Cleveland Auto Show through the years: A brief history and vintage photos

CLEVELAND, Ohio — It’s time once again to get behind the wheel, look under the hood and picture yourself in the car of your dreams at the Cleveland Auto Show.

The auto show, featuring more than a thousand vehicles, opens to the public at the I-X Center Friday at 5 p.m. and runs through Sunday, March 6.

The event has grown exponentially since the inaugural Cleveland Auto Show, held at Gray’s Armory in 1903. The Plain Dealer reported there were 75 vehicles on display there, including “big touring cars, Stanhopes, runabouts, racing machines and delivery wagons.”

Back then, buyers could purchase vehicles right at the show. In fact, The Plain Dealer reported that at least ten orders were taken that first night on February 2, 1903. “If the first night’s business can be taken as a criterion, it is quite possible that a great number of autos will be disposed of before the show winds up on Saturday night,” the newspaper astutely wrote.

The Cleveland Auto Dealers Association was created in 1915 for the primary purpose of putting on auto shows.

The 1932 show, held at Cleveland Public Auditorium, made the front page of The Plain Dealer, right under the big story of the day about Japanese troops invading China.

A Silver Shadow Rolls Royce at the 1976 Greater Cleveland Auto Show.

1984 Greater Cleveland Auto Show

“The American genius for automotive development, intensified to its greatest heights in motordom’s most trying year, yesterday spread triumphs in engineering and design in a distinguished array as the 1932 Cleveland Automobile Show opened at Public Hall,” the newspaper wrote in a Jan. 31 story.

The shows ended in 1937 because of rising costs and the Depression, The Plain Dealer reported.

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