ARLINGTON — The Show ‘N’ Shine’s 14th annual year on Olympic Avenue in downtown Arlington drew what event organizer Marilyn Bullock estimates to be a record turnout of registrants on Saturday, June 8.
“We had 348 cars registered for that day,” Bullock said of the car show, which is sponsored by the Downtown Arlington Business Association and the Arlington-Smokey Point Chamber of Commerce. “What makes that even more amazing is that the most we’ve ever had before was 297. I thought that if I could get more than 300 this year, I’d be happy.”
The rising tide of entrants posed at least one significant challenge for not only Show ‘N’ Shine organizers, but the city of Arlington as a whole, as they soon ran out of places for the entered cars to park downtown.
“There were cars all over the place,” Bullock said. “We’d filled up the streets by about 9:30 a.m. From there, we started looking at side-streets, Legion Park or whenever else we could conceivably let them park.”
Bullock believes that this year’s Show ‘N’ Shine benefitted from extra attention in the news media, as well as radio advertisements and the favorable word-of-mouth that’s been building over the past several years.
“They just heard what a good show it is,” Bullock said. “There was this beautiful black 1959 Impala convertible that was my favorite, and then Ken Cook brought out a number of Brent McKinley’s cars, including a ‘Packenberg’ — a Packard with a Duesenberg motor.”
According to Bullock, McKinley acquired the “Packenberg” in 1984, long after William Randolph Hearst had used the Duesenberg that the engine came from as a private car for his mistress.
“That Packenberg won our Best in Show award,” Bullock said. “It was just a very successful show all around, given the attendance and the remarkable weather that we were treated to yet again. We also made a very good profit for the Arlington Community Food Bank, which we look forward to donating to them shortly.”
As Bullock plans for next year, her one wish would be to recruit more volunteers to help coordinate the Shown ‘N’ Shine.
“It’s a nice way to have fun downtown for a day,” Bullock said.
