Bill Mitchell
American automobile designerWikipedia
23
MENTIONS
6
EPISODES
3
PODCASTS
Search complete. 23 mentions across 6 episodes found for "Bill Mitchell".
Oct 28, 2026
Dan GelernterHOST
the shelby cobra a real classic of course it was an ac ace underneath but it got a lot of tweaks to its appearance when shelby dropped his big engine into it so 63.
Dan GelernterHOST
The Buick Riviera, Bill Mitchell's magnum opus as he's taken over design at GM from Harley Earl.
Dan GelernterHOST
One of the most beautiful cars in history.
Josh GelernterHOST
64.
Alfonso AlbaisaGUEST
The silver one, super cool.
Alfonso AlbaisaGUEST
Tremendous, I mean, of course he then became a chief designer and he followed the production one, which is a cool car anyway, but that show car is the kind of Bill Mitchell era perfection, where it was light and it was somehow jet inspired, but this kind of frivolity of why are you putting that kind of tail on a car that size? Even the show car wasn't small.
Alfonso AlbaisaGUEST
That was always in him.
Alfonso AlbaisaGUEST
And my early career was spectacular, harsh, but spectacular because Jerry was always looking for a hook.
11 MINS LATER
Alfonso AlbaisaGUEST
before.
GeorgeHOST
The ball dropped after I was editing the last, well, my editor edited it, but I have to review it.
GeorgeHOST
And as I was going through it, I'm like, why did we never discuss this? Because I feel like this DNA, because you think about the designs that came out in the 50s from General Motors and then was handed down to Bill Mitchell, which went to Jerry Hirshberg, then went to Shiro and took it to Isuzu, made that crazy spaceship thing at Isuzu.
GeorgeHOST
I feel like it's almost like Miles Davis handed it down to, what's the guy? We could argue there's a direct line from Miles Davis to, oh, Quincy Jones.
Dan GelernterHOST
1959 is the first non-Harley Earl year.
Dan GelernterHOST
at General Motors, Bill Mitchell takes over.
Dan GelernterHOST
Bill Mitchell is an extremely talented designer who in a few years will give us one of the greatest cars in the history of America.
Dan GelernterHOST
Bill Mitchell would not have become the head of styling at General Motors if Frank Kirschi had agreed to come back when Harley Earl fired him and then tried to rehire him.
Dan GelernterHOST
Harley Earl said in later years that Frank Kirschi was actually his choice to take over as head of styling.
Dan GelernterHOST
Bill Mitchell, however, who was sort of the second choice, I guess, proves extremely capable But the 59 model series is still a little bit peculiar.
Dan GelernterHOST
It is remembered for the height of tail fins on the 59 Cadillac, the biggest fins that any American car will ever have with sort of jet-like exhaust tail lights.
Dan GelernterHOST
It was
Phil GerberHOST
Yeah.
Phil GerberHOST
I would, uh, that would be such a fun exercise to, you know, you hear all of the historic stories about, you know, uh, old school designers, you know, Bill Mitchell and crazy stories of the things that they would do and run those towns.
Phil GerberHOST
I would like to hear it from, you know, the European side and stuff.
Phil GerberHOST
And back those days of, because it has to be similar, but completely different stories of, uh, Bill Mitchell's stories are...
Kyle EvansGUEST
Oh, Bill Mitchell's stories are...
Kyle EvansGUEST
They're madmen.
Kyle EvansGUEST
He was a madman.
Craig MetrosGUEST
it.
Dan GelernterHOST
And on the inside, it's not just that it was an uninspired design, but everything feels extremely cheesy and low-rent.
Dan GelernterHOST
And if, if Harlow Curtis, and Harley Earl, and Bill Mitchell could see what had happened to the Buick, they, they would weep.
Dan GelernterHOST
Just, it's amazing to me that it still exists at all in, in this form.
Dan GelernterHOST
There's no reason to buy one, and that's really unfortunate.
Dan GelernterHOST
Well, first, the, the idea of the tail fin, which would come along later, and then later, even afterwards when he was fired, he would go work for Ford and invent the Thunderbird.
Dan GelernterHOST
Uh, there was also Bill Mitchell, who would later take over the, uh, design studio after Harley Earl retired.
Dan GelernterHOST
And basically all the designers who e- even once other car companies ended up with design styling studios, which didn't happen until after the war, um, all of the designers who would head up the other car companies were trained under Harley Earl.
Dan GelernterHOST
So Chrysler in the '50s under Virgil Exner, he was a former, uh, Harley Earl protege, and, and so on and so forth.