Mercury Dealership Treasures

[Lake X Kid]

September 1979... Actor Jerry Reed did some ads for Merc I believe

I saw the late Jerry Reed at a boat race in Nashville, TN, (if memory serves me correctly if was 1976). In the pit area they were doing a publicity photo shoot, and Jerry was sitting in the cockpit of one Mercury's factory sponsored race boat. Roy Ridgell (a Mercury employee) looked at Jerry in the boat cockpit, and said to Jerry "you look lost". And Jerry (with his humor) said "I am", and they both laughed.

Also Jerry Reed was such a fine guitar player that Maestro Chet Atkins did a lot duo pickin together with Jerry.

[troybell]

At one time the test boats would all have coolers filled with beer and ice. Also had hard liquor in them. By the time you got thru "test" driving you'd order $500,000.00 worth of outboards...LOL. True. We bought every closeout they had. Sold 80% of outboard production in 78-79. I'll post a few pics... Troy Bell.

[troybell]

[troybell]

[troybell]

These are pictures from Tullahoma Marine in Tennessee I'd put these in the 70's for sure. Dad got in the business in the summer of 1970 and from this location would end up selling 80% of Mercury's Outboard production in 1978, they copied his BMT idea in the end. The local airport bought our lot and dad retired and I went on to sell Cash Registers...boo boo no fun..LOL.

[FUJIMO]

Interesting. Nashville Marine too. Welcome to Scream & Fly Troy.

[Denny <><]

Is that any where near Paris Tenn. There is a guy that has many merc outboards somewhere near Paris.

[troybell]

Thanks for hosting the site. Love this thread. So many memories from our days in the Marine Industry. I wonder how many boats I sold...no telling. I can remember having 115 sold by the end of Feb. in 1985, that was how many tickets were on our rigging board. We'd sell no kidding 150-200 boats at a show. I'd order over $500,000.00 in boats at a time. It was crazy. I thought my Father was INSANE the first year I went into management. He bought all these anchors. Hundreds of them! I was like, sweat pouring off both of us from storing them, are you crazy we won't sell these in a million years. He laughed at me the next year when we were doing the same thing. I didn't think he was crazy anymore. The first year I went to dealer meeting was the first year my Dad EVER went to a single meeting. They got him so loaded up he couldn't get out of bed until mid day and then it all started right over again. Well I made him stop that and go to meetings. I can talk for hours about all the stuff that went on. I met most all the big wigs and they knew me by name. Never met Mr. K as he died the year I graduated college and went into the business end. "It was our business doing pleasure". And we worked hard and played even harder. Regards, Troy Bell

We sold over $4M in Sales this year, and had just lost our best salesman to a arch rival.


And we remembered it all and took on Yamaha!

[troybell]

This was our front show room. We had two under AC. Nice to show boats where it is cool..ahhhh. Spoiled rotten.


6 Bay Shop. Stocked for the coming season, Pallets full of Batteries, stacks of trolling motors, depth finders, skis, life jackets. Hundreds of boats, hundreds of motors...


Boat Lift Building w two Hoist Boat show shots, the shop in season w/boats ready to go!



Exterior shots

[troybell]

Paris, TN is West of Nashville about half way to Memphis. Good small mouth nearby...!!!

[Denny <><]

Thanks for the info, your threads are very interesting. Nice pics. That had to be exciting and great to work with your Dad.

[troybell]

I wanted to add this pic too. The top left is a Stratos Tunnel Hull Bass Boat. Yoark Summerford (STV) did the tooling on the mold. I flipped the first one they made. So I like this picture a lot. Only boat I ever end over ended in. Some of the guys at the Service Desk, and our sign.





I'd be a scurvy dog if I didn't put this one up on here too. The one and only Pee Wee Motor Boater Bell. Oh yeah!


Lake Okeechobee Fish Camp Charlie Blackwell and Olen Bell. We kept two boats and two trailers there for personal use.

[troybell]

[troybell]

I saw the late Jerry Reed at a boat race in Nashville, TN, (if memory serves me correctly if was 1976). In the pit area they were doing a publicity photo shoot, and Jerry was sitting in the cockpit of one Mercury's factory sponsored race boat. Roy Ridgell (a Mercury employee) looked at Jerry in the boat cockpit, and said to Jerry "you look lost". And Jerry (with his humor) said "I am", and they both laughed.

Also Jerry Reed was such a fine guitar player that Maestro Chet Atkins did a lot duo pickin together with Jerry.

Met Jerry a few times for different reasons. First was to deliver a boat to him. He had a old red Chevy truck that was worse for the wear and tear and his wife and kids were in the truck with him. We'd go on to sell him a few more bass boats one was in 1976 and it was Red White and Blue metalflake and gawd awful gaudy! LOL But we loved it back then. I also was in the 50th Grande Ole Opry Television show and show worked with Opryland on some dance tapes, oh that was when I was a Square Dancer on the Opry. Whole different story.

[troybell]

I also meant to mention the way I stumbled upon the site and this thread was due to my seeking photos of Roy Ridgel the Service Tech that covered our area. Great guy and great Mercury stories he could tell. He ran boats at Lake X and went to Europe. Miss that man.