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1950s Cars Film Clips
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| Tail Fin on 1959 Cadillac |
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Harley J. Earl on Car Design (Gentry Magazine, 1956)
In the annals of automotive history, 1893 was unique: the first car
insurance policy was written, the first successful gas-fed vehicle in the U.S. was driven in Massachusetts and Harley J. Earl was born in California. This may not seem so remarkable at first glance, but whether we know it or not, when we praise 1950s American automotive design we are actually glorifying the fertile mind of Harley Earl.
Earl, as Vice-President of Design at General Motors, conceived of so many design elements that are associated with the era: tail-fins, wrap-around windshields and two-tone paint styling. In this article, written when he was at the top of his game, Harley Earl tells his readers what is involved in automobile design: "Shakespeare has told us 'neither a borrower nor a lender be'. An automobile stylist must be both. He must borrow his ideas from the creatures and creations of nature which are all about him..." *See the Stylings of Harley Earl in this Film Clip*
| Styling the Fifties (Gentry Magazine, 1956)
A one page essay by automobile-stylist William H. Graves, a former Vice President and Director of Engineering at the Studebaker-Packard Corporation."Two years ago a new product philosophy was approved at Packard which gave the engineering department a green light that had not been on since 1935. This enabled us to set up a program to style future cars for the luxury field...The Packard program was launched in October, 1952, with the formation of a new styling group of young men, whose average age was 28. An advanced design section and a special section to experiment with plastics as a possible material for both parts and dies were established." Click here to read the obituary of J.M. Studebaker.
| Color Styling and the Cars of the Fifties (Gentry Magazine, 1956)
A 1956 article by Eugene Bordinat (1920 - 1987), one of Detroit's grand old men of automotive design; during his reign at Ford, Bordinat oversaw the styling of such cars as the Mustang and the Falcon: "The average American likes to think that he is an independent thinker and a rugged individualist, while actually he is closer to a sheep and follows the herd. He resists change. He wants just enough change in cars so his neighbors will know it is the latest model, but not so much that he has to explain to his friends why he bought the strange contraption...The stylist must consider these factors when he out-lines his advanced thinking on trim and color...he must be sure that the scheme isn't so radical that it will frighten the color-timid public."
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