The Last Dream-O-Rama - The Cars Detroit Forgot to Build, 1950-1960 - Hardcover

McCall, Bruce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0609608010 ISBN 13: 9780609608012

Publisher: Crown Archetype, 2001

Synopsis

"When the postwar economic boom fostered such prosperity that easy credit allowed even hourly workers to plunge themselves hopelessly into debt, a brand-new car became an attainable dream for millions in the 1950s. And soon came dream cars to further stimulate their automotive saliva glands. By mid-decade, every American carmaker was parading its glittering glimpses of four-wheeled futurism before a dazzled public -- flights of styling fancy and functional wonderment blaring 'Headed for your driveway soon!' while mumbling, sotto voce, 'Don't hold us to it.' "

So begins Bruce McCall's tongue-in-cheek history of Detroit's dream car era. From the author of the cult classic Zany Afternoons comes perhaps the sharpest, funniest, most original overview of Fifties culture -- and Fifties cars -- yet published. The Last Dream-o-Rama is a surrealistic satire, not just of the dream car phenomenon but of the conformist and materialistic value system that produced it. From the Quizfire 5000 Jackpot to the Nixoneer Squelchchoramic to the Bongo Beatnik Ferlinghetti TurboHipster, McCall's lavish illustrations and the antic text memorably restore the world of America in the Fifties in all its glitzy grandeur.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Bruce McCall's The Last Dream-o-Rama offers us a very skewed view of the Fifties and the American automobile, and with it, a comic masterpiece. It represents a special kind of evil genius. I only hope he is not found and locked up by the sanity patrol. This book is a must-have for the, uh . . . the other people like him."
-- Steve Martin

"Bruce McCall's The Last Dream-o-Rama is dreamy-o-rama. McCall is the last of the great comic illustrators. Here, truly, is a coffee-table book of
the gods!"
-- Christopher Buckley

"The Last Dream-o-Rama is excellent in the extreme. Such is the power of America's 'Autocracy' that even today-forty years after the fact-Bruce McCall is forced to publish this book as 'humor.' We who experienced the car shows of the era and survived know better. A word of advice, Bruce: look both ways before crossing the street."
-- P.J. O'Rourke

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown Archetype
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0609608010
• ISBN 13: 9780609608012
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128