Harley Earl

“The Da Vinci of Detroit”

Recently, General Motors resurrected an automotive icon from the past to help introduce the newly restyled Buicks for 2003. Today, Harley Earl is known only as a character in GM�s television commercials, yet his legacy as GM�s premiere design engineer is still very much alive. It is his vision that defines the lexicon of what �is� a Classic Car today.

Harley Earl was born on November 22, 1893 in Los Angles California, one of the first cities designed for the automobile. His father, J.W. Earl, was from Michigan and had worked there as a lumberjack. In 1889 the senior Earl moved his family to the west coast and became a coach maker, building carriages, wagons, and racing sulkies. With the advent of the automobile he founded Earl Automobile Works in 1908 and began making customized parts and accessories for cars.
The younger Earl attended Stanford University, but returned home before completing his engineering studies in order to focus on design and styling at his father’s business. By the early 1920�s Harley Earl was designing custom auto bodies for most of Hollywood�s elite. His first notable project was a $28,000 streamlined car body for Rococo �Fatty� Arbuckle, Hollywood�s brightest star at the time. One of his more famous designs was a custom body with a saddle on the hood built for cowboy star Tom Mix.

Cecil B. De Mille, who owned several custom body automobiles, believed the success of the movies and automobiles went hand in hand. De Mille said the success of movies and automobiles reflected “the heart of motion and speed, the restless urge toward improvement, expansion, and the kinetic energy of a young, vigorous nation.”

During this same period, Earl Automobile Works also provided custom bodies for the large Southern California Cadillac dealership owned by Don Lee. Impressed with the Earl�s success, Don Lee purchased the company. Becoming Don Lee Coach & Body Works, Harley remained as general manager, providing the design work and running the body plant. The business of supplying coach-built bodies for the luxury car market was lucrative and the Lee-Earl partnership prospered. By the mid 1920s they were turning out 300 bodies a year, shipping some bodies as far away as India and Europe.

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