LizzieMaine
Bartender
- Messages
- 33,055
- Location
- Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Hitler was very much a "car guy."
The idea of an American superhighway system was widely discussed by futurists in the 1930s, with Norman Bel Geddes at the forefront of the discussion. He was responsible for the General Motors Futurama exhibit at the New York World's Fair, which postulated that by 1960, the US would be an entirely automobile-dependent nation, with all communities linked by a vast network of over-and-under superhighways, and evidently no need for pedestrians, public transportation, or railroads at all. Cars would be "guided by radio" while their drivers -- all smiling upper-middle-class white people -- sat back and relaxed.
Such a vision of course had nothing to do with the fact that Albert Sloan paid for the exhibit, but nonetheless, a lot of what was prophesied came true. Unfortunately, much of it turned out to be a good bit less pleasant than the Futurama anticipated -- in The World Of Tomorrow there were no traffic jams, fuel shortages, fatal accidents, neighborhoods destroyed for parking lots, or young people turned into violent, angry thugs by tetraethyl lead emissions in the atmosphere.
Anyway, the Chrysler exhibit was better -- they had a 3D movie showing the assembly of a Plymouth, narrated by Major Bowes, no less.
The idea of an American superhighway system was widely discussed by futurists in the 1930s, with Norman Bel Geddes at the forefront of the discussion. He was responsible for the General Motors Futurama exhibit at the New York World's Fair, which postulated that by 1960, the US would be an entirely automobile-dependent nation, with all communities linked by a vast network of over-and-under superhighways, and evidently no need for pedestrians, public transportation, or railroads at all. Cars would be "guided by radio" while their drivers -- all smiling upper-middle-class white people -- sat back and relaxed.
Such a vision of course had nothing to do with the fact that Albert Sloan paid for the exhibit, but nonetheless, a lot of what was prophesied came true. Unfortunately, much of it turned out to be a good bit less pleasant than the Futurama anticipated -- in The World Of Tomorrow there were no traffic jams, fuel shortages, fatal accidents, neighborhoods destroyed for parking lots, or young people turned into violent, angry thugs by tetraethyl lead emissions in the atmosphere.
Anyway, the Chrysler exhibit was better -- they had a 3D movie showing the assembly of a Plymouth, narrated by Major Bowes, no less.
