Harley Jarvis Earl (November 22, 1893 – April 10, 1969) was an American automotive designer and business executive. He was the initial designated head of design at General Motors, later becoming vice president, the first top executive of a major corporation after previously working as a designer. He was an industrial designer and a pioneer of transportation design. A coachbuilder by trade, Earl pioneered the use of freeform sketching and hand sculpted clay models as automotive design techniques. He subsequently introduced the "concept car" as both a tool for the design process and a clever marketing device.
Earl's Buick Y-Job was the first concept car. He started "Project Opel", which eventually became the Chevrolet Corvette, and he authorized the introduction of the tailfin to automotive styling. During World War II, he was an active contributor to the Allies' research and development program in advancing the effectiveness of camouflage.
Early life
Harley Jarvis Earl was born in Hollywood, California. His father, J.W. Earl, began work as a coachbuilder in 1889. The senior Earl eventually changed his practice from horse-drawn vehicles to custom bodies and customized parts and accessories for automobiles, founding Earl Automobile Works in 1908.
Earl began studies at Stanford University, but left prematurely to work with, and learn from, his father at Earl Automotive Works. By this time, the shop was building custom bodies for Hollywood movie stars, including Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Tom Mix.
Lawrence P. Fisher, general manager of the Cadillac division who was one of the brothers who started Fisher Body, was visiting Cadillac dealers and distributors around the country, including Lee. Fisher met Earl at Lee's dealership and observed him at work. Fisher, whose automotive career began with coachbuilder Fisher Body, was impressed with Earl's designs and methods, including the use of modeling clay to develop the forms of his designs.
Fisher commissioned Earl to design the 1927 LaSalle for Cadillac's companion marque. The success of the LaSalle convinced General Motors president Alfred P. Sloan to create the “Art and Colour Section” of General Motors, and to name Earl as its first director.
In 1937, the "Art and Colour Section" was renamed the Styling Section. Sloan eventually promoted Earl to vice president, making him, to the best of Sloan's knowledge, the first styling person to be a VP at a large corporation. After the early 1930s, Earl seldom drew sketches or did design work himself, usually functioning as an overlord who supervised GM stylists, although he would retain ultimate authority over the styling department until his retirement in 1958. These ideas are largely taken for granted today, but were unusual at the time.
Buick Y-Job
thumb|Harley Earl and the [[Buick Y-Job ]]
thumb|1951 General Motors Le Sabre
In 1939, the Styling Division, under Earl's instruction, styled and built the Buick Y-Job, the motor industry's first concept car. While many one-off custom automobiles had been made before, the Y-job was the first car built by a mass manufacturer for the sole purpose of determining the public's reaction to new design ideas. After being shown to the public, the Y-job became Earl's daily driver. It was succeeded by the 1951 General Motors Le Sabre concept car.
Camouflage research
In 1942, during World War II, Earl established a camouflage research and training division at General Motors, one consequence of which was a 22-page document called Camouflage Manual for General Motors Camouflage. A decade before, two former World War I camouflage artists, Harold Ledyard Towle (a U.S. Army camoufleur) and McClelland Barclay (who created the Fisher Body ads, and contributed to U.S. Navy camouflage during both World Wars) had worked as designers at General Motors. Among Earl's apprentices was English designer David Jones, who worked at its British division at Vauxhall Motors and served in the camouflage section of the Royal Engineers during World War II.
Tailfins
thumb|1959 Cadillac tailfin
Harley Earl authorized the Frank Hershey design for the 1948 Cadillac, which incorporated the first automotive tailfin. Many of the new 1948-49 cars such as Hudson, Nash, and Lincoln adopted fastback or ponton "bathtub" styling. Although Earl considered this for Cadillac, he ultimately decided against it and went for a more sweeping aircraft-inspired look. This decision would prove a wise one as bathtub styling, a concept rooted in late 1930s-early 1940s design trends, quickly became dated. The styling of the 1948 Cadillac would prove far more predictive of 1950s trends and secured GM's place at the cutting edge of automotive design.
Inspiration for the fins came from the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, but it extended beyond the war, during the age when space rockets captured the popular imagination in the 1950s and 1960s. The style caught on throughout Detroit and eventually led to competition between Harley Earl and his counterpart at Chrysler, Virgil Exner, over the size and complexity of tailfins, culminating with those on the 1959 Cadillac models.
Chevrolet Corvette
thumb|right|Chevrolet Corvette
Influenced by the English and European sports cars being raced on road racing circuits after World War II, Earl decided that General Motors needed to make a sports car. Design work on "Project Opel" began as a secret project. He first offered the project to Chevrolet general manager Ed Cole. Cole accepted the project without hesitation, and the car was offered to the public in 1953 as the Chevrolet Corvette.
Succession
Earl retired in 1958 upon reaching the then-mandatory retirement age of 65. His final project was overseeing the design of 1960–62 models. He was succeeded as vice-president with responsibility for the Design and Styling Department by Bill Mitchell, under whose leadership GM design became less ornamental.
Before Earl retired, General Motors became the largest corporation in the world, and design was acknowledged as the leading sales factor within the automotive industry.
Death and legacy
Harley Earl suffered a stroke and died in West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 10, 1969. He was 75 years old.
See also
- NASCAR National Commissioner
- 1950s American automobile culture
References
Bibliography
- Gartman, David (1994), “Harley Earl and the Art and colour Section: The Birth of Styling at General Motors,” Design Issues vol. 10, no. 2, pages 3–26
- Temple, David (2016), The Cars of Harley Earl, Forest Lake, MN, USA: CarTech Inc., .