“stand out like a toucan”: Thomas L. Hibbard, “Early Days in GM Art and Colour,” Special-Interest Autos, July–August 1974, 42.
Adam Opel AG: “General Motors Starts European Campaign; Sloan and Aides Arrive to Advise Opel Agents,” New York Times, October 17, 1929.
CHAPTER 6: ASSEMBLY LINES TO BREADLINES
Hundreds of unemployed: Joyce Shaw Peterson, American Automobile Workers, 1900–1933 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 135.
“dragged like a dead weight”: Allan Nevins and Frank Ernest Hill, Ford: Decline and Rebirth, 1933–1962 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1962), 7.
Laid-off workers overwhelmed: Peterson, American Automobile Workers, 137.
In Henry Ford’s hometown: Ibid.
“Why should we bail out Mr. Ford?”: Darwyn H. Lumley, Breaking the Banks in Motor City: The Auto Industry, the 1933 Detroit Banking Crisis and the Start of the New Deal (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2009), 112.
“would not contribute a single dime”: Francis Gloyd Awalt, “Recollections of the Banking Crisis in 1933: The Detroit Episode,” Business History Review, Autumn 1969, 347–71.
“Finally it became obvious”: Lumley, Breaking the Banks in Motor City, 131–32.
“an industrial fascist”: David Farber, Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General Motors (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 92.
“It’s good that the recovery”: Lewis, “Henry Ford: A Fresh Perspective,” 15.
A virulent anti-Semite: Bak, Henry and Edsel, 146–47.
Henry had embarrassed himself: Ibid., 102–3; Nevins and Hill, Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 138; Carol Gelderman, Henry Ford: The Wayward Capitalist (New York: Dial, 1981), 178, 180.
“a man with a vision distorted”: Steven Watts, The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (New York: Vintage, 2005), 269.
“no organization, no specific duties”: Henry Ford, My Life and Work (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1923), 63.
“There is no bent of mind”: Ibid., 62.
As GM sales dropped: Cray, Chrome Colossus, 266–67.
“After the crash”: Alexandra Earl, interview with Hershey.
“knobs and handles plated”: Ronnie Schreiber, “GM’s First Concept Car and the Influential Result: 1936 Cadillac V16 Aerodynamic Coupe by Fleetwood,” TheTruthAboutCars.com, July 27, 2014.
“a dream of the Roaring Twenties”: Hendry, Cadillac, 167.
“Go out there and tell me”: Lamm and Holls, A Century of Automotive Style, 98.
“a full-sized airbrush rendering”: Ibid., 99.
“had the LaSalle mock-up onstage”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 7: A MAN OF STYLE AND “STATUE”
“He had kind of pale blue eyes”: “Reminiscences of Richard Teague,” Automotive Design Oral History Project, Benson Ford Research Center, Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan, 38.
“He was a terrifying figure”: Author interview with Bill Porter.
“were physically scared of him”: Alexandra Earl, interview with Hershey.
“a stretch of three months”: Author interview with Bernie Smith.
“This was Christmas Eve”: “Reminiscences of William L. Mitchell,” Automotive Design Oral History Project, Benson Ford Research Center, Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan.
“Harley had selected”: Borth, “Harley J. Earl,” 35.
“I picked up a pencil”: “Reminiscences of Irvin W. Rybicki,” Automotive Design Oral History Project, Benson Ford Research Center, Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan.
“It’s tough to be creative”: Hibbard, “Early Days in GM Art and Colour,” 44.
“The really good guys”: Author interview with Porter.
“I saw him chew some guys out”: “Bill Mitchell, General Motors Head of Design, Part I,” corvetteactioncenter.com.
“He was ruthless”: “Reminiscences of Strother MacMinn,” Automotive Design Oral History Project, Benson Ford Research Center, Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan, 28–29.
“You loved automobiles”: “Reminiscences of Frank Q. Hershey.”
“When he wanted something”: “Reminiscences of William L. Mitchell.”
“I want that line”: Armi, The Art of American Car Design, 25.
“I sometimes wander”: Earl and Baum, “I Dream Automobiles,” 19.
“No one was to get publicity”: Hibbard, “Early Days in GM Art and Colour,” 43.
“isolated the staff”: Armi, The Art of American Car Design, 19.
“manipulated and intimidated”: Ibid.
“Hello, Alfred, how are you?”: Gartman, “Harley Earl and the Art and Color Section,” 3.
“Sue did what she wanted”: Author interview with Connie Earl.
“He was what he was”: Ibid.
