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Tuesday, June 21, 2022

UCLA History: Student Complaints About Free - But Hard to Find - Parking in 1949

A student-made film from 1949 complains about how hard it is to find parking at UCLA, even in the open fields of Westwood. One solution it notes is to have a small car that could squeeze into small spaces as below. The small car (below) appears to be a Crosley.

The Crosley was an experiment in subcompact car manufacturing in the U.S., mainly after World War II. Apparently, the public wasn't ready for subcompacts and the line was discontinued in 1952. A few years later, the VW Beetle was introduced and was a success, so Crosley was ahead of its time. The Crosley firm made radios and appliances before getting into the car business. Yours truly had an uncle who owned one. 

By the way, the cars in the film arrived on local streets, even if coming from a distance. The freeway system in LA was in its infancy at the time.

The film briefly refers to the ice skating rink in Westwood where parking was allowed.*

You can see the film at:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38AYjpf8w28.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/12/ice-skating-in-westwood-1949.html.

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