america and the automobile, cars and culture€¦ · america and the automobile, cars and culture...
Post on 27-Sep-2020
0 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
America and the Automobile, Cars
and Culture
The Cultural Impact of the American Automobile 1946-1974
Michelle Lea Dissman
Honors Thesis
Spring 2010
1
The Fact is that the automobile became a hypnosis. The
automobile became the opium of the American people.
-Fortune
2
Dr. Noll- this thesis has been a massive undertaking and it would never have
reached completion without your insights. Thank you for all of your advice
and help on this, Phi Alpha Theta and nearly everything else.
Dad- without you I would never have conceived of this topic nor had the
background necessary to carry it out. I may be headed to law school, but will
never be too far from all those hours in the garage. Those stars are starting
to shine, just as planned.
3
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 4
The Rise of the Automobile .................................................................................................... 5
The Styling Redesign .............................................................................................................. 7
The Role of Attainable Pricing for the Masses ..................................................................... 11
The Emerging American Obsession...................................................................................... 13
The Impact on the Nuclear Family........................................................................................ 16
Redefining the American Teenager ...................................................................................... 19
The Rise of the Hot Rod Culture........................................................................................... 24
The Rise of the Excess Culture ............................................................................................. 31
Baby Boomers and Redesign ................................................................................................ 32
Converting from Chrome to Muscle ..................................................................................... 33
The Automobile as Identity ................................................................................................... 37
Downfall and Decline ........................................................................................................... 38
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 39
Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 41
Citations for Images .............................................................................................................. 44
4
America and the Automobile, Cars and
Culture The Cultural Impact of the American Automobile 1946-1974
Introduction
With the end of World War II, the United States returned to a different life and
culture than the one it had left behind at the start of the war. The United States had gone to
war with 70 percent of the American people falling below the category of “earnings
poverty.”1 After the war, the change in American society was dramatic and quick, as
rationing had ended, the percentage of Americans living below the poverty line fell
dramatically and soldiers returned home with the dream of a house and car of one’s own. It
is at this important juncture that cars and culture collide. With the broad explosion of
automobile production in post-World War II America, the automobile had far-reaching
societal and cultural impacts beyond the production lines in Detroit. In short, the massive
increase in post-war automobile production fundamentally altered American Society.
In post-war America the automobile would take hold and retain its intense grip on
wide-ranging aspects of society for more than the next quarter century, with its effects still
apparent today. During this time the automobile would be elevated to the level of a
celebrated symbol of such juxtapositions as individuality and conformity, tradition and
5
modernity, and uniqueness and mass production. These effects would also dramatically
affect not one but at least two generations, specifically and perhaps most intensely both the
“greatest generation” and their children, the “baby boomers,” who would each interpret and
style the trend in their own image. Through these generations, the automobile culture
would grow and transform, progressively building upon itself and extending its influence
further into American society until outside forces, especially the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo,
would deal a fatal blow to driver’s wallets and subsequently the cars and the culture they
had shaped.
The Rise of the Automobile
An obvious but central component of the impact of the automobile on American
culture was the drastic increase in car production. At the close of World War II, “domestic
production of automobiles had been virtually suspended for three and a half years.”2
However, after the end of World War II, production levels quickly reached those of 1940,
as American factories that had been converted for war quickly converted back.3 In 1941,
the United States had 29.5 million automobiles registered4, by 1950 49.3 million were
registered and at the close of the decade some 73.8 million automobiles were on the streets.5
1 Sobel, Robert. The Great Boom, 1950-2000 : How a Generation of Americans Created the World's Most
Prosperous Society. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. , 24 2 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003. , 31 3 Laux, James M. The Automobile Revolution: The Impact of an Industry. 1st ed. Chapel Hill, NC: The
University of North Carolina Press, 1982., 172 4 Sobel, Robert. The Great Boom, 1950-2000: How a Generation of Americans Created the World's Most
Prosperous Society. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000., 104 5 Halberstam, David. The Fifties. 1st ed. New York: Villard Books, a division of Random House, 1993., 487
6
This dramatic increase in car production and sales coupled with the styling and performance
changes would directly lead to the automotive overhaul of American society.
Much of the rise of the automobile and the rise culture associated with it can be
attributed to the automobile styling that began to take place at mid-century. By 1950
Detroit had caught up with demand following the switch from war production and stopped
offering “drab, clunky, warmed-over, prewar designs”6 and automakers decided to give
Americans what they assumed they really desired- “big, powerful, flashy new cars-not next
year-NOW!”7 Over the next two decades Detroit flooded the automobile showrooms with
cars that had “flair and individuality,”8 it is this time period alone when cars would be
unique and sought after for it. Designers knew that although the “responsible” adult
customer when asked would say that “economy, durability and reliability”9 dictated their
auto purchases, in reality what mattered was “adult toys, with pizzazz and sex appeal.”10
The pressure of conformity was strong in almost every other aspect of their lives, but “on
the road Americans longed to experience fantasy”11.
After the factories were back online and the pre-war remakes had calmed the
immediate demand of the market which rushed to buy replacements for their worn out pre-
6 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 69 7 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 69 8 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 69 9 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 69 10 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 69 11 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 69
1946 Ford
(Pre-War
Styling)
Earl’s 1948 Cadillac
7
war automobiles, “Detroit made them larger, more powerful, and more colorful”12.At the
center of this redesign was a man from General Motors- Harley Earl.
The Styling Redesign
Much of this midcentury styling redesign can be attributed to Harley Earl. In
Hollywood during the twenties, Earl had become famous for modifying and redesigning
cars of the rich and famous. Cost was not an issue, and Earl experimented with “futuristic
body designs and introduced bold colors into the mix”13. In 1927, Earl joined General
Motors as chief stylist, but with the depression and subsequently the war, Earl’s creativity
“was temporarily stifled”14 as automakers, reflecting the mood of the nation, “painted most
cars in drab colors: black, brown, dark green, and occasionally navy blue”15. However,
Earl stayed on at General Motors, and as the nation returned to better times, Earl would get
his way with design: “dazzling colors reappeared, embellished by two-tone paint jobs
(Kelly green bodies with beige hardtops)” and “inspired by fighter planes, he introduced tail
fins, clearly derived from the p-38 airplane,”16 which first appeared on Earl’s 1948 Cadillac
design. In the post-war era, “it soon became clear to the stylists that the debris of war could
be recycled into the stuff of fantasy. The cockpit of an airplane could serve as the conceit
12 Sobel, Robert. The Great Boom, 1950-2000: How a Generation of Americans Created the World's Most
Prosperous Society. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000., 107 13 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 70 14 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 70 15 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 70 16 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 71
P-38 Airplane
8
for the car’s instrument panel; air scoops could be dummied up to conjure the speeds that
were then threatening to surpass the sound barrier…Think of it: Everyman his own fighter
pilot.”17 It was this initial vision and the positive reception to Earl’s Cadillac that began the
automotive culture movement.
