One possible factor was that styling director Ray Dietrich was eased out of his job in 1940 following the death of Walter P. Chrysler. He was replaced by Bob Cadwallader, more an administrator than a stylist. Cadwallader's influence became strongly manifested in those 1942 grille designs. However, both men were subservient to Chrysler's engineering leaders, unlike, say, Harley Earl's dominant position at General Motors. So assigning credit or blame regarding Chrysler styling in those days is more difficult than at, say, GM or Ford.
Another factor regarding those 1942 grilles is that the basic car body design appeared for the 1940 model year. By 1942, it was time for a stronger facelift. Yet another consideration is grille design fashions. The late 1930s and early 1940s saw American grille orientation moving from vertical to horizontal for most car brands. As shown below, Chrysler followed that trend to the point where especially DeSoto and Chrysler grilles were even more horizontal than the norm for those days.
Post- World War 2 Chrysler brands were given redesigned grilles. Those designs remained essentially untouched through the early part of the 1949 model year, thanks to the postwar seller's market for automobiles.
A simple design featuring horizontal chrome strips punctuated by a vertical "prow" divider.
The 1941 facelift featured curved framing.
Considerable front-end reshaping for '42 including moving the headlights slightly inbound. Stronger grille bars extending over a wider area while upper framing covers part of the previous prow.
Curved framing for thin bars overlapping the prow area. There's a mid-level band of painted sheetmetal.
The prow returns while the framing assumes a different shape. Clearly more horizontal than the centralized '40 design.
Headlights move towards the center while the grille becomes bolder, more geometrically framed. Thin vertical bars are set behind the horizontal bar creating a subtle "egg crate" effect. Bars flow over the prow.
Curved framing similar in spirit to the '40 Dodge and '41 Plymouth. Extremely thin horizontal bars. The grille encroaches on the prow, but not quite -- there being a bold, vertical, chromed separator bar.
New front fenders. Grille bars much wider and now vertical (a DeSoto recognition feature that continued through the 1955 model year).
The Famous 1942 DeSoto front end. Headlights towards the middle, but covered by doors. Bold, vertical grille bars topped by a horizontal framing strip that extends across the length of the front fenders. There's a prow, but it's almost completely obscured.
Somewhat similar to the '40 Plymouth except that the bars flow over the prow.
Fewer, thicker bars that extend a short way beyond the sides of the radiator opening. The prow is now emphasized by a vertical chromed bar.
Another famous grille design. Again, headlights more centered, the prow de-emphasized. Here the grille bars wrap all the way around the fender to the wheel opening while the upper frame continues the length of the fender.
A pretty fast incremental deemphasis of the prow on all of them, and then after WWII for all except Plymouth an extension of the front fender shape into the doors, and not an add-on like on GM cars but smoothed into the door skin. And of course the hidden headlights, grille bars to the front wheel openings, and linking the headlights to the grille on various models. A few years before and going back to the beginning headlights and car bodies were separate things, with GM dragging their feet on their integration.
ReplyDeleteAll of this was pretty progressive and aiming at the future, and then the new design postwar Chrysler cars were the most reminiscent of prewar models of any of the Big 3 in every way, both styling and construction. Some of the four door sedans even have the back seat behind the door opening and the arm rest on the car body, not the door, like prewar cars.
Was there a change in overall or design management in the postwar period? (Probably books and articles about that?)
Then it took Exner and ten years after the end of WWII for Chrysler to get back to being progressive in (using the old word) styling.
ReplyDeleteI have to respond to emenjay. Yes, the Chrysler products had the seats behind or nearly so the door opening. The vehicles were also pretty tall. This is a benefit. Getting into the rear seat of a four door postwar car (and to the current models) is sometimes a torture of twisting one's body and neck. I have a video of my mother entering a late '40s Chrysler product rear seat. She enters the car facing forward, then turns around to seat herself (waving to the photographer) as she does so. I myself can attest that the cars of the 'Fifties still had enough room in the back seat area for comfortable entry and travel.
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