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Watch a 1957 Cadillac roll by on its way to a classic car show and you find yourself smiling a little broader, breathing a little deeper, and preening toward the vehicle and its remarkable contours. It appears to have breasts on the front bumper/grille. Some models even wear rubber tips or "pasties."
A 1957 Cadillac with Dagmars and Pasties photo: GM Corporation
This is a true object of desire. A 1953 Caddy in mint condition bears a price tag of $80,000 plus for a vehicle equipped with chrome Dagmars.
It is only fitting that the name of these popular 1950's protrusions on luxury cars were named Dagmars after the voluptuous, vivacious blonde model on early TV's "Broadway Open House," in 1951, hosted by Jerry Lester. She was the sex goddess of the era posing and strutting in low cut formal gowns her career accelerated to the apex. Women copied her style, the bleached blonde look was the rage, her curves and the undergarments necessary to achieve this look were copied by both starlets and housewives. She achieved the cover photo on Life Magazine and her reputation as the most photogenic woman on television was sealed. At the time most American households read Life Magazine. She became the icon of her time just as Madonna transfixed the 80's. So this diva also certainly captured the creative minds of automotive designers.
Life Magazine Cover July 16, 1951 - TV's blonde bombshell "Dagmar", photo: National Automotive history Collection at the Detroit Public Library
The impressive Harley Earl of General Motors design studio, helped car sales rise from a mere 4.7 million in 1952 to 7.8 million in 1955 by leading the creation of the Dagmar bumper. According to Craig Fitzgerald, a writer for Hemmings Motor News, Earl didn't set out to heat up the buzz around a car as sex object on the 1953 Cadillac, the first year the protrusions became omnipresent, it was supposed to represent an artillery shell. Think Hummer in a post World War II era. But the image of Dagmar resounded in the minds of the public and the term stuck. IT is now part of automotive history.
In a story called "Dagmar Bumpers" that ran in October 2006, the publication recalls Cadillac designer Ed Glowacke exaggerated artillery shells in order to indicate speed and power. The bumpers kept getting more massive until 1957 when accented by the rubber tipped "pasties." Yes, folks that is an automotive term.
Titillating talesω We must remember Earl's first 1938 Buick concept car was named "the Y Job," after the male chromosome, so it stands to reason he would, as the "Adam of design," introduces the iron maiden or "Eve" with breasts. I'm just using logic here.
The auto show business, run by some of the best promoters of the land - the associations of car dealers - picked up on the Dagmar delight. Car models from the 1950s often wore conical bras while standing next to cars and even a few truck models at auto shows of that era.
1957 Cadillac Convertible - the hot luxury car of the era, complete with Dagmar bumper. National Automotive history Collection at the Detroit Public Library
During the research for my book, "Sirens of Chrome," it was a fascinating sidebar to see all the print and articles regarding this car design phenomenon. You've got to think only in America can the power of an undergarment become a strong automotive design statement.
The sensual allure of car design is more subtle today. The Saturn Sky convertible looks like it is equipped with feminine curves from the rear end. This adds to its sensuous, supple feel as the engine purrs.
Yet the bulbous chrome protrusions are now banished from front grilles - for good reason - pedestrian safety. About two thirds of the 1.2 million people killed in road traffic crashes worldwide are pedestrians. So people stay on the sidewalks. An increasing number of vehicles are equipped with energy-absorbing bumpers and crumple zones to help cushion impact, lessen blows to lower limbs. With 250 million cars registered as road worthy, safety is front and center.
Designers need to recall the styling cues of Harley Earl, the light, playful sensuality as well as safety and fuel economy. Because it is the embodiment of car culture, and for that matter human culture we project our thoughts and dreams into everything we do.
"Sex and cylinders, high fashion and high efficiency and their adjunct slogans were unstintingly exploded in the faces of potential buyers until the automobile itself became the symbol of high driving, high dressing and high living," writes Rudolph Anderson, author of the 1950 book, "The Story of the American Automobile."
Margery Krevsky is the author of "Sirens of Chrome" www.sirensofchrome.com
Momentum Books Publisher
Maureen McDonald provided research for this article
For more information on other auto heritage sites, visit www.motorcities.org.
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