Tuesday, November 30, 1965: 'Unsafe at Any Speed' published

From the dust jacket:

     You have been told many times that thousands of people are killed each year by automobiles and millions more injured by them. But when you read this book you will know for the first time that the main causes of these deaths and injuries are automobiles that are unnecessarily dangerous.

     UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED is the full story of how and why cars kill, and why the automobile manufacturers have failed to make cars safe, even though the knowledge and technical skill to do so have been in their hands for years. The documented history of the industry's intransigence is here, along with the detailed background of the campaign to convince us all that only a changed driver can prevent the ravages of the traffic toll.

     It is the thesis of this book that it is easier to redesign automobiles to make them safe than to revise the nature of the people who drive them. In proof of this point, Ralph Nader has done the first thoroughgoing study not only of the major producers of automobiles, but also of the men and women who make up the safety propaganda establishment, the staffs of the peculiarly constituted standards groups (and the inadequate standards they set), and the scientists who what the automotive engineers and stylists could do if their full capabilities were used.

* "Writer Declares Auto Safety Takes Back Seat" (New York Times, December 1965): @

* Preface of book (Automobile in American Life and Society): @

* Excerpt: "The Sporty Corvair" (American Journal of Public Health): @

* "The Corvair In Action!" (Promotional film, 1960): @

* Excerpt: "The Stylists" ("The Industrial Design Reader," 2003): @
* "Ralph Nader and the Consumer Movement" (Digital History): @

* "Safety Crusaders" ("America on the Move," National Museum of American History): @

* "G.M. & Ralph Nader" (The Pop History Dig): @

* "Head-Cracking Assault on the Problem of Car Safety" (Life magazine, May 8, 1966): @

* "The Anxieties of Affluence: Critiques of American Consumer Culture, 1939-1979" (Daniel Horowitz, 2005): @ 
* "Car Safety Wars: One Hundred Years of Technology, Politics, and Death" (Michael R. Lemov, 2015): @
* "Unsafe at Any Speed -- Fiftieth Anniversary" (The Nader Page): @
* Center for Auto Safety: @
* American Museum of Tort Law: @
* "The Ralph Nader Reader" (2000): @

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September 1965: Eight-tracks in cars

Starting with its 1966 models, Ford is the first American automaker to offer eight-track players (as an optional installment for around $130).

-- Top image from Mustang specs (Ford publication): @

-- Middle image from The Kansas City Times (October 6, 1965)
-- Bottom image from United Press International (December 1965)

* "Ford Will Offer Motorola Tape Units in 1966 Cars" (Billboard magazine, April 3, 1965): @
* "RCA Fires 175-Title Burst With Release of Stereo 8 Cartridges" (Billboard, September 25, 1965): @
* "Tape for Turnpikes" (High Fidelity magazine, June 1965, page 42): @
* "Lear Jet 8-Track Recorder May Be Tape 'Breakthrough' " (United Press International, January 3, 1966): @
* "Stereo In Your Car" (High Fidelity, May 1966, page 58): @
* The Rise and Fall of the 8-Track" (Doug Hinman and Brabazon, 1994): @

* "A History of The Eight Track Tape" (David Morton, 1995): @

* "The 8-Track Cartridge" (from "Magnetic Recording: The First 100 Years," edited by Eric D. Daniel, C. Denis Mee, Mark H. Clark, 1999): @

* 8-Track Heaven (website): @

* Mustang TV ads: @ and @

* Thunderbird TV ad: @

* Optional equipment, 1966 Thunderbird (automotivemileposts.com): @ 

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Wednesday, January 27, 1965: Shelby GT350 Mustang

Car designer Carroll Shelby introduces his version of the Ford Mustang -- the high-performance GT350 -- at California's Riverside Raceway. Base prices: $4,547 (street) and $5,995 (racing).