“Dad was a hired hand”: Author interview with Jim Earl.
“Money was always a consideration”: Ibid.
“they looked like they had wooden trees”: Lamm and Holls, A Century of Automotive Style, 103.
“He wore clothes that nobody wore”: Author interview with Connie Earl.
“Oh, he was flamboyantly dressed”: “Reminiscences of Frank Q. Hershey,” 88.
CHAPTER 8: “WHAT WILL I TELL MR. SLOAN?”
Upon learning in June 1932: Peter F. Drucker, Adventures of a Bystander (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1944), 268–69; Cray, Chrome Colossus, 278–79.
“dark paneled walls”: Lamm and Holls, A Century of Automotive Style, 103.
“As you walked into that room”: “Reminiscences of Frank Q. Hershey.”
“There would be guys drafting lines”: Armi, The Art of American Car Design, 177.
“They had proved a point”: Sloan, My Years with General Motors, 275.
“to explore areas beyond what”: “Reminiscences of Strother MacMinn”; see also “Reminiscences of Clare MacKichan.”
“It was his insistence”: “Reminiscences of Clare MacKichan.”
“There was Sloan”: “Reminiscences of William L. Mitchell.”
“For sheer taste”: Griffith Borgeson, Errett Lobban Cord: His Empire, His Motor Cars: Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg (New Albany, IN: Automobile Heritage Publishing, 2005), 144.
“I remember they had it all finished”: “Reminiscences of Frank Q. Hershey.”
“Art in industry”: Modes and Motors (Detroit: General Motors Corporation, 1938), deansgarage.com.
CHAPTER 9: HELPING MAKE GERMANY GREAT AGAIN
As early as 1922: “Berlin Hears Ford Is Backing Hitler,” New York Times, December 20, 1922, 2.
“It can only be said”: Edwin Black, “Hitler’s Carmaker: The Inside Story of How General Motors Helped Mobilize the Third Reich,” Global Research, May 5, 2007.
“hundreds of thousands of people’s comrades”: German Propaganda Archive, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, www.bytwerk.com.
“Are you sure your wife”: Alexandra Earl, interview with Hershey.
“You had to step up”: Ibid.
“Where do I send it?”: “Reminiscences of Frank Q. Hershey.”
CHAPTER 10: “I WOULDN’T BUY THAT SONOFABITCH”
He even started his own school: Lamm and Holls, A Century of Automotive Style, 106.
“played upon consumers’ desire”: David Gartman, Culture, Class, and Critical Theory: Between Bourdieu and the Frankfurt School (New York: Routledge, 2013), 63–64.
“I don’t give a goddamn”: “Reminiscences of William L. Mitchell.”
“to go and find out”: Armi, The Art of American Car Design, 193.
“Earl’s real talent lay”: David Gartman, Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design (Oxford: Taylor & Francis, 1994), 85.
“No, Bob,” he said: Lamm and Holls, A Century of Automotive Style, 102.
“This country has been good to me”: A. J. Baime, The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War (New York: Mariner Books, 2014), location 1171 of 7201, Kindl
e.
“If we get into war”: Arthur Herman, Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II (New York: Random House, 2012), 8.
“They’ll make a monkey”: Baime, The Arsenal of Democracy, location 1174 of 7201, Kindle.
“Can you build”: Cray, Chrome Colossus, 316.
“Mr. Ford, this is terrible”: Baime, The Arsenal of Democracy, locations 1294–97 of 7201, Kindle.
“the greatest production problem”: Ibid., location 1335.
“Talk to your men”: Ibid., location 1356.
“I fell in love with those tail fins”: Alexandra Earl, interview with Hershey.
CHAPTER 11: DETROIT’S WAR
“What is America”: Herman, Freedom’s Forge, 13.
“When Hitler put his war”: Gregory D. Sumner, Detroit in World War II (Charleston: History Press, 2015), 28.
“Detroit must now become”: Baime, The Arsenal of Democracy, location 2223 of 7201, Kindle.
William Knudsen’s eighteen months: Freedom’s Arsenal: The Story of the Automotive Council for War Production (Detroit: Automobile Manufacturers Association, 1950), 79.
Chrysler president Keller operated: Michael W. R. Davis, Detroit’s Wartime Industry: Arsenal of Democracy (Charleston: Arcadia, 2007), 29.
$12 billion worth: General Motors Annual Report, 1943; General Motors Annual Report, 1945.
“If the corporation ever”: Cray, Chrome Colossus, 317.
