Doc Graf's LaSalle
My Story: Doc Graf was our family doctor back many years ago, and he actually delivered me! So Doc, I dedicate this image of this fine forty LaSalle to you sir, and although I couldn't say it then I'll say it now, thanks!
The car, and company: The story of the LaSalle marque began when Harley Earl — arguably the godfather of modern auto design — was hired away from Don Lee Cadillac’s custom body section in Los Angeles to design a new smaller sportier companion make for Cadillac in 1927, and was given only four months to do it. He borrowed heavily from the styling of the Hispano-Suiza of the time, and added some handsome flourishes of his own. The result was a huge sales success.
The LaSalle moniker was a logical follow-on from the Cadillac brand, which was named for French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who founded Detroit. So to continue in that vain, the new LaSalle was named for Rene-Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle who had explored the Great Lakes region a couple of centuries before.
Also, during the pre-war period Paris was the center of fashion, style and culture for the western world, and many Americans considered French design to be the ultimate. Cadillac recognized that regard for all things European when they made Earl head of design for General Motors and gave him his own styling section called the Department of Arts and Colours, with the British spelling being an intentional nod toward the continent.
LaSalle was Cadillac’s companion make, though it lasted longer than the short-lived Viking that was Oldsmobile companion make from 1929 until 1931, and the Marquette for Buick in 1930 that lasted just one year. These additions to the General Motors lineup were added during the heady boom times of the late ’20s, just in time for the stock market crash and the great depression. Pontiac was the exception. It began as a companion make for Oakland in 1926, and wound up consuming its host in 1933.
Actually, LaSalle lasted longer than most GM companion makes; but it too would finally go the way of the others in 1940, albeit due to rather unique circumstances. In fact, LaSalle almost went down along with the Viking back in 1933. But the problem was LaSalle’s success, not its failure, but more on that later.
In fact, LaSalle was only saved for 1933 because Harley Earl was wandering around the design department one night looking at what his designers were doing, and spotted some sketches done by Jules Agramonte that were revolutionary. They drew directly upon the British streamlined beach racers, and were beautiful and exciting. They showed low slung streamlined machines with speed line creases and highlights down their hoods and fenders from front to back, and sleek swept back two-piece windshields.
Earl waited until the end of the new model presentation to the executives in 1932 to present Agramonte’s work as the car General Motors was not going to build in 1933. It was so handsome and exciting that management changed their minds then and there, and the LaSalle marque was saved – at least for the time being.
The design objective that went into the LaSalle was to make it a trendsetter, with new fresh and exciting looks every year. As a result, design ideas were tried on the LaSalle first, and later adapted to the Cadillac and other GM automobiles.
Later in the decade, 23 year-old stylist Bill Mitchell’s prototype for the 1938 LaSalle was actually commandeered to become Cadillac’s Sixty Special, and that began the death spiral of LaSalle, even though most of GM’s management proudly drove them rather than Cadillac’s other offerings.
The marque’s eventual demise was also partly because Packard debuted their junior series mass-production model 120 in 1935 and it was a run away success. In fact, it was so successful that Packard’s best year ever was 1937, when other car companies were collapsing into bankruptcy.
Doc Graf's LaSalle
My Story: Doc Graf was our family doctor back many years ago, and he actually delivered me! So Doc, I dedicate this image of this fine forty LaSalle to you sir, and although I couldn't say it then I'll say it now, thanks!
The car, and company: The story of the LaSalle marque began when Harley Earl — arguably the godfather of modern auto design — was hired away from Don Lee Cadillac’s custom body section in Los Angeles to design a new smaller sportier companion make for Cadillac in 1927, and was given only four months to do it. He borrowed heavily from the styling of the Hispano-Suiza of the time, and added some handsome flourishes of his own. The result was a huge sales success.
The LaSalle moniker was a logical follow-on from the Cadillac brand, which was named for French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who founded Detroit. So to continue in that vain, the new LaSalle was named for Rene-Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle who had explored the Great Lakes region a couple of centuries before.
Also, during the pre-war period Paris was the center of fashion, style and culture for the western world, and many Americans considered French design to be the ultimate. Cadillac recognized that regard for all things European when they made Earl head of design for General Motors and gave him his own styling section called the Department of Arts and Colours, with the British spelling being an intentional nod toward the continent.
LaSalle was Cadillac’s companion make, though it lasted longer than the short-lived Viking that was Oldsmobile companion make from 1929 until 1931, and the Marquette for Buick in 1930 that lasted just one year. These additions to the General Motors lineup were added during the heady boom times of the late ’20s, just in time for the stock market crash and the great depression. Pontiac was the exception. It began as a companion make for Oakland in 1926, and wound up consuming its host in 1933.
Actually, LaSalle lasted longer than most GM companion makes; but it too would finally go the way of the others in 1940, albeit due to rather unique circumstances. In fact, LaSalle almost went down along with the Viking back in 1933. But the problem was LaSalle’s success, not its failure, but more on that later.
In fact, LaSalle was only saved for 1933 because Harley Earl was wandering around the design department one night looking at what his designers were doing, and spotted some sketches done by Jules Agramonte that were revolutionary. They drew directly upon the British streamlined beach racers, and were beautiful and exciting. They showed low slung streamlined machines with speed line creases and highlights down their hoods and fenders from front to back, and sleek swept back two-piece windshields.
Earl waited until the end of the new model presentation to the executives in 1932 to present Agramonte’s work as the car General Motors was not going to build in 1933. It was so handsome and exciting that management changed their minds then and there, and the LaSalle marque was saved – at least for the time being.
The design objective that went into the LaSalle was to make it a trendsetter, with new fresh and exciting looks every year. As a result, design ideas were tried on the LaSalle first, and later adapted to the Cadillac and other GM automobiles.
Later in the decade, 23 year-old stylist Bill Mitchell’s prototype for the 1938 LaSalle was actually commandeered to become Cadillac’s Sixty Special, and that began the death spiral of LaSalle, even though most of GM’s management proudly drove them rather than Cadillac’s other offerings.
The marque’s eventual demise was also partly because Packard debuted their junior series mass-production model 120 in 1935 and it was a run away success. In fact, it was so successful that Packard’s best year ever was 1937, when other car companies were collapsing into bankruptcy.