ho! Jolly John, the Polish Prince of Happiness here!”
The nickname, shortened to just Jolly John, stuck, and from it came a marketing campaign that served Pulsifer well through decades of selling cars. A late 1980s Ford Motor Co. survey found more Mainers recognized Jolly John than the governor, says Pulsifer. Radio, print and television ads featured Pulsifer and his iconic tagline — “I’m not Jolly unless you’re happy!” — which he still uses today as he ties up loose ends in the sale of his Saco Jeep dealership to Bill Waldron, owner of Portland Volvo and Portland Saab in Scarborough.
“Hi ho, Jolly John here,” blasts Pulsifer into the receiver of the phone on his desk. Minutes later, his cell phone goes off, ringing a syncopated “Hi ho! Hi ho!”
Surrounded by encased Lionel trains, sports memorabilia, Pee Wee Herman dolls and Walt Disney artifacts, the brash and candid Pulsifer recalls getting into the car business in 1958 to avoid working in his father’s service station.
“I was living with my folks, essentially being a bum, hanging around pool halls and staying out late at night,” says Pulsifer. “Then on a Monday, at 5:45, my father woke me up and said, ‘Enough is enough. Get a job this week or you’re coming to work with me at the service station.’ Under that veiled threat, I took the first job I could find.”
It was selling cars at Mill City Chevrolet in Biddeford. From there, Pulsifer worked his way up the ladder, eventually owning six dealerships on Route 1 before a 1991 bankruptcy shut him down. He dismisses the bankruptcy with a wave of his hand, saying he simply “ran out of money” by overextending his real estate holdings. Court records show he owed $9 million with assets under $2 million.
“I knew for a fact that I wasn’t as smart as some of the other guys, but I also knew I could outwork them,” he says of the early years. “In the used car business, most guys would quit by 3 p.m. to grab a drink. I don’t drink, so I’d be on the road ‘til 9 or 10 or 11 o’clock at night, working.”
But nothing important changed, he says. “My wife still loved me, my daughter still loved me. All the rest … who cares?”
Two years later, he was setting sales records again with a Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealership he took over on Route 1 in Saco and put under the familiar Jolly John sign. Pulsifer says the nuts and bolts of selling cars haven’t changed in 52 years — it’s a matter of building a rapport between buyer and seller. He capitalized on that theme in 1982 when he and another local businessman, Jim Boldebook, started a marketing firm targeted to car dealers. Boldebook, owner of Three Thieves restaurant in Saco, encouraged Pulsifer to ditch print ads in favor of radio. The company, Creative Broadcast Concepts, operated all over the United States, an affiliation Pulsifer enjoyed until he sold his portion of the business to Boldebook “at the time of the unpleasantness.”
His willingness today to sell his dealership to Waldron is mostly a matter of timing, says Pulsifer. Waldron approached him with an offer and after some back and forth, the two agreed upon terms of the sale, which neither will disclose.
The arrangement means Pulsifer can spend a little more time with his grandchildren and conjure up his next great adventure. He won’t rule out starting another dealership. “What else am I going to do?” he asks with a wry smile. “I’ve been selling things my entire life. It’s either that, or become a motivational speaker.”
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