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San Francisco's Golden Gate Park circa 1939. "Woman demonstrating use of luggage compartment lock on Pontiac sedan." Also a nice bumper-selfie of the photographer. 8x10 Eastman Kodak acetate negative. View full size.
It's difficult to believe that this was considered such advanced technology as to require demonstration. Perhaps it's the usual case of some caption being required, however inane, and frankly I cannot think of a better one for filing purposes.
[This was back when "the trunk" meant an actual trunk strapped to the back of the car, and built-in luggage compartments were new and exciting (and often optional). Coming advances included self-locking latches and counterbalanced lids. - Dave]
I don't think that by the late '30s, the luggage rack with trunk strapped thereon was common at all on new cars. Sure, it persisted with some marques/models, but by '36, at least, the integral luggage compartment, accessible from outside, was pretty common on standard-bodied cars, including popularly priced models. Perhaps the novelty was the lock?
["Three-box styling," with what we would call "the trunk" sticking out at the rear, was relatively new -- integral luggage compartments as a standard feature of mass-production automobiles came about with the development of the all-steel car body in the mid-1930s. GM's 1939 sedans continued and elaborated on that theme. - Dave]
You could poke someone's eye out with that hat.
Ah, the early days of car radio. "WGN's coming in scratchy again. Doris, lean your head out the window."
How many channels can her hat pick up with that antenna?
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