John Weeks, features editor of the Redlands (Calif.) Daily Facts, talks about the very first Route 66 Rendezvous in San Bernardino in 1990:
On Sunday, the actual day of the Rendezvous, additional show cars showed up, and by the time spectators started to arrive there were about 300 gleaming pre-1967 automobiles on hand, most of them from Southland car clubs. […]
Unlike later editions of the Rendezvous, which moved to San Bernardino’s National Orange Showgrounds for the following two years, then took over the city’s downtown district starting in 1993, there was an admission fee that first year in 1990. Tickets were $3, with an additional charge of $3 to park.
The fees were no deterrent to spectators, though. More and more of them showed up as the day progressed. By the time the show’s official closing time of 3 p.m. rolled around, the crowd had swelled to 4,000 people, and many of them stuck around for another hour or two.
The turnout was a happy surprise for event coordinators. In fact, they still talk about it today.
“We were overwhelmed at the response and the word-of-mouth,” remembers John Coute, who sits on the San Bernardino Planning Commission and is a pioneer member of the Over the Hill Gang, the San Bernardino-based car club that put on that first Rendezvous.
“We didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal. We were real casual about it. We just wanted to have a little fun,” he said.
Nowadays, the Rendezvous draws about 500,000 spectators.
In other news, 150 friends and relatives threw a surprise 49th birthday party for Luis Estrada, who cruises the Rendezvous in a 1967 mirror-finish RV. Estrada, a veteran, survived a bout with colon cancer after being diagnosed in September 2009.
Here’s a neon light photo gallery of the Rendezvous’ first night.
More about the Route 66 Rendezvous, which goes through this weekend, is here.