The 1959 Cadillac may not have been the most excessive design to come out of the late-50s and early-60s, but I still think that it epitomized what was wrong with U.S. car styling. The new design was dripping in excess, from its huge tailfins to its gaudy grille.
Even so, Richard Langworth and Jan P. Norbye noted that “the styling had been generally cleaned up” on 1959 General Motors’ cars due to William Mitchell replacing Harley Earl as head designer (1986, p. 227). And even though the base Series 62 models were stretched eight inches, they were still slightly shorter than the Lincoln and Imperial.
Thus, the paradox of the 1959 Cadillac — its styling was remarkably overwrought, yet in size the car was slightly more restrained than the competition. As a case in point, consider our featured car, a Coupe de Ville.
GM did ‘crazy things’ when trying to catch up
For 1959 GM was playing catch up with Detroit’s latest fad, which was to make its cars lower, longer and wider. Mitchell later acknowledged that the dramatically redesigned 1957 Chrysler models resulted in him panicking and making “crazy things” that he would later be “ashamed to look at” (Crippen, 1987).
I could understand why Mitchell would say that. Even Maurice D. Hendry’s book on Cadillac — which does a lot of pom-pom waving for the brand — noted that the 1959 redesign “saw tail fins reach a literally ridiculous height” (1983, p. 302).
The 1959 Cadillac established the general size that the brand would keep until 1977, when it was downsized somewhat. Even so, what’s interesting about the 1959 models is that in some respects they were only slightly different from their predecessors. Weight was up less than 100 pounds and width was down by .1 of an inch. By the same token, length was reduced by .3 inches for the Fleetwood Sixty-Special.
Perhaps the biggest change was in height, which was down 3.7 inches. Meanwhile, the base Series 62 models were made the same length as the Sixty-Special. That made the latter less special.
1959 marked greater interchangeability of body parts
The 1959 Cadillac models were also noteworthy it that they shared more body parts with the rest of GM’s passenger-car divisions. The automaker’s engineers “showed that it would be more economical in 1959 to scrap GM’s traditional A-B-C-D body plan and go with one basic platform for all five makes,” wrote Michael Lamm and Dave Holls. “This all-serving platform would be shortened or lengthened to give different wheelbases and body lengths” (1996, p. 180).
What that meant was that the cowl, windshield and front doors on four-door models were now shared across the board. For those who noticed such things, that made Cadillacs less special than in the past.
GM made this move at the same time that both the Lincoln and Imperial had been given more unique bodies than their lower-priced siblings. If exclusivity meant anything, one would think that Cadillac would have been at a sales disadvantage, but that didn’t prove to be the case. For 1959 the brand’s share of the luxury-car field went up to 76.3 percent. That was a meaningful boost over 1957, when Cadillac’s share bottomed out for the decade at 65 percent. From 1960-63 Cadillac averaged around 78 percent.
Could it be that Cadillac’s unusual level of discipline in maintaining consistent styling was more appealing to luxury-car buyers than whether a unique body was used?
Cadillac doubled down on the sci-fi look
The 1959 models were also noteworthy because they marked an evolution of the “dog-leg” windshield. A slanted-forward A-pillar was kept but it was given enough curvature to allow much greater glass area. In addition, the beltline was lowered, which gave the greenhouse an airier quality. That was arguably the most positive quality of the redesign.
The massive effort to redesign GM’s 1959 cars was marked by a “frenzy to come up with a new and different look,” according to Lamm and Holls. That resulted in nothing seeming “too bizarre to warrant serious consideration.” Even so, most of the weirdest ideas “didn’t make it beyond GM’s styling courtyard as fiberglass mockups” (1996, p. 180).
Lamm and Holls described the Cadillac as “spectacular” — and noted that the postal service even put a picture of the car on a stamp (1996, p. 180). Somehow that’s supposed to redeem the sheer outrageousness of its design?
A sign that GM recognized that it went too far was that the 1960 Cadillac was considerably toned down. The auto editors of Consumer Guide put it this way: “Cadillac immediately backed away from wretched excess with a more restrained 1960 line bearing cleaner grilles and lowered fins” (2006, p. 108).
That was a smart move, but it is still sociologically interesting to me that the 1959 Cadillac’s design was actually approved for production.
