What rubbed Exner the wrong way while working with Loewy was that Loewy got
the credit for all the car designs, even though he, himself, did not design
the car. Of course, this was no different from any other car manfacturer.
General Motors styling was headed by Bill Mitchell, and he got credit for
everything, even though his various staff members did the actual designing.
He acted as "design maestro", and brought the best of the ideas together in
a single package. The same held true at Ford under Gregorie, Walker, then
Bordinat; at Chrysler under Engel; at Hudson under Spring; at Packard under
Teague; and AMC under Anderson, then Teague. That is what "head of styling"
is all about.
That is what Loewy did. And, once Exner became head of styling at Chrysler,
it was exactly what he did! If you read the various articles and books
written about Chrysler products under Exner's tenure in the past fifteen
years, you begin to recognize various Chrysler designers that worked under
Exner and the work they did. But, if you read articles about Chrysler
styling written during Exner's tenure, only Exner is mentioned. Basically,
the rift between Exner and Loewy was a clash of egos.
The way I read it, Exner's "betrayal" was a way of becoming the designer for
Studebaker, and was prodded on by the Studebaker engineering department who
wanted Loewy, under contract to Studebaker and not an employee, out of
there. The end result, of course, was that Exner was let go. Given the
backroom antics of the situation, there could not have been any other
resolution to the problem.
Will have to get a copy of the latest issue. Sounds like some great stuff
in there. Time to break down and join, I guess.
Bill
Vancouver, BC
> Just recieved the new issue of the Forward Look magazine from the W.P.
> Chrysler Museum. It's a keeper! There's an article about Pinin Farina
and
> his Nash designs of the early 50's. It states that Farina contributed
but
> didn't do the whole design. Interesting... But the big news was a GREAT
> article about our hero. Using the Chrysler archives and interviews with
his
> son, some new perspectives were shed on Virgil Exner. 1) His name became
a
> household word in the late 50's. 2) He hated the classic Town and
Country's
> calling them "lumber wagons" . 3) He betrayed Raymond Lowey, who maybe
> deserved it. 4) After his 1957 heart attack, he kind of lost his way as a
> car designer. 5) The 1963-64 Chryslers were his last designs. All of
these
> were surprises to me. Get a copy and read it. Search Walter P. Chrysler
> Museum on the net.....Andy Carpel, 53 Windsor, 59 Coronet, 65 Imperial
>
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