Geneva Motor Show 1951 - the pontoon shape in its heyday
Summary
On March 8, 1951, the 21st International Motor Show in Geneva opened its doors and offered interested spectators an insight into current automotive technology. Visitors to the 1951 show were given an in-depth and reasonably comprehensive impression of the possibilities of the automobile industry at the time. Special and standard bodies could be compared side by side, the vehicles and not the stand construction and marketing effects were in the foreground. However, most visitors probably left the show not with a sales contract, but with food for dreams.
Estimated reading time: 6min
Preview (beginning of the article)
On March 8, 1951, the 21st International Motor Show in Geneva opened its doors and offered interested spectators an insight into the latest automotive technology. In 1951, the car was an object that only a few could afford. In rural villages, perhaps the doctor, the vet, the priest and a few craftsmen or manufacturers had a car; everyone else increased their mobility with a motorcycle or a bicycle, if at all. In those days, there was typically one tube radio per household and if you tuned into one of the few stations with your "magic eye", you could listen to "Pack your swimming trunks" or "Too Young" by Nat King Cole, but also "Shanghay" by Doris Day. "Mutiny on the Bounty", "Wizard of Oz" and "Pinocchio" (by Walt Disney) were shown in the cinema and the film "The Sinner" with Hildegard Knef in a nude scene caused a scandal. Hugo Koblet won the Tour de France in 1951 and a kilogram of bread cost 46 pfennigs in Germany. Petrol was cheap at around 56 pfennigs per liter and the car industry was growing at over 20% per year thanks to the incipient upswing.
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