Art & Inspiration Indoor car shows: the golden years

@The37Kid s post on the motivation thread got me thinking about this. I can only speak for myself, but in the formative years of my hot rod obsession, indoor car shows were absolutely KEY for me. '37kid talked about his mom dropping him off, for me, my mom would drop me off at the bus depot, my pocket stuffed with lawn cutting money I had saved the summer before, and once a year, I would take the Pacific Coast Stageline bus into Vancouver, get off at the corner of Hastings and Renfrew, and go to the PNE car show. For me, this started at the age of nine, and it was basically the ONLY hot rod event of the year I could attend. Other than seeing local cars driving around the streets of Maple Ridge and reading hot rod magazines, it was my only contact with the world of hot rods. I would borrow a camera from my dad, but I had to pay for the film and developing myself.
It was an hour+ bus ride into the city, and I would spend the whole day there. It was an amazing chrome plated, candy flake trip to a fantasy world I otherwise really only saw in the magazines.
I would see Buck Kinneys SS Camaro, Willys g***ers, Model A Roadster pu's, '32 fords, the Ecstasy wheelstander, solid axle street cars, Bill Phillips FED, it was amazing for me, like stepping right into the magazines I read every day. My parents weren't into hot rods, they were into sporty cars, so I wasn't lucky enough to be ferried around to rod runs and so on, I had to seek it out for myself.
I literally looked forward to those PNE car shows more than I did to Christmas or my birthday. It was a trip into a world that was otherwise two dimensional fantasy on the printed page.
Anybody other than 37kid and I do this as a 9 yr old kid? Save our pocket money so we could go to the local Autorama?

 

They were great, I remember one at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, including Norm Grabowski's T roadster, and one in Long Beach that had lots of drag racing cars as well as hot rods and customs...

 

got into model cars around age 7 or 8 I think....read my first car mag a year or two later...didn't get to a car show until I was 12. But when I was in high school, I remember going to world of wheels and then on the way home talking with my brother about how we should put a big motor in the old truck. That was the start for me.

 

I am sure those fifties/sixties car shows were the beginning for a lot of us, that's why I posted this. The first time I remember seeing a drag car in real life was 1967, my dad took us to the Vancouver International auto show, which was a showcase for new cars, boring right? Except when we came in the door, there was a pearl white chute pack bodied front engine dragster and a funny car! I CLEARLY remember the digger as being somewhat similar to Carl Caspers digger, maybe it was the Smirnoff car? Anyway, it TOTALLY blew me away, I would have been 7, I had been looking at cars like this in the magazines, here was one in REAL LIFE, right in front of me! WOW!

 

Why didn't I ever share the car show days with youse guys???
We had a GREAT annual show in San Jose, CA. since 1952.
"Autorama" was held right in the San Jose Civic Auditorium, on polished hardwood floors. Same floor as the Shrine Circus, frequent indoor visits and presentations by Barnum & Bailey, et al.
It was a major attraction.
First one I attended was in January, 1955. George Barris was there, debuting the wildly flamed '32 Five window Coupe with the chrome Cad mill. (with a front timing plate plug. No crankshaft. This type of 'Show Tricks' would be addressed later that year, when the "start up and drive in" rule was set.)

Nevertheless, I got up next to George, to ask a question about a top chop on my '36 Three window...
He brushed me off, "Listen, Kid...Just bring it down to the shop..." I told him I already had it cut and beginning tacked back...my question had to do with... He brushed me off again, and a BEAUTIFUL Hollywood type chick grabbed his arm and said, "George, answer his question. He was polite, so tell him what you do."
It was the (then) astronomically beautiful Shirley, a Starlet...George asked what I wanted to know...
This all occurred during the first hour of Friday.

That day I met Von Dutch, Dean Jeffries, and Morris Srabian. (Morris was the owner of the "Wild Kat", also there: '54 Ford F100 that later disintegrated in the infamous Barris fire)
Bill Moore's superb gold channeled '32 Roadster with its chrome Cad mill, and Ivan Scorscur's yellow channeled '32 roadster with its flattie and rolled rear pan. (Both HRM feature cars! From our own San Jose Stompin' Grounds!!!)
...and the Oakland Roadster Show was next... I was so lucky to be a Santa Clara native...

 

THATS what I'm talking about, RIGHT THERE! And man, I loved the Wild Kat COOL stuff! Man, I wish I could go back in time... better yet, I wish I could take my daughter with me so she could get that feeling too.

 

Jim, I built models then too. Still did occasionally up into about the nineties or so, and built a Woody Gilmore ch***is dragster about ten years ago, but never finished it, it got interrupted by the move to our current house and has been sitting in a box since.
12 was a big age for me, that was when my mom decided I was old enough to take the bus to Mission, and go to the drags! Man, that was IT! Holy ****!

