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Overview
"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 middecade, 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.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
Revisit an era when cars were a block long and the American Dream involved dishwashers, TV dinners, and Jell-O. Through his paintings of souped-up cars that never existed, illustrator Bruce McCall illuminates -- and criticizes -- the blissful, optimistic ignorance of the car-crazy 1950s. Spoofing everything from antiquated family roles (a car that isolates each family member in a separate pod, with the mother at the sink washing dishes) to pop culture (the car for beatniks, which includes bongos), The Last Dream-o-Rama is a wry glimpse at truth through fiction.Book Details
Published
September 1, 2001
Publisher
New York : Crown Publishers., c2001.
Pages
128
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780609608012