As we congregate for the
2014 Chicago Auto Show at
McCormick Place, let us recog-
nize the shared connection we
have with the tens of millions
who have attended the previous
105 editions.
Starting with the first official indoor show in 1901
and staged annually (except during and briefly after
World War II), the automotive-passionate public
continues its love affair with the nation’s largest and
longest running auto show. And akin to our predeces-
sors, we come to the Chicago show to be entertained
while immersed in the world of styling trends, per-
formance numbers (such as miles per hour and miles
per gallon of fuel) and leading-edge technologies.
Here are highlights from the show 100, 50 and 25
years ago.
100 YEARS AGO
14th annual CAS ... January 24-31, 1914
In 1914, the Chicago show’s home was the Coli-
seum building on Wabash Ave.
Crowds marveled at the lavish décor, the thou-
sands of electric light bulbs suspended overhead,
and the hundreds of gleaming gasoline and electric
powered automobiles. There were no trucks on
display that year. Several top-tier vehicles featured
telephones that allowed passengers to communicate
with the chauffeur, and the Woods Motor Vehicle
Co. debuted its 1915 electric model at the show.
Chicago’s great Coliseum was located between
Wabash and Michigan Avenues and 15th and 16th
Streets. It was in the heart of “Automobile Row.”
With its castle-like façade, the Coliseum was
reconstructed from the shell of the Libby Prison, an
infamous Confederate Civil War penal institution
moved from Richmond, Va., to Chicago and used as
a tourist attraction and exposition center. The build-
ing housed the auto show from 1901 through 1935.
Pictured on the right is entrepreneur
Samuel A. Miles, who is considered the
father of the auto show. Miles managed
all of the early shows up through 1932. His vision
and showmanship established the foundation on
which the 2014 Chicago Auto Show is built.
50 YEARS AGO
56th annual CAS ... February 8-16, 1964
Exactly a half century ago, the 56th annual show
filled the spacious new McCormick Place, posi-
tioned along Lake Michigan at 23rd Street. This was
the original McCormick Place facility (1961-1966),
with exhibition floor space equal in size to six
football fields. Offering up to 330,000 square feet of
room, McCormick Place provided 100,000 square
feet more than the aging International Amphitheatre
(the second home to the auto show).
A state of the art 5,000 seat Arie Crown theater
inside McCormick Place continued the auto-themed
stage revues that originated at the 1936 Chicago
event. The one-hour musical and variety show-
within-a-show was presented twice daily, at 3 p.m.
and 8:30 p.m. Titled “Motorevue of 1964,” the stage
entertainment mingled new cars with a cast of 50
top dancers, singers, narrator and a live orchestra.
On the show floor, popular exhibits included
Pontiac’s Tempest with the new GTO option pack-
age, and the special display for the Mercury Park
Lane Marauder, which had sound effects of spinning
wheels and flashing lights that dramatized Mercu-
ry’s win of the Pike’s Peak Auto Hill Climb in 1963.
General Motors sponsored the world debut of the
’64 Buick Skylark Sports Wagon and Oldsmobile
Spotlight On: Chicago Auto Show in 1914, 1964 & 1989
By M.J. Frumkin
Chicago Auto Show Historian, Curator
CHICAGO AUTO SHOW 2014
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More Than100,000 Veh i c l es Jus t A Cl i ck Away…Dr i veCh i cago. com