Scene. The last class we look at suburbanization, and today what i want the look at is cars in the postworld war ii era, and i especially want the look at the mavericks, maverick car designers and automakers, automakers who tried to establish independent companies outside the big three who thought outside the box, thought unconventionally. I want to look at their impact, what happened to them, their influence on the field of the postworld war ii auto industry. And, you know, if america had a symbol in the postworld war ii era, it would have to be the automobile. I mean, americans love their cars. Theyre big. Europeans even make fun of them. They call them yank tanks. And theres a reason that cars, american cars anyways are have the look and the shape and the size that they do. And a lot of it has to do with one automobile designer, one sort of maverick automobile designer, and i want to look at him today. And i want to start by sort of, in a nutshell is, looking at some of the reasons why cars were so important and how that was reflected in postworld war ii society and in the economy. So ive listed four basic reasons why cars, the demand for cars surged and the impact that cars had in postworld war ii era. First of all, the idea of pentup demand. You had the Great Depression, and we looked at that earlier in this course. And people had trouble buying necessities during the Great Depression, let alone cars, let alone luxury cars. And we saw a lot of automakers falling like ten pins at a bowling alley. You didnt have a lot of demand for cars in the 1930s. So you add to that during world war ii a lot of the factories had to convert to production of military vehicles; tanks, planes, trucks, jeeps. In fact, the jeep was really the only new vehicle produced during world war ii, and that was not a civilian vehicle. It was a military vehicle. So you had the Great Depression plus world war ii, you have, essentially, 15 years of pentup demand for automobiles. And whatever car you had at the start start of the war, you were stuck with it until the war ended. So i by the end of the war, americans were hungering for new vehicles. And it really wasnt fun to drive during world war ii either. There was a 35 mileperhour speed limit to conserve gasoline and to conserve rubber because japan, during world war ii, had captured 90 of the worlds Natural Rubber making capacity when it invaded southeast asia. So there was a tremendous demand for new cars and exciting cars and fast cars after the war, a demand that had been suppressed for, when you add it up, about 15 years. So that was one factor that made cars very important after world war ii. Another, we looked at suburbanization in the last class, and cars facile anticipated suburbanization, accelerated suburbanization. You needed cars. If you didnt rely on public transportation, you needed cars to get from your home to your place of work in the city and then back to your bedroom communities to sleep at night. And then another trend you saw in the postworld war ii era is businesses started to crop up in suburbs. So suburbs became a place where you not only leved, with but also lived, but also worked. You saw all kinds of businesses cropping up in suburbs. Franchises like mcdonalds, hotelmotel chains like hold lay inn started holiday inn started in memphis in 1952. Drivein theaters, the lure of drivein theaters and cars loomed really large in the 1950s. So cars and suburbanization went hand in hand in the postworld war ii era. There was a real complementary relationship there. And then in 1952 the country elected a new president , dwight d. Eisenhower. He was a west point graduate, graduated in 1915, and then four years after he graduated, in 1919, he accompanied an army con soy that went from convoy that went from the west coast to the east coast. And that journey took 62 days. And it appalled eisenhower. He was really, in a lot of ways, disgusted by it. He saw Army Vehicles getting stuck in mud. That was the condition of roads back then, really crude, primitive pathways for vehicles to travel on. And he recognized that this was a real problem. It was a problem for the economy because it hampered economic development. When you have Transportation Networks that are that crude, it impedes the transportation, the movement of goods and services. He also as a military man recognized that represented a threat to national security. In case of an emergency, you couldnt move military vehicles very easily along those kinds of roadways. Is so i think that experience had a formative impact on him. It stuck in the back of his mind. And then during world war ii he was in europe, and in germany he saw the autobahn. He was very impressed like that. I think that led him to be a big advocate of better roads, and in 1956 he signed the interstate highway act which gave america really the most impressive roadway system in the whole world. So when youre traveling along, you sometimes see these blue signs that are silent tributes to the eisenhower interstate system, the five stars. And eisenhower was a fiscal conservative, but he didnt like spending the governments money. He liked trying to achieve a balanced budget, and he achieved three, actually, while he was president. But he thought having a interstate system and the huge Government Spending that went along with it, it was the largest public works project in history. It went on for decades after, after the 1950s. But he thought this was important. It was important for economic stimulation, it provided jobs in terms of building the roads,es but it also facilitated the movement of goods and services north, south, east, west. It promoted tourism, americans could get to cities and park parks and recreational sites. But it also helped with national security. In the case of an emergency like a Nuclear Attack which was a threat in the 1950s, it could help evacuate cities quickly, and it could help move military vehicles quickly along the freeways. So this was a development in the 1950s that went hand in hand with the importance of automobiles. And then mt. Last class in the last class i talked about