Chrome! Cruisin’, Clubs & Drag Strips

The opening of this Historical Society of Long Beach exhibit includes a car show featuring classics from some of Long Beach’s storied car clubs.

Teens cruising in their beloved cars emerged as a fixture of Southern California culture from the 1930s through the 1960s, when the phenomenon reached the height of its popularity. Celebrated in film and song, cruising in customize rides and hot rods served up a youthful counterpoint to the era of the family Sunday drive.

Fueled by high school youth, a growing number of active local car clubs, drive-in restaurants, theaters, hang outs, and the lure of the iconic Lion’s Drag Strip, Long Beach became a focal point amidst this cultural movement.

Long Beach clubs like the Vulcans, Sultans, Merroders, Long Beach Cavaliers and Long Beach Renegades, Cut Outs, Rollin’ Stones, Road Kings, Carbonides and Furys, the MG Club, Studebaker Club, Jesters, Torks, and many others fanned the cultural flames at high school parking lots, drive-ins and drag strips, and ruled the streets of their Long Beach neighborhoods and commercial corridors.

For more information, please visit: http://hslb.org/chrome/