NOTES:
The original photos-only “Gallery” feature was posted on July 2, 2020; text was added Sept. 15, 2025. Specifications and production figures are from the auto editors of Consumer Guide (2006), Flory (2004, 2009) and Gunnell (2002).
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Auto editors of Consumer Guide; 2006. Encyclopedia of American Cars. Publications International, Lincolnwood, Ill.
- Crippen, David R.; 1987. “The Reminiscences of William L. Mitchell.” Automobile in American Life and Society. Posted May 8.
- Flory, J. “Kelly” Jr.; 2009. American Cars, 1946-1959: Every Model, Year by Year. McFarland & Co.
- Gunnell, John; 2002. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975. Revised 4th Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
- Hendry, Maurice D.; 1983. Cadillac, Standard of the World: The Complete History. Bonanza Books, New York.
- Lamm, Michael and Dave Holls; 1996. A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design. Lamm-Morada Publishing Co.
- Langworth, Richard M. and Jan P. Norbye; 1986. The Complete History of General Motors 1908-1986. Publications International, Skokie, IL.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- oldcarbrochures.org: Cadillac (1958, 1959); Imperial (1959); Lincoln (1959)
It’s funny for me as a car crazed young kid to look back at my impressions of various cars when I was young versus now. Some I appreciate now, like the 57-58 Plymouths, the Studebaker Loewy coupes, etc. and others like the 59 Caddy that I didn’t love then and have a hard time loving now. I think in 59 Buick did the best with design, the Caddy was just too much over the top and in your face. On one level I like that, on others not so much. I prefer more understated luxury, the 61 Continental and the 65 Cadillacs as a couple of examples.
The 1960 Cadillacs are prettier than the ’59s, especially the Eldorados. However, when I think of excess, I think of the garish chrome trim along the sides of GM cars, especially the Buick, Pontiac and Olds. At least with the ’59 Cadillac, the excess is confined to the front and back ends, and there’s an attempt at symmetry of design.
Is there a particular inflection point that made that car iconic? Some historic image? Or is it because it was higher on the scale of aspirational cars from the 1950s? How did it become shorthand for an entire era? I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t iconic.
OF the 3 American luxury cars in 1959 – I suppose the Cadillac gets top honors. That is not a laughable statement. Especially compared to the competition. In the 1960’s the 59’s were still seen everywhere going about thier business. While was no longer featured at the opening nights – they were handed down to children and they drove great. The styling ? We had no problem with it. Any more than we had a problem with Marilyn Monroe. Look at what happened in 1960 – the ’59 was refined and smoothed to one outrageously appealing car. The interior was similar to the ”Barcelona Chairs” and the fins were made beautiful. The back end was a perfect statement of SPACE age fantasy with the course grille texture. The front end – again perfect. My take
Still, Cadillac with Pininfarina, gived us a taste of things to come for 1961 with the Eldorado Brougham. https://www.hemmings.com/stories/find-of-the-day-1959-pininfarina-cadillac-eldorado-brougham/
Bill Mitchell encouraged the 1959 detail excesses: Telling the stylists and clay modelers to make the fins more pronounced.
The Night Cadillac Lost Its Mind
Dateline: Late 1956, Detroit, MI
“Have you seen what those bastards over at Chrysler have done?” Albert Clawson barked, lighting one cigar off the glowing stub of another. He chewed on it like it was a hot dog.
Of course, everyone else around the mahogany table had seen exactly what Chrysler had done—probably even before Al had—but none dared to be the first to respond.
“Who the hell does Exner think he is? Fins on every single car they make. Grilles that look like teenagers with braces. By God, I won’t stand for that upstart trying to steal the Leadership of Style title from us without a fight. We’re the damn company that put ’Merica on wheels!” Al was on a rage-fed roll.
“Actually, that was Henry Ford,” Marvin Bell from accounting muttered.
“What’d you say, Bell?” Al snapped.
“Nothing, sir. Just clearing my throat,” Bell replied quickly. A gloom settled over the oak-paneled boardroom.
Al grabbed the phone in front of him and barked at his secretary. “Skylark! Get two or three boys from Design up here in ten minutes with sketch pads, pens, and drawings for the ’59 Caddys. And have Electra down the hall bring more Scotch and ice. Tell her to walk out slowly when she leaves.” He winked at the suits as he hung up. “Call your wives and tell ’em you’ll be late. We’re not leaving till this is solved.”
The Design boys had never even set foot on that floor of the building, much less inside The Room.
