Mario's Tribute to 1959 Pontiac Pink Lady

Mario on Apr 11, 2021 said:

The "Pink Lady" is a one-off car special ordered by famed "daVinci of Detroit" designer Harley Earl, for his wife. Features a 1959 Pontiac Catalina chassis with Bonneville trim, 389ci Tri-Power with 348hp and every accessory. AACA Grand National champion twice.

In 1959, at the height of his career, the world's greatest artist/engineer impresario, Harley Earl, ran General Motor's famed Styling Division. Earl often created special order cars for celebrities, GM executives, their wives, politicians and others.

Except for Harley Earl, no one else inside any other division of General Motors had the clout to spend large amounts of corporate money building expensive one-of-a-kind custom cars for important dignitaries.

57timemachine on Apr 11, 2021 said:

What a beauty and amazing it still survives today. Harley Earl sure ran GM styling with an iron fist and it is a good thing he did. I love the cars that were built under his tenure far more than what came after, for the most part. Mario, thanks for sharing all this amazing historical stuff. Cheers.

Mario on Apr 11, 2021 said:

Thanks George. So many great stories written about Harley Earl, the Titan at GM.

Besides designing the 1927 Cadillac LaSalle, the 1948 "Finned" Cadillac, the Tri-Five Chevys, the two toned chromed cars of the fifties, numerous one-of-a-kind futuristic and specialty cars, FATHER OF THE “CONCEPT CAR”, he was also according to The National Corvette Museum "the father of the Corvette. The Corvette was his idea pure and simple."

azmusclecar on Apr 11, 2021 said:

Was Harley Earl a salesman for Mary K Cosmetics?

Its hard for me to love any pink car. Do you know why the color pink is used in jail cells for violent criminals?

PINK has a way of calming or deescalating a person.

When Joe Arpayo was Prison Warden in PHX he had the cellmates wear PINK jumpsuits.

The color pink applied to any car just doesn't do it for me. Sad to say and yes I can recall when Playboy Bunnies would receive a 1969 AMX for Playmate of the Year and what color was it?

Now I didn't look at Playboy magazines as a kid, I had a friend who read it and described the photos.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I hope my kids never read this post.....

Mario on Apr 11, 2021 said:

Hi Rob, glad to see you woke up! Yes Pink cars are Mary Kay cars as well as Playboy Playmate cars and don't forget Barbie without Ken. She drives that when she's not with him.

Actually his wife's favorite color was Pink so he had this car built for her. Very touching indeed!

57timemachine on Apr 11, 2021 said:

Rob, you crack me up. I doubt I ever read a Play Boy mag in my life, I was always too busy looking at the advertising...... ya right.

57timemachine on Apr 12, 2021 said:

Concerning Harley Earl and to be fair to the actual "Real" stylists. Earl was just a guy that said do it or do not do it and not much of anything else. Sure he was a powerhouse but it was many other men that did the actual designing of the many GM cars we love so much. Earl just over saw everything and dictated everything but that is about it. As far as Tri Five Chevy's, it was men like Clare Mcegan that made those wonderful cars possible. Bill Mitchell replaced Harley Earl as the head but Bill was an actual designer and not just a figure head like Earl. Cheers.

Mario on Apr 13, 2021 said:

I am not taking anything away from all the stylists, draftsmen, engineers, tool makers, hard working people on the line, etc. All of these people were great in what they did.

A true leader like Harley Earl hires the talent he needs to do the job he envisions. He ran the GM Design dept for decades and there is no question Harley was the Brain Child and head of GM Design. He was the "idea man" who created the path and oversaw his visions in action.

Without "idea men" like Harley Earl GM would not have been the great company it was back then selling millions of cars and employing hundreds of thousands of people. He was totally involved with every decision made in hundreds of projects. The people he hired carried out his orders with much success.