 

Wow George, speaking of the golden years.
I was fortunate to have been introduced to the Portland Roadster Show at 15 and I too was a suburbs kid. Man, going into the big city to a show of this caliber was about as good as it gets, and there have been times where I felt that I really should "pay it forward" but in this day and age; trusting parents are hard to come by (they should be cautious).
As you, I was not lacking for opportunities to have my hot rod fuse lit, by the time I turned ten; I had ridden in my moms friends sons 62 Corvette, the next was a 65 Mustang fastback 289/4 speed that belonged to the brother of a girl I was in grade school with.
At twelve, my friends dad was killed in a car crash and his two older brothers got a pretty large inheritance, this is when my hot rod fuse really started burning. One brother bought a 64 Stude Avanti and when he took me for a ride, I'm pretty sure I saw 140 on the speedo.
The other brother bought a BRG Sunbeam Tiger and although I don't recall seeing what the speedo read, it actually scared the **** out of me.
If any of our younger HAMB members don't know what a Tiger is, just think miniature Shelby Cobra, granted, it was only a 260 but you need to Google them as they had quite a reputation.
The real biggie was when I met a guy when I was sixteen that drag raced a 66 Plymouth Belvedere two door sedan that was an original 2x4 426 Street Hemi/4speed/Dana 60 rear.
I was "invited" to go to the Madras Oregon drags and be a pit helper, but then was given my first ride down the quarter mile and was that ever an eye opening experience.
For the uninformed; another car that needs to be Googled.
It isn't any wonder I'm a hopeless gearhead; having been exposed to all this at such a young age.

 

The Seattle Roadster Show at the center... Plus some of the smaller shows; Tacoma had a handful at the old Armory with local (NW) cars, and I remember a few at the Puyallup fairgrounds too. Pretty much the only way a local kid could see the 'magazine' cars. In the days when the only color shots of the cars were on the covers, you could see them in all their glory at the shows.

 

As a middle school / high school kid in the early 60's, the only place to see cars was at an indoor show which were more than likely in the winter in the mid-west. Or hang out at the magazine rack in the grocery or drug store. I never even heard of big outdoor shows until the NSRA came along. Were there any? The indoor shows I went to were in Chicago and Indy and I had to plead with my folks and family to get them to go. Gary

 

I attended my first indoor car show (Portland Roadster Show) in 1958. Talk about an eye opening experience. Attendee's got dressed up. The exhibitors took extra time to display their cars and trucks. The show promoters would ***emble a really nice program and in most cases they would map all exhibitors. I was only 7 back in '58 but it got me inspired to build my own show car and in 1974 I won my first award. The 50's/60's indoor car shows were the best. And yes, you always saw a few magazine entrees as well. Clark Marshall used to put on a terrific show in Seattle every year.

In recent years I do not see the same enthusiasm by exhibitors. Really a shame. But times change.

 

First local indoor show Dad took me to was in Danbury, Ct. 1961 or '62. The Danbury Modifiers put it on to fund their Lyndwood B/D that raced at Dover Drag strip in Windale, N.Y. Kind of funny that I would find the remains of the car and restore it in the 1990's. The "Best in Show" was won by Norman Letendre from Ludlow, M***. with a 1917 T that looked a lot like the Tommy Ivo car. I asked about it years ago here on the HAMB and it is still up in M***, and unrestored as I remember things. Will we have a S****book thread some time soon, that was a traditional thing to do in the early 1960's. Bob

 

HAMB Search Feature is the best! Bob

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...-1917-t-from-ludlow-m***.374871/#post-4063583

 

Wow, how about that! ^^ I am renovating my dads old house, and we are going to move up there, somewhere in all that stuff are a couple boxes of slides I shot at the PNE shows when I was 11 or 12, I am hoping to find them. Be some real good Vancouver area stuff in there!

 

My Dad took me to the kustom car show at downtown Milwaukee Arena, 50's, started driving 1964 @ 16, the only indoor kustom car show for years, later moved to State Fair Park in West Allis, still is there every winter, had my cars there 3X between 2001/07, stopped participating, pain in the **** during winter, also had my race cars in some winter show events 1979/1990. I also built model cars and had them at the Hobby Horse in Capital Court Mall, read my Dad's Hot Rod magazine from before I could read, at 18, when I moved out, bought them all, remember Rod & Custom little magazine pages, also life long reader of SpeedSport Racing News until it stopped Printing. Been "Car Crazy" from little on, Dad was a car guy and Midget Race Car owner for 40 years, I was born into cars/racing, a live long adventure for me.

 

Although I was exposed to short track late models and sprint cars in 1970 (at nine years old), it was 1977 before I got to go to an indoor car show. Three of my friends and I piled into a Chevy pickup and went to one in Columbus, Ohio. It was a 150 mile round trip, and kinda cramped in that truck, but well worth it to us 16 year olds at the time. It was at the Ohio State Fairgrounds, and we initially got directed to a game rooster show before we found the Exhibition Hall.