how Television Changed the shape of homes by eliminating the need for porches. You could see the impact of cars also in home architecture. If you look at homes that were built in the postworld war ii era, based on what ive said in the last class as well as this class now, you can see that this is a preworld war ii home. Its got a big porch which is a trademark of homes built before world war ii. And look at the garage. Its the separate from the house, and its sort of rell gated to a rell gated to a sort of inferior position apart from the house. After world war ii, you see a change in that garages became attached to houses. And this was important in a functional sense because you could move, for example, groceries from your garage to your mud room or to your kitchen without getting exposed to the elements, rain or snow. But in the metaphorical sense, it was also important because this sort of symbolized that the car was becoming a member of the family. It brought the car closer to the house. And often, like with this particular home, garages started to dominate the facade of homes. The garage, you know, you started getting onecar, twocar and even threecar garages, the garage was the first thing you saw when you pulled up to a house. It really was one of the defining elements of a house. And then again, it symboled welcoming the car as sort of a member of the family. I found these photos on the internet which sort of expresses how the lengths to which families will try to incorporate garages into their house, build better and more elaborate garages with a rather modest car here, shall we say, with even a lift or an elevator to bring car up to house level. So you see the importance of cars in home ark architecture as well. So the shapes of homes changed because of the greater impact of cars in the postworld war ii era. And the shape of cars changed as well. And for this changed shape of cars, i would point to one individual who had a huge impact on the auto industry. And that was this guy. Anybody recognize him . By any chance . This is harley earl. And hes the first maverick that i would like to look at. I consider him a maverick auto designer. He came to detroit from california in 1927, and he became the head of General Motors, what was called the art and color section. And it soon became called the styling section. So he was an automobile stylist. And General Motors was the First Car Company to have a styling section. I actually want to go to b first here. This idea of styling. When the car first started to become popular with cars like the model t, you had a question of which was more important, function or form. And it was actually more important that a car function because reliability was a problem in early cars. I mean, it mattered that a car would start and that it would run. Often cars in the early years did not do that reliably. So once engineers started to iron out the kinks in cars and get them to be more reliable, automakers started to look at Something Else and emphasize form. In other words, what would attract consumers to an auto showroom. It was how cars looked. And even today one of the first things that might attract us to buy a vehicle might be the look of a car. Whether it works or not, works well, engine and performance might even be second daughter. Its the appearance that first secondary. Its the appearance that first draws our eye. And harley earl was very big on this concept of the i appearance of a car. So in your minds eye, try to picture an antique car like a model t. What does it look like to you . What are the defining characteristics or elements . I have a little picture of a older car to try to help you visualize this. This is a 1936 dudessen burg. Its a doozy, i talked to you about that in a different class. What i want to ask you about are some of the elements that you see in this car. What would you say about the headlights and the horn9 and the bumper and the tires, the spare tire included, the fender and the Running Board and the windshield, the license plate . There might be very well a luggage rack bolted in back. What strikes you about those elements of a car . If i mean, how would you describe them . [inaudible] the headlights are a bit closer together than modern cars, and it doesnt look like they have mirrors. Okay, yes. The mirror came about through auto racing. They first started putting mirrors in auto racing, and now we have mirrors on both sides. The headlights are are closer together, its almost like it has narrow vision, and theyre awfully big compared to todays headlights. What else do you notice about these elements that i just mentioned, the headlights and the bumpers and fender, and weve got a up Running Board going here and a spare tire here, the windshield, how would you characterize those parts of this car or any antique car like it . What strikes you about that compared to your cars today . Julianne . Everything seems a lot bulkier and sticks out more than todays cars. Exactly. They sort of extrude from the car. They protrude from the car. Its almost like theyre boltedded on or fixed on at the last minute. It certainly isnt aerodynamic styling. And so harley earl set about to change the shape of these elements. And so if you look at a harley earl designed car, this is the buick that he designed, look at how he changed those elements that we just talked about, that julianne mention if pld, that are sort of mentioned that are sort of external to the car. The bumper, the headlights are flush with the car. The Radiator Grill is left conspicuous. And the back of the car almost looks like a boat. But look at how those elements are blended in. I youngs a that posed these pictures juxtaposed these pictures so you could see is it. They dont extrude from a car. They dont seem as external, and it gives the car a more streamlined look. The bump pers more flush with the car, the wind shield is a little more slanted and gives it a more aerodynamic feel to the car. The fenders are flush with the car. The Running Board is gone. And legend has it that he literally raced it by looking erased it by looking at an old