I happened across a story in a 1940 newspaper about automobile designers making a foray into women’s fashions. The feminine styles were supposed to match the 1941 automotive offerings and were designed by the same men who created those body styles. This was all done to promote the New York auto show. There were pictures to go with the story, but no names, so I had to keep digging. I discovered that the first one was designed by none other than Harley Earl, and this streamlined creation in silver rayon featured wings to mimic the hood emblem on a ’41 Caddy.
The stories I found do not give credit for this stylish jacket with a yolk based on the shape of the Packard grille. Perhaps the designer was Howard “Dutch” Darrin?
This swimming suit is based on the 1941 Chevrolet. You can see the shape of the grille on the model’s midsection, and her shoes were even made out of Lucite!
This ensemble was designed, I believe, by E. T. Gregorie and was meant to complement the Mercury. Notice the belt, which was based on the Merc’s bumper guards, and a purse modeled on the hubcaps.
One article said this coat was made with upholstery plaid, so it must be based on Chrysler’s Highlander. Oliver Clark was likely the one who designed this modish outerwear.
This promotion was done in cooperation with Harper’s Bazaar magazine, and the clothing was actually available to be purchased on Fifth Avenue. I have no idea how well it sold, but I would absolutely purchase all of it today if still available (and I might run someone over to get to that hubcap purse).
I found a story in a 1953 newspaper about a general contractor and architect named Hal B. Hayes who turned a Cadillac into a rolling office in the 1950s. The article describes the convertible Caddy as being built three feet longer than usual, with no explanation of how that was accomplished, in order to accommodate equipment like a typewriter, telephone and Dictaphone, not to mention a living, breathing secretary. Ten folding chairs were carried in case Hayes wanted to stop the car and entertain business associates at the curb, and built into the trunk compartment? A full stocked bar, of course.
I had never heard of Hayes, so I did a little research, and it turns out that he was one crazy cat. He built a mansion that Popular Mechanics termed “a house for the atomic age.” Hayes billed himself as something of an expert on the subject, and the home was supposed to be atom bomb-proof. The details are pretty hilarious. The house, perched on a Hollywood hilltop, included an underground bomb shelter that was accessed by swimming through a tunnel in the indoor/outdoor pool. Hayes reasoned that any radioactive contamination would be washed off people’s bodies as they swam to the sanctuary. At the push of a button, the living room carpet, a lovely green shag, would creep up the glass wall to act as a blackout curtain. The home featured five dance floors, and kitchen faucets served up not just champagne, but also the George Thorogood trifecta of bourbon, scotch and beer. It would appear that the mansion was as much swinging bachelor pad as atomic bomb shelter. If you are dying to know more, additional details and pictures are available in the 1953 Popular Mechanics.
Hayes standing next to movie starlet Kay Spreckels. Photo from the LA Times article “That was one boss bachelor pad” by Sam Watters, photo credit to Seaver Center for Western History, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Hayes rubbed elbows with movie stars like Peter Lawford and was even engaged to Zsa Zsa Gabor at one point. Then a military housing project he was developing became a tangle of bribery charges, lawsuits and countersuits between Hayes, the federal government, subcontractors and bond companies. After the dust settled, Hayes vamoosed to Mexico in the early 1960s and lived there for the last three decades of his life.
I was unable to find much more information about the mobile office. The Cadillac apparently won a trophy at a 1957 car show, but the photo in the paper is disappointing as it only shows the door of the car, Hayes, and some woman in a fur coat:
In order to save space at the mansion, Hayes created a parking space using steel beams that stretch into thin air over a retaining wall. Photos do exist of this innovative parking arrangement; the first photo features a Buick, but the second photo might just be of that Caddy:
I don’t know about you, but I would rather park a mile away and walk. I usually do that anyway to avoid getting door dings.
Sources:
“Builder Hits FHA, Military For $55 Million Shutdown.” Evening Journal [Wilmington], 21 Mar. 1961, p. 34.
“Finale of the Style Show.” The Desert Sun, 10 Apr. 1957, p.
“Hal Hayes Cleared of Bribery Charges.” News and Observer [Raleigh], 17 Mar. 1962, p. 15.
“Hal Hayes Switches Roles, Files $2,787,059 Suit.” El Paso Times, 29 Jul. 1961, p. 1.
“Hollywood Agape At Tarheel’s Mansion.” News and Observer [Raleigh], 25 Jul. 1954, p. IV-3.
“House For the Atomic Age.” Popular Mechanics, Aug. 1953, pp. 108-111.
“Latest Creation – Car With Built-In Office.” Ogden Standard Examiner, 6 Aug. 1953, p. 4B.
Mosby, Aline. “A-Bomb Proof Home in Hollywood Hills Would Make Air Alert Welcome.” The Knoxville News, 12 Apr. 1953, p. C3.
