| Title | : | Fins: Harley Earl, the Rise of General Motors, and the Glory Days of Detroit |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0062289071 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780062289070 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 |
| Publication | : | First published September 18, 2018 |
Fins: Harley Earl, the Rise of General Motors, and the Glory Days of Detroit Reviews
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An interesting, if not quite wide-ranging enough, look at the rise of GM to preeminence in the car business. As the title said, told mostly through the vantage point of GM's premier stylist, it traces the development and impact of automobile stying from the 20s through the 50s. Along the way, WK does a fantastic job discussing the Detroit's impact on WWII, and so many of the memorable cars of the 50s. He also shows us some of the unpleasant side of Henry Ford. Uffda.
There was certainly more that contributed to the dominance of GM than design, and although the book fails here it succeeds for the most part in the story it wants to tell. If you like cars, I think you will find it interesting too. -
Need background knowledge of automotive industry during this time period to understand this book. The book was about styling. Not a lot on how the automobile evolved from a technical standpoint during this era. The launch on the Corvette was interesting!
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Although I was afraid this would be something of a throwaway puff piece, Knoedelseder gives one an effective life and times of Harley Earl, the man who, for better or worse, made styling as important as engineering to mass-market American automobiles. As for the subtitles, for there to be a rise of General Motors, there had to be a fall of the Ford Motor Company, and business strategy is a strong secondary element of the story being told. As for the glory of Detroit, that barely lasted a generation, and justifies some of the sociological angles that the author explores in this book. If nothing else, I find a lot of car books undercut by their authors' uncritical enthusiasm for their subject, whereas Knoedelseder comes both to praise and critique in equal measure, as required. I really have no salient complaints about this work. For those who want more nuts and bolts, well, other books exist for that.
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Loved this bio of car designer Harley Earl and car design in general. It had just the right level of details and history for my interest, while also allowing for various wikipedia side quests. He helped pioneer the idea of rolling out big changes on Cadillacs that would then trickle down the price ladder to other vehicles over five years.
“I’ve got no use for a car that has more spark plugs than a cow has teats.” - Henry Ford on the idea of a six cylinder engine. The more I learn about Henry Ford the less likable he is. -
You don’t have to be a car nut to appreciate the intrigue, artistry, and history behind Harley Earl, the man of whom Alfred Sloan said, “With the possible exception of Henry Ford, no other person has single-handedly contributed more to the evolution of the modern automobile industry.”
About the author: Bill Knoedelseder is a veteran journalist who honed his investigative and narrative skills at the Los Angeles Times, where his groundbreaking reporting on the entertainment industry produced a string of juicy exposes and two critically acclaimed books, I’m Dying Up Here and Stiffed: A True Story Of MCA, The Music Business, And The Mafia.
from his website.
The book in a sentence (or two): Fins is the story of the birth of a cultural icon (automotive tail fins) and Harley Earl, the man whose vision and expertise brought styling to the forefront of the automotive industry.
Why did Knoedelseder write Fins?
Knoedelseder notes that if anyone knows Harley Earl today, it is probably as the “father of tail fins.” But a host of car collectors and historians think differently, they will tell you “that the American car industry’s rise to greatness began and ended with [Harley Earl]” (8). It could be said that his “touch” was felt on the nearly 50 millions cars that came out of Detroit during his twenty-nine years with GM. He “practically invented” automotive styling and, with Alfred Sloan, shifted the automotive production focus from engineering to styling. Harley Earl is a life and story worth knowing for we are still feeling his impact today.
Give me the quick take on Harley Earl:
1. He grew up in Hollywood (late 19th/early 20th centuries) when it was a “dirt-street village.” He worked in his father’s carriage company, the focus of which moved from buggy's to automobile bodies.
2. The movies and the automobile were both born in 1895. The movies came to Hollywood for the and easy filming. That move reshaped the city.
3. Harley saw the importance of individual styling when it came to the carriages and then the automotive carriage. He started Earl Auto Works.
4. Hollywood and Automobiles were on the rise. “The automobile is essential to comfort and happiness,” said Harper’s Weekly. There were a few thousand cars at the beginning of the decade; 500,000 million by the end of the decade.