After the 1948 Cadillac’s enormous success, Earl increased the fin size and other
designers and divisions of General Motors followed suit: the Oldsmobile in 1949, the Buick
in 1952. 18 In 1955, Chrysler added fins on its quarter panels, and in 1957, when Ford
finally gave in, all of the Detroit big three had fins. However, tail fins would see their
demise at the end of the 1950’s at the hands of their creator. As “other brands were adopting
the most garish, exaggerated fins,”19 Earl decided to remove them on the 1960 Cadillac,
feeling that fins of this size had lost any aesthetic appeal. These finned creations would
remain the staple of car design until the early 1960’s “Muscle Cars” would take over.
These fins would lead the men responsible for this styling at each of the “Big Three”
automakers, Harley Earl [GM], Virgil Exner [Chrysler], and George Walker [Ford], to
elevate themselves, “to be considered the Michelangelos of mass production. Or if you
prefer, they were its “Pep Boys”-Manny, Moe, and Jack—who managed to made every
Tom, Dick and Harry randy for creased steel and burnished chrome”20
17 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed January 15, 2010). 18 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 71 19 Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003., 71 20 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed January 15, 2010).
9
After tail fins established the movement towards garishness, many other styling
efforts also contributed to the tremendous success of the automobile during the 1950’s.
Decadence became the word to describe American automobile styling. American designers
portrayed the “car of the future,” with many of their design inspirations centered around
sex, the military or the combination thereof. These automobiles emerged in “full regalia of
fantasy bullets and bombs, breasts, portholes and jets, spears and wings.”21 Assembly lines
rolled off car after car with “frenched” headlights and “toothy chrome grilles”-- these
“monsters with bedroom eyes”22 clearly exhibit the blending of the two design staples of
sex and the military. American designers had decided to give the country a “cubic
zirconium”23 in place of diamonds. This was achieved by adding the styling features once
only available to the very wealthy, by creating them as carbon copies and thus making the
styling available at a reasonable price to the mass middle class.
21 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2007). 22 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2007). 23 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2007).
10
Left: 1. 1946 Ford, “Drab, Pre-War
Design”
Right: 2. P-38 Airplane
upon which Earl based his
fin design
Left: 3. Harley Earl’s 1948 Cadillac
Right: 4. The Evolution of the
Tail Fin under Harley Earl
Left: 5 The “Garish” Tail Fins
of a 1959 Chevrolet
11
The Role of Attainable Pricing for the Masses
If styling inspired the automobile’s rise, than cheaper pricing enabled it.
Immediately following World War II, “Americans did not hope for affluence-yet, but they
clearly wanted something beyond adequate.”24 “At long last, the hallowed promise of “a
chicken in every pot and a car in every garage” was on the verge of actuality for much of
the middle class.”25 Because of the ability to now make monthly payments on a car, rather
than pay for the entire purchase upfront, by the mid-1950’s “everyone who wanted a car
(and could obtain credit) had one.”26 Pricing was also aided by the mass invasion of the
mid-priced level car by Ford, Chevrolet and Plymouth who began to edge out more
expensive models that had previously been considered mid-ranged in price, Buick,
Mercury, and Dodge.27 While this hurt the individual label marquee-companies, this did not
affect the Big Three’s bottom line or sales company wide, since each had been edged out by
a sister company [Ford from Mercury (Ford), Chevrolet from Buick (GM), and Plymouth
from Dodge (Mopar/ Chrysler)]. However, not everyone perceived this increase in
automotive buying power as a positive. John Keats, in his book The Insolent Chariots
(1958), attacked the automobile industry stating that their products were “overblown,
24 Sobel, Robert. The Great Boom, 1950-2000 : How a Generation of Americans Created the World's Most
Prosperous Society. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000., 101 25 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2009). 26 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2009). 27 Weeks, Robert P. “Detroit Discovers the Consumer” The Nation 189, no. 8 (September 19, 1959): 151-153,
The Nation Archive. EBSCOhost (accessed September 19, 2009).
12
overpriced monstrosities built by oafs to sell to mental defectives”28. However, Keats was
definitely in the minority. Between 1950 and 1960, the average wholesale cost of a car
increased from $1270 to $1822, an increase of nearly fifty percent.29 But based on the
dramatic increase in sales, approximately forty percent, Americans did not see the Detroit
autos as either overpriced or overblown.
The cost and styling of the car were two important factors. By the mid-fifties,
Detroit had begun to capitalize on this by merging cost and styling with the concept of
accessories and options. With the average buyer tacking on an additional $725 in available
options, or more than a quarter of the price of the average cost of the car itself,30 it seems
clear that “Motor Town became something of a soda jerk to the nation, dishing up a series
of increasingly elaborate confections “loaded with extras”; hot fudge, air conditioning,
whipped cream, chrome, chopped walnuts, “ Diamond Lustre” enamel paint with a
maraschino cherry on top.”31 As Detroit began to accessorize, option lists just kept
growing. There were the more standard options, sun visors, skirts, “cruisomatic” cruise
control 32 as well as more outlandish options available. These options included “frenched”
headlights, retractable hardtops and the “Ford Seat-O-Matic power memory seat [which]
28 Sobel, Robert. The Great Boom, 1950-2000: How a Generation of Americans Created the World's Most
Prosperous Society. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000., 107 29 James J. Flink. The Automobile Age. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1988., 287 30 Nossiter, Bernard. “Detroit’s Annual Model Bill” The Nation 194, no, 3 (January 20, 1962): 50-51. The
Nation Archive. EBSCOhost (accessed September 19, 2009). 31 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed January 17, 2010). 32 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed January 17, 2010).
13
rivaled the Kamasutra, assuming no less than 49 positions”33 These options showcased
Americans’ willingness to buy these items, the growing almost non-importance of price and
the vast imagination of the designers in creating these options.
The rise of the automobile culture had long-reaching implications on the
fundamentals of American society and culture. This trend directly influenced society
through its emergence as an American obsession, the transformation the nuclear family, the
creation of a “hot rod culture” and the emergence of a cult centered on excess. These
effects would fundamentally alter mainstream American culture in the three decades
following the close of World War II.