“Tack those drawings on the wall and get your pens out,” Al barked.
“Right into the paneling?” Tim, recently promoted from Buick, asked nervously.
“Unless you’ve got a roll of corkboard up your butt!” Al shot back. “DO IT!”
Once the drawings were nailed up, Al demanded more.
“More what?” the young designers asked.
“More of everything. More chrome. More fin. More of what ’Merica strives to be,” he thundered.
“What if we line the grille with fifteen tiny silver bullets?” Tim asked.
“More!” Al roared.
“Thirty?”
“Make it sixty—and slap ’em on the backend, too.”
Now the suits were getting into the spirit. Clark from Personnel, fresh off a Disneyland vacation, piped up. “How about two exhaust pods on the rear, one on each side of the sixty bullets?”
Marvin from accounting finally contributed: “What about spears down the sides, like air intakes?”
Tim and his fellow stylists could barely sketch fast enough. Scotch kept pouring.
“Make the fins taller!” Al shouted. “TALLER!”
Hours later, Al picked up the phone again. “Have Invicta call out for food. And tell Electra to bring in more Scotch.”
Electra appeared with a silver tray, three fresh bottles of the good stuff, and new buckets of ice. As she sashayed out, Al bellowed, “Make that rear end more bulbous!”
Pete from Purchasing, worried about his silence, blurted, “We’re heading into the space age—toss some rockets on there!”
“Damn good idea, Pete!” Al proclaimed. The stylists drew a red rocket on each tail fin.
“More!” Al roared. Suddenly there were two on each fin.
By midnight, everyone was drunk. Some slept in their offices, a few with their secretaries. But pinned to the paneling of the executive suite was the outline of what would become the most outrageous design Detroit ever dared.
Nice fantasy story but you should read Chuck Jordan’s factual accounts of how the 1959 design was developed. Chuck was the Studio Chief for the 59 and 60.
I could not understand why side scoop was slapped on the side of the 60 special sedan like something from an AMT model kit. The 60 was the top model and should exude elegance.
Harley Earl’s mantra was supposedly, “Go all the way, then back off.” With the 1959 Cadillac, they didn’t back off, although the late Chuck Jordan has said that originally the fins were higher than the roof!
The 1959 Cadillac strikes me as a show car that went straight from the drawing board to the showroom. In the normal progression of things (or, normal for GM at that time), there would have been a Motorama show car that looked like a 1959 Cadillac, and then something like the 1961 Cadillac would have appeared in the showroom a year or two later.
The two-door hardtop isn’t the body style that provides the maximum impact – primarily because the greenhouse was cribbed almost verbatim from the 1957 Plymouth and Dodge. The four-door hardtop with the canopy roof is the real showstopper, and completely original. The thin pillars, along with the radically wrapped windshield and rear window, make it seem as though the roof itself is floating above the body.
One could argue that the entire design was ultimately a dead end, given that the 1959 Ford Galaxie, with its Thunderbird-inspired greenhouse, was the real hit of 1959. It was a midyear debut, and extremely popular. If the Galaxie had debuted at the beginning of the model year, Ford may have very well outsold Chevrolet, even though the Chevrolet was all-new and very radical.
GM did use a toned-down version of that greenhouse on the 1960 Chevrolet Corvair four-door sedan (with a center pillar and non-wrapped windshield). That car was extremely influential in Europe and Japan – although, curiously enough, not so much in the U.S.
True, after 1959 the styling was toned down but in the big picture not much has changed. When cruising in my son’s 1973 Lincoln Mark IV you look over a flight deck of a hood and it’s all for styling and no purpose. Just recently I drove a 2024 Chevy Silverado 2500 with a huge front end and bulging hood almost impossible to see over. 51 years later, all for styling, no purpose……history repeats.
But the industry can’t make enough of the full sized pick-ups and their SUV derivatives. One can deride the manufacturers’ direction but then it must be tempered with what the marketplace is doing by voting with their pocketbooks.
Jeff is correct, when it comes to getting most of the buyer’s dollars purpose will take a back seat to style. An industry icon said it well: “What do you want in a female companion? What is the first thing that attracts you. Her ability to cook and keep house or is it the way she looks? It’s not politically correct, GM hates it when I draw that analogy. But it’s absolutely correct” [Bob Lutz]
Well, that explains the “Dagmar” bumper guards back then.