SEMA News—November 2016

EVENTS

By John Stewart

50 Years Later: The Pioneers

A major factor in the vitality and growth of the association was the advent of the annual SEMA Show. In 1965 and 1966, Noel Carpenter, publisher of Speed Equipment Directory, produced an industry-wide exposition that was initially promoted as a chance for the speed-equipment manufacturers to showcase new products. While the shows were not sponsored by SEMA, the association did receive a share of the profits from the 1966 gathering.

Meanwhile, rival publisher Robert E. Petersen of Petersen Publishing Company had started his own equipment expo, promoting the event in his Hot Rod Industry News, as well as in Hot Rod and Car Craft. Petersen ultimately won SEMA’s backing and produced what historically has been considered the first SEMA Show in 1967 under the banner of Hot Rod Industry News (edited by Alex Xydias), with Dick Wells producing the Show as an employee of Petersen’s Special Events Division. That first SEMA Show was held under the cold and damp grandstands of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles while the organizers awaited the completion of the Anaheim Convention Center, where the exposition was moved in 1968. The exhibitors who participated in the 1967 event, known as the “High Performance & Custom Trade Show,” are listed here, as documented in the pages of Hot Rod Industry News. Fifty years later, some are still with us, some are gone, but these pioneers were among the early companies that built the industry we know today.