5. Harley Earl became well known for his visionary styling and expertise especially among the Hollywood jetset. Cecil B. DeMille lived just down the street and the two became friends.
6. GM hired Earl (1926) to come to Detroit rather than send cars to be built by him in California. Earl’s first car for GM was the LaSalle which was a hit with GM CEO, Alfred P. Sloan. The two became fast friends which, coupled with Earl's expertise, gave Harley carte blanche styling control over all GM.
7. Earl enjoyed a 27-year reign as styling chief at General Motors. He influenced virtually every model at GM and styling in general across the automotive industry -- this even though he did not draw (109,110, 148). “Earl’s real talent lay in his critical eye . . . which was always focused firmly on the bottom line. He was an uncanny commercial critic with an extraordinary ability to anticipate the sales success of a design.” 148
8. He was arrogant (134, 205) and a publicity hog (112). Rule #1: ‘No one was to get publicity in his department but Harley J. Earl.”
9. He was a workaholic. (see below)
10. He left an amazing legacy of designers: Every studio was filled with—if not directed by—men he had trained, Eugene Bordinat (Ford); Virgil Exner (Chrysler); Elwood Anderson (American Motors); Richard Teague (Packard).
The author's central purpose: To give us a picture of the rise of Harley Earl and the impact of styling on the automotive industry.
My take on Fins:
Bill Knoedelseder provides an overview of Automotive American history in general, GM styling in particular, and Harley Earl as the genius behind the movement that changed the automobile industry. Perhaps few saw the rise of the automobile as did filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille:“It didn’t escape him that the motion picture and the motorcar were born in the same year, 1895, and the subsequent rise of both industries reflected, as he put it, ‘the love of motion and speed, the restless urge toward improvement and expansion, the kinetic energy of a young, vigorous nation.’ 36
The author helps us catch a sense of that expansion on the automotive front, primarily through the lens of Harley Earl, the styling champion of Detroit.
But Knoedelseder does more than give us “just the facts.” He introduces Harley Earl in a way that provides a glimpse of America, our excesses (tail fins and chrome and Tom Mix, 56-57), our sacrifices (USA and WWII), our triumphs (Detroit and GM’s manufacturing dominance) and our failures (Blacks were “blacklisted” from buying Cadillacs, 119; and many necessary to our success in WWII were dismissed after the war without recourse despite the efforts of Dreystadt and others, 164-167). Knoedelseder shows us that great innovations take time and never occur in a vacuum. And in unveiling a portrait of Harley Earl that is both favorable and critical we get a better picture of our subject, but also of our times and ourselves.
My Takeaways:
1. Leaders must pay attention to their organizational structure and their cultural milieu: GM CEO Alfred Sloan saw and corrected, i.e. changed GM’s divisions competing for the same customer by focusing each of his five divisions on a different customer. He also shifted the manufacturing impetus from engineering to style. "Style should drive the industry!" Henry Ford, for his part, “remained defiantly committed to his original business model of building a simple, durable, and economical car with no extras, no trimmings, no color even, only black, because black paint was the cheapest and dried the fastest. . . . [H]is stubborn resistance to change was beginning to put his company at a disadvantage. 47,48 Harley Earlworked in his father’s coach company, but shifted the focus from “guaranteeing satisfaction” to “express your tastes and ideas so that your coach may be an expression of your individuality.”
2. Recognize what you need from your administrative assistant: When Harley Earl went to GM in 1927, he had no secretary, no staff, and no studio. His did not understand the company’s organizational structure or people. William Fisher of the Fisher Body division said, “I have a man (Howard O’Leary) working for me that goes between plants. He’s been doing it for a couple of years, and he’s a very smart young fellow and knows everybody at the divisions and in our plants and subsidiaries. He knows where to find everybody.” Earl hired O’ O’Leary. He would serve as Harley Earl’s administrative assistant for twenty-seven years.
