Hershey: T-Bird’s Hero
Since I am back in the driver ’s seat, writing this week’s editorial column, you’ve no doubt surmised that I made it back from Austin, Texas, after our Cadillac road trip. The 1961 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special that we drove to Wisconsin performed fiawlessly across nearly 1,400 miles. There’s more to tell than can flt in this space, so I’ll save the details of the adventure for the next issue of Old Cars. Besides, this week’s issue is themed for Thunderbirds and Mustangs, and I won’t pass up an opportunity to talk about these exciting Ford products.
For my fiight to Texas, where Rick Payton and I began our road trip, I brought William Knoedelseder ’s book “Fins: Harley Earl, the Rise of General Motors, and the Glory Days of Detroit.” The book seemed an obvious choice before driving a four-flnned 1961 Cadillac across the country. Although the book was based on General Motors, there was a surprising amount of content on the flrst-generation Thunderbird, and it really led me to contemplate the amazing man who brought that car to fruition, Franklin Quick Hershey.
Hershey’s earliest designing years were spent penning beautiful, innovative bodies for coachbuilder Walter M. Murphy of Pasadena, Calif., and some of his work is considered the greatest to have been fltted to the Duesenberg Model J chassis. Hershey soon went to work under Harley Earl at General Motors, where he’s credited with adding the famous silver streaks to 1935 Pontiacs (the streaks would remain on the hoods of Pontiacs through 1956). Hershey later designed the tailfln for the 1948 Cadillac, setting in motion a trend that would last longer than a decade. George Walker, head of Ford styling, hired Hershey away from GM to serve as head of the Ford styling studio, setting the stage for Hershey’s creation of the Thunderbird — and his ultimate termination from Ford Motor Co.
Had Hershey not worked for GM’s Styling Section, and maintained friendships with some of his former GM coworkers, the 1955 Ford Thunderbird would probably not exist. Hershey had been snuck photos of the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette, and since Ford didn’t have a sports car to match it, he began to work on a competing two-seater. Knowing that Ford’s “Whiz Kids” weren’t car people and wouldn’t likely back a sports car without solid proof Chevrolet planned to produce such a car, Hershey worked in secret. His secrecy almost got him flred, but when Chevrolet displayed its new Corvette at the Motorama, Hershey already had a head start.
It was Ford management that decided their new two-seater would be a “personal luxury car” rather than a sports car, and working with William F. Boyer and Bill Burnett, Hershey came up with a car that immediately outsold the Corvette it compete against. The flrst-generation Thunderbird was the two-seater that Americans wanted, and the two-seater many Americans today still want — a “dignifled sports car,” as Hershey later called it.
Although the Thunderbird immediately beat Ford’s sales expectations, the bean-counting “Whiz Kids” soon began planning a four-seat Thunderbird with the thinking that, the more people that can flt in a car, the more cars Ford would sell.
Between Ford management’s anger at Hershey for beginning to design a twoseat car behind closed doors, and Hershey calling out Robert McNamara, of the Whiz Kids, for not understanding the passion of car buyers, Hershey once said “The Thunderbird got me flred.” From Ford Motor Co., Hershey designed outside the automotive world, but he was a car guy until his 1997 death, regularly speaking about his experiences in the automobile industry.
Hershey wasn’t just a hero of the Ford Thundebird, but of the automotive industry in general, and I can’t help but think where the American automobile industry would be today if there were more people like Franklin Quick Hershey in it.