The Emerging American Obsession
Through the tremendous increase in car sales and popularity, cars became the
American obsession. Many factors contributed to this obsession, including the competition
between the models and makers, and the American deification of the automobile.
Competition between the makers and models contributed immensely to the buildup of an
American obsession. The debate became all encompassing as Americans argued over
questions such as “Which is better/ faster, your ‘55 Thunderbird or my ’56 Corvette?”
Americans began to worship their cars with a “faith no less extravagant than that which
built the Vatican.”34 The year 1955 is usually considered to be the year that the automobile
33 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed January 17, 2010). 34 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2009).
14
became an obsession and “got religion”. The biggest single event that perhaps contributed
to Americans view of the automobile beyond simply transportation and into “a chariot of
the Gods” was James Dean’s death in 1955. With his death, Dean became a martyr for
those who worshiped the automobile, and the relationship between Dean and the automobile
became what “Joan of Arc is to Christianity. Like Joan of Arc, his purification by fire had
made him a martyred saint.”35 Thus, between the rise of preoccupation with horsepower,
carburetors and cubic inches along with Dean’s death, Americans settled down “into full-
fledged pagan worship of the machine”36. By the end of the 1950s, this American
obsession had grown to such a point that Americans wished to do everything possible
without leaving their beloved automobiles. This led to the rise of drive-thru fast food,
drive-in movies, the national highway system, the roadside motel and even drive –thru
funeral parlors37: all evidence of the increasing American obsession. As the obsession
increased in intensity, the automobile was set to take on American culture and redefine it
along its own terms.
35 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2009). 36 Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties." Southwest Review 79,
no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2009). 37 Inge, M. Thomas.Handbook of American Popular CultureVol 1,Ch, 2.Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1978, 29
15
Left: 6. The
“Frenched”
Headlights, Chrome, and “Bedroom Eyes”
on an 1957 Chevrolet
Right: 7. A 1950’s Drive-in Diner
Left: 8. A 1950’s Drive-in
Movie Theater
16
The Impact on the Nuclear Family
With the end of World War II, the American nuclear family began to redefine its
terms of success. At this time the American dream became the “white picket fence dream”-
a home and one’s own car becomes the terms with which to define the success of a family.
Costing upwards of twenty thousand dollars38, houses were usually purchased with the aid
of long-term mortgages, and the middle and upper classes began to make their move to the
suburbs. Though providing millions with their own homes, suburbs like Levittown and
other similar suburbs were heavily criticized for their levels of conformity by the likes of
John Keats, who in his 1956 book The Crack in the Picture Window wrote: “For literally
nothing down, you too can find a box of your own in one of the fresh-air slums we’re
building around the edges of American cities, inhabited by people whose age, income,
number of children, problems, habits, conversations, dress possessions, and perhaps even
blood types are almost precisely like yours.”39 In spite of the concerns of critics like Keats,
these suburbs remained popular and contributed to the use and high regard of Americans
toward their cars.
This regard can be seen in many ways in the post-war suburbs. For years homes had
been constructed with garages and driveways accessed from back alleys, but the standard
suburban home built during the 1950’s moved the garage to an important place- right in the
38 Sobel, Robert. The Great Boom, 1950-2000: How a Generation of Americans Created the World's Most
Prosperous Society. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.,71 39Keats, John. The Crack in the Picture Window. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1956.,
introduction
17
front of the home, complete with a blacktop driveway leading the way, thus making “the
automobile a prominent part of the dramatic ensemble.40 Through this change, one can not
only see the importance Americans were placing on their automobiles, but also their
growing function as status symbols. In this vein, rituals such as washing the family car
became public neighborhood affairs attracting attention to their latest model year purchase.
But Americans had not just redefined the outside of their home; they had redefined the
inside as well.
In the kitchen, the open floor plan, featured refrigerators painted similar colors to
those that you would find in the automobile showroom, often they were shaped like cars
and embellished with superfluous chrome lettering, handles and meaningless extra
chrome.41 This appliance design clearly shows that not only were cars important enough to
redesign the outside of your home; once inside, Americans, who, unable to stand the
inability to see their cars, so therefore bought appliances that would remind them of their
beloved automobiles. Clearly the automobile had transcended into the American home
affecting nearly every aspect of the home, a clear indication of the level of importance and
preoccupation of Americans with their cars.
The impact of the automobile even spread into fashion. During the 1950’s, design
changes resembling those of the automobile can clearly be seen. “By 1947, a postbellum
40 Marling, Karal Ann. As seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1994., 129
41 Marling, Karal Ann. As seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1994., 142
18
fashion became all the rage, like the postwar car, it combined a creative American style
from the war years with a new European look. Like the postwar American car, the new
fashion also fulfilled desires for lavishness, glamour, and certain shapeliness.”42 This
decade saw the car, and fashion not only sharing design but also iconography. “To look at
the cover of the September 1954 issue of Harper’s Bazaar and realize that the imageries of
high style and high octane are inextricably correlated (or car-related)…. the power of image
to persuade the public and the consumer that the life of fashion could become in the high-
speed and high style 1950’s, a fast lane of desires and images [becomes apparent].”43
Pontiac Owner’s Magazine had a fashion designer and writer, and in 1958 John Weitz
released his book Sports Clothes for Your Sports Car. Weitz, a professional fashion
designer and sports car lover “speaks to the liaison of the 1950s between car and costume,
propos[ing] that the sport-car desire is inherently a ‘fashion urge’.44 This merging of
automobiles and fashion even witnessed the advent of new types of clothing specifically
named and styled for the American auto culture this is especially clear in the car coats that
made their debut in the 1950s. To further cement the tie between automobile and fashion
after the September 1954 Harper’s Bazaar issue in October 1954 a similar imagery appears
furthering that “high-style affiliation”, “but [this time] of the radiant woman captured in a
perfect moment on a rainy night, in the back seat of a car. If one could wonder in these two
42 Martin, Richard. “Fashion and the Car in the 1950s.” Journal of American Culture 20, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 51-
56. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2009). 43 Martin, Richard. “Fashion and the Car in the 1950s.” Journal of American Culture 20, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 51-
56. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2009). 44 Martin, Richard. “Fashion and the Car in the 1950s.” Journal of American Culture 20, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 51-
56. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2009).and the car in the 1950s
19
rainy-scene car covers might have been photographed on the same clay, their immediate
succession tips us off to the pervasiveness and the persuasiveness of the automobile as the
conveyor of style in 1954. If man is, to Protagoras, the measure of all things, the 1950s
woman is the measure of the car which contains her as a vessel. It is as if she is framed by
the windows and roof of the car in a portrait style new to the twentieth century. The woman
of the 1950s was, in fact, represented in large part in association with the car.”45 Clearly,
the automobile’s influence had, by the 1950s, penetrated deeply into all aspects of
American culture and the American nuclear family.
