Wow did trucks actually ever look like that? It looks like the friggin Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.
They were known as Labatt's Streamline Beer Trucks. They had a fleet of them over they years in different models.
This one's been restored and makes the vintage car show rounds - it was the one in the parade.
Here is a 1994 CTV News broadcast of the Labatt's streamliner truck restoration.
Andy why? It was all about getting around the rules prohibiting advertising.
Motoring Memories: The Labatt Streamliners, 1937-1947
Although Prohibition ended in Ontario in 1927, beer advertising continued to be banned in the media. Brewers sought legal ways to keep their names in front of the public, and one of the most imaginative came from the Labatt Brewing Company of London, Ontario: Labatt’s “Streamliner” tractor-trailers.
In the 1930s, Labatt changed from shipping beer by rail to hauling beer by road. Needing a new fleet of large trucks, they decided to combine highway delivery with mobile advertising. They wanted more than the drab, rectangular haulers then in use so they conceived the Labatt Streamliner as a stylish rolling billboard.
Labatt turned to Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, a Russian-born Count who escaped to France following the revolution. After studying art and engineering he became art director for Belgian custom coach builder Van den Plas. He emigrated to the United States in 1928 to style everything from American Austins to supercharged Auburns.
Sakhnoffsky was engaged to design the Streamliner in 1935, and ultimately designed four generations. Although all were ahead of their time, the last one of 1947 was the most dramatic.
http://www.autos.ca/classic-cars/motoring-memories-the-labatt-streamliners-1937-1947/
London.
