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The man who put Ford out ahead in the fashion parade and sets the style in Ford's future is George William Walker, vice president and chief of styling, a bold, extraverted artist with American Indian blood in his veins and American autos on his mind. He likes to fancy himself as a Cellini of chrome, though he is as far removed from the popular notion of an artist as a ballet dancer from a professional football player—which Walker once was. Walker admittedly does not try to design for the conservative few; he aims at what, in a curious anachronism, he calls the "shawl market." He can illustrate the kind of flamboyant luxury he thinks will make every buyer feel like a king of the road. Says he, happily recounting what he considers his "finest moment" while on a vacation in Florida: "I was terrific. There I was in my white Continental, and I was wearing a pure-silk, pure-white, embroidered cowboy shirt, and black gabardine trousers. Beside me in the car was my jet black Great Dane, imported from Europe, named Dana von Krupp. You just can't do any better than that."
For the Ladies. In explaining his theories of design, Stylist Walker is well aware of the revolution in American buying habits. Says he: "Beauty is what sells the American car. And the person we are designing it for is the American woman. Only one out of every three women in the U.S. drives, but we figure that 80% or better of all car purchases are decided on by women. A woman is naturally style-conscious from birth—in her home, her clothes, everything she does. So when she and her husband go out to buy a car, she wants beauty on wheels." In the days when the husband did the buying, and was chiefly interested in mechanical features, he was happy with plain blue or black. Now, says Walker, "it is the woman who likes colors. We've spent millions to make the floor covering like the carpet in her living room." Adds Walker: "We have the initiative, and we're going to keep it."
To keep the initiative, Ford, which spent $400 million on its new cars last year, has spent another $610 million this year to produce George Walker's ideas of beauty. There is no other choice. Throughout the industry, the competition for public favor is so keen that automen are approaching a complete model changeover every year instead of the traditional three-year cycle.
The 1958 Ford still has its tubelike rear effect and flaring, canted tail fins, but other than that it is hardly recognizable, with a honeycomb jet-intake grille, dual headlights and spreading, horizontal taillights, somewhat like those on the new Edsel (TIME, Sept. 2). There is also a new Cruise-O-Matic transmission and an 88-h.p. increase to 300 h.p. for Ford's biggest V-8 engine. Mercury, whose sharp, chrome-laden lines were too flashy last year, has been toned down. It has a bigger V-8 engine turning up 400 h.p., and a complete, new Park Lane series 9 in. longer (220 in. overall) than any other Mercury.