Some of us are born in the wrong epoch, either too early or too late. And in this postcard taken in Texas in ’73, we see the talents of a young man gone to waste. Had he been born a few decades prior, wouldn’t his love for bling made him a darling in the eyes of Harley Earl?
GM stylist Chuck Jordan has quoted Earl as saying: “You add the chrome, I’ll take it out.” Of course, Mr. Earl never took any of it out. And while I admit this Pontiac’s display of excess makes for an indelible image, I’m just glad that differences in time and space never permitted Mr. Earl and this fella to cross paths.
Whether Mr. Earl would’ve embraced the look or not, I see a labor of love.
J C Whitney company car?
I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if this vehicle met an immovable object at speed. It’d suddenly become a Pontiac-sized blunderbuss, scattered JC Whitney shrapnel to the winds.
Yuk.
I’m with Dan. YUK!
I’ll see your “yuk’s”, Dan and thomas; I’ll raise you an “eww, yuck”. lol
The sight of it “something quite atrocious”.
Harley Earle was the KING 🤴 of OTT excessive chromed luxury on the GRAND scale. Personally loved the GM massive monuments to Divine Decadence. 58 Buicks and Cadillacs (especially Sixty Special) to me were the epitome of the era. 🏆 While I also loved Exners fabulous finned fantasies for Chrysler, they did not equal when it came to the question of whether there was more body paint or chrome. Personal motto is Too much is not ENOUGH. Believe original plan for 59 was a face-lift with even more chrome! Today chrome is hard to find, but then we don’t even have traditional Luxury Sedans. 🤮. This OLD 🐕 DOG definitely does NOT like new tricks! 😎
You have a 2007 Town Car, which is pretty much an old school sedan that made it into the modern era. It also has plenty of real estate available to add the chrome that Ford didn’t… Though it takes a little more work to find appropriate shiny bits to populate a needy car, they are certainly out there… so get crackin’! No excuses!
I feel like Chuck Berry should have written a song about this man and his car.
DeSoto & Pontiac were namesaked after those men in homage. It is not ‘politically incorrect’ to homage historical individuals, just like its not so to have a schhol named after MLK, for example.
Looks like this photo was taken in Houston – here’s the scene as it looks now:
https://goo.gl/maps/c1Rr6Qs77qdpjxaZA
Both the (former) service station, and the building in the background are still standing.
“Has anyone seen Lester? He went out to polish the chrome on his car on Tuesday. He was due back in on Friday, but nobody has seen him.”
I remember this from Houston tx when we we’re kids he would drive it around the neighborhood it also had a oooghh horn on it it was a real kick just ride in it
…Eye roll…
Regarding Harley Earl’s love of chrome – The story goes that one of his Olds designers in the mid fifties designed two different chrome trim packages for an upcoming Olds model. He made overlays of each, then forwarded them to Earl to select which version he wanted. Somehow, both overlays were shown on the same model ant the same time. Earl loved it and that’s what went to production.
Antione de la Mothe Cadillac had a car company named in his honor. I haven’t heard any rumblings from the PC police about a name change though.
Back in my Oakland neighborhood in the late 60’s, there was a gent with a similarly decked out 1960 black Cadillac convertible. I believe that it was an ElDorado, and he added extra hood ornaments, spotlights, chrome side spears, chromed skirts, radio and TV antennas, wide white walls, mudflaps with chrome trim, and a “Virgil Exeneresque” deck lid “spare.” At least he drew the line at a Continental Kit!
He seemed to take great pride in his Cadillac, as it was always spotless and polished. All the extra gee gaws didn’t affect the utility of the car and he drove it all the time.
Hey Jose , I grew up down the road from you in El Cerrito, I remember seeing that black Eldorado he drove it up and down San Pablo Ave , I saw him in the 70s into the middle 80s he would park it in front of Nation’s hamburger and when I would eat there I always had to check it out , as I remember he had chrome strips that were contoured all over the body and a cooI hood ornament and bugle style horns on the front fenders , at first I thought it was kind of too much but the more I looked at it was kind of cool ! Peter Martinez .
This looks like photoshop to me. Most of the geegaws seem two dimensional.
On our inspection check sheet theres a dangerous ornaments and fittings section this collection would fail a pedestrian could get severely gored by that.
Part of me wishes this photo had self-ignited. Part of me is glad it didn’t. Paradox of emotions
I remember cars like this……
In matters of taste, everyone else is _wrong_ .
-Nate
Redickles