Earliest videos of the New York Boat Show
by Magnus Smith 19 Jan 09:00 PST
With the 2025 edition of the Show about to start in a few days, lets see how far back in time our video archive can go, with footage from early shows.
Whilst we never expected to find videos from 1905 at the first show, we have managed to find one from the thirties! 1937 features several exhibits from Chris Craft.
Skip to 0m48s, as this 1956 video opens with part of another newsreel. We see plenty of sails, despite this being referred to as the "National Motorboat Show".
The 1957 show unveils a circular fishing boat.
1959 : did the "house float" ever catch on, we wonder?
1960 was a futuristic year, with the early 'Sailorometer' giving a taste of VR motorboating.
1961 displays a helicopter/boat hybrid! The bikini-clad girls must have had a miserably cold time in that huge space in the depths of winter.
1963 saw 500 boats on display, with 300,000 visitors, the narrator claims.
1964 talks about boats being "a home away from home".
In 1965 there was a sadly sexist comment about dining tables and bed linen, but at least the one-person submarine was being driven by a lady.
1966 was an optimistic year, with "sales at this show expected to be 20% ahead of last year". If only we had that now...
For the 1970 show, skip to 2m42s to get started. Finally we are in colour, but there's no sound!
What of the other years?
If you can find a video that we have missed, you can submit links to us for immediate review.
Otherwise, keep watching with the video search page, with all the latest 2025 footage