EUROPLASTIQUE 1962 – Paris

Here is a 4-minute look at the 1962 EUROPLASTIQUE expo in Paris. I was 9 years old at the time… and my father went to Europe on behalf of General Electric, where he was a refrigerator design engineer at Appliance Park in Louisville. He was a lifelong member of the Society of Plastics Engineers… and even designed the SPE lapel pin. The plastics industry was new and exciting, and I am delighted that he took his 8mm movie camera to get some retro trade-show footage before taking off to play European tourist for a couple of weeks. (This was scanned and uploaded by Harbor Digitizing, my little film archiving business.)

I find this culturally fascinating, because all through my weird career I participated in dozens of trade shows with huge crowds, flashing lights, booth attractions, and an overall buzz of excitement… not just in the computer industry. This film from 1962 seems sedate and formal… it is amusing to think that this is just before that famous bit of career advice from The Graduate… “Plastics!”