Redefining the American Teenager
Within this 1950’s car-based culture, another new concept quickly developed-- the
teenage driver. All across America, sixteen became an age of critical importance- when a
child began to enter adult society through one of its most important pillars- the car and the
ability to drive one. Although the car was already a massive status symbol for adult
Americans, it became the status symbol of the teenage world. In Morgan’s 1953 Look
article “What a Car Means to a Boy”, he discusses the implications of a boy’s own car, the
boy driving the family car, and what driving means to the parents of a young driver-- all
important aspects of the 1950’s teenage driver. In 1959, about 900 thousand American
boys were getting their licenses, and American parents were paying an estimated $125
45 Martin, Richard. “Fashion and the Car in the 1950s.” Journal of American Culture 20, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 51-
56. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2009).
20
million on extra insurance premiums so their sons could drive the family car.46 As Martin
puts it a teenage son driver meant a “new source of worry, a new family problem, a new
drain on the budget, and lost sleep in the late hours.”47
While driving was a source of worry for the parent, the car was a source of freedom
for the son. Dispelling all doubts that he was a child any longer citing “bikes are for boys,
cars are for men”48, at driving age “a boy can hit the road, can escape, can move. He has
‘jet’ power under his right foot” and “he is closeted in a private, mobile space in which he
may begin the ritual of courtship.”49 While the car equaled freedom for the son and fear for
the parent, there were still more aspects to the teenage driver.
While the numbers were certainly higher for male teenage drivers there were some
female teenage drivers as well, and this era marked the first real en-mass entry of women
into the driving public. This interestingly enough attracted some attention into the new
phenomenon of the female teenage driver. In Richard Loughlin’s 1949 poem,50 he relates
the issues concerning teenage female driving:
To the Mother of a Young Lady Recently Licensed To Drive an Automobile
Your daughter’s trained a dragon, Mam, A thing of blazing breath;
This monster will his queen salaam;
He’ll serve her until death. She used to fear his steely “clutch”
46 Morgan, T.B. “What a Car Means to a Boy.” Look 23 (January 20, 1959): 84-90. 47 Morgan, T.B. “What a Car Means to a Boy.” Look 23 (January 20, 1959): 84-90. 48 Morgan, T.B. “What a Car Means to a Boy.” Look 23 (January 20, 1959): 84-90. 49 Morgan, T.B. “What a Car Means to a Boy.” Look 23 (January 20, 1959): 84-90. 50 Loughlin, Richard L. “To the Mother of a Young Lady Recently Licensed to Drive an Automobile.” The
English Journal, Vol. 38, no. 10. (December 1949), p. 589. JSTOR (accessed October 20, 2009).
21
And waywardness of will, But now he purrs beneath her touch
Like Tom, or Dick or Bill.
P.S. If I catch Tom or Bill, I kill!
This poem clearly expresses the feelings concerning female drivers were much the
same as that of parents of sons: safety and the opposite sex were clearly of parents’ concern.
Focus on these influences and a new attention to the growing independence of the
adolescent, in many ways centered around the freedom of the automobile reshaped the
nuclear family and created a new milestone of coming of age centered around a driver’s
license.
This newfound freedom of teenagers and the subsequent concern of their parents
lead to an increased concern regarding safety. As a result, high schools initiated driver
education courses all over the country to both instruct these new drivers and hopefully limit
the number of accidents. Although some of these programs had been around for some time,
safety began to emerge as an important component of the course in the early 1940’s.51
Americans apparently felt that safety was important, and in nine Dallas high schools in
1951, fifty thousand dollars was spent to help encourage safety on the road.52 Obviously,
safety was important concerning the teenage driver, but perhaps more important is the
evidence that adult American values and preoccupation with the automobile had trickled
51 Matthews, Don. “Driver Education in Dallas.” Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 25, no. 4. ( December
1951), p. 227-229. JSTOR (accessed October 22, 2009). 52 Matthews, Don. “Driver Education in Dallas.” Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 25, no. 4. ( December
1951), p. 227-229. JSTOR (accessed October 22, 2009).
22
down to the youth of America: they too valued and saw themselves and their success
defined within the confines of four spinning wheels.
During the 1950s, the automobile clearly began to infiltrate all aspects of the
American family--fathers, mothers, women, men, and teenagers--building and cementing
itself as a backbone of American culture, creating new criteria and redefining the American
consciousness within the nuclear family of the 1950s.
23
Top Left: 9. Suburban House with
Prominent Driveway and Garage out front
Top Right: 10. The Automotive
inspired styling of the 1950’s kitchen, note
color choice and chrome accents
Bottom Left: 11. More Auto-inspired
home appliances, also note the fashion, as the
woman’s dress also shows the “finned”
shoulders reminiscent of Earl’s tail fins
24
The Rise of the Hot Rod Culture
With the massive increase in production and the new, unprecedented speeds
Americans could reach with their cars, it became only natural that a sector of American
society would become infatuated with the principals of speed-- more specifically, how fast
one could go in comparison to others. It is this sector of society that contributed to what
became known as the Hot Rod Culture, thus exposing another change in society for which
the rise of the automobile could be held directly responsible.
To clearly understand the Hot Rod Culture one cannot ignore the one publication
which unquestionably shaped this movement as well as aided in its rise- Hot Rod Magazine.
The magazine was first published in January of 1948 under the direction of editor Wally
Parks (1913-2007), with an initial print run of five thousand copies. This publication was
the product of a collaboration between police, civic officials, and parent-teacher
associations with a group of California lake-bed racing enthusiasts. These California lake-
bed racing enthusiasts enjoyed racing in dried up lake beds in a controlled environment and
partnered with these civic associations in an effort to prevent state action against all racing
and differentiate themselves from groups of careless teenagers engaged in street racing.53
These enthusiasts wanted to prevent these careless and dangerous teenagers from
53 Moorhouse, H.F. Driving Ambitions: an Analysis of the American Hot Rod Enthusiasm. 1st ed. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1991.,36
25
“curtail[ing] their own rather serious and all-American activity”54 and thus Hot Rod was
created to be a voice for what they felt was respectable hot-rodding culture.
