I realize the title of this post is a little esoteric, but it’s based on a satire of a 1934 car brochure entitled “Airdreme 1934”, done by the commercial artist Bruce McCall. (His satire of late ’50s cars is “The ’58 Bulgemobiles”.) The mid- to late-’30s was the high point of art deco “streamlined modern” auto styling, when the industry was making the transition from horseless carriage to sleek, teardrop shapes symbolizing the new age of speed. A previous post relating to this subject is provided here. So I’m bopping around eBay and I’m finding these beautiful, splendid examples of the breed, most of which are relatively unknown and, I believe, deserve more recognition. And so I will present my nominations for the ultimate Airdreme.
Let’s start with this: 1935 Studebaker Dictator. I’m just going to lay down some photos, just so you can take it all in. The flowing lines and almost architectural forms here are just splendid!
A chromium goose soaring through an aerodynamic teardrop. What could be more graceful? This was also the golden age of radiator ornaments.
Check out the detail on those trunk hinges!
Boy, those seats look comfy! So luxurious–I thought Studebaker was in the low-priced field!
Wood-grained metal looks elegant here, not tacky like the 70s-80s plastic versions. The sun-ray pattern on the door panel is a typical art deco motif. The valiant goose, wings outstretched, leads the way!
Pure art deco! Looks almost like a tabletop radio of the period. Like the little plaque below? “THE DICTATOR”.
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠
Ah, but this Dictator sedan is just a warm-up to what I’m REALLY looking for. A Land Cruiser. No, not the extended wheelbase Studebaker from the ’50s, but the original, which was produced in 1934 & ’35. This may be the most interesting looking car you’ve never heard of. In fact, no Curbside post has featured one in 10 years of Curbsiding!
1934 Studebaker President Land Cruiser
Now, there doesn’t seem to be too much information on these, but according to an article from Hemmings Motor News, the Land Cruiser was built in both the Commander and President lines. Only 201 President versions were built, and 3 are known to exist today, making the odds of finding one at curbside = x → 0. Here’s the Commander:
It looks almost other-worldly from this angle. Truly “Air-Dreme-y”.
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1935 Packard Model 1201. This car just looks so . . . perfect; I just don’t know what to say about it. It almost looks like a toy. Like if you wanted to picture the ultimate mid-30s car, this is what you would think of. And yet it’s real:
I never saw this spare tire arrangement before.
Relatively plain gauges for such a high-end car! But oh, so finely made!
This back seat is no “penalty box”.
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Those are my eBay finds. But I wanted to include my other nominations for Ultimate Airdreme (photos cribbed from the Internet):
1936 Cord 812. (Everybody knows about that one).
1934 Hupmobile
1935 La Salle
1936 Marmon Sixteen Victoria Coupe
1934 Graham Blue Streak
1934 Auburn 850Y Phaeton
1934 REO Royale N-2
1934 Cadillac Fleetwood V-16 Coupe
1936 Lafayette
1936 Duesenberg Gentlemen’s Speedster
1936 Pierce-Arrow
1937 Hudson Terraplane Deluxe 71 Coupe
Check out the spaceship! Extra points for the amazing “Buck Rogers” graphics throughout this brochure!
1939 Dodge Luxury Liner
1939 Graham Model 97
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So if the 1958 Buick/Olds/Cad is the ultimate Bulgemobile, which is the ultimate Airdreme? One of my nominations, or something you have in mind which I didn’t list? When looking at these ’30s masterpieces, you can see why curmudgeons in the early ’50s would say, “These postwar cars are all CRAP!” That’s what Jean Shepherd’s old man (portrayed in A Christmas Story) believed, and he thought Shep’s ’49 Ford was a piece of plastic junk. “Thank God he didn’t live to see the Pinto!” Jean Shepherd exclaimed.
