His Career was on the Move
The 1959 Cadillac Cyclone was the last "dream car" created during Harley Earl's tenure as General Motors's vice president of design. Compact but flamboyant, the Cyclone marked the end of an era and capped a career that started with Earl's being brought to Detroit in 1926 to design the new LaSalle and resulted in the establishment of styling as a discipline as integral to the car business as engineering or sales. Earl had spent his professional life trying to make cars look longer and lower. He came to the attention of GM after first becoming known in Hollywood for racy roadsters and elegant limousines built by his father's Earl Carriage Works for members of the wealthy and growing movie colony., decided to sell due to ill health. Lee put the younger Earl in charge of the shop, and exotic creations began flowing out on expensive deluxe chassis such as Packard, Pierce-Arrow, Rolls-Royce, and, of course, Cadillac.
Lawrence P. Fisher, president and general manager of Cadillac, himself a young man with young ideas, was aware of the growing trend in Europe toward style over utility. Meanwhile, at home, he saw increasing competition from makes like Packard, whose styling was dominant at that time. Fisher was impressed with Earl's designs and asked him to come to Detroit to submit a proposal for the upcoming LaSalle. The rest is history, as they say, for his proposal was accepted and he stayed through the car's introduction. This name was carefully chosen to avoid causing concern in the engineering departments, whose job it had always been to specify and draw the boxes that had previously passed for automobile bodies.
The 1959 Cadillac Cyclone was the last "dream car" created during Harley Earl's tenure as General Motors's vice president of design. Compact but flamboyant, the Cyclone marked the end of an era and capped a career that started with Earl's being brought to Detroit in 1926 to design the new LaSalle and resulted in the establishment of styling as a discipline as integral to the car business as engineering or sales. Earl had spent his professional life trying to make cars look longer and lower. He came to the attention of GM after first becoming known in Hollywood for racy roadsters and elegant limousines built by his father's Earl Carriage Works for members of the wealthy and growing movie colony., decided to sell due to ill health. Lee put the younger Earl in charge of the shop, and exotic creations began flowing out on expensive deluxe chassis such as Packard, Pierce-Arrow, Rolls-Royce, and, of course, Cadillac.
Lawrence P. Fisher, president and general manager of Cadillac, himself a young man with young ideas, was aware of the growing trend in Europe toward style over utility. Meanwhile, at home, he saw increasing competition from makes like Packard, whose styling was dominant at that time. Fisher was impressed with Earl's designs and asked him to come to Detroit to submit a proposal for the upcoming LaSalle. The rest is history, as they say, for his proposal was accepted and he stayed through the car's introduction. This name was carefully chosen to avoid causing concern in the engineering departments, whose job it had always been to specify and draw the boxes that had previously passed for automobile bodies.