Actually, I believe that cupholders were more of a Japanese thing. My recollection of my family's cars going back to the early 60's is that none of them had cupholders (unless you want to call two round 1/4" deep depressions on the inside of the glove box door cupholders... when the glove box was open, it acted as a tray). It was the Japanese cars that started to infiltrate the American market in the 70's that had things like cupholders, in-dash storage bins, and even coin-holders. The American manufacturers copied those as time went on.