3. The importance of sticking with it. Today, no one would think of “killing the Corvette.” It is America’s super car, but were it not for a couple of individuals, Harley Earl being one of them, the Vette would have suffered the same fate as the Thunderbird. When cost-cutting Robert McNamara took control of the books at Ford, he trimmed the bird’s wings. Earl was not going to let that happen. Even though GM lost money on the Corvette for a few years, it survived because one person utilized his influence to save it.
4. Beware of “hubris born of success.” Jim Collins gave us that great line How The Mighty Fall. In later years, Harley Earl (and the GM design team) – like Henry Ford before them – thought he/they could do no wrong. “The company’s postwar dominance had led to an atmosphere of arrogant complacency, a feeling among the designers that they were ‘so far ahead of Ford and Chrysler that we weren’t even breathing close to them. [We] could almost trot and stay ahead’” (250). At just that time (1959) Chrysler had crept up on them and passed them. When GM engineers saw the new Chrysler models, one quipped, “My god, they blew us out of the tub.” 249
5. Tell the Emperor he/she has no clothes: Pride and egotism was a fault line running through the life of Harley Earl. “Harley had one rule that was never stated but that everyone came to learn nonetheless: ‘No one was to get publicity in his department but Harley J. Earl’” (112 131). Earl signed off on one press release that described him as a man of “towering genius” (205). Not only was he prideful, he did not tolerate pushbacks. Consequently, when a design idea went sideways, silence – not criticism – prevailed.None of the young Turks expressed those [critical/negative] feelings to Harley, however, not even Bill Mitchell. . . . They said nothing at the time because they all knew what happened to people who broke Rule Number One.
6. Workaholic leaders impact everyone around them, not just themselves. About his workers: Designer Thomas L. Hibbard said, “It’s tough to be creative around the clock” (107), but 25/7 was what Harley lived and expected. There were no personal/professional boundaries. Weekends, holidays, and religion all disappeared din the crunch. Bernie Smith remembered working three months straight without a day off. About his wife: In exchange for his putting in however many hours it took to provide them with an enviable standing of living, she did practically everything for him except pick out his wardrobe: household problems, nightly dinners, manage social arrangements, navigate corporate relations. 263-4
Conclusion:
Today’s cars are engineering marvels though many appear to have been taken from the cookie cutter design studio. Where there is design, however (and there is still much design to appreciate), we can look with gratitude to the life and influence of Harley Earl. -
This quick read not only examines the personality and proclivities of Harley Earl, but also traces the rivalry between Ford and GM, and automotive corporate history from the twenties through the fifties. Knoedelseder has a knack for depicting the players, the products and the principles without getting bogged down in the minutiae. Enjoyable, enlightening, and fascinating for car crazies, this is also highly readable business study and biography. "Fins" is fun from debut to fin.
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I expected this book to discuss the use of tail fins in car designs of the 1950's. Instead, the book is a biography of one designer - including his family roots, his early days in Hollywood and his personal life. I expected some discussion of the cars on which tail fins were placed and why. I expected discussion of why they were discontinued so abruptly in the early 1960's. The influence of the recession of the late 1950's, the disastrous steel strike of 1959, cheap imports, etc. all played a role in Detroit's retreat from the use of such tall tail fins. But the book barely mentioned any of these factors and especially never mentioned the 1959 steel strike. The book, without evidence, attributed GM's discontinuance of fins to a personality conflict between a designer and an executive of GM.
The book did not begin discussing tail fins until 2/3 of the way through. Even then, the discussion was skeletal. Each of GM's 5 divisions employed fins, but somewhat differently. The book provided no explanation for these differences. The book barely even recognized these differences. The book never mentioned the sideways fins of the Chevy and Buick or the unique fins of the Pontiac. The book briefly mentioned that Cadillac had the highest fins and kept its fins the longest. The book falsely noted that all other branches dropped their fins in the early 1960's, which ignores the use of smaller fins on Buicks and Oldsmobiles well into the 1980's and even a shadow of the former fins on early 1960's Chevy models.
The book does note that GM was prodded into raising their fins by Chrysler's use of fins on their 1957 models. But even that discussion ignored the underlying economic issues. The book has few photos, except for a few cars that Harley Earl designed. The book forces the reader either to imagine or use other sources to picture many of Earl's most famous styling decisions.
