The ’50s belonged to the General
The 1950s were the best of times for the American automobile industry's Big Three, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. The Depression’s deprivations and the Second World War were past, and apart from some material shortages during the 195053 Korean Conflict, it was full speed ahead.
There was optimism, good times, cheap gasoline and negligible foreign competition. In 1955 the industry sold more than nine million cars, its biggest year to date. To top it off, in 1956 President Eisenhower promised a wonderful gift, a brand new multi-lane, limited access, coastto-coast "Freeway" highway system.
It wasn't as good for the smaller players. Financial pressure brought Nash and Hudson together in 1954 to become American Motors Corp. The same happened to Studebaker and Packard who joined to form the Studebaker Packard Corp. The Nash and Hudson names disappeared in 1957, although AMC would survive for a couple of decades. Packard left the scene in 1958. Post-war upstart Kaiser-Frazer departed, as did tiny Crosley.
If one company could be called "King of the Fifties" it was General Motors. Although GM had dominated car sales since 1931, and would continue to do so, it reached its peak in the mid-twentieth century.
No company exemplified this prosperous era more. As profits rose GM became bigger, richer and some said arrogant. Annual model changes and enticing buyers up the hierarchy from Chevrolet to Cadillac implemented in the 1920s by its brilliant president Alfred P. Sloan Jr. came to full flower.
In many of those years GM commanded more than half the market. It was rumoured that it feared being broken up by the United States Justice Department more than it worried about competition from Ford and Chrysler.
Chevrolet didn't spend much time fretting about it. After all, with annual sales usually over a million units, and above 1.5 million in 1955, a severed Chevrolet Division would still be one of the largest American corporations.
GM president Charles "Engine Charlie" Wilson (to distinguish him from GE's "Electric Charlie" Wilson) said "We at General Motors have always felt that what was good for the country was good for General Motors as well." Although true, these words would often be used against GM as evidence of its consummate arrogance.
General Motors had introduced the short-stroke, high compression, overhead valve V-8 engine in the 1949 Cadillac and Oldsmobile, facilitating larger, heavier cars.
Under Harley Earl GM dominated styling in the 1950s. Sloan had temporarily hired Earl away from California’s Cadillac distributor where he designed cars for Hollywood stars, to style the first 1927 LaSalle for the Cadillac Division. It was a resounding success, and Earl was hired to organize GM's Art and Colour section, later called Styling. It consolidated the evolving change in emphasis from engineering to styling.
Harley Earl was a big, colourful man whose designs reflected his personality. He loved jet planes, which influenced his 1951 Buick Le Sabre concept car’s sweeping lines, tailfins and huge air intake. He could have been inspired by a popular song’s lyrics “too much is not enough.” He set Detroit's styling theme.
Earl loved lavish multi-toned, chrome-adorned chariots, and although accused of spawning the "Golden Age of Gorp," he unabashedly peddled dreams. Like Sloan, he wanted people to become dissatisfied with their cars so they would keep buying new ones. He called this "Dynamic Obsolescence."
In 1948 Earl put modest, aircraftinspired raised taillamps on the Cadillac. The idea took off and tailfins became a styling cliche widely imitated by the industry. Earl's tailfins soared, reaching their pinnacle in the 1959 Cadillac, before receding into oblivion in the 1960s.
Earl put his beloved trademark wraparound windshield on the Le Sabre concept car. He was anxious to get it into production, which he finally achieved in 1954. Despite being prone to distortion the "panoramic" windshield, like tailfins, swept the industry. And like fins it would also fade away.
The 1955 Chevrolet exemplified the fifties. Chevy had established a staid, bread-and-butter reputation, but its ’55 model broke that conservative mould with styling so stunning it wouldn’t be out of place wearing a Cadillac badge. A classic eggcrate grille, hooded headlamps and Earl's revered wraparound windshield gave it a confident stance.
In addition to the venerable "Blue Flame" six, buyers could order a new, lightweight 4.3-litre, overhead valve V8 engine even more modern than Cadillac's. It developed 162 horsepower, or 180 with the optional "Power Pack," and could scoot the Chevy to 97 km/h (60 mph) in under 10 seconds and reach 170 km/h (105 mph) (Road & Track 2/55). Cadillac and the Oldsmobile 88 were no longer performance kings.
GM continued to dominate for several more years. Although it and other American manufacturers would eventually experience harder times, the 1950s belonged to General Motors.