The first BART car was carefully covered in a gigantic sheet before it was wheeled into view, then unveiled to the public with a magician’s flourish.

Once the model car was made visible in 1965, it took a victory tour from Concord to Oakland, then Berkeley to San Francisco’s Union Square. Enthralled crowds lined up, climbed stairs and waited patiently — to sit in a BART car that didn’t actually go anywhere.

BART has had a lot of highs and lows in its long history, with planning beginning in the 1940s and the first trains rolling in 1972. But dreams of a transit utopia were never stronger than on June 22, 1965, when the first car was put on display for the public.

BART General Manager B.R. Stokes eagerly stoked the hype, addressing politicians, media members and a few others at the agency’s Diablo Test Track in Concord.

“We’re in the business of selling a ride to commuters who might otherwise take their cars,” Stokes told the crowd, speaking from a podium at an elevated stage. “We’ve got to compete with the luxury of today’s autos — and I think we’ve got something that only, possibly, a jet can compare with.”

Then a ribbon was cut and the cover floated to the ground, revealing a whale-sized BART car to the oohing and ahhing crowd.

The car had a temporary logo (“BARTD” for Bay Area Rapid Transit District) and the seats were designed differently, but it’s otherwise remarkable how little the physical design of the car has changed in 52 years.

Officials boasted that as the BART cars traveled through different Bay Area microclimates, the air conditioning system would adapt to keep riders comfortable. Other promises were harder to keep.

Stokes and BART President Adrien J. Falk said the cars would reach 80 mph, new cars would arrive at each station every 90 seconds and all passengers would be seated — the first cars had no overhead bars or hanging straps. A route map included in the model cars showed BART service that extended into Marin County. (North Bay citizens later opted out of the program.)

The most surprising announcement: Instead of advertising cards, officials suggested the cars might have a much more high-tech flourish.

“We’re thinking of a screen or slide projector at either side of the car,” Stokes said. “It could flash public information as well — the next stop, for instance. … And this car has such jetliner luxury, we might even compete with movies. Not full-length ones, the ride is too short for that — just short subjects, educational ones.”

Bay Area commuters never got to see their in-flight movies. But BART service did finally arrive in the East Bay on Sept. 11, 1972, with the Transbay Tube opening on Sept. 16, 1974.

The Chronicle has photos from those events too, but the faces seem a little more jaded, shoulders a little more slumped. For pure Bay Area transit excitement, 1965 was the all-time peak.

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub