06/03/2023
Rock and Roll and automobiles have been symbolically linked together since the advent of the rock genre, beginning with Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm's (w/ Jackie Brenston) and their groundbreaking hit "Rocket 88", an ode to the titular sporty car in 1951.
This tune was preceded by one year by Arkie Shibley's boppin' hillbilly roadster number "Hot Rod Race", the template for Charlie Ryan's 1956 rockabilly classic "Hot Rod Lincoln". (Best known hit version is by Commander Cody in 1972.)
Youthful rebellion often finds expression, literally & figuratively, in freedom of the open road and sounds emanating from dashboard radios. These two dynamics are explored in a plethora of tunes over the decades beginning with Chuck Berry and Bill Haley in the '50s; Jan & Dean and the Beach Boys in the 60s; to Bruce Springsteen and others in the 1970s and later.
This melding of music and custom cars manifested in Detroit's annual Autorama, a showcase for show cars and hot rods held at Cobo Arena, a legendary venue known for hosting conventions and arena rock acts. Appropriately enough, Michigan's oldest road Jefferson Avenue passes directly underneath Cobo.
In this WKNR radio station hit record chart of 1970 we see the bands scheduled for the weekend of January 23-25; some of Detroit's finest groups of the era were performing live at Autorama: Bob Seger System, Brownsville Station, The Rationals , plus Mitch Ryder and Detroit (post Detroit Wheels).
Also depicted on the flyer (a recent donation to the Lincoln Park Historical Museum) is Lincoln Park native son Chuck Miller's custom car Bugs Buggy having its official Autorama unveiling.
The vehicle is based on a 1:20 scale IMC model kit
designed by Harry Bradley, a man perhaps best remembered for the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.
This flyer/hand bill serves a three-fold purpose in promoting hit tunes, the radio station, and Autorama all in one fell swoop.
More importantly, it is now a visual relic potentially leading one to online audio files creating a time warp portal of pop, rock and soul tunes heard on the AM band airwaves in homes, automobiles and anywhere a pocket transistor radio could take us over a half century ago.
Motor City Music and Hot Rods, a harmonious union wedded and welded in many a Metro Detroit garage and having long been celebrated annually at Autorama since 1953.
-TM Caldwell
Little known factoid:
The largest manufacturer and supplier of mass-produced dashboard and portable radios of the mid-20th century for Motorola, the Detrola Corporation, had its humble origins in a garage in suburban Ecorse, Michigan.
