ULTIMATE FINS: "Designing GM's 1958 Firebird III MOTORAMA DreamCar"
Presented by AIG
Date: Saturday, October 3, 2015
Seminar begins: 4:00pm
Location: MOCA Exhibit Hall (Museum of Contemporary Art) Downtown Tucson
Address: 265 S. Church Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701
Cost: $15, includes a HUGE 36x24" full-color limited edition POSTER commemorating this special event.
Ticket: Purchase on-site or in advance: www.TucsonMod.com
It has been called one of the most important pieces of American automotive design of the twentieth century. Its technology was bold and cutting edge. The budget and brainpower required for GM to build it was akin to NASA's ambitious Apollo moon landing program a decade later. It looked like it could fly, and it remains the undisputed epitome of finned-era design.
In reality, it was Harley Earl's final, ultimate tribute to the mid-century car show extravaganzas known as MOTORAMA. Featuring no less than nine fins (the rear dorsal fin being nearly five feet high!), the Firebird III was a turbine-powered technological tour-de-force meant to excite the crowds during its unveiling in New York's prestigious Waldorf Astoria ballroom in October of 1958. Two weeks later in Boston, it provided the same "wow factor" while helping introduce the entire 1959 GM lineup of new cars during what became the last-ever American MOTORAMA event.
Then, just as quickly as these MOTORAMA events came to an end (coinciding with Harley Earl's official retirement as GM's VP of Styling), fins were suddenly no longer en vogue. The Jet Age, it seemed, was suddenly over. Though the Firebird III's experimental technology (cruise control, self-guided driving capabilities, auto-leveling suspension, remote starting, and much more) lives on today, the "Finned Floozy's" over-the-top styling has never been outdone.
Tucson Modernism Week, in cooperation with the GM Heritage Center, is proud to bring the actual Firebird III to Tucson for a rare public appearance at our prestigious event!
Host and moderator Thom Sherwood brings together the two sole surviving members of the Firebird III's original team for the first time in over a half century for an intimate, delightful reunion and discussion. Unique photography, illustrations and personal recollections will be highlighted as designers Norm James and Jim Ewen discuss how this remarkable experimental automobile was conceived, built, tested and showcased as the future of the American automobile.
The actual Firebird III will be on display for the first time in Arizona since initial testing was done at General Motors' Desert Proving Grounds in the summer of 1958. This heartwarming automotive reunion with Norm, Jim and the Firebird III — just one of the many events planned for Tucson Modernism Week — should not be missed!
As a bonus event, you'll be able to view many of Jim Ewen's original artwork from his 30-year career at General Motors, on display inside MOCA's Great Hall. Don't miss it!
All Tucson Modernism Week events are open to the public.
For seminar tickets, Firebird III event location and display hour details, please visit www.TucsonMod.com
Norm James was born to immigrant parents in western New York in 1932 where an early interest in rocketry and astronomy occupied his youth. High school study halls were spent drawing cars, and an interest in mechanical engineering eventually took him to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where he studied Industrial Design in hopes of becoming an automobile designer.
After graduation in 1956, Norm was hired on at General Motors Styling and introduced to the Research Studio where he began work on experimental MOTORAMA cars such as the Firebird II and Firebird III. The design patent for the 1958 GM Firebird III, number 195,843, was issued in his name.
In 1963, Norm transferred to GM's Defense Research Labs in Santa Barbara, CA., where he became a senior designer in Mechanisms Group for design of both manned- and unmanned Lunar Roving Vehicles. After a three-year stint there, his career continued to evolve elsewhere with various specialty positions in the lunar exploration program (under contract to NASA), mass transportation, and marine technology.
He has authored the book "Of Firebirds and Moonmen," recalling his personal story and professional history as a designer with General Motors and in lunar exploration studies.
Today, Norm lives in San Diego with his wife (a Tucson native!), is semi-retired and continues to pursue a childhood passion of telescope design and construction.
Jim was born in 1929 in Chadron, Nebraska. During his youth and teen years, he developed an interest in cars while working in his dad's small Packard dealership and repair garage.
Jim also recognized an aptitude for drawing cars which, following a stint in the military, called him to pursue a formal education at the respected Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. Immediately upon graduation in 1957, Jim began a 30-year career with General Motors.
Once in Detroit, Jim worked on MOTORAMA show cars under the guidance of GM's VP of Styling, Harley Earl. He soon advanced to join GM's Research Studio design team where the flamboyant, futuristic "Firebird III" was being envisioned as Earl's final MOTORAMA tribute to the Jet Age.
Jim was later promoted to the Pontiac Studio (under the direction of Jack Humbert), where he worked on the early Tempest and GTO models, the first Grand Prix, and many other successful models through the mid-1960s.
Jim then became the Assistant Studio Head with responsibility of all Canadian models. He later moved to the International Studio and was then sent to GM of South Africa as Director of Design.
Jim eventually returned to the States in the mid-'70s to head-up GM's Transportation Studio where all forms of public transportation, mass transit, automated highway systems — even housing communities — were studied.
Jim and his wife are now retired and living in Tucson. Jim still keeps a set of Prisma color pencils sharpened for an occasional freelance project.
SPECIAL! Look for many of Jim's vintage illustrations to be on display at MOCA during this unique event!
Thom was born in 1960 in the not-so-deep South where he recalls some vivid memories of jacked-up Muscle Cars (referred to as "Monster Cars" back then!) roaming the streets during his youth. His teen years, in central Pennsylvania, were spent dreaming of being a car designer and sketching some wild four-wheel creations.
The sunny skies of the desert Southwest called him to Tucson where he enrolled in the University of Arizona and graduated with a degree in Radio-TV Production and Graphic Design. Today, Thom still "plays" with his collection of Muscle Cars, is self-employed as a freelance graphic designer, and is known as an award-winning journalist, author and automotive historian.
Thom has moderated two previous Tucson Moderism Week automotive seminars: "American Automobile: Two Designers / Two Stories" (2012), and "Highway of Tomorrow, a Look Back at Modern Transportation Concepts" (2013).