What's a LaSalle?

Around this time a young guy called Harley Earl was making a name for himself in Hollywood working at what had once been his father’s pre 1900 carriage-works, but was now the Don Lee Auto Corporation. (The same Don Lee from which Lucy was purchased in 1961.)

By 1927 Alfred Sloan had been replaced by Lawrence P Fisher (of Fisher Bodies) as the head of GM and this man fulfilled Sloan's goal by hiring Harley Earl to create a whole new car line for GM. It was to be called the LaSalle and was named after another famous French explorer of the Americas, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle. The LaSalle was to become Cadillac’s 'companion car'.

When I first bought Lucy I thought LaSalle was just a cheap Caddy; a model GM released for people who couldn’t afford a 'real' Caddy. This was a mistake many people make, not realizing that the sporty 303ci V8 car Harley Earl designed (based on the stunning Hispano-Suiza of Europe), was like comparing a Ferrari and a Maybach limo in 2010.

It was all the more a mistake on my part because Harley Earl didn’t just design the LaSalle, but he also created yet another first for the auto industry; an ‘Art and Color Department’ - no longer would cars be designed and fashioned by engineers from the Engineering Department and now people with artistic talent and flair (rather than mechanical brilliance) would be involved in the creation of cars. (To this end Harley Earl was a huge believer in the need for women to work in his Art and Craft Department! But that’s another story.)
1920s & 30s photos are all in black and white and today we tend to have a monochromatic view of this era. I have seen a rare colour brochure of these early LaSalles however, and the hues - the chrome yellows, vivid purples, searing greens, of both the duco and the rich interiors, have to be seen to be believed. And that, along with the sweeping lines and sporty looks, is why the LaSalle was seen as being stunning and breath taking. But then the Great Depression hit. Car sales plummeted. Cadillac had to consolidate its models. GM began to use more and more hand-me-down Cadillac parts in the LaSalle and sales slipped dramatically.
By 1940 it was all over and LaSalle was no more.
So, far from being a poor man’s Cadillac, all Cadillac owners and fans should have strong feelings for the short lived LaSalle, after all, if it hadn’t been created, Harley Earl might not have been hired, and it was Earl remember, who dreamt up The Fin!