The Fencer's Mask Grille Fad of 1936

Even when American automobile design was evolving from discrete collections of parts to unified, "envelope" bodies during the period 1929-1949, fad and fashion did not take a holiday.

One styling fad was that of the "fencer's mask" grille that started in the 1935 model year, peaked in 1936 and was largely done by 1937.  These grilles were convex affairs that extended engine compartment ensembles about as far forward as the fronts of the fenders.

Which I think is why the fad collapsed so quickly.  Even in fairly minor frontal collisions, fenders and grilles could suffer damage.  The fenders could be pounded back into shape fairly easily in such events.  But the grilles with all their decorative bars and other details were more expensive to fix or replace.  So 1937 models featured grilles that were moved back a short ways and lost much or all of their convex shapes.

Roughly two-thirds of American brands took part in the fencer's mask fad.  Those that essentially didn't included Cadillac, LaSalle, DeSoto, Ford, Lincoln-Zephyr, Packard and Studebaker.  Those that did are shown below.

Gallery

1935 Oldsmobile
One the first fencer's mask grilles was on redesigned 1935 Oldsmobiles such as this one I photographed in Brussels a  few years ago.

1935 Pontiac with actress Helen Twelvetrees
The other early "mask" was on the '35 Pontiac that shared the Olds' body.  It also was the first year for the brand's famous (at the time) Silver Streaks.

1936 Buick - Barrett-Jackson photo
When Buicks were re-bodied for 1936, they too received a fencer's mask style grille.

1936 Chevrolet
The Chevrolet version's convexity was more restrained.

1936 Chrysler Airstream - for sale photo
Chrysler's fencer's mask fronts were extreme versions of the style.

1936 Dodge with movies star Ginger Rogers
Dodge shared Chrysler's body, but its grille is more restrained.

1936 Plymouth Mayflower - Mecum Auctions photo
Chrysler Corporation's entry-level Plymouth's grille thrusts about as far forward, but the painted central strip visually counteracts part of the convex effect.

1936 Hudson
Hudsons were redesigned for 1936 and received an especially fussy convex front.

1936 Nash Ambassador
The Nash fencer's mask version was clean-looking and raked back.

1936 Graham Cavalier - unsourced photo via Flicker
Like Plymouth, sheet metal diminishes the fencer's mask appearance on the Graham.

1936 Hupmobile - Streetside Classic photo
Hupp's grille is raked back in Nash's manner but nevertheless follows the fashion.

2015 Chrysler 200
This recent Chrysler 200 does not have a fencer's mask grille.  But its above-the-bumper grille-plus-headlights ensemble illustrates a theme on current cars that strikes me as being just as fad- or fashion-like as those grilles of 80 years ago were.

Squaring the Teardrops: Some Early 1950s American Facelifts

I touched on it here, but there's more to say on the subject of cars with rounded designs getting de-rounded via facelifts in the early '50s.

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, the general mind-set of American stylists was that future cars would feature rounded bodies whose shapes paid more than a little heed to aerodynamics.  This can be seen in sketches and, in the early '40s, some clay styling models.

Some designs in that spirit actually reached production after World War 2.  But the teardrop-shaped future proved to be a false one because General Motors' styling chief Harley Earl made one of his sudden direction-changes.  Although some new post-war GM cars had fastbacks, most were "bustle-back," with distinct trunks.  And rather than having fenders being almost totally absorbed into the car body, GM fenders had distinct shapes, even though they were in low-relief compared to 1930s practice.

Since about half the cars on the road were from General Motors, the 1949-vintage teardrop-influenced designs seemed somewhat out of touch with styling fashion.  So sales began to suffer and quick-fixes were put into place until completely restyled cars could reach dealers.  Affected brands for 1951 were Nash, Lincoln and Mercury, whose postwar designs debuted for the 1949 model year.  (I discussed Mercury styling in the above link, so will not deal with it here.)  Hudson's postwar design was launched for the 1948 model year, but didn't get a similar facelift until 1954.

In all cases, the styling fix involved grafting a higher aft portion of the fender with the goal of making the car look less rounded and more squared-off so as to compete better with the broader industry fashion exemplified by Studebaker, Kaiser, Frazer and Ford, as well as General Motors.  Packard, which got a rounded facelift for 1948, was totally restyled for 1951.

Gallery

1950 Lincoln Sport Sedan - MJC Classics photo
This is the standard Lincoln that shared its basic body with Mercury.  (The top-of-the-line Lincoln Cosmopolitan had a unique body.)  Like the Hudsons shown below, it featured what might be termed semi-fastback styling.  Still, it largely followed early-1940s ideas as to how cars of the future should be shaped.

1951 Lincoln
The most important changes for 1951 were a reshaped backlight (rear window) and extended, higher fender trailing edges.  Seen from the side, the fender modification does "square-up" the appearance a little.  But seen from the rear, the design looked more awkward (see the link above for the similar result of Mercury's '51 facelift.)

1949 Nash Ambassador - Mecum auction photo
1950 Nashes had larger backlights than in 1949, but otherwise were nearly identical.  Nash came closest to the 1940-vintage teardrop ideal, even to the point of having skirted front wheels.  Unfortunately, the car looked heavy, ponderous.  It was derided as looking like "an upside-down bathtub."

1951 Nash Statesman - Barrett-Jackson auction photo
Not the best side view because of the camera angle.  Nash restyled the rear part of the fender, giving it a slight up-kick along with an extension.  This reduced the "bathtub" look a little.  If the wheel openings had been enlarged as well, the car would have looked much better.  Unfortunately, Nash-Kelvinator president George Mason really liked those skirted wheels, and so they remained.