 

.........................Great memories, George. I was 13 yrs. old when I first got to go to the World of Wheels @ the Washington, D.C. National Guard Armory. Looking back, I would liken it to a little kid's first time at Disney World. Like a fantasy come true. I was already deep into building models and had worked out a deal with the librarian at my Jr. High to save me all of the Hot Rod, Rod & Custom, Car Craft and Motor Trend magazines when the new ones arrived. It was so different when you could see the cars from the magazines in person.

 

^ Did you enter a model car in the show? I remember all of us ragging on each others cars as we stood in line to get in. If I remember correctly you got a discount on the admission if you brought a model. I went in the early 70's.

 

^Ditto. The only model contest I ever entered at a car show back then was at the McCormick Place in Chicago in the mid-60's. I took a dark green, metal-flaked, and blown Austin Healey g***er model. There were **** loads of models there. Didn't place. And I did get in free. The down side was we lived an hour north of the show location so I had to broker a double deal with my dad as we had to drive down there twice, one to enter, and then again to retrieve my model. But it was SO cool to be at that show. I have no idea who the promoter was. But I do remember getting a pointy felt Rat Fink hat from Roth. Sure wish I still had that. Gary

 

"But I do remember getting a pointy felt Rat Fink hat from Roth. Sure wish I still had that."

...me too!! the "Hillbilly Crash-Helmet", these stories are pure memory elixir!

 

..............Nope. My stuff wasn't really show-worthy.

 

Neither were mine. The model kits were cheaper than the price of admission so it was just a math thing for me.

 

"Big Daddy"

 

My first indoor show was also at the Chicago Amphitheater at age 13 or 14 in the early 60's.
Walking in the hall was an explosion of color and pure white angel hair compared to the
black and white coverage of the mags at that time which I had been addicted to already.
What I brought away from those shows was those cars had detail and more detail which I tried to apply to my model building.
Fifty plus years later it all still holds the same amazement for me.

 

That reminds me, there is a box of family slides around here some were I need to locate. Not too long ago I had a camera that used a full floppy disk, lots of great photos trapped on box after box of them. I guess there is a machine that would allow you to put them on a disk. Bob

 

Started building models at about 7 years old in 1965, entered my first model contest in 1967 and placed with the 1955 chevy badman g***er, I was hooked then! Entered 2 shows a year untill 1973. Started going to the big indoor shows in the late '60's at Kansas City municipal auditorium, really exciting! Went to my first drag race in 1969 on my 11th birthday, and saw Garlits run in a top fuel show, it was all over from that point on!

 

I started going to the Autorama in Hartford, Connecticut when I was 14 years old. I remember Ron Aguire's X-sonic Corvette there as well as Maratta's Mistery, Jerry Lettieri's 1934 Ford Phaeton. and many early East Coast cars. I moved to California when I was 15. I went to the San Jose show with my neighbor across the street, ( Joe Carlomagno ) a member of the San Francisco Ramblers. Then we went to the Oakland car show and saw the Kopper Kart, Tommy Ivo's and Norm Grabowski's T- buckets side by side, and John Peters Ala-Kart, plus many of the bay area cars. I'm now 76 years old, and I still remember those formative shows and cars. It was a great beginning to my hot- rod loving life.

 

Dad would take me to the New York Auto Show at the NYC Coliseum and the Hot Rod show there later in the year back in the 1960's. Got to see the Breedlove and Arfons LSR cars along with many Roth and Barris built cars, still have the programs. Bob

 

George, you mentioned 1967 as around the time it started for you. Me too. I always went to the State Fair in Hutchison, Kansas with my Dad,Mom and two brothers. There was always a small building there that had TWO show cars inside that you could pay two dollars to go inside and see. In 67 I went inside while my family that didn't understand this infatuation would spend the day doing everything else on the fair grounds. That year Ed Roth's Mega Cycle and Gene Winfield's car ,can't remember what it was called, was there. I was totally mesmerized when I saw the Mega Cycle ! I stared at it All day till my parents asked the ticket taker to go inside to tell me it was time to go home. That car in that small building changed my life. I tried since then to find out where it was and just a short time ago here on the HAMB,I asked about it on the 60's show car thread. Fritz Schenck replied that he was restoring it up the road in Kansas City. I couldn't get there fast enough. I figured I would be disappointed as an adult and it would not have the same not from this world effect on me but when he opened the trailer door, I left reality the exact same way I did in 67. That car was so ahead of its time back then that it's effect never left me. YES THE 60's CAR SHOW' s WERE MAGICAL !

 

The Electric Building in Balboa Park was the site of indoor shows in San Diego in the fifties. Lots of big name show cars as it was a two hour drive from LA. We'd ride our bikes over from North Park and watch the line up of cars having their gas tanks pumped out by the fire department and battery cables disconnected. Our club had five or six cars on display in 1958. Did a tropic beach display with sand we trucked in from Mission Beach and banana trees borrowed from a nursery. Cleaning up the sand after the show was a real *****. After the show on Sunday night, we'd cruise down Park Blvd. to Broadway and make a few p***es. Got nailed for doing wheelies with a Corvair powered street legal dune buggy.