“You’ve got pilots”: Stanley Brams, “Car Makers’ Styling Section and the War Effort,” Military.com.
“Colored cloth was used”: Ibid.
“We have the Wildcats”: Ibid.
“It’s got to be done”: Drucker, Adventures of a Bystander, 270.
On June 20, 1943: “Martial Law at 10 P.M., U.S. Troops Move In,” Detroit Free Press, June 22, 1943.
Nicholas Dreystadt found: Drucker, Adventures of a Bystander, 270–71.
Newspaper editorials characterized: Bak, Henry and Edsel, 254.
“The best thing for me to do”: Ibid.
“Grandfather is responsible”: Baime, The Arsenal of Democracy, location 2227 of 7201, Kindle.
“A powerful force”: Ibid.
“one of the most tragic figures”: Ibid.
“The services you will render”: Ibid.
“This thing killed my father”: Ibid.
Eleanor conspired with Clara: Ibid.
A month after D-day: Ibid.
CHAPTER 12: THE BIRTH OF FINS
Half of the 26 million passenger vehicles: Cray, Chrome Colossus, 319.
“The car of the future”: Edward R. Grace, “Your Car After the War,” Saturday Evening Post, November 14, 1942, 13.
“The higher the prices of automobiles”: Cray, Chrome Colossus, 324.
“until a considerable period of time”: Karl Ludvigsen, “The Truth About Chevy’s Cashiered Cadet,” Special-Interest Autos, January–February 1974, 16.
“Unless we get a more realistic”: Farber, Sloan Rules, 239.
“We would lay out ideas”: Armi, The Art of American Car Design, location 3399 of 7042, Kindle.
“simply locked away and forgotten”: Ludvigsen, “The Truth About Chevy’s Cashiered Cadet,” 19.
“She sits bestride the world”: David Halberstam, The Fifties (New York: Open Road Media, 2012), location 2102 of 17039, Kindle.
“Never in all the history”: Cray, Chrome Colossus, 323.
“lower than the keels”: Bak, Henry and Edsel, 268–69.
“Cadillac fever is of epic proportions”: Hendry, Cadillac, 274.
“more customers than cars”: Charles H. Whyte, “The Cadillac Phenomenon,” Fortune, January 1955, 108.
“to make the far fin”: Lamm and Holls, A Century of Automotive Style, 111.
“made the back of the car”: Ibid.
“decorative brass and copper ware”: Armi, The Art of American Car Design, location 3419 of 7042, Kindle.
CHAPTER 13: DESIGNING THE FUTURE
“tested in the windshields”: Train of Tomorrow (promotional brochure), General Motors Corporation, 1947.
“I think there is no better candidate”: George Moon, “An American Versailles: Eero Saarinen and the General Motors Technical Center—A Privilege Remembered,” General Motors Design Archives and Special Collection, Warren, Michigan.
“we would have been murdered”: Whyte, “The Cadillac Phenomenon,” 181.
Harley believed: Earl and Baum, “I Dream Automobiles,” 19.
“Probably never before has one material object”: Ibid., 106.
“a solid and substantial symbol”: Jason Chambers, Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African Americans in the Advertising Industry (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), 44.
“my white Continental”: “The Cellini of Chrome,” Time, November 4, 1957.
CHAPTER 14: THE GREAT AMERICAN SPORTS CAR RACE
“A quick spin around the 3.8 mile track”: Leo Donovan, “Staid Reporters Cheer Le Sabre,” Detroit Free Press, July 18, 1951.
“General Motors vice presidents”: Charlie Coon, “Idea for Corvette Was Born in Watkins Glen,” Star Gazette (Elmira, NY), September 6, 1996.
“dropped the transmission into drive”: Michael Lamm, “1951 GM Le Sabre: The Future Was Then,” Special-Interest Autos, March–April 1997, 27.
“He sent a company plane”: Author interview with Connie Earl.
“by Harley J. Earl as told to [Post editor] Arthur W. Baum”: Earl and Baum, “I Dream Automobiles,” 16.
“Mid-Century Motorama”: David W. Temple, Motorama: GM’s Legendary Show and Concept Cars (North Branch, MN: CarTech, 2015), 30–34.
“the best that could possibly be attained”: Ibid.
“People will stand in line”: Norman J. James, “Of Firebirds and Moon Men: A Designer’s Story from the Golden Age,” history.gm heritagecenter.com.
“A friend of mine at GM”: Alexandra Earl, interview with Hershey.
