Re: Ex-Packard Designers

Posted by Dave Brownell On 2014/7/19 14:45:47

For those of us who were fortunate enough to be car-aware in the early Fifties, style was everything, indeed. I clearly remember as a six or seven year old on my way to school spotting a new 1952 Ford from several hundred feet and wondering what kind of car it might be. The consensus from three of my friends and I was that it must be the new Willys Aero. When we saw the Ford name, we were stunned. After all, we knew how a 49-51 Ford ought to look. A year later, when the 53 Ford came out with minor changes to the tail lights and grill, all four of us had become experts. The first Studebaker Starliner coupe really knocked our socks off, but I was the only one of us who preferred drawing the new 52 Nashes, with the Pininfarina square styling. I was also the only kid in the gang to convince my mother that I absolutely had to go to the Buick dealer to see the new 54s. The full color "Beautiful Buy" brochure from that trip stayed with me until Vietnam called and my mother pitched them all as old trash. Styling and ad writer's hype really had me as a future customer who made do with a sixty-five cent weekly allowance. But, both parents did listen to my hopes, dreams and suggestions when it came time (every two or so years) to look at a new car.

Sadly, my youthful eyes never strayed towards Packard as a kid. For me, that was a car my grandmother drove. The first Packard I really paid attention to was the new 55. By that time, our local Packard dealer had closed, and there was little enough reason to drive all the way across town to the one remaining dealer in St. Louis. The family had been converted to GM-only brands for the next twenty years. Alfred Sloan and Harley Earl had won another victory for style and the value of change.