Sometime after retirement GM’s Vice President of Design Chuck Jordan took a writing stint at Sports Cars International, a now-gone auto enthusiast oriented magazine. Naturally, for someone who worked at GM’s “Art and Color Section” for over four decades, his monthly column Jordan’s Style addressed design matters of various sorts during its brief run.
On edition 118 from Dec. 1997, Chuck reminisced on the lead up to the styling of GM’s ’59 lineup. The story has often been told and while Chuck’s account basically confirms what’s commonly known, it’s nice to get the point of view from an active participant in the events. Chuck was a mere 30 when the ’59s were conceived, but the talented and impetuous Californian had risen very quickly at Harley Earl’s studio and was already Cadillac’s head of styling by ’59.
There’s no way to get around the fact that ‘fins’ are the first thing that pop into mind when these vehicles are mentioned, and Chuck goes into some detail on the aeronautical inspirations that gave rise to this very American -yet influential- fad.
While the P-38-influenced ’48 Cadillac can make the dubious claim for setting the fin movement in motion, it was Chrysler’s ’57 lineup that drove the trend to its apotheosis. Virgil Exner had been toying away with Italianate and classic cues on Chrysler’s styling exercises, adding only modest fins on production models; it was the work done on the ‘56 Dart concept car that made him a ‘fin convert’ and he took to the concept with a vengeance. Chrysler’s ’57 lineup now being a menace, it took Chuck and company to bring a mutiny of sorts against Harley Earl’s original ’59 proposals, with Chuck and team bent on outdoing Exner’s efforts.
The ‘fin’ rose to levels that even Chuck admits went too far. The fin -and the girth of those post ’58s- also took a pounding from the automotive press, and as the Eisenhower recession took hold, the whole trend died quickly by the early 60’s. Given its relative short life, it’s kind of ironic ‘the fin’ is the one styling cue solidly associated with American cars nowadays; and decades later the topic still fascinates to some degree or another.
I’d like to see what the original ’59 GM proposals based on the bloated over-chromed ’58s would have looked like, it’s hard to imagine. Can anyone post a link to the proposed design drawings or clay models? I love the ’59 Buick, it’s sort of a GM evolution of Exner’s forward looks and Buick’s most dramatic yet still tasteful postwar designs.
This site ran an article on GM’s crash program to produce the 1959 models. It referenced a 1991 Special Interest Autos article that included photos of the original models GM had been using to guide the direction of the stylists for the 1959 models. It’s here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-reviews/vintage-sia-design-history-gms-far-out-59s-when-imagination-ran-rampant/
In retrospect, if Chrysler had held off on introducing its Forward Look models for 1958, as it had originally planned to do, it would have been better in the long run. Quality would have been much improved (no rush to production), and GM would have been locked into its bloated, over-chromed 1959 models, which would have been completely outmoded by the Mopar competition.
Agreed. One can only speculate how exactly things would have gone down, but it clearly would have been vastly better for Chrysler. The original proposed ’59 GM concepts look terrible.
Thanks for the link…haven’t seen those, they’re fascinating.
I’m equally fascinated by Jordan’s account where he says that the fins added to Mercedes and Ferrari models were “flattering indeed”. Chuck buddy, get a grip, you stole the idea from Chrysler…can you not comprehend what you just wrote a few paragraphs ago? Wow.
Had Chrysler held off introducing its Forward Look models until 1958, they would have been introduced just as a recession was tanking car sales in the very category that they were sold in. They were pretty much screwed with either option.
I wonder what if Chrysler had launched its Forward Look as “1957½” models or “Second-series 1957” like they had done with their 1949 models?
I remember that article from SIA. While some were never intended to make production, those proposals were hideous! If GM had gone ahead with them the Edsel might have sold better being considered attractive by comparison. [grin emoji]
I do believe the W111 and W110 Mercedes-Benz were influenced by American cars of the 1950’s – perhaps the Forward Look Chrysler products. I was fueling my 1967 230S one day when an older gentleman came up to me and asked about the car. I noticed he was caressing the stainless trim along the top of the left fin when he said my car reminded him of the 1957 Chevrolet he once owned.