1953 (ca.) Hudson Hornet
This might be a '52 model because they were essentially identical with the 1953s when seen from the side.

1954 Hudson Hornet - Barrett-Jackson auction photo
Besides the fender extension, the side trim was revised.  Gone was the large chromed strip along the bottom.  The ends of the thin side strip lost their ornamentation.  Added was a chromed faux air intake shape seemingly inspired by side trim on 1952-53 Ford Motor Company brands.  All this create some visual distance from 1948-53 Hudsons, but the design was still stale.

Making a Hash From Nash

Early in 1954 the Hudson Motor Car Company and Nash-Kelvinator Corporation merged to become American Motors Corporation, a firm that continued in business for another 34 years.

This merger was not between equal partners, being essentially a takeover of Hudson by the Nash organization.  The Hudson design dating back to the 1948 model year was abandoned, and 1955 Hudsons were based on the Nash body design introduced for 1952; this link discusses that model year's Hudsons.

Creation of a Nash-based Hudson design was a crash project.  Most American car companies announced their 1955 models in the autumn of 1954, but there wasn't time to style and implement what amounted to a Nash facelift in that time frame.  I suspect the team working on the task did well by getting '55 Hudsons launched early in 1955.

Gallery

1954 Hudson Hornet - Barrett-Jackson auction photo
Hudsons were given a noticeable facelift just before the merger with Nash; I discussed the design here.  The grille design was a departure from a theme used since 1950, but was not carried over for 1955 even though it might have been.

1954 Nash Statesman - sales photo
This shows a pre-merger Nash.  Its basic design served as the basis for facelifted 1955 Nashes as well as for 1955 Hudsons.

1955 Nash Ambassador
General Motors introduced panoramic or "wraparound" windshields on all Oldsmobiles, Buicks and Cadillacs for 1954.  Most other car makers, including American Motors, responded with their own versions for 1955.  The basic Nash body was retained, but besides the new windshield the facelift included a new grille/headlamp ensemble, reshaped front fenders and revised character lines on the sides.  The front wheel cutout was slightly enlarged, but this did nothing to relieve the slab-sided appearance.

1955 Hudson publicity material
Here is a partial view of the grille design along with material related to features inherited from Nash.  According to this book, that design was similar to what Hudson stylists had been considering for a facelift prior to the creation of American Motors.

1955 Hudson Wasp
The Wasp was Hudson's lower-priced model, but its styling was essentially that same as that of the top-of-the-line Hornet.  The main difference was Hornet's cowling to front axle line distance was slightly greater.

1955 Hudson Wasp advertising photo
Hudson retained the headlight placement of '54 Nashes.  Besides the grille and front fenders, the main differences from '55 Nashes were in the side character line and chrome trim and, especially, the large wheel cut-outs that largely eliminated the Nash's heavy, slab-sided look.

1955 Hudson Wasp - sales photo
A view featuring the rear.  The rounded forward edges of the backlight represent another slight change from Nash.

Hudsons for 1955 were stuck with Nash's bulky basic body.  But the hurried facelift resulted in a fairly pleasing result given the circumstances.  Unfortunately, Hudsons now were pretty obviously Nashes despite their disguise, and this probably did not help sales, which were around 20,000 units.  Worse were the facelifts given Hudson for the 1956 and 1957 model years, the latter I discussed here.

And why did I used the word "Hash" in the title of this post?  It's because that's a term some people applied to Nash-based Hudsons in those days; think Hudson+Nash = Hash.  The word "hash" has more than one meaning, at least for American speakers.  One has to do with a type of food that is a combination of bits of meat and bits of other ingredients -- something that might imply the Nash-Hudson mix.  Another meaning has to do with making a mix of things that yield an unfortunate result, as in the phrase "they made a hash of it."  That also might apply to American Motors' attempt to keep the Hudson brand alive.

The Tiny 1954 Nash Metropolitan

The Nash Metropolitan (produced 1953-1961, first marketed in 1954) was designed in the United States, built in England using an Austin motor, and exported to North America.  A detailed Wikipedia entry on Metropolitan is here.

Even though many people were not enthusiastic about it (I never did come to terms with any car with tiny wheels), more than 80,000 were eventually sold in the USA and another 15-20,000 elsewhere.  Not long ago, Metropolitans became something of a cult-car here, though that enthusiasm seems to have faded as best I can tell.

The Metropolitan design was conceived by William J. (Bill) Flajole whose concept was accepted by Nash-Kelvinator's creative president George Mason in the form of the NXI show car of 1950.   Some NXI styling cues appeared on the redesigned 1952 full-size Nash line, as shown below.

Those small wheels aside, the Metropolitan was cute, distinctive, and American-looking, quite unlike most other very small cars designed in the early 1950s.

Gallery

A 1954 Nash Metropolitan publicity photo.  Like all Nashes at the time, it had partly-enclosed wheels.  Given the tiny size of the Metropolitan's wheels, I doubt that full-size cut-outs would have improved the design.  The "airscoop" on the hood is decorative, not functional.  Its spare tire is mounted at the rear as a Continental Kit.

Two views of the 1950 NXI concept car designed by Flajole.  No Continental Kit here, the spare tire being stuffed in the rear about where the gas tank should be located.  The low hood and the grooved panel on the doors showed up on full-size Nashes for 1952-54.  These styling cues along with the covered wheels clearly proclaimed Nash identity for the new '54 Metropolitan.

Here is a 1952 Nash Ambassador two-door sedan for comparison.

Metropolitans came as coupes and convertibles.  That's a full-size Nash lurking in the garage.

This publicity photo of a 1960 Metropolitan shows plenty of pretty girls along with how the Metropolitan was facelifted.  Changes include a mesh grille and two-tone paint, the darker color always above the off-white.