FINS! The Rise and Fall of the Tailfin in American Automotive Design
New Museum Exhibition to Open May 10th, 2008
Times were good in America during the 1950s. Returning WWII vets had jobs families, money to spend, and dreams of a prosperous, positive future. It was time of big hair, full employment, rock and roll, drive-in movies, and hamburger stands serviced by roller-skating poodle-skirted âcar hops.â
American industry was in full swing, converting from wartime to peacetime production. It was poised and ready to supply whatever American wanted to buy â and Americans wanted new cars.
Detroit met this growing market with some of the largest, boldest and most audacious vehicles ever to roll down Americaâs roads. The drab colors and dated designs of the war years gave way to brightly colored, chrome-covered highway cruisers many of which sported the styling feature of the decade â tailfins.
The Antique Auto Museum at Hershey will pay tribute this extraordinary chapter in Americaâs automotive history with a major exhibit dedicated to the tailfin. FINS! Opens on May 10th at Museum. It provides Museum visitors a chance to explore the development of the tailfin from 1948 to 1961 by featuring 22 classic examples on loan from individual collectors and the General Motors Heritage Center.
Harley Earl, the legendary chief of design at General Motors, is credited with introducing the tailfin as a design feature on the 1948 Cadillac. Taking his cues from the tail of the famous P-38 Lightning WWII fighter plane, Earl re-contoured the Cadillac for a futuristic look, adding a small fin to the rear fenders. The tailfin grew in size and height to become a signature feature of Cadillac styling through the early sixties.
Other American manufacturers followed suit as they introduced their new post-war models, adding fins, rocket elements, and streamlining to their offerings. Many incorporated subtle fin-like protrusions or âsight linesâ on their rear fenders. By the middle of the decade, fins ruled, becoming a dramatic selling point for buyers seeking the âcar of the future.â Fins appeared on coupes, convertibles, sedans, station wagons and even pickup trucks.
FINS! tells this story with shining steel-and-chrome examples of the best of the era, from dramatic Cadillacs whose towering fins and sweeping lines defined the trend, to Chrysler designer Virgil Exnerâs dramatic Chryslers, Desotos, and Plymouths. A âfin warâ actually raged during the mid-fifties, as designers competed to make them taller and more dramatic. Cadillac emerged as the eventual winner â the 1959 Cadillac is a true testament to automotive excess with the tallest fins ever placed on an America production car.
The fin retreated after 1959 and was all but extinct by 1962. American manufacturers began to introduce more integrated designs and economic and environmental pressures began to pressure car makers for more compact more efficient cars.
FINS! vehicles represent all the major and independent manufacturers active during the 1950s, from the very small, such as the 1959 Allstate, to the largest finned car ever produced, the 1959 Cadillac. Itâs a glimpse of a time when bigger was better and there was no car design that couldnât be improved may adding a three-tone paint job, a little more chrome, and, of course, a set of taller tailfins. The exhibition runs through Sunday, October 12th.
More info here.
FINS! tells this story with shining steel-and-chrome examples of the best of the era, from dramatic Cadillacs whose towering fins and sweeping lines defined the trend, to Chrysler designer Virgil Exnerâs dramatic Chryslers, Desotos, and Plymouths. A âfin warâ actually raged during the mid-fifties, as designers competed to make them taller and more dramatic. Cadillac emerged as the eventual winner â the 1959 Cadillac is a true testament to automotive excess with the tallest fins ever placed on an America production car.
The fin retreated after 1959 and was all but extinct by 1962. American manufacturers began to introduce more integrated designs and economic and environmental pressures began to pressure car makers for more compact more efficient cars.
FINS! vehicles represent all the major and independent manufacturers active during the 1950s, from the very small, such as the 1959 Allstate, to the largest finned car ever produced, the 1959 Cadillac. Itâs a glimpse of a time when bigger was better and there was no car design that couldnât be improved may adding a three-tone paint job, a little more chrome, and, of course, a set of taller tailfins. The exhibition runs through Sunday, October 12th.
More info here.
rick8365 says:
07:33 AM, 02/23/08
Cool piece - might actually get to that museum this year. Hard to believe that these cars with giant fins were the norm. Even today, if I see a car from this era, I admire it and don't even think twice about the fins. I wonder how people from other parts of the world viewed (or view) these types of cars.
What make/model is the car pictured above? Desoto? Crysler Imperial? Check out the dual antennas.
rsholland says:
08:33 AM, 02/23/08
It's a 1958 Packard Hawk, which was merely a badge-engineered Studebaker Hawk.
If you do a Google Search for "Packard Hawk," then select "images," you will see the exact image that this poster image came from. It's also credited to the AACA Museum.
rick8365 says:
05:04 PM, 02/25/08
Ah.... a Packard Hawk, eh? Don't think I would have ever guessed that. I was trying to get a better look at the badge on the trunk - looked kinda familiar. Now that I know it's a Packard, I guess I see it in the badge.
Thanks for the clarification, Bob.
ateixeira says:
03:01 PM, 02/26/08
I should drag the family out there.