Before the tail fins: Harley Earl’s lost custom cars

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When the name of Harley Earl is mentioned, praise is usually not far away. And quite rightly so. As the first head of design at General Motors, and later vice president, he left a great mark on the automotive design world. Earl is the man who introduced the concept of the concept car “as both a tool for the design process and a clever marketing device.” Apart from that, he stood at the cradle of some highly influential production cars as well, not least the Chevrolet Corvette. He is also credited with the invention of the tail fin.

But Earl had a motoring life before GM. He was the son of J. W. Earl, the founder of Earl Carriage Works, later Earl Automobile Works – the Los Angeles coachbuilder. And that’s where young Harley started his career as a designer. As early as 1918, aged 25, he designed cars for two of Hollywood’s greatest silent movie stars: an unknown car, which supposedly featured a leather saddle for western star Tom Mix (do you know more?), and a Pierce-Arrow Model 66 for comedian Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle. The latter was described as “the most outrageous custom luxury creation, costing $25,000.”

This one seen here is another interesting and early Earl design, but the base is uncertain, as is its original owner. One source tells us that it was built for oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny on a Pierce-Arrow chassis. Another mentions: “Earl’s radical 1918 Cadillac town car sported a raked, faired-in windshield, step plates and porthole window.” Who knows more?

Words: Jeroen Booij
Picture: State Archives Poland / Archiwa Państwowe

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