(Updated 11/8/2025) Kansas City is a great place for finding CCs and my latest trip certainly didn’t disappoint.
Sitting behind Union Station was a fabulous pairing of a 1941 Cadillac Fleetwood and a 1940 LaSalle.
What’s so unique about that dark red LaSalle, a fine example of the slightly down-market companion to Cadillac? 1940 was the last year before the brand was jettisoned into the mists of time.
With the Cadillac in front of the LaSalle, this arrangement is maintaining their original marketing position from nearly 85 years ago.
To me, the 40 LaSalle is more modern looking than the 41 Fleetwood.
Are those the driver/owners sitting and watching the cars. Hope the guy in the suit has the Caddy!
I believe so. Right before I took this picture, there were several girls/young women running around in 1920s era flapper girl costumes getting pictures with the cars.
With their fashions being two decades obsolete by the time these cars being made hadn’t seemed to occur to anyone.
I bet the old LaSalle runs great.
Someone had to say it.
Those were the days!
“Edith, get me a beer!”
Remember there were viewer complaints that nobody could understand that next-to-last line in the All In The Family theme?
Every year Archie & Edith would re-sing the theme every season, slowing down the line a bit until, by 1977 or so, it finally came out…
“gee, our old LAAA SALLLLE ran great…”
None of the Boomers or Gen-X’ers knew what a La Salle was to understand the line…
Millennial here, or more specifically Xennial, I know All In The Family via Nick at Nite in the 90’s and I know what a La Salle is 😜
Took me a while to get it too. “Gee-ar-ol Lasall Rat Rate.”
Never worried enough about it to post a complaint (which required a lot more effort then, than it does now.)
The LaSalle was an extremely poor choice for use in the “All In The Family” theme. People like the Bunker’s couldn’t afford them. “Our Hudson Terraplane ran great” would have been more appropriate.
Actually, my grandparents bought a used 1930s LaSalle sometime in the 1950s. They were certainly at the lower end of the economic spectrum, so I suspect that the value of used LaSalle’s sunk like a rock.
But yes, any number of other brands would have fit the show’s theme better.
“Gee, our old Studebaker ran great” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
During the Great Depression, GM created junior brands like the LaSalle. Oldsmobile had the Viking, Oakland had the Pontiac, what did Buick have?
Would Studebaker’s Erskine, Rockne or Terreplane be their junior Depression brands?
What other brands created these inexpensive knock-offs during this era?
Buick had the Marquette.
Hudson introduced the Terraplane brand.
It replaced the Essex, which, in the late 1920s, had helped Hudson set a record for sales by an independent that would stand until American Motors bested it in 1959.
The first Terraplane was actually badged “Essex-Terraplane.”
Unfortunately, the Essex brand had declined rapidly after 1929, due to a combination of the Great Depression, intense competition from the Ford Model A, Chevrolet Six and the Plymouth, and a not-too-durable six-cylinder engine.
Geeber, I’m perplexed as to why Hudson ditched the Essex and then retreated from the lower-end of the market after World War II. Granted, Nash and Studebaker also discontinued their companion brands in the 1930s, but none had been very successful. In addition, both automakers maintained a foothold in the low-priced field with downsized designs introduced in the late-30s and early-40s.
The mid-sized Champion made it possible for the 1950-51 Studebaker to rival Essex sales in the late-20s. Meanwhile, the 600/Statesman and Rambler allowed Nash to fairly consistently outsell Hudson, which from 1948 onward was limited by the large, heavy and expensive step-downs.
One could plausibly argue that Hudson gave away the store.
The Terraplane attempted to fill the Essex’s role for Hudson. Eventually, it was simply badged as a Hudson.
The Stepdown was expensive to build, which may be why Hudson did not try very hard to compete in the Chevrolet-Ford-Plymouth segment after World War II.
Hudson soared very high in the 1920s – and crashed very hard in the 1930s, although it avoided receivership, unlike Studebaker.
Mercury was created as a junior brand for Lincoln in 1939. There was also the Lincoln-Zephyr in 1936, which was technically a separate make to compete with La Salle.
And Plymouth was created to be Chrysler’s junior in 1928.
Funny how none of the junior makes have survived, not even Plymouth or Mercury.
