Beetle Car vs. The Beatles

[Jinx]

When did the first VW Beetle car roll off the assembly line? Pre-Beatlemania?

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“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV

[CurtC]

It’s according to what you mean by “Beatlemania”. I believe that at the time the first VW rolled out, all of the Beatles had already been born.

[aschrott]

are you wondering about a possible connection between the names? If so, I don’t think there is any. The naming of the VW beetle is mentioned in one of Cecil’s columns (I’ll look if I get a chance)–perhaps even traceable to Adolf Hitler.

[Padeye]

The info I have is that The Beatles adapted the name - originally The Silver Beatles - from that of Lee Marvin’s motorcycle gang in The Wild One (1954), The Beetles. Volkswagen type one sedans were trickling in to the US by this time but weren’t a household word yet.

[Ursa_Major]

“The Beatles” is a combined pun (Beatles) and homage to Buddy Holly’s band, The Crickets.

[Arnold_Winkelried]

Originally posted by Jinx:
When did the first VW Beetle car roll off the assembly line? Pre-Beatlemania?

From Cecil’s column, “… Did Hitler name the Volkswagen? (29-Sep-1991)”

As for the VW, Hitler didn’t name it but there’s no question he helped create it. Ferdinand Porsche had been working on a popularly priced “people’s car” (whence “Volkswagen”). At a 1934 meeting Hitler told him to make the car an air-cooled four-seater with a streamlined shape “like a beetle.” Your wish is mein command, said Ferd. Hitler announced the new car at the Berlin Auto Show. The Nazis sold VW “subscriptions” and a factory was built, but only a few cars were made before hostilities began. During the war the plant churned out V-1 buzz bombs and a Jeep-like vehicle of a design later sold in the U.S. as “The Thing.” Only after the Nazi surrender did civilian VW production begin in earnest.