car, or he took the his pencil and just erased it, and he thought to himself, thats it, im going to get rid of Running Boards. It totally changed the shape of cars. So this was one contribution of harley earl. Notice also the length and the height of the car. Harley earl lengthened and lowered cars, and this had an impact on passenger comfort. Because it used to be in older cars that passengers in the rear seat sat right above the rear axel, and that was a very uncomfortable and bumpy position to be in. Now earl lengthened and lowered cars, the passenger compartment sat cradled between the two axels, so it was a much more comfortable ride. But it also gave the whole car a more long and streamlines feel to it more aerodynamically styled. Its a much better looking car. This was a huge contribution to the way that cars looked that harley earl achieved. You could really tell the difference between an antique car and the design that harley earl started to impose on cars. So there were other contributions. Ive written here he introduced some gaudy changes as well that were less fortunate. He, for example, was enamored of jet fighters, the 1950s was the rocket age, the jet age. People were excited about jet engines, as was harley earl. He was particularly attracted by a lockheed fighter, the p38, and he had the idea to try to introduce some features of jet fighters to cars. So this was a car he designed. It was a buick he saber. And if he saber. And if you look at the back, he started introducing tail fins to the car, and he started introducing tail fins to higher end cars first like cad a lack, and they spread to the cadillac. And they spread to buicks and oldsmobiles and other cars. This wasnt that good a change because it didnt serve a real function. Maybe in appearance a little bit. But it added weight to cars. And he added chrome to cars. It made cars more bulk key and heavier. Bulky and heavier. And this caught up to cars during the 1970s when fuel efficiency became really important to automakers. And you cant have fuel efficiency when you have heavy cars. You want more, less fuelthirsty cars, and with tail fins, you cannot achieve that. So this was a sort of ostentatious change that harley earl introduced. There was another Important Development that harley earl introduced too, this concept of dream cars. Ed today we call them concept cars. If these were these were futuristic prototypes of automobiles that automakers would show at auto shows. Theyd use these auto shows as sort of a laboratory to gauge consumer reactions to future Car Prototypes whether this car was worth putting into production if consumers reacted favorably to them or introducing some element of a kind of car that consumers came to like. And so ill give you a few examples of these dream cars. Harley earl was the first to toy with this idea and introduce the idea of concept cars or dream cars, and this was a dream car, actually. The buick y job. I have a question for you. This is a 1936 deucen berg. Based on this, what time frame or era do you think this buick y job came about . Anybody want to take a tab at the year or the decade stab at the year or the decade that earl designed this . What kind of a car does this look like, from what decade or era would you think . Would you place it in . Based on what you know and see about cars. Mitch . 1950s. Thats exactly what i would think, it looks like the archetype of a 1950 decade car. But believe it or not, this is a 1938 car. So thisll give you an idea of how with these dream cars or concept cars you take a peek into the future. You anticipate trends; trends in design is, styling. And so this is what you do. With these dream cars you set a forerunner to what cars will look like in the future, and thats very important for automakers, to address these future trends and get a taste for what consumers will like to see in their cars in the future. I showed you the Buick Lesabre which was also a dream car, and heres another example of a dream car. Anybody recognize this . So the idea of automobile styling spread from General Motors to other automakers. And, in fact, a lot of harley earltrained stylists started to work for other automakers. This was a ford car. Its from the Lincoln Division of ford. It was actually designed by an italian company, gia, and the particular stylist who came up with this concept, a guy named phil schmidt, got the idea when he was diving. Snorkeling or scuba diving. Does this look like any underwater animal to you . A shark maybe . He got the idea for this car from seeing a shark when he was diving underwater. Does this car look forward to anybody . Like from a 1960 tv series . The automobile stylist George Barras got ahold of this car, and in the 1960s, abctv approached him about designing a car for their new tv series. He only had two or three weeks to do this, but he took this car out of storage and created the batmobile. He used the car as a template for the batmobile car. So thisll give you another idea of how concept cars which harley earl really pioneered were used by automobile makers and automobile stylists. So those were some of harley earls contributions. He really, he was a maverick stylist who pushed the envelope of automobile style to influence the way cars look even up til today. I want to look at another maverick, and this is a does anybody recognize this guy . Thisthis is Preston Tucker, andi would consider him a maverick automaker. So who was he . He was an inventer and a tinkerer, and he loved automobiles. He had a work shop, a machine shop in ipsilanti, michigan, which is outside of detroit, and he was enam mored of speed. Enamored of speed. He loved speedy cars. And, in fact if, as an inventer who loved speedy cars, this is one of his inventions, he designed a tank that would go 117 Miles Per Hour. He tried to interest the u. S. Army in it. They didnt find a use for a tank that would go that fast. But he anticipated that in the postworld war ii era americans would hunger for new cars, new cars that would be fast, that would offer innovations. And so in december 1945 a magazine thats no longer around had