All of the GM companion makes were developed in the late 1920’s, introduced up to and including 1930 by which time the need for them was disappearing. Pontiac being a lower-priced, essentially six cylinder version of the Chevy four replaced Oakland, LaSalle filled a real price gap, see below. The Viking V-8 was nearly part and parcel a cut-rate LaSalle, whereas the Marquette was an L-head six misfit an ohv Buick world.
The two most interesting engines to issue from this business were the Viking and Oakland V-8. What’s most significant is both were mono-block design two years before the ’32 Ford flathead. After the Oakland V-8 became a Pontiac V8 for 1932 then was replaced by their long-lived straight eight the next year, GM’s next mono-block V8 would be the 1936 Cadillac 346 ci. It was one of the most successful engines in Cadillac history, It powers both subject cars here, a 346 for Cadillac, as 322 for LaSalle.
Great shot!!
That’s a great photo. The Fleetwood Sixty Special still looks good today.
GM would revive its B-pillar treatment for the 1971-76 Cadillac Fleetwood Broughams, as well as the 1973-77 Colonnade four-door sedans and wagons.
That B-pillar treatment remained for the 1942, 1946, and 1947 Fleetwoods as well.
Sometimes over the last several months including right now I get “slow down you are posting too fast” even when I haven’t posted anything in at least a day, along with the disappearance of the comment. Signing in or not does not seem to matter. Recently I posted a bunch of comments on the same post in quick succession without being signed in with no objections.
I’m still not signed in and the above comment posted despite the fact that five minutes before that my first comment of the day got the “too fast” message.
The problem seems to be happening completely at random.
It is my belief that the posting too quickly error message comes from someone else trying to post at the same time as you. One wins, and the other gets the error message. Not that I am an expert or anything, but that’s what I have derived from having the same experiences as you described.
That is a very interesting theory/observation. I’ll have to try to see if there was ALWAYS someone else whose comment got through when I get the message (very rarely nowadays but every once in a while). If so that might help us figure this one out.
That would make sense, and correlates with my posting experience. I am always days to months late, and have never (knocks wood) had a problem posting.
To me the Cadillac displays a bunch of styling changes I associate with just before or just postwar GM cars: front fenders running onto the front doors, covered running boards, longer trunk looking like part of the body instead of the smoothed in box trunk look, and chrome tail light housings (even with little finlets) instead of the bulb on a stalk style.
The Cadillac window frames are like later fifties styles: shiny metal frames that look like minimal window frames instead of looking like rounded holes cut into the body. (VW beetles continued the ’30’s look to the bitter end, as did the squarebacks etc. and it went on into Golfs. The Chrysler semi-Golf copies did not.)
The extended wheelbase Cadillac Sixty Special filled a niche above the standard series 62 sedan and below the series 75, seven passenger sedan, (not the limo.) It was the finest “owner driven” model, after that I guess you had to hire a driver. The ’41 was the first year of the classic Cadillac grille. The theme of that grille has stayed in production until Today.
There must be a sequel movie to the Godfather being filmed. Look at that guy with the black suit on. An unlikely location however, at least on the outside.
Lee, I mentioned something above but didn’t elaborate.
There were girls in 1920s flapper costumes getting pictures with the cars. With this being Union Station, there was a huge area of the building interior blocked off for some event with more 1920s era dress. Several women, who appeared to be models, were being photographed inside the open areas of the building.
The two people I were with joked somebody needed to be hanging out the rear of the cars with tommy guns to truly make the scene. This would be covered with a Godfather type movie.
The LaSalle was recreated along with the companion makes to fill price gaps in the Sloan ladder. Before the 1927 LaSalle as introduced, there was an approximate $1,500 gap between the Buick Master Six ($1,495) and the Cadillac 314 ($3,195) four door five passenger sedans. LaSalle provided the step in the $2,500 range.
As forward to 1940, the luxury car had been redefined as a better-trimmed, more powerful version of medium-priced makes with significant reduction in price to the $1,500-$2000 range. With the Buick Roadmaster and the Cadillac Series 62 substantially similar in content, the LaSalle became superfluous.
The significance of the 1938-’41 Cadillac 60 Special to its influence on sedan body architecture can’t be overstated. It was the first production 3-box sedan with integrated trunk where the greenhouse sets on top lower body ‘box’. The front clip from the cowl forward is considered the third ‘box. Until the advent of the CUV, half a century of sedans find their design roots in the 60 Special.