     -- Photo from 1965gt350mustang.com

* May 1965 review from Car and Driver: @

* "The Ford Mustang GT350: Carroll Shelby & the American Pony War" (from selvedgeyard.com): @

* "1965 Shelby GT350 Mustang: The Car That Defined Mustang Performance" (from mustangs.about.com): @

* "Mustang: A Short Story of Two Special Shelby Mustangs" (from LeMay -- America's Car Museum): @

* Road test (from justmustangs.com.au): @

* "The difference between the Shelby G.T. 350 and the Mustang ... plenty!" (from Old Car Manuals Project): @

* CarrollShelby.com: @

* ShelbyAmerican.com: @ 

* Earlier post on Ford Mustang (April 17, 1964): @ 

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Wednesday, April 22, 1964: World's Fair

The New York World's Fair bloomed in almost all its heralded splendor but rain, cold and fog put a decided damper on its opening Wednesday. ... President Johnson, noting the fair's theme of "peace through understanding," said that "peace is not only possible in our generation, but I predict it is coming much nearer." The United States, the President added, would soon be a nation "in which no man is handicapped by the color of his skin or the nature of his belief."

     -- Associated Press (story: @)

     -- Photo from untappedcities.com (story: @)

* Overview ("Encyclopedia of the Sixties," 2011): @

* Overview (University of Maryland): @

* Map and other items (Print magazine): @

* Guide book (www.butkus.org): @

* Slideshow (New York Daily News): @

* www.nywf64.com: @

* www.westland.net/ny64fair: @

* President Johnson's speech (American Presidency Project): @

* Speech and first day of issue stamp (www.historygallery.com): @

* "The Space Age Never Looked Brighter Than It Did in the Mid-1960s" (io9.com): @

* "Photographs and Memories" (Daily Kos): @

* "My Four-Day Guide to the World's Fair" (Bob Hope for Family Weekly, March 22): @

* "New York World's Fair Opens; Scores of Policemen Kept Busy" (United Press International, April 22): @

* "World's Fair" (Universal Newsreel): @
* "Peace Through Understanding" (newsreel, British Pathe): @

* "LBJ Opens World's Fair" (UPI and AP, April 22): @

* " 'Sleepers' of the World's Fair" (Family Weekly, August 9): @

* Life magazine, May 1: @

* "The End of the Innocence: The 1964-65 New York World's Fair" (Lawrence R. Samuel, 2010): @

* "Tomorrow-Land: The 1964-65 World's Fair and the Transformation of America" (Joseph Tirella, 2014): @ 

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Friday, April 17, 1964: Ford Mustang

The gleaming red hood stretching back to the distant windshield is the business end of a new U.S.-built sports car. But unlike most other sports cars, this one -- a Ford subspecies called the Mustang, which goes on sale this week -- is not offered as a rich man's toy. The manufacturers produced it on the theory that a lot of people who would like to own a sports car hold back because of the generally prohibitive cost of most models. In its basic model with stick shift and standard 6-cylinder engine -- but without frills -- the Mustang is made to sell for $2,368 (F.O.B. Detroit), which puts it in the price range of sporty compacts. There are, of course, lots of optional doo-dads that can run up the price. With the addition of a hotter engine and other equipment, the Mustang can be turned into a racer. An an electrical device can be installed to allow the optional girl, who fits naturally into a sports car, to put the top down with a languid finger.

-- From "Sports Car for the Masses" (Life magazine, April 17; story: @)

-- Photo of Mustang on display at New York World's Fair; from FordOnline

* "Today in History: 1964 Ford Mustang Debuts" (from Fordautostore.com): @

* "Ford Mustang Introduced by Lee Iacocca at the 1964 World's Fair" (from FordOnline): @

* Text of Iacocca's speech (April 13): @

* Commercial (shown before debut): @

* Press kit: @

* "Ford Galloping Out a Mustang" (Miami News, April 13): @

* "New Mustang Looks Like Lot Of Car" (Pittsburgh Press, April 13): @

* "The Mustang" (Ford video on early stages of car's development): @

* Videos of first Mustang sold (April 15): @ and @
* Mustang YouTube channel: @

* "1964 1/2 Ford Mustang" (Car and Driver magazine, May 1964): @

* Happy 50th, Ford Mustang!" (Hot Rod magazine, 2014): @

* "The Ford Mustang Wasn't The First Pony Car" (Automobile magazine, 2013): @

* Mustang: Fifty Years: Celebrating America's Only True Pony Car" (Donald Farr, 2013): @

* "Mustang 1964 1/2 -- 1973" (Mike Mueller, 2000): @ 

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Wednesday, April 1, 1964: Plymouth Barracuda

Previewed for the press on April 1, the Plymouth Barracuda makes its public debut on April 4 at the International Auto Show in New York. Though touted as a rival to the Ford Mustang (which would be introduced two weeks later), Barracuda sales in 1964 were less than one-tenth that of the Mustang.