Watters, Sam. “That Was One Boss Bachelor Pad.” LA Times, 6 Nov 2010, p. E4.
Wilson, Liza. “America’s Most Amazing House.” San Francisco Examiner, 24 Jan. 1954, p. 12.
1915 Cadillac at the Louwman Museum. Photo credit: Alf van Beem, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
When Cadillac introduced its new V8 engine in the fall of 1914, it was a momentous occasion and one that reverberated throughout the automobile world. Foregoing the six-cylinders being utilized by the competition, Cadillac’s new power plant was a 60-hp 314-ci L-head engine (3-1/8” bore and 5-1/8” stroke) that was capable of traveling 16 miles on a gallon of fuel. It was such an impressive accomplishment that one paper reported, “If they had had automobiles in the olden time, Cleopatra, Xerxes, Charlemagne, Caesar, Napoleon and Washington would have had eight cylinder Cadillacs.”
Cadillac went to great lengths to keep the development of this new engine a secret, and I found a story from a few years later, 1918, that described the Cadillac team’s efforts to conceal and camouflage. I didn’t want to leave out any of the interesting details, so this article from the March 10, 1918, edition of the New York Sun is recreated here in its entirety. Enjoy!
Building That First Cadillac 8
Great Secrecy and Some Camouflage Had Detroit Manufacturers at Sea
An interesting bit of “new news of yesterday” is contained in a story now first told by an official of the Cadillac Company about the designing and building of the eight cylinder V type engine which was introduced by the Cadillac in this country as an automobile power plant in August, 1914.
D. McCall White, designer of the engine and now vice-president of the Cadillac Company, came to this country from England incognito and was introduced as “Mr. David Wilson of the Phoenix Manufacturing Company.” With one assistant he went to various manufacturing companies in the East, where patterns were made and parts built to his specifications. For the most part the work was done in obscure shops. As an example of the precautions taken the forked connecting rods were manufactured in one place and the straight connecting rods in another, so no one would associate them and gain a possible clue.
The first crankcase casing was made in a small foundry in Worcester, Mass., at about midnight, and the sand was cleaned out of the casting in the light of automobile headlights in the yard behind the building.
The parts were shipped to Detroit separately. The cylinder blocks made the journey in a Pullman car.
The assembling continued day and night for several weeks in an old one story shack on the banks of the Detroit River several miles from the Cadillac factory. The only approach to the building was through a devious alleyway. The few persons who knew the secret and worked on the engine when they visited the hidden workshop left their cars several blocks away on a main street and never approached the building in groups. All of the windows in the little shop were frosted and armed men guarded the building day and night.
Out of the many thousands of men employed by the company perhaps twenty-five knew the secret. The drafting was done behind locked doors in a downtown office building and at night the drawings were locked in a vault.
The first engine was finished at about five o’clock one afternoon. Mr. White and a number of other officials were present when it started to turn over on its own power for the first time. They all stood around the engine with a feeling that a big job had been completed. “Here is the quietest demmed engine in Detroit,” is the way Mr. White, with a far away look in his eyes, is said to have voiced his feelings.
When the car was tested it was driven only on the back streets of Detroit. When the test driver thought he saw anyone looking at him suspiciously he opened the cutout on one side and to all appearances was driving a four cylinder car. The idea prevailed in the automobile world that the Cadillac had something up its sleeve, and as a sort of camouflage a unique four cylinder engine was actually built. It had long cylinders and many strange features. The building of this four cylinder engine was covered up just enough so that it would be sure to leak out, and it did.
Old, aftermarket hub caps keep finding me lately, and some of them are just hilarious. Inexpensive replacement caps were sold by companies like Western Auto and J.C. Whitney, but the logos had to be altered enough to avoid pesky trademark infringement laws. Some of them are pretty good facsimiles thereof, like this Cadillac replacement cap. It is heavy duty and looks like the Caddy emblem, but has lines instead of ducks:
This one has stars instead of ducks.
Frankly, they both look better than the modern Cadillac version that has been sanitized of its history and personality. For Chevy replacements, a dash was commonly used in place of the bowtie:
This one is for a 1954 Chevy, and it is a pretty good copy, too. You have to look hard to see that it is a dash and all one piece (the real ones have a separate center insert).
The really entertaining versions are the ones with altered spelling. I have seen dog dishes that say “Dodoe” instead of Dodge, for instance. The Chrysler replacement cap pictured below says something like “Clrrfrlir, although the “i” is mysteriously undotted.
This is one of the famous “Bool” caps made for a Model A Ford:
I have heard that they also made a “Fool” version. I’m not sure who would want to drive around with those on their car (but I know of a few people who should).
I have seen lots of stories scattered across the internet that claim to hold the key to the Cadillac crest, but this explanation appeared in 1923. That is only two decades after the company’s 1903 inception, so maybe this story was less distorted by time than some of the more recent versions. You make the call!
