April 3, 1920
A heavily attended truck show in Los Angeles came to a close. This eight-day event took place at Praeger Park in the central part of the city. The Los Angeles Motor Truck Show reflected the nationwide popularity of trucks that had steadily grown throughout most of the previous decade and fully blossomed in the brief time since the end of World War I.
This show was organized by the Los Angeles Motor Truck Dealers’ Association. D.F. Poyer served as the president of that association and W.F. Ziegler was its vice-president. Ziegler, according to a Los Angeles Herald article published two weeks before the start of the show, said on behalf of the association that the event would “equal in every respect the best ever held on the coast.”
A couple of days after that Los Angeles Herald article came out, the Commercial Car Journal likewise highlighted the upcoming show and its significance. “Motor truck demand has progressed to such volume in Southern California that dealers are to hold a show devoted exclusively to trucks and truck accessories in Los Angeles to open the spring season,” stated this magazine. “With all main line highways and many laterals in the district surfaced with hard paving capable of carrying loaded trucks, not only general commercial haulage, but operation of highway transportation companies and use of trucks by farmers is due for a tremendous increase this year.”
The Los Angeles Motor Truck Show was opened each day until ten o’clock at night. A total of 24 motor truck companies and 21 automotive accessory firms sponsored exhibitions at the event. Motor West magazine reported at the time that just about “every type of motor transport, from the light delivery car to the ponderous highway freight carrier and all types of farm tractors and a wide variety of accessories which increase the efficiency of the motor truck are to be found under the great canvas tent housing the show.”
(The above photo appeared in a June 1920 issue of Country Gentleman magazine.)
Photo Credit: Don O’Brien (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)
Additional information on the Los Angeles Motor Truck Show in March/April 1920 is available at Los Angeles Herald – 13 March 1920
Transportation History 
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