* "New Model Cars Pop Out Like Buds of Spring" (Associated Press, April 2, 1964): @

* "Family Car Taking on Sporty Look" (New York Herald Tribune, April 4): @

* Advertisement (Life magazine, May 15): @

* Brochure (from The Old Car Manual Project): @

* Entry from "The Complete Book of Dodge and Plymouth Muscle" (Mike Mueller, 2009): @

* "Happy 50th Birthday, Plymouth Barracuda" (from Hemmings Daily): @

* Entries from allpar.com: @ and @

* "Fish Story: The Plymouth Barracuda" (from Ate Up With Motor): @ 

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Undated: Record players for cars

The quest continues for a skip-free record player for cars, though the feature had been offered (and then dropped) by Chrysler in the late '50s-early '60s. This is from the October 1963 issue of Popular Science magazine (complete issue: @).

* "Chrysler Corp. takes customers for a spin" (from www.uaw-chrysler.com): @

* "Hi Fi Record Players Now Made for Cars" (St. Petersburg Times, September 18, 1955): @

* "Highway Hi-Fi" (by Peter C. Goldmark, who developed the device; Audio magazine, December 1955): @
 * Highway Hi-Fi pages from ImperialClub.com: @ and @
* "Road Tunes: Weird Vintage 1950s In-Car Record Players" (from gajitz.com): @

* Entry from automotive oddity website (www.roadkillontheweb.com): @

* Video of player in 1960 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron: @
* "Rhythms for the Highway, Before the Age of the iPod" (New York Times, June 8, 2012): @

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September 1963: Porsche 911

The German automaker Porsche debuts the 911 (originally named the 901) at the Frankfurt Motor Show (Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung), which ran from September 12 to September 22. The car would go into production in 1964. Pictured is the car and its principal designer, F.A. Porsche.
* Model history (from stuttcars.com): @
* Entry from www.porsche.com: @
* Porsche Museum: @
* 901 brochure, 1963 (from cooches.com): @

* 911 brochure, 1964-5 (from cooches.com): @
* "Porsche 911: The Definitive History, 1963 to 1971" (Brian Long, 2003): @ 
* "Collector's Originality Guide: Porsche 911" (Peter Morgan, 2009): @ 
* F.A. Porsche obituary (New York Times, 2012): @ 

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Saturday, February 2, 1963: VW Bug in Antarctica

Delivered by the Nella Dan supply ship, a Volkwagen Beetle dubbed "Antarctica 1" arrives at Mawson Station in the Australian Antarctic Territory. It required only minor modifications from a standard VW before being put into regular service for the workers at Mawson. (This advertisement appeared in Look magazine in January 1965. The last lines read: "Things got so fierce that one man said, 'Now we know what it'll be like when Hell freezes over.' So if it ever does, you know what car to buy.")

* "Australian Volkswagens in the Antartic" (from www.vw-resource.com): @

* "Antarctica 1" (from www.rallybugs.com): @

* "This was the first car in Antarctica" (from jalopnik.com): @

* Short documentary: @

* The search for the original "Antarctica 1": @

* "Big Bertha's predecessor, the first car in Antarctica" (from Hemmings Daily): @ 

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February 1963: Burma-Shave signs

Burma-Vita Company, the shaving-products company behind the Burma-Shave rhyming signs that dotted U.S. roadways, is bought by Philip Morris Inc. The signs would gradually be removed in the coming months, as Philip Morris goes with a different advertising strategy. (Philip Morris noted in its 1963 annual report: "Burma Shave represents a bit of Americana coincident with our country's automobile age. A Sunday drive in the family car has, since 1926, been pleasantly 'interrupted' by the catchy signs that rhyme along the highway. ... But progress has passed them by; super highways, turnpikes and a nation in a hurry have doomed their bright doggerel.")