While I love the style and craftsmanship of these cars, they’re a little hard for me to relate to. When I was a kid, you might find one in or behind an old barn somewhere, usually covered with dirt or surface rust. Either that, or you could see a shiny, restored example in a museum. They seemed like rare artifacts from a lost world–something you see in old movies, but not in real life. As for owning one, I think the driving experience would be far removed from what I’m used to. Those postwar “JUNK” cars ushered in innovations like improved suspension, better tires, power assists, more powerful and reliable engines, automatic transmissions, and so forth. But I still like seeing these relics, and those who polish them and keep them alive are preserving a valuable part of our great American heritage!
I have been enthralled with cars of the 1930s (well, design of the 1930s in general) from childhood. Perhaps it was some of the objects still in use at my grandma’s house in the mid 1960s, or maybe seeing them on the old movies that filled weekend tv airtime back then.
You have picked some beautiful examples. I (of course) love the Studebakers. These were from before Raymond Loewy ever got involved, and the in-house folks designed some beautiful cars. I have always intended to write something about those Land Cruisers, extremely rare and fascinating cars.
My other fave of this group is the LaSalle – those were uniquely beautiful cars during most of the brand’s life.
The odd thing about these extreme streamliners is that they didn’t streamline the license plate. It was hanging out there on top of the left taillight, even when the light was partly mixed into the fender. Cord seems to have broken the rule in ’36 with the license in the middle of the trunk. Chrysler (oddly) followed first with all of its ’37 models, then most of GM in ’38, then others in ’39.
Incidentally, here’s a super-streamy 1935 truck that I noticed last night. Not identified in the caption, but I think it’s a Stewart.
I think the reason for the license plate looking like an add-on on these otherwise streamlined cars is that the size of North American license plates wasn’t standardized until 1956. Before then, many states and provinces had what would become the standard-size 6×12″ plates, but many did not. This frustrated carmakers, who wanted to be able to better incorporate license plates into their car designs.
Oddly eventually agreement standardization of plate sizes didn’t come about from a law, but rather through a gentleman’s agreement between the car manufacturers and all of the state/provincial DMVs.
I’ve been in the thrall of the streamlined decades since forever. I thought that the Tatraplan on our block in Innsbruck was a lot more modern than many of the 50s cars, with its truly streamlined shape.
Of course almost all of these cars were more about the decorative aspects of streamlining than the actual aerodynamics, but that was a lot more expedient (and visually stimulating) than designing true streamliners from scratch.
You N E E D a golf course to park that Caddy V-16.
As you can see life was very hard back then.
Such a massive gulf between some of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ back then. I’ve read quite a few novels from the twenties and thirties, and it’s interesting to try and get the mindset of the upper class. I guess it must’ve been hard if you were used to indulging your every material whim to adjust to the new reality of the Depression, and think “Maybe I shouldn’t flaunt my riches this year”.
I recall GM advertising in the 30s cynically pursuing this mindset of the rich or Middle class. The ads pointed out you could buy two Chevrolets for the same price as the expensive car you might otherwise consider. You could spend the money, look acceptably plebian, and have the convenience of a second car.
And line GMs pockets.
The driving experience might be far removed from what you are used to. But, from having had some opportunities to drive ’30s Packards, the driving experience is magnificent, in its own way. Do not be in a hurry, plan ahead to slow down, stop, or turn, and the rest of it is pure joy. They are smooth, solid, and transmit to the driver a hard-to-describe sense of brute mechanical precision and quality. A truly special large high-end car has that sort of driving characteristic, and the Packards certainly had their version of it.
If you ever get an opportunity to drive a ’30s Packard, do it. Or a ’60s Cadillac, or an older “S” class Mercedes. No doubt there are many others. They all give a shared but distinct intangible joyous feeling to the driver, not in wringing it out or “seeing what it can do”, but in operating and experiencing the thing in the first place.
Gone are the days when you can call a car “The Dictator”!
Indeed. Hard to believe, but prior to WW2, the word ‘dictator’ didn’t have the negative connotation it received afterwards.
Airdreme taken to the next level: Popular Science cover, June 1940.
“Coming in 2 Years!” Were cars like this planned for 1942 and beyond had WW II not intervened?
I’d like the Cadillac Aerodynamic Coupe of 1934, to be considered.
Oh yes! Beyond stunning thing.
