MONUMENTS IN TIME: LA AUTO SHOW

While attending the Los Angeles Auto Show this week, visitors will have a chance to scope out the future of automobiles: however, few of them may ever explore the history behind what’s been driving the show’s success for over a century.

In 1907, when the Los Angeles Automobile Show debuted, there were about 143,000 cars on the road and roughly 3000 trucks. Back then, the price of a Model T Ford sold for about $1000, but by 1916, due to mass manufacturing, the price plummeted to $260.

Rest assured, if you’re still couldn’t afford a car, there was one place where you could join your fellow car enthusiast as long as you could make it to downtown Los Angeles by horse and buggy.

If you were truly affluent, you could probably afford “the Silver Ghost,” known today as the Rolls-Royce and coined in the 1900s as the best car in the world.

Working alongside each of America’s early car manufactures, by 1927 the LA Auto Show had become a significant success with cars, airplanes, trucks and motorboats traveling across the country for a chance to display in front of diplomats, celebrities and social elites.

One of the many cars on display was the highly revered 1907 model 30 Packard Roadster, built by the Packard Motor Car Company (now the Packard Lofts on Hope and Olympic). The Packard Roadster had driven more than 510,000 miles to the moon and back.

Truly remarkable, the Roadster’s flashy French gray paint with brilliant orange stripe was, in its day, considered the last word in motorcars.

Unfortunately, on this day in history, the Roadster had been placed along side 300 other relics outside underneath a giant tent built especially for the LA Auto Show on Washington and Hill.

In the afternoon of March 5, 1929, while President Herbert Hoover’s voice rang out to congratulate the automobile industry, an adjacent airplane would short circuit and immediately set the tent to blaze.

Miraculously, of the 2500 show attendees, no one was hurt; however, the beautiful show cars ended up a hot mess by the time it was all finished.

Yet. Instead of canceling the show, the curators decided to allow the burnt portion of the art show to become a spectacle, leading to even more spectators than in the years before.

The moral of the story: Even back then, the creators of LA Auto Show knew, “the show must go on” no matter rain, shine, hail, or even fire. Today, the absence of the LA Auto Show in 2020 due to COVID-19 lockdowns can not impede the event’s success.

Since 1907, downtown and the Los Angeles Auto Show have been fueling the passions of cars and drivers from around the globe.

Returning to the Los Angeles Convention Center, the show runs for ten full days, from November 18-28. @laautoshow

The Emmy Awardwinning L.A. County Holiday Celebration joyously returns to The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to celebrate The 62nd L.A. County Holiday Celebration with a free, live in-person holiday spectacular on Friday, Dec. 24 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The annual event will feature over 20 music ensembles, choirs and dance companies from the many neighborhoods and cultures that make up L.A.

Once again, PBS SoCal will both broadcast and stream this live event that has been a Los Angeles holiday tradition since 1959. PBS SoCal will air the live broadcast at 3 p.m. PT and encore the program at 10 p.m. PT. KCET will rebroadcast the program on Christmas Day at 6 p.m. PT.

Internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzmán and actor Brian White (Monogamy, Ambitions, Bronx SIU, Ray Donovan) are back to co-host.

Returning performers include the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, gospel singers Lorenzo Johnson & Praizum, Jung Im Lee Korean Dance Academy, klezmer band Mostly Kosher and two-time GRAMMY® award-winning Mariachi Divas de Cindy Shea.

Newcomers include Dembrebrah West African Drum and Dance and cellist and autistic savant Adam Mandela Walden. Scroll all the way down for a complete list of this year’s performers—22 groups in all.

Tickets to the inperson event are free and available on a first come, first seated basis. Doors open at 2:30 p.m., although the line usually begins to form around noon.

The L.A. County Holiday Celebration is produced on behalf of the County of Los Angeles by The Music Centerand PBS SoCal in association with CDK Productions.

Those who aren't able to make it to The Music Center on Dec. 24 can watch the broadcast on PBS SoCal or stream live online at pbssocal. org/holidaycelebration and kcet.org/holidaycelebration.