Cars are Here to Stay
This article explains those heady days spanning the years 1900 through 1910 when the apostles of the automobile were given […]
Cars
Read About the Early Cars of the 1900s. Our Articles Tell of the Car Culture of the 1920s.
The First Fifty-Years Behind the Wheel (Pathfinder Magazine, 1952)
There is no organization that has compiled more facts about cars and their impact on society, than The American Automobile Association – AAA for short. And why shouldn’t they? the AAA predates turn signals, starter buttons and stop lights. They were around before seat belts, parking lights and jay-walkers. They even predate car doors and windshields – to say nothing of their wipers. As you should all know by now, the AAA was not established as a car trivia repository but a coterie of motorists who banded together to aid other motorists.
Written in 1952, this article serves to mark the 50th anniversary of the AAA; these columns are positively packed with assorted automobile trivia which, when pieced together, spells out the first fifty years of the car in America.
The Invention of the Car was Revolutionary (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1920)
As early as 1920, the number of automobiles was quickly growing throughout the Western world. In this very brief article, a journalist lays out how rapidly life was changing in the United States as a result of the horseless carriage.
The village smithy is no more. In the place of that interesting relic of a bygone day, there stands a substantial concrete building marked ‘Garage’…
Women Drivers Vindicated (Literary Digest, 1936)
Attached is a magazine article concerning the on-going debate regarding women drivers and the continuing balderdash as to which of the genders is the better driver: the issue was decided in 1936 and the men lost:
…according to the report of a university professor who took the trouble to find out. Armed with statistics, he asserts that the female of the motoring species is not nearly so deadly as the male.
How Many Americans Had Cars in the 1920s? (Current Opinion, 1922)
The post-World War I American economy was humming along quite nicely when an inquisitive journalist took notice as to how many more cars there were on the streets (all told, there were 7.5 million). Perhaps there were no written studies documenting what we now call ‘the order of durable goods’ – that dependable yardstick we use to measure American opulence, and so this investigative journalist came up with a different way of figuring out just how many cars Americans could purchase -and we’re mighty glad he did!
1920s Road Rage (The American Magazine, 1927)
Is it possible for a person to drive an automobile and remain a human being?
Do gasoline and courtesy mix?
Can you tell me why Ottis Throckmorton Whoozies, secretary of the Golden Rule Society, will smile sweetly, lift his hat and say graciously, ‘I beg your pardon. I’m really awfully sorry. Please excuse me,’ when he accidentally steps on a strange woman’s foot in a theater lobby, yet will lean out and make faces at his own grandmother if she fails to slow up her flivver and allow him to ‘cut in’ on a congested highway?
There’s something about a windshield that distorts a man’s outlook on life.
Click here to read about Lincoln, the joke teller.
The Amazing Volkswagen (Pic Magazine, 1955)
Much of the credit for the success of Volkswagen immediately after the war was due to the visionary leadership of Volkswagen CEO Heinz Nordhoff (1899 – 1968), who was able to assess the faults of the existing model and make the necessary improvements:
The power was low, and the engine had a life of only 10,000 miles. Nordhoff brought in new experts who redesigned every vital component, working on the original pre-war designs of Ferdinand Porsche… The new car was quieter and more powerful, and had hydraulic brakes and shock absorbers. Soon, models with luxury touches were introduced.
Consumers Tell it to Detroit (Popular Mechanics, 1954)
Attached are the results of a nationwide survey from 1954 indicating what the American automobile consumers were shopping for in cars:
• 54% preferred whitewall tires over any other kind
• 68% preferred push-button door handles
• 59% wanted jet-age hood ornaments
• 44% wished that dashboards were loaded with dials and gauges
The State of American Roads (Quick Magazine, 1952)
Shortly before President Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, the nation was treated to articles like the one that is attached herein – articles that detailed all the very many flaws that existed in the American road system:
The most highly motorized nation on earth faced the danger of finding itself all gassed up with no place to go. As the budget-harried [Truman] Administration pressed for a 20% cut in highway aid to states, legislators and private groups warned that U.S. roads were fast crumbling.
The U.S. has 350,000 miles of surfaced primary roads, but about 20,000 miles become unusable or too dangerous every year. One warning sign: U.S. auto deaths, now over 1 million, equals the American dead in all wars since the Revolution.
As of 2013, the United States has the largest and most advanced road network in the world – covering a distance of 6,506,204 km. (China’s road system covers 4,193,000 km).
Car Design in 1922 (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1922)
Five sketches of motor car designs which won cash prizes or honorable mention at the recent [1922] first annual ‘Body Builders’ Show in New York. In this competition were entered many leading custom body builders.