This wicked, defrocking truck photo reminds me of that revelatory scene, both funny and achingly disappointing, in the 1939 film of The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy's dog, Toto, pulls aside a curtain hiding an increasingly agitated Frank Morgan as he desperately tries to go on pulling the levers and pushing the buttons that create the thundering, once-intimidating special effects that are supposedly the very essence of the Great and All-Powerful Wizard of Oz himself. Although, thanks to Toto, the jig is clearly up, Frank Morgan goes on barking into the microphone at his Wizard control centre, "pay no attention to that little man behind the curtain!!"
I always felt big macho truck cabs were like that: fearsome metal masks with nothing too impressive behind them (an engine, cables, etc. ho hum). Anybody who has forgotten how effectively a big truck can look mask-fearsome should re-watch Steven Spielberg's early film, Duel (1971). It's on YouTube.
