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HARLEY EARL 1893-1969
Harley J. Earl was born November 22, 1893, in Los Angeles, California. His father,
J. W. Earl, moved from Michigan to Southern California in 1889, and became a coach
maker building carriages, wagons and racing sulkies at a shop he named Earl
Carriage Works. In 1908, with the growing popularity of the automobile, the coach
building shop began making customized parts and accessories for cars and its name
was changed to Earl Automobile Works. By 1911, the company was building custom body
cars for the fast-growing motion picture industry.
In 1912, J. W. Earl sent his son, Harley, to the University of Southern California
to become a lawyer. The young Earl departed USC to attend engineering classes at
Stanford University beginning in 1914. However, he left Stanford in 1917, and
joined his father’s business as chief designer the following year.
At first, Earl Automobile Works did little more than customize existing automobile
bodies. Though they weren’t “coach built” in the traditional sense, they were still
sought by the Hollywood elite who wanted a custom built body for their new
Cadillacs.
The only Cadillac dealership in the Los Angeles area was the Southern California
Cadillac, owned by the well-known Don Lee. Lee started selling Cadillacs in
California in 1906 and continued operating till 1949. Lee played a leadership role
in promoting highway construction throughout the state. By 1916 the roads in the
Los Angeles area were considered the most advanced in the nation.
By this time, Earl had developed a technique of using modeling clay to make display
models. This allowed stylists and modelers greater freedom of expression and wider
scope for innovative body work. Equally important, clay provided a more malleable
medium than the prevalent plaster and wood model-making process.
Impressed by Earls’ success, Lee purchased the Earl Automobile Works in 1919, and
changed its name to Don Lee Coach & Body Works. He insisted that young Harley
remain as general manager "doing the designing and run the body plant for him." The
Lee-Earl partnership prospered in the early 1920’s eventually turning out 300
bodies a year.
It wasn’t long before Earl began to build up a collateral clientele by designing
exotic customized bodies on commission from reigning Hollywood stars. By the age of
30, he was able to boast of wining and dining with the biggest celebrities of the
time. His first design was a $28,000 streamlined auto body for Roscoe "Fatty"
Arbuckle. One of his more famous designs was a custom body with a real leather
saddle on the hood and painted stars with the TM logotype al over the vehicle built
for cowboy star Tom Mix.
EARL AND THE 1927 LASALLE
Lawrence “Larry” P. Fisher joined the Fisher Body Company in 1912, a company
founded by his two older brothers, Fred J. and Charles T., and their uncle, Albert
Fisher four years earlier. By 1916, Fisher Body became a corporation when the three
companies, the Fisher Body Company, the Fisher Body Closed Body Company and the
Fisher Body Company of Canada, Ltd., merged into one.
In 1919, General Motors Corporation became a majority owner in the thriving Fisher
Body Corporation by purchasing three-fifths of its interest—the remaining
two-fifths weren’t acquired until 1926. Larry Fisher joined GM’s board and
executive committee in 1924, and became president of GM’s Cadillac Division the
following year, a position he held till mid 1934.
Fisher, as president of GM’s Cadillac Division, was attending the New York Auto
Show when he spotted some custom built Cadillacs. These cars were longer, lower and
the corners were rounded off, unlike Cadillac’s more boxy styling which he hated.
Impressed, he reported this to Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., Chairman of General Motors.
General Motors, at this time, was facing competition from Packard. The price
differential between the Buick and Cadillac was large enough to cause many Buick
owners to look elsewhere, namely Packard, when it came time to upgrade from their
Buicks. Not wanting to lose its valued GM customers to Packard, Sloan ordered a new
line of cars to fill the void and the LaSalle was born.
When Sloan heard Fisher’s report about the young Harley Earl and his custom built
Cadillacs, he sent Fisher to California to persuade Earl to come to Detroit. When
Fisher arrived at Earl’s Hollywood shop, he was surprised to see that modeling clay
was being used to develop complete automobiles as single entities rather than a
collection of unrelated components. Eager to leave California, Earl signed a
contract to work as a consultant on the LaSalle project.
Earl had an appreciation of European car design and particularly liked the
Hispano-Suiza. Using it for inspiration, he made clay models of various body types,
which were shown to and approved by Sloan and other top GM brass. The result was
the first production car designed by a stylist.
1927 LaSalle
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Introduced in March, 1927, the new LaSalle caused a sensation. The LaSalle had
gently rounded curves, deeply drawn fenders, and beautifully harmonized colors. The
silhouette was lower giving it the appearance of speed. Coupled with a 303 cubic
inch 75 hp V-8 engine, it became a performance car able to average 95.3 mph.
Overall, the LaSalle was an expression of elegance never before seen in an American
car. Nearly 50,000 LaSalles were sold by the end of 1929. But the upgrading of the
Buick line and the depression years caused sales to shrink and production was
discontinued after the 1940 model year.
Earl was invited to stay on to work on the 1928 Cadillac, then he returned to
California. But not for long. Sloan made him an offer he couldn't refuse: to head a
newly formed Art and Color Section to style all of GM's car lines.
EARL AND THE BUICK Y-JOB
In January 1926, Harley Earl was asked to submit a model for a new General Motors
companion car to the Cadillac—the LaSalle. The model was a success and shortly
afterwards, Earl was invited back to discuss a permanent position in the new
styling department which was to be called the Art and Colour Section.
Earl began to organize a centralized styling staff in May 1927, and by late
January, the Art and Colour Section had fifty men. Earl and his new styling
department were underway and would, eventually, dominate the history of automotive
design.
In 1937, Earl was designated Vice President of the newly formed Styling Division.
During the 1930’s, Earl continued to refine the LaSalle and Cadillac but one of his
most famous designs of the era was the Buick Y-Job. The letter "Y" went one step
beyond the prosaic X-for-experimental designation and paid homage to the prototype
fighter planes that were identified with the prefix "Y" by aircraft manufacturers.
Buick Y-Job
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Recognized as the first concept car, its styling and mechanical features showed up
on GM products, particularly Buick and Cadillac, through the 1940’s.
The Y-Job was a collaboration between General Motors Styling and Buick Engineering
Departments. Designed by Earl, the Y-Job was built on a production Buick chassis
modified by Charlie Chayne, then Buick's chief engineer.
With a 126-inch wheelbase and a body that extended more than 17 feet, the two-seat
convertible was an exuberant expanse of streamlined sheet metal. The Y-Job was
sporty yet elegant, with innovative features such as concealed headlamps,
electrically operated windows, flush door handles and a power-operated convertible
top that was fully concealed when retracted.
With its long, low profile, the Y-Job left the impression that this was a time
machine from the future. Instead of running boards and a formal, upright shape of
the classic coachbuilders, the Y-Job had fenders that flowed seamlessly into the
doors, integrated bumpers that complemented the bodywork and strong horizontal
styling elements.
Earl specified special 13-inch diameter rims, instead of the contemporary
16-wheels, be used, giving the Y-Job a lower stance. The small-diameter wheels were
backed with airplane-inspired finned brake drums that were more than a match for
the Y-Job's 320-cubic-inch/141-horsepower inline eight-cylinder engine.
Earl drove the Y–Job as his personal car during World War II years.
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