Harley Earl
Harley J. Earl (November 22, 1893–April 10, 1969) was an automotive stylist and engineer and industrial designer. He is most famous for his time at General Motors from 1927 until 1959. Earl was instrumental in establishing the industry or business of designing cars and the rules and principles behind the "Automobile Design" profession when none existed before in America. His thinking brought out a certain talent that he was able to style such gems as the LeSabre show car. A big man, Earl was six foot four and weighed 310 lbs. His list of other firsts is equally impressive. They include, but are not limited to, being the father of the Corvette, introducing the annual styling model change, putting the first-ever onboard computer in an automobile, chrome trim, two-tone paint, hardtops, and wrap-around windshields, but he is probably best known to the general public for beginning the tailfin craze that dominated automobile styling in the 1950s and early 1960s. All of which were styling techniques which promoted "Planed obsolesence.
The first car designed by him was the 1927 La Salle, a smaller companion car to the Cadillac. His car quite resembled the Hispano-Suiza that various Hollywood celebrities and American nouveaux riches were buying at the time, a fashion which Cadillac executives resented. And, as the more expensive cars of that time were usually sold as chassis, drive-train, fenders, radiator, and cowling to be given a body by a specialized coachbuilding firm, it was the first car of that sort which was designed body and all by a professional in a motor firm. But what GM always kept hush-hush (and Earl wanted it this way while he was alive to protect his anonymity) is that he was a giant contemporary artist who literally got millions and millions of Americans hooked on the value of his unique car designs.
Dave Hickey, author of "Air Guitar, Essays on Art and Democracy" (1998), does a good job clearing up the picture on Earl's art work in a segment titled, “The Battle of the Big, Beautiful Art Market.” He wrote: “after WW II, Harley Earl of GM turned the marketing of automobiles "from being about what they do to what they mean." Although it is anyones guess as to what this has to do with the bizzare styling approved by Earl -I.E. the 1958 Buicks and Oldsmobiles, and the 1959 Cadillacs, which made the U.S. the Laughing stocks of state of the art Auto design as it was known throughout the world.
Perhaps the following statement by Irvin W. Rybicki, a 42-year GM veteran who worked under Earl and, later on, became the third vice president of GM Design (1977-1986) best explains the invidious comparisons people make these days between the great GM designs Earl once created verses the bland and mediocre vehicles GM cranks out currently: "Harley Earl is responsible for more than half of GM's greatest 20th Century milestones. The fact this company had exclusivity of all his work and was able to capitalize off his artistic efforts and innovative engineering ideas first, is perhaps why this man's story is so controversial and a kept secret today in Detroit."
Since he was responsible for the very first concept car, the Buick "Y" job of 1938, which had concealed headlamps and prefigured later Buick design motifs, Earl is credited as being the father of the concept car approach; i.e. the idea of making a car prototype to showcase a new vehicle's styling, technology, and overall design a long time before mass production decisions have to be taken by engineers. But given the immediate postwar sales boom, his second concept car was prepared only in 1950. This was the Le Sabre (later a production car), the gimmick of which was its extreme lowness, by having the carburetor and air cleaner taken off the top of the engine and put alongside the cylinder heads. At first, Earl and the concept cars toured the United States in the GM Motorama shows.
Earl saw his contribution to auto design in more general æsthetic terms. He noted that all through his career his purpose had been to lower and lengthen the car, because according to his sense of modern proportions, oblongs were more appealing to the eye than squares. One auto historian put it this way, "Earl was responsible for the design of the modern American car while at General Motors in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s when the 'stock car' was born."
To celebrate the Buick nameplate going in an all new direction leading up to its 100th anniversary in the 2003 model year, General Motors began airing commercials in the Fall of 2002 featuring actor John Diehl depicting Earl as Buick's leading spokesperson. His catchphrase was, "My name is Harley Earl, and I've come back to sell you a Buick." In print advertisements he became known as the daVinci of Detroit, and on TV, the company's cars were shown with Earl's trademark fedora on the hood with the accompanying caption "Harley Earl was here," and it was called "the company where Harley Earl hung his hat."
SAFETY
Earl instituted using "Oscar" (and also named this full-size test dummy after the Academy Awards Oscar statue that originally came from Harley Earl’s hometown of Hollywood, CA.) the first safety crash-test dummy,lthough if Earl learned anything, he chose to ignore the results. Today, every passenger car and truck has one. Earl also pioneered the first all-steel “turret-top” design that went on to dramatically revolutionize how all American cars would be built after the late-30s, which was ment to simplify production. He went on to approve the design on the pillarless "four door Hardtop" of the 1955/56 model year, flying directly into the face of any semblance of safety.
DISCRIMINATION
Earl's idea for the perfect G.M. in the post WW II era was to insure that women could not obtain employment within the management hierarchy of G.M. In fact, Earls hireing practices insured that no one other than White, Anglo Saxon protestants were employed in upper management positons.