Fantasy Fulfilled: ’57 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham

The Eldorado Brougham was one man’s dream intended to play upon the fantasies of the American car-buying public. We are referring to GM’s styling boss, Harley J. Earl. To Earl, glitzy sold cars. Many of Earl’s designs had a lot more to do with playing to an audience than anything else. This was Cadillac’s response to the elegant Continental Mark 2. The Ford and GM cars had different philosophies: the Continetal, a formal 2-door and the Eldorado, a pillarless 4-door. The one thing they have in common is the astoundingly high price of $14,000 and the limited production. Like the Continental, profit was not the goal for the Eldorado Brougham. Read More

Hitch’s Caddy: ’58 Cadillac Sedan deVille

It isn’t really Alfred Hitchcock’s Cadillac but it serves the purpose referring to it here as his. Hitchcock is seen many times being driven to the studio in a Cadillac exactly like this one in the movie version of Alfred Hitchcock’s career during the filming of Psycho. The movie, Hitchcock, portrays Alma, his wife and muse, as the driver most of the time. It was a perfect selection by the production designer of the movie to select a car like the Sedan de Ville to depict Hitch’s car (maybe he did own one). Cadillacs were what many people aspired to own back in the day.

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“Fintastic” (related to the Thunderbird): ’48 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible

There is no question that post World War II automobiles were influenced by sleak fighter planes, in this particular case, the P38 Lightning. At first, many of these design concepts were judged to be a little too far ahead of what the public might accept. When it came time to design the new Cadillacs for 1948, that was the case. The designer was a man by the name of Frank Hershey and he was the guy that decided that tailfins might be a cool design detail for the new car. His boss, didn’t agree and told him to get rid of them. He just covered them up with a sheet. The next time the Boss came in he chastised him for not removing the fins. Hershey covered them up again. Then the big brass came in and loved them. History was made that day and the tailfin craze spread throughout the industry. Read More

Representing the ’60s: ’63 Cadillac Coupe deVille

When Don Draper achieved partnership he went out and bought a Cadillac very much like the one representing the ’60s American luxury.  A little background – the first Cadillac to carry the French inspired name was an Autorama show car.  Read More

Family Affair: ’49 Cadillac Series 75 Limousine

We usually don’t get excited about classic American Limousines. But this one stopped us in out tracks. Maybe it was the un-limo green color that set it apart from others? Here is a little history of the Cadillac Series 75 Courtesy of Wikipedia: The Series 75 returned after the war as Cadillac’s largest model. It retained most of its pre-war styling and rode on the long 136 in. wheelbase and used a distinctive body not shared with other general Motors divisions.  Read More