The Fabulous Fifties!


	The Fabulous Fifties!
	Want the classic book on the classic cars of the '50s and '60s? Read Quentin Wilson's Classic American Cars, available now through the Museum Store.

The Fabulous Fifties & Sensational Sixties illustrates the extraordinary burst in automobile design that took place after World War II, in both the U.S. and Europe. During World War II automobile manufacture in the U.S. essentially ceased - in 1945, fewer than 70,000 cars were sold. By 1949, though, American auto sales had rocketed to 5.1 million. Americans were affluent, had the world's best road system at their disposal, and were ready for automobiles that threw off the tired styles of the '40s and which expressed their optimism and confidence. Detroit responded, and one of the greatest love affairs ever between an industry and its customers was born.

Raymond Loewy, legendary designer of the Greyhound Scenicruiser, the Coldspot refrigerator and Air Force One's interior, started things rolling with the 1947 Studebaker. By putting the Studebaker's front fenders on the same plane as its doors and raising the rear fenders only minimally, Loewy gave the car an almost straight horizontal line front to rear. Before the '47 Studebaker front and rear fenders ballooned from the cabin, and the passenger cabin itself often extended, in a great, loping arch, to the rear of the car. They said you couldn't tell if it was coming or going, but people loved the Studebaker. In '48, Preston Tucker's Torpedo completed the modern look, with front and rear fenders and passenger cabin all on the same plane. Initially, Detroit hooted with derision. But by the end of 1948, General Motors - and especially designer Harley Earl - had seen the light. Harley Earl brought a love for art deco and aerodynamic design to car making that resulted in some of the most stylish American cars ever made.

GM began incorporating Earl's "envelope" body style into its 1948 and '49 models, and for all practical purposes GM's 1949 model year inaugurates the Fabulous Fifties. The 1949 Cadillac - sporting a curved windshield, teardrop rear and chrome slashes inspired by aircraft intake valves - heralded a new age in American auto design. Earl helped transform the Buick Roadmaster into an aerodynamic work of art - sleek, low, and even more bold than the Cadillac in its combination of aerodynamics and art deco stylishness. 1949 put the Pontiac Chieftain on the road to post-war glitziness, while the Cadillac introduced GM's new high compression V-8. And, it repeated one of the most influential innovations ever in American design, Harley Earl's tail fins, inspired by the Lockheed P-58. Modest and streamline, the '49 Cadillac's tail fins expressed Earl's aerodynamic vision. By the end of the 'fifties they would be a Detroit fixture, stretched and contorted to almost comical proportions, most dramatically in the 1959 Cadillac.

The American family car was completely transformed in the 1950s. The '57 Bel Air and its contemporaries, with the hood and trunk broad, flat and parallel to the ground and the passenger cabin rising dramatically between them, were light-years from the cars of the '40s. Curved windshields and "more glass than a greenhouse" allowed for an almost panoramic view. On top of these changes in body style, American automakers introduced a dazzling array of designs, innovations and options, including the automatic transmission (Dynaflow, Powerglide and the champion Hydramatic), power steering, power windows, power seats, retractable hoods, air conditioning and the mighty V-8 engine. The results were the best-loved cars ever mass-produced. Plymouth Fury, Pontiac Chieftain, Dodge Lancer, Buick Roadmaster and Buick Riviera, Chrysler Imperial, Chrysler 300, Chrysler New Yorker, Ford Thunderbird and Ford Fairlane, Chevy Impala, Chevy Bel Air and Chevy Nomad, Studebaker, Hudson and Packard, Lincoln, Mercury and Cadillac - some of the most powerful and enduring icons of the 20th century.

No model illustrates the 'fifties better than the Cadillac. The '49 is the prototype American Dream Car. The '53 Eldorado was graceful, opulent and dripping with image. (In 1972, researchers proved it is scientifically impossible to feel bad driving a 1953 Eldorado Convertible.) And then there's the '59. King of the Cadillacs, "more cathedral than car...a gothic monument" of chrome and steel. The 1959 Cadillac weighed two tons, was 20 feet long and 6 feet wide and got eight miles to the gallon. Earlier Cadillac design had been inspired by aircraft; the '59 looked (and handled) more like an aircraft carrier. It boasted the tallest fins of any car ever made. Punctuated by egg-shaped, jet age tail lights, the '59 Caddy's fins were nearly 4 feet high, intended as an aerodynamic touch on a car that was said to have all the get-up-and-go of the Empire State Building. Available in pink. Powerful, of mythic proportions and ultra-quiet, the '59 Cadillac is one of the best loved - and most reviled - cars ever made (one Englishman called it a "four-wheeled, jet powered bordello"; a "gaudy whore house on wheels" sniffed another.) And it marks the end of an era. Their enthusiasm dampened by recession and their optimism challenged by Sputnik, Americans headed into the '60s weary of gas-guzzling, chrome-laden mammoths.

As if on cue, the first compacts were introduced in the 1960 model year, including the Ford Falcon, the Chevy Corvair and the Plymouth Valiant. In 1961 Dodge introduced the compact Lancer. Large sedans like Lincoln, Cadillac and Chrysler, as well as the medium-sized Impala and Bel Air, continued to sell, but were less flamboyant, lighter on the chrome. With their crisp, clean lines they are classics in their own right. But sports cars, pony cars and muscle cars are what best distinguish the 'sixties from the 'fifties. Both Ford and Chevy had success with sports cars in the '50s, Ford with the T-Bird and Chevy with the Corvette (another Earl creation.) But the blockbuster of the decade - to this day the fastest selling car of all-time - was the Ford Mustang, introduced in 1964. Inexpensive and sporty, nearly half a million Mustangs sold the first year. The Mustang gave birth to a new breed - "pony cars", distinguished by long hoods and short trunks - that offered practicality, affordability, style and performance. And profitability. Ford offered more than 70 options for the Mustang - "The car that's designed to be designed by you" - that increased its price by an average 33%. Chevrolet responded with the Camaro, Plymouth jumped in with the Barracuda and Pontiac with the Firebird.

Pontiac's GTO set the stage for Muscle Cars, high-performance banshees that echoed the hot rod phenomenon of the 'fifties. "The Great One" was born when John DeLorean crammed Pontiac's largest V-8 into the timid little Tempest. The results were electrifying, and had it not been for the Mustang the GTO would have stolen the show in 1964. In 1966 Pontiac enhanced the brakes and suspension, added dual carburetors and a floor shift, and The Muscle Car was born. Muscle Cars, and American car production, peaked in 1968, with the Shelby Mustang, Dodge Charger and Mercury Cougar all smash hits.

Europe, of course, had its share of fabulous cars in the '50s and '60s. European family sedans were, for the most part, drab and utilitarian. Europe's sports cars, though - almost of all of them luxury autos - are some of the most sensational cars ever produced. The Fabulous Fifties and Sensational Sixties will feature classic European sports cars from the era - MG and Triumph, Aston-Martin and Austin-Healy, BMWs and Mercedes. And Volkswagens.

On July 9th, 2000, The Fabulous 'Fifties & Sensational 'Sixties will feature between 200 and 400 American and European sedans, wagons, convertibles and coupes, sports cars and muscle cars, from the '50s and '60s.

For More Information: Call the Museum at 207-594-4418, or e-mail the Education Director.