Harley Earl
American automotive designerWikipedia
89
MENTIONS
9
EPISODES
6
PODCASTS
Search complete. 89 mentions across 9 episodes found for "Harley Earl".
Oct 21, 2026
Dan GelernterHOST
And this is thanks to the man you incorrectly named as the father of the Corvette on a previous Pub Trivia episode, Zora Arkastantov.
Dan GelernterHOST
who was an engineer and was important to the Corvette, but he didn't come up with the idea that would be Harley Earl.
Dan GelernterHOST
Nonetheless, he is responsible for giving it the engine that it should have.
Dan GelernterHOST
And the Corvette in 56 is also redesigned with its famous scalloped sides, which get a two-tone treatment often.
Dan GelernterHOST
57 is an intriguing year because this is the first year in which General Motors engineers begin to think that they are not keeping up with the competition.
Dan GelernterHOST
And indeed, in this year, they are not.
Dan GelernterHOST
Chrysler, under the styling direction of Virgil Exner, who's a former protege, a graduate of the Harley Earl Design School, but a really original thinker, introduces the so-called forward look.
Dan GelernterHOST
And these cars have somewhat of a wedge shape.
Kyle EvansGUEST
I'd pick Bill Mitchell any day.
Kyle EvansGUEST
Also, what I would really pick is Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell.
Kyle EvansGUEST
Because Harley was an interesting guy.
Kyle EvansGUEST
He wasn't an artist.
Phil GerberHOST
I didn't know that there was contentious stuff between
Kyle EvansGUEST
I don't know that there was...
Kyle EvansGUEST
I think everybody probably had some contentious stuff with Harley Earl.
Kyle EvansGUEST
Everybody had a problem with him.
Alan GalbraithHOST
This I did not know.
Alan GalbraithHOST
When you win the Daytona 500, you get the Harley J. Earl trophy, and it has this car on top of it.
Alan GalbraithHOST
Which is crazy.
Alan GalbraithHOST
Which is pretty cool.
Dan GelernterHOST
He thinks it would be a great styling touch.
Dan GelernterHOST
The, the car has a left and a right side, just like the P-38, and he sketches this, and, and Harley Earl, who's the head of styling at General Motors, is a pretty tough sell.
Dan GelernterHOST
He's not sure this is a really good idea.
Dan GelernterHOST
But ultimately, Harley Earl gets persuaded, and once he's persuaded, he is a champion for, for the tail fin design, and he stands up to the rest of the GM executive committee and all of the Cadillac dealers, none of whom really liked the tail fin.
Dan GelernterHOST
They thought it was too audacious and perhaps a little bit vulgar.
Dan GelernterHOST
But the ultimate win was when, I think it was, it was, uh, Charles Kettering, who was the head of sort of GM engineering and innovation, looked at the Cadillac, uh, where it had these tail fins for the first time, and he said, "Now you've got a Cadillac in the back as well as the front." It made the Cadillac really distinctive in a way that the rear end of a car never had been before.
Dan GelernterHOST
Absolutely.
Dan GelernterHOST
And so this is where it begins.
EmilyHOST
They do win.
EmilyHOST
They win until they brought in, uh, Harley Earl.
MikeSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Right.
EmilyHOST
Then things really changed.
Dan GelernterHOST
The first mass-produced car that had actually been designed by a stylist had only come out one year earlier.
Dan GelernterHOST
It was the Cadillac LaSalle, which was the first mass-produced styled car in American history, and it was designed by Harley Earl.
Dan GelernterHOST
Uh, we're going to have to go into him in great depth, but I will return just briefly to Albert Kahn first 'cause it's, it's better to discuss his legacy all at once.
Dan GelernterHOST
Albert Kahn and Henry Ford working together seems a little bit bizarre, especially because once Henry Ford became rich, he devoted a certain amount of his leisure hours to writing antisemitic tractates.
6 MINS LATER
Dan GelernterHOST
So the, the Ford now has become the most popular car in America.
Dan GelernterHOST
In 1927, um, it's clearly outmoded, and they cease production and, and the Model A is about to come along.
Dan GelernterHOST
But the other really important thing that happened in 1927 was that Harley Earl was brought over to General Motors, first as a consultant.
Dan GelernterHOST
He designed the 1927 Cadillac LaSalle, which was supposed to be sort of the entry-level Cadillac.
Steve StocktonNARRATOR
But Jim proceeded to tell me that he was the man who had initially worked on the design of the Corvette for General Motors and they had given him the nickname Father of the Corvette.
Steve StocktonNARRATOR
Although that title truly belongs to Harley Earl and that the car out back was a 1980 Duntov Turbo Special Edition.
Steve StocktonNARRATOR
One of only 501 that Jim made.
Steve StocktonNARRATOR
We went outside, Mr. Duntov proudly showed us the vehicle, and I saw that it had a small bronze plate inside the driver's door attached to the bottom kick plate that read, 1980 Duntov Turbo Corvette, awarded to Mr. Zora Duntov by the GM Corporation.
AndrewHOST
Real quick.
AndrewHOST
Harley Earl.
AndrewHOST
Do we know Harley Earl? General Motors' vice president of style.
AndrewHOST
Oh.
AndrewHOST
So he understood in the 1950s that women were influencing over half of all new car purchasing decisions.
AndrewHOST
I think you're just making names up.
AndrewHOST
Well, no.
AndrewHOST
So 1958, Harley Earl retires.
EmilyHOST
I think if you're doing such brilliant shit, like, you might as well.
EmilyHOST
Like, look at, I mean, look at Harley Earl.
RoseHOST
I, I mean, Rizzo sent me-
EmilyHOST
[laughs]
10 MINS LATER
RoseHOST
Uh-
EmilyHOST
Does anybody out there know?
RoseHOST
Even the lean back windshield, I w- I would be curious to see what Harley Earl had to say about that.
EmilyHOST
You can duke it out.