The first thing that catches your eye is the oversize format and slick paper. Generally each show receives two pages. This is a format book, a sort of fill in the blanks venue. Each show had Dates, Sponsor, Building, Admission price, Decor, Entertainment, Opening and an interesting summary called "Inside the Show." Most had a copy of the program cover and one or two photos.

Photo quality is slightly above average but still generally too dark overall. The only misplaced photo I noticed was a view of '36 Hudsons shown in the '35 section. The sample photos should be a help in identifying other period photos as the background decor changed year to year.

The book gives new (to me anyway) information about William Metzger's early history since he was instrumental in managing the earliest shows.

Probably the best thing about the book is its price. It is hard to find value in today's auto books but this one meets my criteria. The only frustrating thing historians will experience is the absence of the annual entry list. Even an incomplete list would be better than none at all but I guess engineers could not contemplate blanks in their format.

• DJ Kava