“Automotive Hollywood: A Tribute to Harley J. Earl” by Richard Earl (presented at the 2015 Gala)

At the annual gala hosted by the Grosse Pointe Historical Society (GPHS) on June 18, 2015, the legend of Harley Earl returned to the historic home, where he and his family lived, in the very heart of the Pointes on Touraine Road. The GPHS invited Harley’s grandson, auto consultant, Richard Earl to display his traveling photo exhibit titled, “Automotive Hollywood: A Tribute to Harley J. Earl” and present on his grandfather’s life. This presentation included rare family photos from the 1950s within the home’s driveway showing Harley, his wife and kids all enjoying GM’s very first concept cars, the Y-Job and Le Sabre, that today are heralded as “national design treasures,” but back then were simply known as designer-Earl’s daily drivers.

A visit to Richard’s official website gives a taste of the collection of historic material he’s gathered through years of research and interviews. This site’s Mission page focuses on GM’s greatest leaders and how they can be rediscovered as inspiration to ignite our nation’s auto industry and the city of Detroit to return to cutting-edge design and become innovation leaders once again. Visit his site at http://www.harleyjearl.com/.

Harley Jarvis Earl was an American automotive designer and business executive. He was the first head of design at General Motors, and later vice president, becoming the first top executive of a major corporation in American history in the field of design. A coachbuilder by trade, Earl pioneered the use of freeform sketching and hand sculpted clay models as automotive design techniques. He subsequently introduced the “concept car” as both a tool for the design process and a clever marketing device.