The USC Chronicle recently featured The Space Age Hits the Road: Visionary Car Design in America, which is currently displayed on the ground floor of Doheny Library. It features historic photographs of the DiDia 150, the Davis Divan, the Aguirre X-Sonic, and other Jetsons-esque concept and production cars from the 1950s and 1960s. Watch for the Visions and Voices event Cartopias on April 7, which features a car show and panel discussion along Trousdale Parkway.
Tail Fins and Gull-Wing Doors
Detroit may be the Motor City, but with more than 26 million registered vehicles, Los Angeles is the undisputed car capital of the United States.
Since the 1920s, Angelenos have routinely eschewed public transportation in favor of private automobiles, the quintessential symbol of freedom and independence.
Displayed in the ground-floor rotunda of USC’s Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library, The Space Age Hits the Road: Visionary Car Designs in America is a photographic exhibition of rarely seen images from the USC Libraries’ Los Angeles Examiner Collection that feature many of the futuristic designs Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors’s engineers developed to appeal to the automotive consumer.
“Los Angeles practically invented the Space Age, and while it did not invent automobiles, it was the first global metropolis to fully adopt the automobile as a way of life,” said USC College history and political science professor Phil Ethington.
The prosperity of the 1940s and ‘50s allowed many L.A. residents to buy the latest in automotive design, including the Chrysler Windsor, the Ford Mystère, and the Chevrolet Corvette, images of which are all included in the USC Libraries’ exhibition.
Many of the cars found in the exhibition’s images were commonly witnessed cruising on Los Angeles’ streets. In fact, “cruising” in hot rods and low riders became so popular that numerous municipalities across the Southland—citing concerns about juvenile delinquency and traffic congestion—outlawed the pastime that was documented in filmmaker George Lucas’ American Graffiti.
Adding special interest to the display is the inclusion of images showcasing designs by several of Southern California’s most distinguished custom auto makers, including the Aguirre X-Sonic, the DiDia 150, and the Davis Divan.
“Hollywood and television fused the car with the rocket ship in the popular imagination, and auto designers gleefully did the same, producing tail fins and gull-wing doors so that consumers could rocket to work without leaving the ground,” said Ethington, who also is the North American editor of Urban History. “For a while, many hoped that neighborhoods would spout launching-pads for commuting to the Moon. The intersection of science, fiction, and fact is fascinatingly documented in these collections.”
In addition to the exhibition, the USC Libraries will display many of the futuristic automobile designs in a day-long celebration of the American automobile. Cartopias: Southern California Car Culture, Hot Rods and the Space Age, presented in conjunction with the USC Visions & Voices Initiative, will be held on April 7. Vintage automobiles will be exhibited along Trousdale Parkway, and there also will be a panel discussion on the golden era of California car culture in USC’s Alumni Park, directly in front of Doheny Memorial Library.
The Space Age Hits the Road: Visionary Car Designs in America is open daily through May 31. The exhibition, car show, and panel discussion are free and open to the public. For more information, call 213-740-2070.