1media/Buick_background.jpgmedia/intro panel fA.jpg2020-06-02T12:28:59-07:00Introduction11image_header2020-08-07T11:10:54-07:00The rolling off the assembly lines of Detroit’s Big Three automakers were among the most memorable symbols of the future—as it was imagined during the 1950s. Their elongated tailfins and cockpit-like windshields drew inspiration from the U.S. space program and the aesthetics of jet aircraft, evoking the idealized lifestyle promised to Americans by Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors. Automobile designers envisioned a sleeker future, in which drivers traveled effortlessly and comfortably to their destinations. Their innovations took shape against the backdrop of the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States, supercharged by the October 1957 launch of the Sputnik satellite and culminating in the 1969 Apollo moon landing. Many of the images seen here were originally published in the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper, which had the second largest circulation in Southern California when it folded in 1989. The photographs are now a part of the USC Libraries’ Special Collections.
1media/1955_Lincoln_Futura-thumb.jpgmedia/Lincoln_03.jpg2020-06-30T10:38:25-07:001955 Lincoln Futura4plain2020-08-22T15:53:16-07:00Lincoln’s experimental concept car, hand-built in Italy for $250,000 and seen here at the 1955 L.A. Auto Show, was dubbed a “hint of things to come in the automotive world.” While observers applauded the company’s attempt to push the boundaries of automotive design with its undulating clear-plastic canopy top and dramatically recessed headlight pods, critics noted its lack of side-view mirrors, enormous tailfins that obscured drivers’ rear vision, and other impractical features. The car gained new life a decade later as the inspiration for the futuristic Batmobile.