There are a couple photos in the 2 part article on 1959 at GM, along with some wild new ideas.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-reviews/vintage-sia-design-history-gms-far-out-59s-when-imagination-ran-rampant/
Great article, covering a subject of considerable interest to me. In world that today almost exclusively drives boring ‘shoe boxes’ otherwise known as “SUVs”, trucks and or pickups, I genuinely value my childhood memories of the 1949 to 1969 period when passenger cars had exceptional styling. This styling was in every way ‘moving art’.
In 2022 passenger cars have been reduced to nothing more than down size buses. Great article, thanks for the memories Rich.
A fascinating read by Mr. Jordan there .
-Nate
I don’t buy the “revolution”. Take one look at the ’57 Eldorado Brougham. It’s nearly identical to the ’57 Plymouth. Presumably these guys had a hand in the Eldo, and they certainly knew what it looked like.
The existing direction at GM certainly needed to be turned around, but it wasn’t Chrysler that turned it, and the resulting ’59s were far more ’57 Mercury than ’57 Chrysler. The only Chrysler influence was dropping the ABC body sequence and using one body for all cars.
So you’re telling Chuck and the others that were there that they are all liars?
Have you seen the pictures of the clays that were destined for ’59 before the “revolution”?
I’ve been a long-time admirer of Chuck Jordan. He designed a modern GM locomotive, the ’55 Chevy truck line, the ’56 Buick Centurion, and did the elegant ’60 Cadillac facelift. That being said, and in view of his comments regarding the need for another automotive style revolution, it’s ironic that, by the time he became GM Styling VP, look-alike cars like the 1986 Cadillac Seville and Pontiac Grand Am were being churned out. While he was a designer’s designer, his stint as design head is not remembered today for any stand-out car designs.
I love Mr Jordan’s story. I’ve read accounts of these events including the styling coup from other writers. They follow this account almost word – for – word, suggesting this is the source article for events that are now legendary.
I like the acknowledgement of the marketing importance of style, novelty/ annual changes, and artistic expression in auto styling of the day. Customers were buying a package of artwork, social influences and and rolling sculpture along with their transportation.
I have many old auto magazines of the era. (Car Life, MotorTrend, Popular Mechanics). There’s conflicting articles on this issue. Most support the industry and whip up enthusiastic stories on annual styling changes , disguised as advances , to support their advertisers and the interest in having consumers increase auto purchase frequency accordingly.
But there are occasional consumerist – based articles, lamenting the planned obsolescence of the era, expressing frustration as the pursuit of the newness and novelty renders last year’s purchase old fashioned. They suggest a degree of social shaming; the owners of past models are too poor to buy the latest and greatest.
They highlight the pursuit of newness produces poor designs where service and maintenance costs are unnecessarily inflated for consumers. Expensive curved windshields are one example, but include other details such as vulnerable lights integrated into bumpers.
Interestingly these consumerist articles never named any specific manufacturer, likely to avoid annoying advertisers.
“It was the right thing to do at the time.” Happily, “that time” only lasted about five years, burned out the customers very quickly, and went away. Except that it didn’t, because Boomers insist on having fond memories of those monsters.
Of all the cars in my lifetime, I consider the 57 Chevrolet, 57-59 Dodge, and 59 Cadillac at least grossly overrated if not downright abominable. Conversely, I’ve always felt that the 57-58 Chrysler, 57-58 DeSoto, and 59-60 Buick to be Fifties Done Right. At least if they were going to go for ridiculously overblown, they had some sense of style in them.
the 59 gm cars had a style that still takes my breath away at age 75. ditto the 63 riv 63 corvette and 65 gto. rest in peace gm stylists of that era you were the perfect blend of vision and guts for the golden age of 55 to 65. works of art not just automobiles. dan mcphail burton mi one of the djs at the woodward dream cruise in 2019 and glad i wastickled to live through it at age 12. hooray for so called “ridiculously overblown”