A lawyer in my hometown had one of the Cadillac 60 Specials in the early sixties. When we ventured downtown to go to the library one of our shortcuts through an alley went past the garage where the Cadillac resided. It may or may not have been a runner by this time, I don’t recall ever seeing it out and about. The word on the street was that Mr. Williams had purchased the Cadillac new and he drove it regularly for 15 years or so. Another word was that he was continually being noticed by the police for “driving irregularly” and was encouraged to surrender his driver’s license. I do know that Mr. Williams passed away a couple of years later (he was almost 80 by this time) and the Cadillac was gone when I checked the garage.
Superb photo, Jason. The slicked-back, delicate-topped Cadillac for me, but I do love both the late La Salle grille, and its name. Sounds casually expensive.
I will share few pictures of 41 caddy I took back in 2007 in South Lake Tahoe, Ca. Notice the custom license plate.
I’m not sure what exact model name it is but surely hope it’s still in such a fine shape! What a classy ride.
Rear side
Interior shot, sort of
Side profile
Its the Series 61 B-Body fastback that shared body with Buick Century and other medium-priced GM lines. The Series 61 was the LaSalle replacement.
Just gorgeous, the car and your pics, Lukas.
I wonder of one of our style gurus here can tell us something.
Is that chrome strip around the windows the first example of it used that way? By which I mean, to tidy-up or hide (in this case) a fat old B-pillar, and make it look pillarless-esque? I just can’t recall seeing it an a properly old car before. There are many examples since.
“Is that chrome strip around the windows the first example of it used that way?”
I believe that it may well be, certainly for a production car. What is interesting is that Cadillac backed away from that look for awhile. The 1952 Nash may be the next sedan I can think of with those thin upper window frames. By the late 50s they were the norm. My favorite design feature of the early Ford Tempo was the way the door design went back to the old 1930s-40s norm – something that was really unusual for the time (if we ignore the VW Rabbit/Golf).
The 60 Special window reveal treatment was borrowed from the Panhard Panoramique of a few years earlier.
https://hymanltd.com/vehicles/4625-1936-panhard-panoramique-x73-sedan/
Great catch! The very top and bottom of choices for an owner-driven car available at your local Cadillac dealer in 1940.
The original Sixty Special was indeed a gorgeous car. It is funny to think what a mechanical outlier these were – did anyone else in that class offer a V8? Ford certainly did, but this was the era of the inline 8 that ruled in the upper part of the market then.
Thin, bright window frames, as on the 60 Special, emulated the treatment of a convertible. It started a stylish trend next seen on the 1939-’40 Mercury coupes, 1939 Hayes-Bodied Chryslers, Dodges and DeSotos and the Graham Combination Coupes. The Lincoln Continental coupe from 1940-48 and the 1949-51 Lincoln Cosmopolitan carried it in production.
Also in the era the ’41 Packard Custom Super Eight 180 Sport Brougham by LeBaron is the most sublime design with this feature. Even the 1949-50 Kaiser Virginian and 1951 Frazer Manhattan have it as befits their hardtop build.
As the two door hardtop became the rage, imparting a hardtop look to sedans became the trend. The stamped, full-door construction method was less costly to do, stayed the norm until the four door hardtop took hold in the late 1950’s.
Most of those named above were something of a compromise method: stamped half-door lower, attached narrow window frames covered with stainless steel. Nash adopted a version of that method but opted for extruded aluminum frames which add a lightness to an otherwise rather bottom-heavy rotund car.
My wife knows the gentleman with the LaSalle. Apparently it’s a family car since the 1950s and it’s miraculous that it still runs.
Awesome! I was hoping somebody would know something about one of these beauties.
No problem! Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of information I have, but I do recall something about it having a rebuilt engine after a crash in the 1980s. Could be remembering wrong.
No one mentioned it so far: The LaSalle in the top photo has the 1939 six window GM body, with suicide rear doors, while the one in the illustration has the new four window 1940 Torpedo body, with all doors hinged at the rear. It was inspired by the original 1938 Sixty Special. The Torpedo was a sensation, even though, as you can see, the 1939 body had considerably better outward vision, particularly to the rear.
Whoops, I should have said the Torpedo body has all doors hinged at the FRONT.
Can hear “Archie/Edith”, the piano now.
Nice .
I’m an elderly Baby Boomer and I knew what a La Salle was even before “All In The Family” .
-Nate