AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY – NOVEMBER 3, 1900 - The Grandmother of All Auto Shows
The first major automobile show in the United States opens at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
It wasn't the first automobile show held in the United States. It wasn't even the first held at Madison Square Garden. But it is considered the first modern automotive show. The weeklong event, sponsored by the Automobile Club of America, featured 66 exhibitors displaying 31 newfangled autos and a variety of accessories to pimp the ride.
Even then, people were getting clipped to go to these things. It cost the outrageous sum of 50 cents (about $13 in today's money) to attend what was known as the "horseless horse show." Despite the usurious prices, 10,000 people attended throughout the week.
Besides the latest hot models, the show featured astounding feats of braking and acceleration, and a special ramp was built to demonstrate the hill-climbing prowess of the different cars.
Among the show's highlights was the appearance of?Ransom Eli Olds'?prototype for a new model known as the "runabout." The Olds Motor Vehicle Company of Lansing, Michigan, was the first U.S. automaker to build cars in volume, churning out 425 Oldsmobiles between 1897 and 1901.
It was Olds, incidentally, and not Henry Ford, who built the first operational automotive assembly line. His runabout, also known as the?Curved Dash, was the world's first mass-produced car. Built between 1901 and 1907, it sold for $650 (that's $16,900 today).
General Motors bought Oldsmobile in 1908, and produced more than 35 million vehicles under that name before the last Olds rolled off GM's Lansing assembly line April 29, 2004.
In fact, none of the automobile makes on display at the Garden that week exists today.
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