Note as to date of sale: A newspaper story dated January 30 stated, "Philip Morris Inc. announced today it had agreed in principle to acquire Burma-Vita Company of Minneapolis, for cash." The book "The Verse by the Side of the Road" (linked below) said the sale "was announced publicly" on February 7, while a New York Times story published February 23 indicated that it had taken place the previous week.
* Burma-Shave.org: @

* "The Verse by the Side of the Road" (Frank Rowsome Jr., 1963): @
* Story by Rowsome for American Heritage magazine (1965): @

* "How Burma-Shave Saved the Family Farm" (from www.grit.com, 2007): @

* Entry from Legends of America website: @

* Entry from Advertising Age: @

* Entry from Edina (Minnesota) Historical Society: @

* Print advertisements (from Duke University Libraries): @

* "Everyday Reading: Poetry and Popular Culture in Modern America" (Mike Chasar, 2012): @ (Chasar's blog, Poetry & Popular Culture: @) 

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Undated: Corvette Sting Ray

The fast, futuristic sports car -- from the Chevrolet division of General Motors -- is a road-hugging, attention-grabbing hit. First introduced in 1962 (for the 1963 model year), it was described this way in press releases:

Corvette has been redesigned and re-engineered for the first time in its 10 years on the market. Added to the convertible is a new "fast-back" sport couple. Optional power steering, power brakes and air conditioning are available for the first time. A completely new chassis, four-wheel independent suspension, self-adjusting brakes and improved steering are features of 1963's Corvette. Retractable headlights are standard on both models. Corvette models are known as "Sting Ray." This year's Corvette is two inches lower and four inches shorter than last year.

* Entry from web-cars.com: @

* Entry from www.ultimatecarpage.com: @

* www.corvetteforum.com: @

* From Car and Driver magazine (April 1963): @

* "Biography of a Sports Car" (GM video): @
* TV ads: @ and @
* "Luxury Prestige Personal Car is Sign of the Affluent American" (Associated Press, March 1963): @

* "The Complete Corvette: A Model-By-Model History of the American Sports Car" (Tom Falconer, 2003): @ 

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November 1962: Peel P50

The Peel P50, a three-wheeled microcar, is introduced at the International Cycle and Motor Cycle Show, held November 10-17 at Earls Court in London. The one-person car was just over 4 feet long, about 3 feet wide and weighed 130 pounds, with one door and one headlight. It had no reverse gear.

* Summary from BBC: @

* Entry from Microcar Museum: @

* More about the car: @

* More photos: @
* Auto show newsreels: @ and @ and @

* Peel Engineering: @ 

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April 1962: New York Auto Show

Among the new models presented at the International Automobile Show (held April 21-29 at the New York Coliseum) are the Shelby Cobra, the Studebaker Avanti and General Motors' XP-755 (aka the Mako Shark, a concept car and forerunner of the redesigned Corvette Sting Ray).

* "Remember the Class of '62" (from www.oldcarsweekly.com): @

* Newsreel: @

-- Shelby Cobra

* Entry from www.hemmings.com: @

* Entry from www.metaphorsinmotion.com: @

* "The Shelby Cobra at 50, an Icon of Sex and Power" (New York Times, 2012): @

-- Studebaker Avanti

* Avanti Owners Association International: @

* Entry from howstuffworks.com: @

* "Studebaker's Luxury Model Shown Today" (Associated Press, April 26, 1962): @

* Earlier entry on Avanti (March 1961): @

-- Mako Shark

* Entry from www.corvettes.nl: @

* Entry from Corvette Action Center: @

* Corvette timeline, 1956-1992 (from www.motortrend.com): @

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July 1961: Renault 4L

The French automaker Renault introduces the Renault 4L. The front-wheel-drive hatchback became popular the world over, its versatility and relative spaciousness among the main selling points.

* Summary (from www.renault.com): @

* "A golden anniversary for one of the world's most popular cars" (from blog.hemmings.com): @

* "French put the small car's engine in front" (New Scientist, August 31): @

* Summary (translated from www.franceculture.com): @

* "History of 4L" (translated from French): @

* www.r4-4l.com (translated from French): @

* 4L International club (translated from French): @

* Commercials: @

* More footage: @ and @

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