There was a day when gas stations actually tried anything they could to get men drivers to make the turn in for a fill up or car wash. It was certainly a different time, before Gloria Steinem came on the scene, and women started objecting to being used as props to attract customers.
In 1951 the Muller Bros., an Oldsmobile-Firestone Tire-Car Wash-Cafe-Body Shop-Home Appliance-Auto Supply Dealer located at Sunset and Ivar in L.A., California named their complex "The Landing." With good reason, they had everything you could want on one lot. It was giant compared to most new and used car dealers of the time, even had a
control tower. They came up with the idea to hold a beauty contest to celebrate the 3,000,000th car to be pulled through its car wash. Life Magazine was there to photo-document the PR event for the rest of us to look back on. Obviously, all the girls, the winner of the beauty contest, and the car wash winning dude, look pretty happy. Hummm, which one would you vote for?
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Muller Bros. Oldsmobile, image via Life archives.
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