General Electric Road Show

TGR Staff - 04/05/2024

We love vintage promotional vehicles here at The Gentleman Racer. While going through some archives about REO, we ran across a picture of the REO Coupe towing a custom trailer for General Electric. We did a little more digging and found some additional images and the story behind this amazing roadshow relic. 

During the 1930s, electric appliances were considered a luxury that only the rich and famous could afford. With the Great Depression hitting the world hard, the price of these appliances was beyond the reach of the masses. Though small and noisy, the General Electric "Monitor Top" refrigerator was considered cutting-edge technology in a world where many people still relied on an "ice box." However, General Electric and other industry companies were working towards lowering prices through mass production. The average price of a refrigerator dropped from $600 in 1920 to $275 in 1930 and reduced further to just $152 by 1940.

In the mid-1930s, a white 1930 REO coupe and its custom-built trailer equipped with a model kitchen and electric appliances were built to tour rural areas. Thanks to the Rural Electrification Act, passed by Congress on May 20, 1936, and was one of the most important parts of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, rural areas across America would get electricity for the first time. By the end of the 1940s, nearly half of all farms had access to electricity.

General Electric saw this as an opportunity to tap into this growing new market. They outfitted this trailer to showcase their range of electrical appliances and sent a pair of salesmen on a cross-country tour. For many people attending these events, it would be their first time seeing electric appliances.

Enjoy more photos below: