GM’s Powerama Celebrated All Things Diesel

Cyrus R. Osborn, General Motors vice president, was a man of big ideas. Osborn, in charge of the automaker’s non-automotive divisions, was riding through the Rocky Mountains in the cab of a GM Electro-Motive-powered diesel-electric locomotive appreciating the stunning vistas and realized that being in the cab, he was seeing stunning panoramas that passengers did not. This led Osborn and GM to develop the first glass-domed railroad passenger car, displayed as part of GM’s 1947-49 “Train of Tomorrow” exhibit.

But that wasn’t his only idea.

Knowing of the automaker’s disastrous foray into diesel-powered passenger cars in late 1970s, it’s remarkable that the corporation was once the nation’s leading manufacturer of diesel engines, an effort started in the late 1920s. Osborn was hired by GM in 1921 at its Dayton engineering laboratories. Rising to become assistant to the vice president of the engine group in 1941, he was named general manager of the Electro-Motive division and a vice president in 1943.

Electro-Motive grew out of Charles F. (Boss) Kettering’s development of diesel engines for GM in the late 1920s. Once perfected, the automaker acquired the Winton Engine Company, the last vestiges of the Winton automobile company, and the Electro-Motive Engineering Company of Cleveland, Ohio. They were the foundation of Electro-Motive, which Osborn now ran.

It’s 1955, and Osborn is talking with his associates about what his divisions had accomplished during the past 25 years. Non-automotive divisions accounted for 15 percent of GM’s profits, and the automaker figured out that it was about to produce its 100 millionth diesel horsepower. That’s an incredible amount of power, enough to supply half of the electrical power of the United States at the time, or 200 million homes according to contemporary reports.

Osborn wanted a way to mark the occasion.

“In spite of its importance, the diesel engine never has had the national attention that other, more glamorous types of power have received,” Osborn told the Chicago Tribune at the time. “it never really has caught the public fancy.”

But he thought that diesel power’s importance could be heightened with the proper event.

“Obviously it had to be a big show because diesel power so frequently comes in big packages. And it had to be an outdoor show because you can’t very well demonstrate a bulldozer in a hotel ballroom.”

Taking his cue from GM’s successful Motorama, Osborn’s big show was just that.

Dubbed Powerama, “a world’s fair of power,” it was held on a million-square-foot lot adjacent to Chicago’s Soldier Field, the site of the Century of Progress exposition in 1933-34. The show cast a spotlight on the growth GM’s diesel and aircraft power divisions.

Walking into Dieseland, and you’d see divers leap into the world’s largest dump truck, a 50-ton unit filled with water. Other attractions include an 85-ton atomic cannon, a 63-foot shrimp boat as well as oil wells and cotton gins, submarines, military equipment and GM’s newly-developed Aerotrain, with 10 streamlined aluminum-bodied cars that carried up to 400 passengers. The new train would set a new speed record of 112 mph, and cost half that of contemporary trains.

Being 1955, it’s little surprise that Powerama featured a musical, dubbed “More Power to You.” Among its acts are French acrobats atop a 70-foot crane, 35-ton bulldozers dancing the mambo, and a battle of strength between a top-hatted elephant and a bulldozer in which the pachyderm is sent packing. Yup, 1955.

If all of this seems very Y-chromosome, keep in mind Powerama did offer Frigidaire’s “Kitchen of Tomorrow,” which had proven very popular at GM’s Motorama.

As odd as all of this was, and as forgettable as it appears to be today, Powerama was notable for the debut of the GM Sunmobile, one of the first solar-powered cars. But this wasn’t a car you could ride in or drive. Measuring a mere 15 inches long, it was powered by 12 photoelectric cells made from selenium, which generated the electricity needed to power its 1.5-volt motor. Following its debut, the Sunmobile was shown in GM’s “Previews of Progress,” a nationwide tour meant to stoke the public’s interest in science.

GM also brought along the XP-21 Firebird, along with seven experimental concept cars, as well as the Scenicruiser and “L’Universelle” trucks.

The company also handed out 23,000 flowers and boutonnieres along with thousands of free sandwiches, soft drinks and cups of coffee.

In all, the show cost GM $7 million, or $82.2 million adjusted for inflation.

Was it worth it? Well, whether it appreciably moved the needle in terms of furthering diesel adoption might be up for debate, but GM could certainly afford to celebrate their successes. That same year, GM became the first corporation to realize a billion dollars in profit.