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.

Source: Various

Photo: A special ramp was built at the Automobile Club of America’s 1900 auto show to demonstrate the hill-climbing prowess of the different “horseless horses.”
Courtesy The New York Times

This article first appeared on Wired.com Nov. 3, 2008.

See Also:

• 2010 Paris Auto Show
• Aug. 30, 1885: Daimler Gives World First 'True' Motorcycle
• Sept. 5, 1885: Pay at the Pump
• Nov. 2, 1895: Cars Can't Get to First Gasoline Race
• Nov. 5, 1895: First U.S. Automaker Gets Off to Slow Start
• Sept. 13, 1899: New Yorker Becomes First U.S. Pedestrian Killed by Car
• May 21, 1901: Connecticut Sets First Speed Limit at 12 MPH
• Feb. 12, 1908: The Great Race
• Oct. 1, 1908: A Basic Car for the Great Unwashed
• Nov. 3, 1993: Theremin Fades Out
• Oct. 15, 1900: Boston Embraces the Sound of Music

Authors: Tony Long

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