“Harlow Curtice promised me”: “Remarks of Harley Earl,” Auto News Writers’ Conference, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City, January 16, 1953.
Frank Hershey had managed: Aaron Severson, “Little Bird: The 1955–1957 Ford Thunderbird,” AteUpWithMotor.com, July 4, 2009.
“They said they wanted a car”: Alexandra Earl, interview with Hershey.
“The Corvette corners”: Mike Mueller, The Complete Book of Corvette: Every Model Since 1953 (Minneapolis: Motorbooks, 2006), 29.
“The long gap between initial publicity”: Ibid., 28.
“I didn’t want to have a lot [of] gewgaws”: Alexandra Earl, interview with Hershey.
actor Tyrone Power: Ibid.
“walked a finely drawn line”: Aaron Severson, “Gaudy but Glamorous: 1958–1966 Ford Thunderbird,” AteUpWithMotor.com, July 17, 2008.
Lewis Crusoe ordered the Thunderbird: Ibid.
CHAPTER 15: THE HOT ONE
“tended to bake the passengers”: Chad Tyson, “1955 Ford Fairlane Crown Victoria,” Keith Martin’s American Car Collector, November–December 2017.
in the fall of 1954: David W. Temple, “GM’s 50-Millionth Car: A Golden Opportunity,” dwtauthor.blogspot.com/2011/07/1955-chevrolet-bel-air.html, July 26, 2011.
“We find it hard to believe”: Mike Mueller, Chevy 55–56–57 (Osceola, WI: MBI Publishing, 1993), 10.
“That car probably had more impact”: “Reminiscences of Dave Holls,” Automotive Design Oral History Project, Benson Ford Research Center, Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan.
“rolled through [the year] in two-toned splendor”: “Man of the Year: First Among Equals,” Time, January 2, 1956.
“The boss says we’re still losing”: Halberstam, The Reckoning, 327.
“I couldn’t believe I was going to General Motors”: Author interview with Norman James.
“Chevrolet sold more cars than anyone else”: Author interview with Robert Cumberford.
“There was a very strong esprit there”: Aut
hor interview with Glen Wintershied.
breaking Rule Number One: Author interview with Porter.
“He thought the more”: Ron VanGeldersen, interview with Charles M. Jordan, deansgarage.com, 2006.
“He called it ‘entertainment’”: Author interview with Smith.
“Every really creative”: Raymond Loewy, “Jukebox on Wheels,” Atlantic, April 1, 1955.
CHAPTER 16: GLORY DAYS
“Shimmering reflections”: Alice T. Friedman, American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 119–32.
“sort of night club”: “Interiors of the Styling Building in GM’s Technical Center,” Interiors, January 1957, 80–89.
“The day we arrived”: Author interview with Ruth Glennie.
“We simply lucked out”: Author interview with Sandy Longyear.
“slim, trim, with”: Sidney Fields, “Lady Auto Makers: Designs on Future,” New York Daily Mirror, May 2, 1960.
“Pounding nails into a block of wood”: “Reminiscences of Suzanne Vanderbilt,” Automotive Design Oral History Project, Benson Ford Research Center, Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan.
“I like everything”: Author interview with Smith.
“The setting was”: Jessie Ash Arndt, “Behind That Wheel,” Christian Science Monitor, April 7, 1958.
CHAPTER 17: INSURRECTION
“all these ’57 Plymouths”: VanGeldersen, interview with Jordan.
“shot up out of the grass”: “Reminiscences of Dave Holls.”
CHAPTER 18: NOT FADE AWAY
Romney dubbed it a “compact” car: Patrick Foster, George Romney: An American Life (Grapevine, TX: Waldorf, 2017), 124–25.
a quarter of them Volkswagens: Ralph Kinney Bennett, “Small Car, Big Shadow,” American, March 13, 2009.
“There is no longer any doubt about it”: HowStuffWorks.com/1945–1959-volkswagen-beetle4.
Popular Mechanics went so far: “But It’s Noisy,” Popular Mechanics, October 1956, 158.
“Detroit thinks”: John Keats, The Insolent Chariots (Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, 1958), 38.
“Our big job [as car designers]”: Jane Fiske Mitarachi, “Harley Earl and His Product: The Styling Section,” Industrial Design, October 1955.
“to own something a little new”: Brooks Stevens, “Planned Obsolescence—Is It Fair,” Rotarian, February 1960.
“we obsolete our products”: Joseph C. Ingraham, “Auto Men Restyle Motive of Change,” New York Times, November 6, 1960.
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