ABSTRACT

Sometime late in 1947, an agitated Harley Earl stormed into the Cadillac styling studio, where he confronted the object of his rage—the full-size clay model of the 1949 Cadillac. At the end of both rear fenders were little bumps of sheet metal that incorporated the taillights. Frank Hershey had put these tail fins on the 1948 Caddy at the behest of Earl, who had stolen this aeronautic cliche from the P-38 Lightning pursuit plane. But somehow these infatuating little symbols of aviation had been transformed in Earl's eyes into annoyances of the first order.