What a beautiful collection of vehicles – the details on each one of these cars just beg to be studied and appreciated.
My favorite little detail on these cars? Possibly the sun-ray pattern on the Dictator’s door panel… I find art deco details like this to be mesmerizing, turning ordinary things like a door panel into a work of art. While quite a different appliance, the 1930s-era bathtub in our house has a art deco design, which turns an ordinary bathroom fixture into a conversation piece.
Thanks for putting all of these pictures together!
It was not until I looked at some of their 1930s cars at the Studebaker National Museum that I discovered the fabulous art deco details in those cars, and in some of the most unusual places – like the door panel upholstery.
I recommend listening to this soundtrack while looking at the car pictures:
Definitely the perfect soundtrack for this post.
I suspect the sun ray motif originated with the hoopla over King Tut’s tomb, found in 1923.
1933 Pierce Arrow Silver Arrow–a few built as showpieces. The name was used thereafter on a diluted volume model (well, Pierce hoped it would be a volume model). The Stude Land Cruiser sedan body is a similar diluted interpretation of the original showpiece Silver Arrow design, including the multipiece rear glass.
It’s not a production car, of course, but I’ll nominate the “Blue Bird” of the mid-1930s:
The NC Museum of Art had an exhibition of rare streamlined cars about 5 years ago. There was a Tatra and this Hispano Suiza:
No mention of the Chrysler Airflow? I suspect the lead image of the “Airdreme” was inspired directly from that car, and the illustration sure looks like an exaggerated version of one:
The Lincoln Zephyr belongs here too. Great article showing some real beauties.
I was hoping you’d include the Hupp Aerodynamic, to me the most underappreciated car of the 1930’s. By the time this was designed, Hupp was already on the downhill slide, and the design didn’t help in the slightest. I think sales for 1934 was somewhere between 9-10,000 cars. Which was about 20% of what they sold in 1928, their best year. Yes, Hupp was the only manufacturer who’s sales were starting to slide down in 1929, when everybody else hit their peak. And they’re certainly rare, as I notice you used an ad, not a picture of a restored car. I’ve only ever seen one in the metal, and that was only about fifteen years ago.
The ultimate Airdreme? That’s easy. The most beautiful automobile ever made, the Cord 810. A design that has never been equaled, and probably never will.
Reading the comments here, I realize I’ve got an advantage over most of the CC readership: I’ve either driven or ridden in a number of them, and back when I was a teen, very active in the local AACA chapter (Flood City Region, PA) these cars were the bulwark of the local vintage auto scene (well, they were what kept shows from being completely overrun by Model T’s and A’s), and I considered them rather reasonable cars, and while special, not all that special. Still have very fond memories of my ’37 Buick Special, how it drove, and an average feel for what a car was at that time.
There’s something about auto design in the first half of the 1930’s that’ll never be matched.
Maybe the 1934 Hudson Terraplane should be included. It certainly embraces the sunburst idea.
Not sure if Euro cars are in here, but if so, one of my favorite dreamy aeros is one of the late ’30’s Darl’mat Peugeot coupes.
Boy, that Airdreme poster is droll. Impossible not to notice the pretentious model names, the bulk, the gunslit windows, the monster grille, the attendant attitude: why, suddenly, it’s 2021.
Maybe not a real Hupmobile or a Graham for that matter, but I have long loved the former Cord 812 re-booted as both of those marques. The Skylark and the Hollywood have a simple but aerodynamic shape that doesn’t seem to have a bad line on it anywhere.
Having viewed all the responses, I hereby announce the winner of the Ultimate Airdreme Contest. The competition is very tough–it’s like judging Miss America; they’re ALL beautiful, and the cars are all Airdremes, but which is the ULTIMATE?
As nominated by Syke, the 1936 Cord 810 (shown below). Why? Because . . . just look at it.
BUT, if we allow foreign custom-jobs, I would also award the prize to this Rolls-Royce Phantom I with 1934 body by Joncheere. You can internet search to find more pictures and information about this car. This is truly the “Gothic cathedral of automobiles!”