In its early years, Hot Rod spoke out against the mass media’s misuse of the term
“hot rod” when reporting teen street racing deaths. The magazine’s circulation grew
dramatically, mimicking the massive growth in automobile production and by the tenth
issue was printing upwards of forty thousand copies. By 1950 the publication printed in
excess of two hundred thousand copies each month.55 In the winter of 1950 American
Quarterly would report that “Hot Rod Magazine presents a true picture of the hot-rod car
and driver.”56 As the magazine began to increase and expand its circulation, it also began its
support of a national drag racing association complete with drag strip locations as a result of
enthusiasts’ automobiles now racing at speeds considered to be too dangerous for the lake
beds. Hot Rod took on the challenge, especially since it saw this task as an important
achievement in its goal of differentiating the “true” hot-rodder from the teenage street racer.
Out of this movement and desire to find a safe means to race automobiles of ever
increasing speed would come the NHRA, the National Hot Rod Association, established in
mid-1951 and still operating today. By January of 1952, the editor of Hot Rod “mused that
hot-rodding was becoming respectable and appreciated all over the USA and a lot of this
54 Moorhouse, H.F. Driving Ambitions: an Analysis of the American Hot Rod Enthusiasm. 1st ed. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1991., 36 55 Moorhouse, H.F. Driving Ambitions: an Analysis of the American Hot Rod Enthusiasm. 1st ed. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1991., 37, 41 56 Balsley, Gene. “The Hot-Rod Culture” American Quarterly, Vol. 2, no 4. (Winter 1950), p 353-358. JSTOR
(accessed October 24, 2009).
26
was due to the efforts of the NHRA”57 By September of 1952 Hot Rod claimed that the
NHRA had in excess of fifteen thousand members and three years after the creation of the
NHRA would have 2,700 hot-rod clubs58. These clubs were formed solely for the purpose
of promoting responsible drag racing and met at drag strips, which in the early years were
simply converted airstrips to race each other and to see who really had the greater
horsepower or torque at the rear wheels.
Throughout the early years of Hot Rod and the NHRA, both collaborated to increase
both safety and spectator appeal at the drag strip. To increase safety, Hot Rod published a
1954 article “How to Run a Drag Strip” which outlined a set of twenty mandatory
checkpoints to ensure the utmost safety, and NHRA saw to their enforcement.59 Once they
had increased safety, Hot Rod and the NHRA also instituted several policies to make the
sport more spectator appealing and competitive. First, they abandoned the policy of
declaring a winner as the car that had clocked with the fastest speed at the end of the of the
now standard quarter mile, since this did not necessarily make them the fastest down the
drag strip60. As a result, Hot Rod and NHRA instituted the elapsed time method with its
now iconic double strips of lights and both drivers would start at the same time and the
fastest time and not the fastest speed would now determine the winner.
57 Moorhouse, H.F. Driving Ambitions: an Analysis of the American Hot Rod Enthusiasm. 1st ed. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1991., 47 58 Moorhouse, H.F. Driving Ambitions: an Analysis of the American Hot Rod Enthusiasm. 1st ed. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1991., 48 59 Moorhouse, H.F. Driving Ambitions: an Analysis of the American Hot Rod Enthusiasm. 1st ed. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1991., 55 60 Moorhouse, H.F. Driving Ambitions: an Analysis of the American Hot Rod Enthusiasm. 1st ed. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1991., 54
27
Despite all their success, by the mid-1950’s, Hot Rod was starting to gain negative
media attention for the danger inherent in racing, culminating in the National Automobile
Dealer’s Association’s refusal to sell parts to hot-rodders in 1953.61 Despite these setbacks
Hot Rod and the NHRA proved to be resilient and clearly supported by the American
public. Membership and subscriptions continued to grow despite the ban on part sales and
the negative press, clearly exposing the massive influence Hot Rod Magazine and the
NHRA exhibited on the hot-rod culture and subsequently Americans as a whole.
No matter what the influence of the emerging hot-rod culture, not all Americans saw
the hot-rod culture in the same way. While some embraced it, others loathed its very
existence, resulting in the mixed reviews of the hot-rod culture during the time period.
Speaking for the New York Division of Safety in 1950, Thomas W. Ryan’s statement
resembles that of the image of the hot-rodder displayed through mass communication
outlets.
“He is shown as a deliberate and premeditated lawbreaker: “possession of the ‘hot
rod’ car is presumptive evidence of intent to speed. Speed is Public Enemy No. 1 of
the highways. It is obvious that a driver of a ‘hot rod’ car has an irresistible
temptation to ‘step on it’ and accordingly operate the vehicle in a reckless manner
endangering human life. It also shows a deliberate and premeditated idea to violate
the law. These vehicles are largely improvised by home mechanics and are capable
of high speed and dangerous maneuverability….The operators of these cars are
confused into believing that driving is a competitive sport.”62
61 Moorhouse, H.F. Driving Ambitions: an Analysis of the American Hot Rod Enthusiasm. 1st ed. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1991., 65 62 Balsley, Gene. “The Hot-Rod Culture” American Quarterly, Vol. 2, no 4. (Winter 1950), p 353-358. JSTOR
(accessed October 24, 2007).
28
These negative views of the hot-rodder were even displayed in a comic strip, Hot
Rod Happy, who; as the “antithesis of good, clean-living American youth,” was a “lawless,
spoiled, delinquent, disrespectful cad” who was “near death as the result of an automobile
accident for which he was apparently solely responsible.”63 But even as Hot Rod Happy
exposed the evils of the hot-rod culture, not all of America echoed the same views
concerning the culture.
Hot-rodders, hot-rod clubs and supporters viewed their car culture in a different
light. In response to the above comic strip, a hot-rod organization wrote “a hot-rod accident
or incident is newsworthy, while an accident involving ordinary cars is so common that it is
usually not newsworthy. We wonder whether you appreciate the very real contribution that
the hot- rod industry, for it is an industry, has made to automotive transportation.”64 The
author of this letter then goes on to discuss that Detroit has a million-dollar laboratory
concerning the hot-rod industry. Further, most hot-rod supporters saw the picture of hot-
rod car and driver differently. Stating in a letter to Hot Rod, “a real hot-rod is a car that is
lending itself to experimental development for the betterment of safety, operation, and
performance, not merely a stripped-down or highly decorated car of any make, or one
driven by a teen-ager. As to the menace or nuisance element, very few hot-rod enthusiasts
want to risk their specialized equipment for use as battering rams, the fact their cars are
63 Balsley, Gene. “The Hot-Rod Culture” American Quarterly, Vol. 2, no 4. (Winter 1950), p 353-358. JSTOR
(accessed October 24, 2009). 64 Letters to the Editor, Hot Rod Magazine, September 1949, 4.
