Tailfins became the signature feature of automobile styling throughout the Motor CIty in the 1950s. Here’s where they got their start: with the 1948 Cadillac.
The tailfin has a long and complicated history in the automotive world, either as an aerodynamic stabilizer or simply as an aeronautical affectation. However, the Motor City’s romance with tailfins on production cars officially begins with the 1948 Cadillac, kicking off a styling trend that would continue for another 15 years, spreading through Detroit and around the world.
One man at General Motors, Franklin Quick Hershey, is credited with the ’48 Caddy’s tailfins, and how they were created is a touchstone in Motor City styling lore. The inspiration, it’s said, was sparked by a visit to Selfridge Field in around 1939, where GM design boss Harley Earl sent a group of his top stylists, including Hershey and Bill Mitchell, to get a look at the army’s brand-new Lockheed P-38 fighter (However, that’s a Beech 18 shown below).
Years later, Hershey would say he was struck not just by the fork-tailed Lightning’s twin vertical stablizers, but by its long, unbroken lines, and both elements contributed to his ’48 Cadillac design. Hershey’s career as an automotive stylist was a long and distinguished one, with credits that included not only the tailfin but the 1932 Peerless V16 prototype, the 1935 Pontiac’s Silver Streak trim, and the 1955 Ford Thunderbird.
When work began after World War II on the ’48 models, the division’s first true postwar cars, GM was in the midst of a labor strike, so an informal Cadillac studio was set up in the basement of Hershey’s farmhouse out near the Milford Proving Ground, where the project first took form. When the design progressed to its clay model phase, as Hershey recalled it, Earl ordered the fins removed, but Cadillac general manager Nick Dreystadt took a shine to the feature and Earl eventually came around. (Hershey’s personal recollections are included in a story by Bill Howell in the Dec. 1992 issue of Collectible Automobile.)
Cadillac buyers agreed: Fins were in, and they sold cars. Over the next decade the Cadillac’s tailfins continued to grow, reaching their acme with the ’59 models where they tower over the rear of the car. The rest of the Motor City followed, most notably Virgil Exner at Chrysler with his Forward Look theme, as tailfins became the signature feature of 1950s automotive styling. The craze was so hot for a time that a number of aftermarket companies (example below) offered bolt-on tailfin kits to update and upgrade non-finned cars.
Some dealers were afraid such a radical innovation would scare conservative customers away but the reverse happened. Fins became a mark of wealth and success and fin fever was born. My dad used to call them “fishtails.”
Ford cars themselves never seemed to favor the tall fins but I think they hold the record for the longest ones which go from the very front of the vehicle to the rear. Either the ’61-’63 Thunderbirds or the 1960 Galaxies.
I think the ’60 Ford is the best looking of the lot. It has a simplicity to the lines and the trim. the Starliner is just gorgeous.
Chrysler claimed their fins provided aerodynamic stability.
As with one-piece curved windshields, the progressing ability to manufacture special parts figured into styling decisions. As Johnny sang, “One piece at a time….”
As 16 year old teenagers and “car nuts”, my buddy and I visited the auto showroom in the GM Building on West Grand Blvd. when the ’48 Caddy was first being displayed there. The cars were beautiful but the first thing that caught our attention was the tail fin and the popup left taillight that hid the fuel filler tube and cap. Wow!
Part of the story I heard was: after they modeled the tailfin they showed it to Nicholas Dreystadt, but he wasn’t sure about Cadillac taking on such a dramatic change, so he asked to see it modeled smaller. Harley Earl then instructed the clay sculptors to model a tailfin on the other rear fender 1/3rd larger than the original. Once Dreystadt saw the two proposals (not knowing about the ‘switch’) he unwittingly agreed to using the original tailfin.