The book includes controversial negative opinions about the 1956 through 1958 GM models without recognizing that these models have since become "classics," and which have extremely loyal fans. The book somehow manages to take a controversial position without even recognizing that such a position would be disputed or come as a surprise to today's fans of those cars. A reader with no prior knowledge would be left with the impression that the 1957 Chevy (and others) was simply a bad design that deservedly faded away.
Based on the title, many readers would undoubtedly be attracted to this book because they are fans or collectors of the 1957 Chevy or 1959 Cadillac (or other late 50's GM car). Instead of learning how their favorite car came to be, such cars are summarily dismissed (mostly without so much as a photograph). The reader must slog through yet another story of a man whose father remarried, thus causing friction among his children.
The author misses completely the GM strategy of using the same interchangeable body for all 5 divisions, with different fronts, rears and quarter panels to distinguish their appearance. A reader must consult other sources (including a book on the failed Edsel) to understand or even discover this basic concept.
About halfway through the book, the author becomes political by comparing Trump to Hitler (he doesn't actually use Trump's name). He attributes a Trump slogan to Hitler even though Hitler did not use that slogan. The author also includes a bizarre narrative about the UAW discriminating against black prostitutes because the UAW was allegedly "Christian."
The author accepts at face value the claims of Ralph Nader in the 1960's, despite recognizing the findings of the relevant government agency that cleared the Corvair of design flaws. The author repeated dubious anecdotal items in which bicyclists were impaled by the tail fins of parked cars, without actual citations or research into these stories.
The author bounces from one subject to another with little connection to any central theme. Whatever the theme might be, it is not tail fins on cars. Some of the book relates to details of Harley Earl's life, many of which have nothing to do with cars. Other portions, like the Ralph Nader part, have nothing to do with Earl. Other portions are factually inaccurate, like the specifications on certain foreign weapons used during World War II.
The author missed an opportunity to explore a major design era in American cars. The title is misleading. The reader gets a cross between an extremely political book and a mundane biography. If you have any knowledge of cars of the 20th Century, this book will be a disappointment. If you have no knowledge of that subject, you will know even less by the time you are finished reading. -
It was interesting that Sloan only empowered Harley to advise Fisher body on matters of design, but didn't tell Harley how to proceed nor tell division managers that they had to consult with the new department. Harley wasn't sure he was up to the task, "I didn't know how to build anything except what pleased me, and I didn't know if what I liked would appeal to the public" (74).
In 1927, Ford made a few design changes and offered 4 colors, but it was too little, too late. People were buying more used than new cars, and even the price differential for new cars could be financed through GMAC. On May 25, Ford announced they would cease making the Model T and introduce a Model A, but they had *nothing* in the pipeline, so in "history's worst case of product planning," he shut down all thirty-six assempbly plants"
And then he ceased production *again* in August 1931 for 6 months while his engineers came up with a Model B. This shot the unemployment rate to 30% in Detroit. (93)
Story of Nicholas Dreystadt hiring black prostitutes as last untapped workforce to make bombsights in the factory. After the war he pleaded with the UAW to keep them on to no avail (164).
The hubris and what these guys got away with was incredible -- when the LeSabre was introduced, the day before a race, "Harley took it out for a drive and as he slowed at a crossing the engine flooded and died. He tried repeatedly to restart it, getting madder each time the engine failed to respond. When it finally did, he floored the accelerator and, without lifting his foot, 'dropped the transmission into drive,' whereupon 'the sudden burst of torqued twisted the driveshaft like an aluminum beer can.' MacLay and Carpenter worked all night in Fraboni's shop to repair the damage in time for the race" (201).
