Harley
Earl was born in a different era and at a different time. The date was
1893 and the location was Los Angeles, in an area to become known as
Hollywood. It was a time of much promise for anyone young. Harley was
born into a family of horse-drawn carriage makers whose business
eventually evolved into building automobile bodies. Back then there
were few car stylists who worked at the major automobile firms and
custom bodies were primarily manufactured by independent firms such as
Briggs, Fleetwood and others. Among these were dozens of small custom
shops, such as the Earl Automotive Works in Los Angeles, Ca.
Earl grew up designing custom automobile bodies in the family firm and he was especially good when it came to esthetic details. So good that his designs eventually made their way to none other than Alfred Sloan who was then the president of General Motors. It wasn’t long before Earl was hired and he was in put in charge of GM’s new department of “Art and Color”. (John at Lynch Chevy Kenosha relates that this was actually the title of the GMs full Styling Department.)
Earl was the primarily design influence behind many of the most defining artistic automotive details of the time. For example, the elimination of running boards in the late 1930s is attributed to Harley Earl. As well as automatic power convertible tops, the adoption of headlights fitted into front fenders, piller-less doors and, this one is big: the rear tail fin.
Photos courtesy of: http://www.oobject.com
