Introducing Mr Virgil Exner

["A. Foster" <monkeypuzzle1@xxxxxxx>]

Hello All;
 To that list I would add Howard "Dutch" Darin who styled many attractive
looking Packards in the early 40's and most of the Kaiser/Frazer cars.
Brooks Stephens, who created the Jeepster and many Studebakers from the
early 60's. Robert Borque, not the Supreme Court Judge, who styled the 1953
Studebaker coupes, which Lowey took credit for as he did with Exner's
Studebaker designs. Ray Dietric (SP?) stylist of many cars from the classic
era including Packards and the Imperials of the late 30's. Finally William
Lyons, to ad an influential Englishman to the pack, he designed every Jaguar
made from the start of the company to his retirement in the early 70's.
  I tend to think that Harley Earl was a little over rated in the styling
department, he was more or less an excellent administrator and manager. He
had a well refined way of putting ideas from various sources into action,
and a real knack for timing when it came to giving the public what they
wanted. What I am saying is that if you are going to call Harley Earl a
styling genius you would have to call George Walker of Ford a styling genius
as well, when really he was an administrative and organizational genius.
This is no slight at the man at all, every organisation needs people like
him if it is to function well and thrive, unfortunately something that
Mother MoPar has lacked from time to time.
 By the way Alex Tremulis not only designed the Tucker Torpedo but designed
the Chrysler Thunderbolt. He was also employed in the advanced styling
studio at Kaiser after Tucker took a dive. He is a fellow whom I wish had
the opportunity to see at least one his car designs reach production instead
of a few paltry styling ideas.
Best Regards
Arran Foster
1954 Imperial Newport, Not dowdy if you own one.
Needing A Left Side Tailight Bezel and other trim parts.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "B.A. Samoila" <fift8imperial@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 10:15 AM
Subject: Re: IML: Introducing Mr Virgil Exner


My own personal musings on this topic:
True, the world of automotive design has had its
greats:
Alex Tremulis, Raymond Lowey, Bill Mitchell, Mr.
Engel, and Mister Earl just to name a few of the more
famous ones of the mid 20th century when in my humble
opinion was the height of this art.
And then there was Mr. Exner who, again in my opinion,
surpassed them all. He was the only one who had not
only an eye for futuristic design, but the ability and
the presence of forethought to actually take what was
a dream car and have it put into production. Just look
at the dull styles of the early 50's that he had to
work with and how, with very little resources in '53
and '54, he was able to soften their lines and attempt
the silk purse out of the sows ear. ( sorry you early
'50's guys) And then the magic started to flow in '55
and '56 when Chrysler's sedate outdatedness took on a
modern look, and sales began to indicate that "we
might just have something here."
I believe that Mr. Exner reached the zenith of his
abilities in the '57 lineup when even the famous Mr.
Earl (a man by the way that I truly admire for all his
flamboyance as well as talent) had to stand up and not
only take notice, but admit that he'd been one upped
by the competition. We've all heard the story of the
GM corporate styling department meeting when Mr. Earl
came in, threw down a photo of a production '57
Plymouth and began to go down his team's collective
throat.
 The fruits of Mr. Exner's talents caused GM to
scramble  through their one year offerings for '58,
and I guess in a roundabout way ( this is a bit of a
stretch here) had something to do with their '59
lineup causing the here-to-fore style leaders to play
the game of catch up. ( I still love '59 Chevys
though).
Just look at his '57-'59 models...don't they still
look fresh today...45 years later? Now that's staying
power.
Mr. Exner, I thank you for your products, I admire you
for your talents, and I truly acknowledge your genius.
Again...IML...thank you for letting me have these few
minutes to expound.  BAS

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time.
http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html