When the first issue of ASSEMBLY magazine rolled off the printing presses in the late 1950s, most people drove American-made automobiles. Drive-in movies were popular and station wagons were as ubiquitous as SUVs are today. Just about every car on the road featured chrome bumpers, hubcaps and tailfins.
Automobiles also sported basic interiors with bench seats, crank windows and a few analog instruments on the dashboard. Many of the fuel gauges, speedometers and other mechanical instruments were made in Chicago by Stewart-Warner Corp. Besides automobiles, its products could be found in buses, motorcycles, tractors and trucks, plus airplanes, bicycles and boats.