A month after the Thunderbird was introduced, Ford execs were talking about killing the car b/c families would never buy a two-seater; H2 couldn't get his golf clubs in the trunk, etc. Hershey said "The company was in such a mess at the time, it was amazing they could build a car at all" (218). -
Fins: Harley Earl ,The Rise of General Motors and the Glory Days of Detroit. Another sociological work on the Automobile with MistEarl as a backdrop despite it being a slightly better history on the Man than the only other work thus far on him which is by Stephen Bayley which was awful and of which I also own. This book gives a good family history(Unlike Bayley's) on the Tafts and Earls; his life in SoCal with his Dad and custom auto bodies for Movie stars. Some pictures, the sources he depend on are more sociological in nature or opinion bent not Truly Historic aside from interviewing the family. Early on you can tell the ideological bent of the author describing "Christian Midwesterners" and their anti-booze views in describing Early Hollywood.then takes shots At Hoover even though FDR could have ended the onslaught of the depression easy by working with him, then he equates early factory work and slavery. other asides such as how Macho Detroit was and other ramblings such as Understudy Bill Mitchell's alleged mysogyny. He has a chapter titled Make Germany Great again(equating Trumpism with WWII Germany how original) and in that chapter erroneously states GM profited from the German state Machine when in reality It's division Opel was the benefactor and had nothing to do with GM Directly. It's a big Myth just Like The Pope Not doing enough. He stops short of feigning praise for Ralph Nader yet he still quotes his now debunked book and now debunked "facts" on the Corvair. Despite the author's biased lens on America and what it was or is and concerning the Automobile it is certainly worth a read, I own it because Im a big fan Of Mr.Earl I just wish the book stayed on point about him and his successes and not another book on the social history and similar buzzwords on the automobile which there are already plenty out there of. The Man Deserves Better, For Reference I also recommend The Art and Colour Of General Motors book by coachbuilt press Which I have and GM Design book by MRC of which I have and the book Maestro Bill Mitchell by Lonberger.
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Another great 'pioneering' American story. Evidently, while well after laying of the railroads, the Rockefellers et al, this covers an incredible period and the story of Harley Earl. He started his life in LA and was there as the first motion pictures were being filmed in what became Hollywood as he was a young man. Son of a coach builder to the LA elite, he applied his own design ability to the family business and then would be enticed to Detroit where the next part of the extraordinary story takes place. He quickly became the head of design for General Motors and was there before and right throughout the eras that made the company. In the middle, it is wrapped around race relations (in a largely positive albeit controversial sense), the American auto manufacturers and their involvement in the second world war (including an amazing story about Hitler and Henry Ford). Earl was a hard task master, but effective and was a visionary that took the automobile to the masses and many of his innovations were forerunners to what we see today (as were many of Fords also).
As a personal opinion, I love American pioneering stories and how entrepreneurial the American Spirit was and what those at the forefront of their industries achieved. American school boards today could do worse than going back and focusing on adding these stories to the curriculum, to inspire the next generation to take a leaf out of the books of people like Earl, Rockefeller or Carnegie et al. -
Big hair, big ideas, big fins!
I’m a child of the 1950s and cars were the deal - new models every year, bigger was considered better most of the time and everybody’s Dad was a devotee - a Ford man, a Chevy man.
Little did I know until reading this book that Harley Earl was the guiding force behind most of it.
I trace my childhood by what cars we had - Dad was cheap and usually bought “striped” Fords while Grandpa was a Chevy man. 1953 Ford with manual overdrive and “three on the tree” was our family car but Grandpa had a new 1955 Chevy Belair followed by a ‘57 and then a 1963 candy apple red Impala, a Chevy man to the end.
This book was informative, easy to read and most of all brought to mind my uncomplicated youth in Harley Earl’s home ground of Southern California.
It is a great read if you loved the 50s, cars or both. -
Among the Very Best Histories of American Industry
I picked this particular book to read because I was educated at Art Center College of Design in the early 60's and made my career in industrial design. The name Harley Earl represents the glamour and excitement that made design and styling known to almost everybody. American products of all kinds became fun to see and desirable. Buying cars, typewriters, and mixers built a comfortable and opimistic middle class that lasted for almost 4 decades, the period when I grew up.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in product design, in particular, to design students. Earl's story clearly illustrates a golden age that has passed and will likely never happen again. -
Fins reminds me of going to car dealers to see the new models as they came out each year in the 50s and 60s, as the book tells the story of Harley Earl and his role in automobile designing. At General Motors, he took it from an afterthought to a prominent role in the auto industry and was responsible for iconic designs from the Cadillac LaSalle to the Corvette and the Cadillac fins. After a slow start telling the history of Earl's family, the tale picks up once he gets involved with cars, and does well integrating his life and personality with his work and accomplishments. I found myself wishing the book included more pictures of the cars discussed, but Google Images filled that role well! Any fan of cars from the 1930s to 1960 should enjoy this one.