29
built so that they attract attention becomes an automatic psychological brake which governs
their driving activities”65 From this statement, it becomes clear that the hot-rodder and their
supporters saw their role and activities entirely differently that those concerned with safety.
While those working for the government largely saw the hot-rodder and his car as a
nuisance and a danger to others on the road, the hot-rodder and their wide collection of
supporters simply saw themselves as responsible front runners, on the pioneering edge of
automotive technology.
65 Letters to the Editor, Hot Rod Magazine, September 1949, 4.
30
Left: 12. November 1951 issue of Hot-Rod
Magazine
Below: 13. Early Drag Race, Pre- NHRA
Pomona, CA 1950
Right: 14. Early NHRA Event
in Pomona, CA 1951
31
The Rise of the Excess Culture
With the increasingly dramatic and profound impact of the automobile on American
culture, it became an obvious and natural extension that the extremes of styling, chrome and
accessories would transfer into the American consciousness as a widespread desire for
excess. The 1950s would signify the first time that Americans had more possessions than
just what was necessary, in other words, the 1950s was “the end of the merely adequate”66
As Americans were enjoying the prosperity of the 1950s, a stark contrast to the pre-war
period, having more became the goal of the American consumer, and the automobile was at
the center of this development.
In this age of excess, the idea of having more grew simultaneously with the belief in
disposability. It became not enough to have an automobile covered in chrome and “gorp,”
one had to have this year’s model, lest one risk being seen in last year’s “dinosaurs in the
driveway.”67 These related beliefs penetrated quickly into the vast and widespread
consumer market of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Even paint by number kits echoed this
idea of an excess culture, as consumers could now purchase kits to add “gorp” to their
wastebaskets with “row upon row of luscious color capsules,”68 however unnecessary and
excessive they may have been. The idea of this excess culture was reflected in the growing
number of kitchen appliances each housewife owned, an outgrowth of the massive number
66 Sobel, Robert. The Great Boom, 1950-2000 : How a Generation of Americans Created the World's Most
Prosperous Society. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000., 107 67 Marling, Karal Ann. As seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1994., 142 68 Marling, Karal Ann. As seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1994.,
32
of accessories on the family car. Thus the excess inherent in the automobile industry spread
to all aspects of American consumerism.
Baby Boomers and Redesign
The 1960s ushered in fundamental styling changes in the automobile industry, and a
generational shift took place in both styling of the cars themselves and the character of the
automobile culture surrounding them. As the first baby boomers neared adulthood in the
early 1960s, their impact on the automobile culture turned away from chrome and fins and
leaned towards a redefined version of the automobile, one that would lead to the
introduction of the “muscle” car era.
As the 1960’s arrived, so too would a new style of American automobile. The
“Muscle” cars, like the “dream machines” of the 1950’s, were a product of consumer
demand, but this time, both a different consumer and a different designer led the way. This
movement would be led by designer John De Lorean of the Pontiac division of General
Motors, and a new generation of consumers- the earliest baby-boomers who were reaching
driving age.
These new consumers were “the first generation of Americans whose adolescent
emotional drives for self-assertiveness in consumer purchases is the key to gains or losses in
brand share-of market, holding the economic power to affect brand share-of market of
nearly every product sold in the U.S.”69 This new economic power certainly extended to
69 “When do these new consumers become independent buyers?”, New York Times, (September 22, 1964), p
54. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2004) (accessed October 30, 2007).
33
the automobile industry, as “auto manufacturers struck a bonanza with designs appealing to
these young people. The industry caught on to the realities expressed by a maxim in the
apparel industry….’Who’s responsible for the (auto) boom? Young people. The (auto)
industry leaders agree.”70 By the early 1960s, the earliest baby-boomers were reaching late
adolescence and were beginning to make their own decisions and these decisions which
would redefine the American automobile around a speedier, sleeker new style.
At this point in the early 1960s, the car centered culture came to be redefined as
designer John De Lorean teamed up with an engineer who determined that a 389- cubic inch
V-8 engine had the same size and shape as a 322 cubic inch V-8 and could fit seamlessly in
the same automobile chassis, all while adding sixty-seven more horsepower. With this
increase in engine size to the Pontiac Tempest in 1964, the car culture would be redefined
as the Pontiac GTO debuted as arguably the first “muscle car.”
Converting from Chrome to Muscle
After the introduction of the GTO by Pontiac in 1964, the muscle car era began in
earnest. Each of Detroit’s big three quickly scrambled to create their own versions, and
produced such iconic cars as the Chevrolet Chevelle (1964), the Oldsmobile 442 (1964), the
Plymouth Roadrunner (1968), the Dodge Charger (1966) and the Ford Torino (1968). Not
surprisingly Pontiac’s fellow General Motors marquees were able to capitalize on to the
muscle car trend faster than their competitors, especially since they were all built upon the
70 “When do these new consumers become independent buyers?”, New York Times, (September 22, 1964), p
54. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2004) (accessed October 30, 2007).
34
same A-body chassis as the GTO. In spite of this advantage, the other members of the “big
three” also successfully claimed a piece of the “muscle car” market.
This market became so popular that Detroit introduced a sub-trend of these high
horsepower mid-size cars--using many of the same engine combinations they produced a
series of cars titled “pony cars.” In 1964, these cars took off with wide popularity and their
lower price led to high sales during the baby boom’s coming-of-age. This trend was
touched off by Lee Iacocca’s Fords Mustang in 1964,71 introduced at the 1964 New York
World’s fair and the origin of the term “pony car.” The Mustang, in the wake of the
appearance of a market for smaller cars, combined a 260-cubic-inch engine and a four-
speed transmission with shift on the floor.72 “It was the first of the [Ford] long-term plans
to put something together for the kids.”73 Evidence of the market and success can clearly be
seen in the production numbers. Ford would sell half a million Mustangs in the eighteen
months after its introduction, leading other automakers to follow suit.74
The Ford Mustang would be followed by the Plymouth Baracuda (1964), the
Chevrolet Camaro (1966) and the Pontiac Firebird/ Trans Am (1967). Through the creation
of the pony car, the “muscle” car trend spread further into society and broadened its impact
by making these vehicles more accessible through both increased production numbers and
the rather affordable price tag of these “pony cars.” In 1965, the base price of a Mustang in
71 Zuehlke, Jeffery. Muscle Cars: Motor Mania. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications, 2006, 12. 72 Flink, James J. The Automobile Age. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1988, 289. 73 Flink, James J. The Automobile Age. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1988, 289. 74 Flink, James J. The Automobile Age. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1988, 289.
