# Beetle Car vs. The Beatles **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 29, 2000, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beetle-car-vs-the-beatles/9351 "2000-03-29T14:34:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beetle-car-vs-the-beatles/9351/1 "2000-03-29T14:34:00Z")
When did the first VW Beetle car roll off the assembly line? Pre-Beatlemania? * * * “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 ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beetle-car-vs-the-beatles/9351/2 "2000-03-29T14:47:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![aschrott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aca169/32.png) [@aschrott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aschrott)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beetle-car-vs-the-beatles/9351/3 "2000-03-29T14:56:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beetle-car-vs-the-beatles/9351/4 "2000-03-29T15:25:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beetle-car-vs-the-beatles/9351/5 "2000-03-29T15:45:00Z")
“The Beatles” is a combined pun (_Beat_les) and homage to Buddy Holly’s band, The Crickets. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2000, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beetle-car-vs-the-beatles/9351/6 "2000-03-30T06:08:00Z")
> [@](#): > > 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)](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_078.html)” > [@](#): > > 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.