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I did not know about Harley Earl until I read this book. This book covers the auto industry with a focus on the Earl family and General Motors (GM) from the early days of cars and Hollywood up to the Chevy Corvair. Extra attention is given to the Cadillac fins of the 50s and the Chevy Corvette which Earl was responsible despite criticism from others. I saw one review stating you need to know more about the auto industry, but I disagree - if you enjoyed the movie Ford versus Ferrari that is really the only knowledge you need to enjoy the book. Okay, maybe an appreciation for older cars is also required.
How did this book find me? I saw it was on sale on Audible and I was quickly intrigued. I did not buy it but borrowed from my library through Hoopla. -
Thoroughly Enjoyed This [GM] Automotive History
I have had an affection for biographies and autobiographies for decades. Reading inspirational stories of visionaries from industries that I work in, or have previously worked in, is even better.
Fins (audiobook) was both educational and inspirational, connecting together experiences from lumberjacks in Michigan to a new dirt road town called Hollywood, to the shuttering of the US auto industry in order to manufacture a much needed WW II bomber every hour, to the creation of automotive practices that are still employed today in 2019. Great book. -
I really would like to give 5 stars to this very good book. The story is great and the author has good writing and make you go through the time with great fluidity. However, two things bored me (1) it’s a book about auto and design without a single photo. I had to keep Google open most of the time to picture the models and styles mentioned in the book. (2) and this was the most annoying part: the author has a political agenda that he pushes almost the entire book, insisting in judge the 30s, 40s behavior through the lens of 2020.
Anyhow, it is a very good book, that tells a great and important story of our age. -
"Fins" is ostensibly the story of the car styling designer who gave us the tail fin, chrome everywhere and more innovations. But the designer, Harley Earl, doesn't appear until halfway through the book.
It's really about the development of the automobile and the automotive industry. It's another book where the bulk of the action happens in mid-century America, which provides its own insight.
Earl was an innovator and creative force, but he sounds difficult and tough to work with. His single-mindedness led to some amazing work, but also caused him to lose sight of the big picture.
I felt I learned more about the auto industry than about Harley Earl. -
3.5 stars
Well done, but while I'm curious about American cars I'm not fascinated. I'd have liked more photos so that I understood some of the stylistic statements and changes a little better. Even so, this is a lively account of the families, individuals and companies that affected so much of what was happening in the first part of the 20th Century. The author doesn't waste his reader's time and attention. -
Treasure trove of details on a forgotten chapter of automotive history
The book is a masterful blend of automotive and social history. GM for a long time was the engine for profound change in America. From the defining 1940-1945 period through the turbulent 1960s, GM Styling guided the aesthetics of American modernism. -
The subtitle is accurate in that you get as much about the rise of GM and the glory days of Detroit as you do about Harley Earl. A superficial account of Earl's life is combined with several tangentially related tales (the eccentricity of Henry Ford, the conversion to wartime production, the failure of the Edsel) that are all better told elsewhere.
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That’s where fins came from!
If you like to read about how automobiles were designed in the Golden Era of the Fifties, this book is for you. Seemed that everything Harley Earl touched turned to gold. He had an innate talent for car design and at one point was responsible for the entire General Motors portfolio. But as they said in the movie Patton: “All glory is fleeting.” -
Was worried it would be some kind of sociopolitical study of Detroit but it spends more time on wartime manufacturing than this, pretty cool I like it. Our man Harley had a vision of a current-future many would crib from, it’s a bit tacky but it’s undeniable. I have discovered the phrase “road apple”
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A good if incomplete introduction to General Motors in the early-to-mid 20th century. Henry Ford deservedly gets dumped on, and while this book is imperfect it succeeds in making me want to read more about the automotive industry.
