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THOSE FABULOUS CARS

Cruisin'

If any invention typified the wildly optimistic mood of America in the 1950s, it was the decade's large, long, sleek automobiles. Unlike architects, furniture designers, and fashion designers of the era, who produced simple, unornamented products in subdued colors, designers of the fabulous 1950s cars produced gleaming, exuberant creations of chrome and power—and in delicious ice cream colors, too.

Impractical but Stylish

By 1954 there were forty-seven million passenger cars in the United States, and by 1960, 80 percent of American families owned cars. The cars were totally impractical. Their gas mileage was abysmal. They were designed for style, not safety. They were so long that they were hard to park, especially in cities. Their fancy grilles and acres of chrome were difficult to keep clean. But their shiny exteriors and spacious interior design screamed power and status. Moreover, they had those fabulous fins.

Fabulous Fins

The fins had their genesis in 1941, when Harley Earl, chief stylist for General Motors (GM), saw the U.S. Air Force's twin-tailed P-38 "lightning" fighter plane. Why not similar tail fins for cars, Earl wondered? He directed GM artists to design tail fins of all types to be adapted for use on automobiles. In 1948 Cadillac introduced the first (fairly modest) aircraft-style tail fins. Within ten years the fins would grow to an incredible size, resembling everything from propeller airplanes to rockets. Even better, the fins supposedly had a functional purpose: they were said to aid aerodynamic stability.

"Finomania."

By the mid 1950s, according to Motor Trend magazine, "finomania exploded." Chrysler, which had lagged behind the rest of the industry in design innovation, took advantage of the public's fascination for big fins. The company's 1957 models sported highly stylized fins that stretched from the middle to the tail end of the car. In 1959 Cadillac introduced the fins to outdo all fins in its Eldorado Biarritz convertible.

Fins Peak

Fins peaked in 1959, becoming progressively smaller accessories until they disappeared in the 1960s, unfortunately for Chrysler, who had planned a big, single, off-center fin for a future model, starting in a ridge on the hood and then running along the roof, rising in a single rib at the tail. With the end of "finomania," however, the new model never made it to the showroom floor.

Detroit's Complacency

In the postwar years Detroit complacently built the cars it thought America wanted. The cars grew bigger, faster, gaudier, heavier, and more self-indulgent. They also had eight-cylinder engines and a seemingly limitless choice of body styles, engines, transmissions, and options. Motors were hawked in terms of raw power—"Rocket 88," then "98." Style was the American auto industry's god. Safe cars, said William Mitchell, GM's styling director, only appeal to "squares," and, he added, "there ain't no squares anymore."

Fabulous Fantasies

Americans in the 1950s were accused of worshiping their cars, and, in a way, they did. Eric Larrabee wrote that "the car is an instrument against the very idea of chores and inconveniences, regardless of the reality. To be splendid and irrational is of its nature." The 1960s realities of assassination, war, and antiwar demonstrations had not yet arrived. During the 1950s, says Richard Horn, "Americans could afford to avoid reality, forget about space races and financial woes, and go through life as if it were one big, open road leading toward a wonderful future.… no vehicle could have been more appropriate for the journey than the now-classic 1950s automobile."