he 1939 Chicago Auto Show lured attendees with the “Dame Fashion” stage spectacle. While the pageant featured everything from jitterbug dancers to opera singers, the highlight was the mistress of ceremonies herself, Dame Fashion. Standing as tall as a two-story building, she concealed the automobiles behind her 16-foot-wide ruffled hoop skirt until it spread open like a curtain. Then the new models, from a Plymouth convertible and its power-operated top to a Crosley station wagon boasting mileage of 50 miles per gallon, drove through to the audience’s admiring applause.