This quote is from a 1949 magazine article titled, Meet the GM Designer: 

"Brother Earl started streamlining before the word was invented."

James[Jim] M. Earl passed on more of his knowledge when interviewing him regarding his father, Harley, "When it came to heading the charge in this new direction, Harley Earl was on a mission and hired some of the top aerodynamicists and engineering talent in the country during the late 1950s. Harley personally saw to it that Bob McLean and Dr. Peter Kyropoulos of Caltech fame (pictured left and right of Earl below), were brought in to GM Styling." The following 1957 Los Angeles Times article titled, National Figure, is on Caltech's Dr. Kyropoulos going to work for Harley Earl. "Because of secrecy issues related to advanced GM designs and trends, that naturally effected the company's potential fortunes, Harley always ' just did it' instead of 'talking things up,' what he was working on. Like the enormity of his tail fin trend, he believed the 'small car' theme was going to be a huge new trend in sales and marketing for GM and rest of major auto makers."

Our sleek modern-day automobiles are the direct result of Harley Earl's futurism and/or early pacesetting trend which was also the first touch of class and beauty aimed at appealing to the feminine side of the car market. The first full-time automobile design department in the auto industry was established by Mr. Earl for General Motors Corporation. When he retired he was a GM Vice President with a list of engineering innovations that went from erasing running boards to the concept of the first experimental "dream car." Harley Earl had an eclat and was able to translate it to the industry he loved so much. 

A Harley Earl specialty, bubble-top streamlining 

Nobody has ever put it all together before how the same guy who was inventing many of the best product designs for the U.S. arsenal before, during and after World War Two commingled his various designs back and forth to the automobile world. Yes, it was Harley Earl; the man responsible for all the designs behind the largest manufacturer on the planet. 

It's another reason Mr. Earl had unlimited funding to build anything he wanted after World War Two. It is very well documented how Designer-Earl spent millions on various dream products of self-propelled locomotion - ranging from cars, trucks, buses, trains and aircraft. Mr. Earl had the power and clout to go where no engineer had ever gone before. It's no wonder the other traditional auto engineers were so jealous of all his work. 

Fact: Back in the 1950s, the only person within GM, or Detroit, who was unrestricted to pump out dream cars that cost millions of dollars was Harley Earl. To this day, most people are not cognizant of all this man's activities on account of what happened to Detroit's auto world afterwards leading up to today. GM's leaders simply suppressed all these important milestones on Detroit's design hero (erased Harley Earl's deeds) and/or spun them around to only make the company, or themselves, look good. This long standing corporate behavior eventually bankrupted this company. Imagine, they held back vital historical information on the principal innovator who brought us heated seats, tinted glass, first on-board computer in a car, panoramic glass, etc...and the list of other firsts is a mile long.

One of the reasons has to do with the fact there are no modern age auto-innovators like Harley Earl anywhere in the automotive world these days...and one of the saddest facts today, is that no finance guy running any of the big-3 automakers wants to seek out and/or find somebody today like a Harley Earl. Because that would detract all the power and creative control back this type of leader. Financial based CEOs love things the way they are today; they have all the creative control and don't want to share the money, power and prestige of their position with others. 

THE AUTOMOBILE - SYMBOL OF PROGRESS