35
was only $2, 36875, a bargain compared to the larger “muscle” cars. This combination of
increased production and lower pricing allowed for more youths to enter the emerging
“muscle-car” culture of the 1960s.
For the next decade, each of these models did battle, clashing and competing over
cubic -inches, and over transmission combinations, but rarely over options and driver
comforts. This represented a major difference from the previous era of the chrome
behemoth. In contrast to the cars of the 1950s, these muscle machines were stripped to the
basics, with interiors that remained stark. Gone were the days of glitzy driver options and
consoles rounded in their own jewelry-like trim, instead these cars focused solely on speed.
As engines well in excess of 400 cubic inches became the norm in Detroit, handling seemed
of less and less importance. The key to the “muscle car” was how fast the automobile could
go in a straight line, as interest in drag racing increased, both in sanctioned events, and on
back roads.
These differences on the production line and the transition from glamour to sheer
speed suggest a generational change in defining what a car was supposed to be. Gone were
the giant chromed monoliths of the 1950s, as the baby boomers rejected this notion of what
their parents found desirable. Instead they realigned the car culture with as much
enthusiasm as their parents, but centered it around drag-racing and all-out horsepower
instead. These changes suggest the further transformation of the automobile into the
preeminent token of personal identity in post-war America. 75 Flink, James J. The Automobile Age. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1988, 289.
36
Left: 15. De Lorean’s 1964 Pontiac
GTO, note the drastic styling
changes from the 1950s
Right: 16. Iacocca’s 1965 Ford
Mustang, the original “Pony Car”
whose price point allowed more
to enter the market
Right: 17. The 1970 Pontiac
GTO, this period was the
high point for horsepower in
the Muscle-Car era.
37
The Automobile as Identity
The ability of drivers in general and teenagers in particular to define themselves and
their identity through their automobiles was greatly influenced by the rise of the multi-car
family. In 1950, only seven percent of families owned more than one car, but by 1970
twenty-nine percent did.76 As a result, “a family’s second or third car did not have to be an
all-purpose family sedan, but could be tailored to the specific needs of the primary
driver.”77 While the automobile as a means of individuality had its origins in the 1930s, the
increase of available models, especially seen in the rise of the wide variety of models
available even within the “muscle-car” class, not to mention the proliferation of more
family-centered creations such as the station wagon, gave rise to a heightened sense of this
concept.
The impact of this change can most clearly be seen in the increased individualization
regarding one’s identity. This connection would play out time and time again in high
school parking lots across the nation and this impact can be seen simply when talking to
people of the era and while they may have trouble remembering details concerning an old
friend, can recall the details of their car instantaneously.
76 Gartman, David. Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design. New York:
Routledge,1994. 185. 77Gartman, David. Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design. New York:
Routledge,1994. 185.
38
Downfall and Decline
This muscle-car culture spanned much of the baby-boom’s coming of age era.
Starting with the debut of the GTO in 1964, this craze appeared to have no end, but a series
of economic crises and government regulations drove the movement to a demise that Detroit
could not have imagined. Furthermore, increases in gas prices and insurance premiums in
the early 1970s led to the inability of the young baby boomers to afford their “muscle” car
dreams. These constraints, coupled with the enactment of the Federal Clean Air Act of
1970, which tightened emissions restrictions by 90 percent of three main pollutants,
signaled an untimely end to unrestrained and unregulated raw horsepower.78 The auto
industry fought these new government regulations every step of the way, but in the end the
price of oil, coupled with an increasing public interest in safety and the environment, led by
Ralph Nader and others, made resistance futile and the regulations stick.79
These issues exploded in September 1973 with the oil embargo imposed by the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). With the embargo, “gasoline
prices skyrocketed, consumers waited with short tempers in long lines at gas stations, and
gas-guzzling cars became defined as socially irresponsible.”80 This led directly to
Congress’ 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which mandated an average fuel
economy of 27.5 miles per gallon by 1985 and also a newly-found public interest in safety
78 Gartman, David. Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design. New York:
Routledge,1994. 209. 79 Gartman, David. Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design. New York:
Routledge,1994. 209. 80 Gartman, David. Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design. New York:
Routledge,1994. 213.
39
regulations for automobiles.81 Thus, “this massive public intervention was the culmination
of a shift in America’s automotive consciousness away from fantastic dreams of escape and
individuality toward the sober reality of efficiency and functionality.”82
Thus, as quickly as the era rushed in it would quickly come to an end, with the last
of the true “muscle” cars produced in 1972, as each of Detroit’s major auto manufacturers
stopped production on large, extreme horsepower engine combinations. Any vestige of
them that remained in production was solely in the name plate, as the “big three” began an
era where only small engine combinations and lighter, smaller bodies began rolling off the
assembly lines.
However, that is not to say that the car culture of the 1950s and 1960s would be
completely extinguished. Instead quite the contrary, baby-boomers would fight to hold on
to vestiges of this culture. These would include the continued cultivation of individuality
through one’s automobile, the coming of age ritual of passing the driver’s license exam and
the subsequent rise in the 1990s of car clubs seeking to relive the fabled past of chrome and
muscle.
Conclusion
Throughout the course of the 1950s and 1960s, the automobile came to control
American culture, from its massive rise in production, its creation of an American
81 Gartman, David. Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design. New York:
Routledge,1994. 213. 82 Gartman, David. Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design. New York:
Routledge,1994. 213.
40
obsession, its impact on the nuclear family, the rise of the hot rod culture, the development
of excess culture and the extension of its power through the “muscle car” era.
When the baby boomers took over the development of car culture in the mid 1960s
they transformed it to suit their own needs, placing further emphasis on individuality and
raw speed. This version of the culture evolved and expanded at a rate that seems to echo
the growth of the engines that powered the cars themselves and allowed for a full
penetration of the car culture across multiple generations and all aspects of society. Before
the culture’s downfall as a consequence of the economic considerations of the 1970s, it had
assumed a grip on society that reshaped everything from the physical landscape with the
growth of suburbs, to the reshaping of the nuclear family with a redefined construct of the
adolescent and the freedom obtained behind the wheel.
Some of these developments withstood the 1970s restructuring of the automobile
industry in its turn toward functionality and were able to retain their hold into the present.
Other aspects, however, particularly the types of cars produced themselves, ended with the
reforms, regulations and economic issues associated with the 1970s. In spite of these
wrenching changes, the emergence of a car-obsessed culture in post-war America radically
reshaped society. In short, the automobile transformed American society, redefining it
along almost every line, to mold America into a car centered society. In the 1950s and
1960s a transformation had taken place: “America was the car and the car was America.”83
83 Inge, M. Thomas. Handbook of American Popular Culture.Vol 1, Ch, 2. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1978., 29
41
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Balsley, Gene. “The Hot-Rod Culture” American Quarterly, Vol. 2, no 4. (Winter 1950), p
353-358. JSTOR (accessed October 24, 2009).
