The very first Holden ute was
released in January 1951.
Jean Lee's police mug shots.
At a young 31 years of age, Lee would be the
last woman executed in Australia... |
By 1951 the Australian buying public had not noticed
the new Holden lacked much of the refinement of contemporary
American and British rivals. In fact, the original 48/215 carried over much of the wartime austerity associated
with cars manufactured during the 1940's, and not many
Australian's cared that the All-Australian was in reality
based on a pre-war Chevrolet design concept!
Sales of the 48/215 far outstripped supply, and Holden
were forced to publish a booklet of testimonials entitled
"Holden Owners Give Reasons Why Holden is Worth
Waiting For". They knew this strategy would only
buy them so much time, so much effort was put into lifting
production rates from (the 1948 initial) 10 units per
day to 100 per day.
Expansion was inevitable, and so the company purchased
60 hectares of land in Dandenong, Victoria for future
development. As total production of the 48/215 passed
the 50,000 mark, Holden were to release their very first
Ute, officially named the 50-2106.
Interestingly, the use of the acronym "48/215"
was understandably not particularly popular with the
public, who choose to simply call the car a "Holden".
Later cars would be dubbed the FJ, FE, FC and so on,
and so many simply assumed that the first Holden must
have been an "F" something. The title "FX"
is widely attributed to used-car dealers, needing to
identify this model from the later models, the "X"
simply stood for "Unknown". 
Formula One Championship: Juan Manuel Fangio (Argentina) / Alfa
NRL Grand Final:
VFL/AFL Grand Final:
Melbourne Cup: Delta (N. Sellwood)
Wimbledon Women: Doris Hart d. S. Fry
(6-1 6-0)
Wimbledon Men: Dick Savitt d. K. McGregor
(6-4 6-4 6-4)
The Movies:
- The African Queen
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- An American in Paris
- A Place in the Sun
Academy Awards:
- Best Picture - An American in Paris
- Best Actor - Humphrey Bogart (The African Queen)
- Best Actress - Vivien Leigh (A Streetcar Named
Desire)
Farewells:
- John Alden Carpenter (American Composer)
- Dorothy Dix (popular "advice" columnist,
whose real name was Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer)
- André Gide (French writer, humanist and
moralist)
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