Harley Earl
Vorlage:Essay-entry Vorlage:Unreferenced 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. Harley Earl took the American automotive industry into the design business. He styled such cars as the Buick LeSabre show car and other firsts. 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 probably is best known to the general public for beginning the tailfin craze that dominated American automobile styling in the 1950s and early 1960s.
The first car Earl designed 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 that 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 that was designed body and all by a professional in a motor firm.
Dave Hickey, author of "Air Guitar, Essays on Art and Democracy" (1998), whose writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Art News, Art in America, ArtForum, Interview, Harper's Magazine, Vanity Fair, Nest, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times writes about Earl's artwork 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." In addition, Hickey went on to say, “The Leonardo of this new art market (or more precisely, its Monet) was an ex-custom-car designer named Harley Earl, who headed the design division of General Motors during the postwar period.”
The following statement by Irvin W. Rybicki, a 42-year GM veteran who worked under Earl and later became the third vice president of GM Design (1977-1986), explains the invidious comparisons people make these days between the GM designs Earl once created versus the vehicles GM builds today: "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 long before mass production decisions have to be taken by engineers.
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.
Today, a concept car designed by Earl, the Firebird I, is a prized possession in US motorsport, The Harley J. Earl Daytona 500 Trophy, which goes to the winner of that season-opening NASCAR race.
To celebrate the Buick nameplate going in a new direction leading up to its 100th anniversary in the 2003 model year, GM 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 build you a great car." In print advertisements he became known as the da Vinci 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 Earl’s hometown of Hollywood) as the first safety crash-test dummy. This one auto design innovation proved to be one of the most important pre-World War II milestones in the history of the auto industry at curbing deaths caused by rollover.Vorlage:Fact He also put the first onboard computer in a car.Vorlage:Fact Today, every passenger car and truck has one.
Discrimination
Earl's idea for the perfect GM in the post WW II era was to ensure that women could achieve upper level positions within the organization. This high-risk/high-reward milestone by Earl caused other male leaders inside GM to be “apprehensive” as one 1957 Detroit News story reported. Not only did he largely contribute to advancing the women’s movement in Detroit, “Harley Earl was first to hire openly gay men and women designers to come work for GM Styling”, said Larry Falloon, a retired manager who worked at GM Styling/Design for more than 35 years.
External links
Bibliography
David Halberstam, The Fifties, Random House, Copyright 1993 by The Amateurs Group, pp. 123-127.