Bandeen, Robert A. “Automobile Comsumption, 1940-1950” Econometrica, Vol 25, No. 2.
(April 1957), pp. 239-248. JSTOR (accessed January 27, 2010).
Cort, David. “You Too, Can Drive a Juke Box” The Nation 183, no. 25 (December 22,
1956): p 534-536. The Nation Archive, EBSCO host (accessed January 24, 2009).
Keats, John. The Crack in the Picture Window. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: The Riverside
Press, 1956.
Keats, John. The Insolent Chariots. Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1958.
Letters to the Editor, Hot Rod Magazine, September 1949.
Loughlin, Richard L. “To the Mother of a Young Lady Recently Licensed to Drive an
Automobile.” The English Journal, Vol. 38, no. 10. (December 1949), p. 589.
JSTOR (accessed October 20, 2009).
Matthews, Don. “Driver Education in Dallas.” Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 25,
no. 4. ( December 1951), p. 227-229. JSTOR (accessed October 22, 2009).
Morgan, T.B. “What a Car Means to a Boy.” Look 23 (January 20, 1959): 84-90.
Nossiter, Bernard. “Detroit’s Annual Model Bill” The Nation 194, no, 3 (January 20, 1962):
50-51. The Nation Archive. EBSCOhost (accessed September 19, 2009).
Weeks, Robert P. “Detroit Discovers the Consumer” The Nation 189, no. 8 (September 19,
1959): 151-153, The Nation Archive. EBSCOhost (accessed September 19, 2009).
42
“When do these new consumers become independent buyers?”, New York Times,
(September 22, 1964), p 54. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times
(1851-2004) (accessed October 30, 2009).
Secondary Sources
Berman, Ronald. America in the Sixies: An Intellectual History. New York: The Free Press,
1968.
Cohen, Lizabeth. A Consumer’s Republic: the Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar
America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
Cross, Gary S. An All-Consuming Century: Why Commercialism Won in Modern
America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
Flink, James J. The Automobile Age. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1988.
Foster, Mark S. A Nation on Wheels: the Automobile Culture in America Since 1945. 1st
ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning, 2003.
Gartman, David. Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design. New
York: Routledge, 1994.
Halberstam, David. The Fifties. 1st ed. New York: Villard Books, a division of Random
House, 1993.
Hinckley, Jim and Jon G. Robinson. The Big Book of Car Culture: An Armchair Guide to
Automotive Americana. St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks, 2005.
Hyde, Charles K. Riding the Roller Coaster: A History of the Chrysler Corporation. Detroit,
MI: Wayne State University Press, 2003.
Inge, M. Thomas. Handbook of American Popular Culture.Vol 1, Ch, 2. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 1978.
43
Laux, James M. The Automobile Revolution: The Impact of an Industry. 1st ed. Chapel Hill,
NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1982.
Lewis, David L. and Lawrence Goldstein. The Automobile and American Culture. Ann
Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1993.
Marling, Karal Ann. As seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994.
Martin, Richard. “Fashion and the Car in the 1950s.” Journal of American Culture 20, no. 3
(Fall 1997): 51-56. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29,
2009).
Moorhouse, H.F. Driving Ambitions: an Analysis of the American Hot Rod Enthusiasm. 1st
ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991
Norfleet, Barbara. When We Liked Ike: Looking for Postwar America. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 2001.
Sobel, Robert. The Great Boom, 1950-2000 : How a Generation of Americans Created the
World's Most Prosperous Society. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.
Veitch, Jonathan. "Angels of the Assembly Line: The Dream Machines of the Fifties."
Southwest Review 79, no. 4 (Autumn 1994): 650. Academic Search Premier,
EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2009).
Zuehlke, Jeffery. Muscle Cars: Motor Mania. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications, 2006
44
Citations for Images
1. 1946 Ford.
http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/transportation/images/autobooks/hotrod-1151.JPG
2.P-38 Airplane.
http://www.macarthurmemorial.org/MacArthurs_Airmen/images/P-
38_Lightning_LightBox.jpg
3.1948 Cadillac
.http://www.funniez.net/images/stories/classic_american_cars/1948%20Cadillac%20Fleetw
ood%2060%20Special%20%28photo20.jpg
4. Evolution of the Tail Fin under Harley Earl,
Marling, Karal Ann. As seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994.
5. 1959 Chevrolet with “Garish” Fins.
http://www.mywvhome.com/web/cars/59Chevy.jpg
6.1957 Chevrolet with Chrome and “Frenched” Headlights.
http://www.plan59.com/images/JPGs/chevrolet_1957_sss.jpg
7. 1950’s Drive-In Diner
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NjFpppCHqBE/SYCt0-
HRRgI/AAAAAAAAAoA/fch8C62fvyQ/s1600/1950%27S+DRIVE+IN+RESTAURANTS
.jpg
8. 1950s Drive-In Movie
http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-
content/uploads/satevepost/cover_9610819_clipped.jpg
9. Suburban house with prominent driveway and garage.
http://www.midcenturyhomestyle.com/img/51weyerhaeuser-frntcvr.jpg
10. 1950’s Automotive Inspired Kitchen.
http://www.elmirastoveworks.com/content/images/northstar_rangehood.jpg
11. 1950’s Washing Machine Advertisement
http://www.buyvintageads.com/images/1318_1950-Frigidaire-Automatic-Washer-ad-Sexy-
House-Wife.jpg
12. Hot-Rod Magazine, November 1951.
http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/transportation/images/autobooks/hotrod-1151.JPG
13. Early National Hot-Rod Association Event, Pomona, CA.
45
http://daphne.palomar.edu/scrout/ams105/pomona50.jpg
14. Early NHRA Even- Winternationals Pomona, CA 1951
http://www.nhra.com/2009/images/news/january/pomona1.jpg
15.1964 Pontiac GTO.
http://image.automotive.com/f/images/11078741+pheader/hppp_0901_01_z+1964_pontiac_
gto+side_angle.jpg
16.1965 Ford Mustang.
http://images.mustangandfords.com/featuredvehicles/mufp_0801_fast_01z+1965_ford_mus
tang_fastback+front_view.jpg
17. 1970 GTO
http://images.carsforsale.com/285172/933E56C0-3785-4AD0-9A8A-
C46DDDDD6904_1.jpg
top related