History Was What Car Designer Made It
Even when shopping for a new car, most people dump the advertising brochure as soon as the salesman turns his back. But the late David R. Holls, a well-known car designer, was an avid collector of car-related materials.
Ten thousand of Holls’ catalogs, owner’s manuals, pamphlets, brochures, clippings and other items have been acquired by the Nethercutt Collection and Museum, along with more than 9,000 of his car-related photos.
The Sylmar complex is home to more than 200 antique and classic cars and a large collection of mechanized musical instruments.
“David Holls was director of styling for General Motors, and, before he passed away, he amassed a wonderful, wonderful collection of automotive sales and advertising literature and photographs,” said Skip Marketti, 62, the Nethercutt’s archivist and curator.
Holls died in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, on June 16, 2000, at age 69.
Marketti, who occasionally served as a judge with Holls at car shows, said Holls’ widow, Patricia, had contacted the museum to say the collection was available. The Nethercutt paid $75,000 for the written material. And Patricia Holls donated the photographs--about 9,300 images, Marketti said.
To show how useful such material can be, Marketti opened a 1940 brochure for high-end Buicks. Its illustrations included an artist’s notion of a typical Buick owner, draped in furs, opening a divider window to speak to a chauffeur.
Thanks to such brochures, Marketti said, “When we restore a Buick from this era, we know exactly what the upholstery pattern looked like, and the door pockets and the wood grain.”
The David R. Holls Automotive Literature and Photo Collection will be available to historians, writers, restorers and others, Marketti said. The creation of Merle Norman Cosmetics co-founder J.B. Nethercutt, the museum is open to the public without charge.
Dennis Adler, editor in chief of Car Collector magazine, said he knew Holls for many years and often dipped into the designer’s extensive collection when researching books or articles.
“Dave knew personally all of the great auto designers of the 20th century,” Adler said. Holls was friendly with such design giants as Howard “Dutch” Darrin, whose 1930s Darrin Packards were favorites of Clark Gable and other stars, and Gordon Buerhrig, creator of the coffin-nosed Cords of 1936 and 1937, he said.
Holls collected material on both American and foreign cars, with an emphasis on automobiles from the 1920s through the 1950s, Marketti said.
“Whatever you could name, he could pull out a binder and there, neatly filed, was everything you wanted to know about the subject,” Adler said.
As a designer, Holls was perhaps best known for the 1959 Cadillac. The design was wonderfully outrageous, Marketti said.
“It had the tallest tail fins ever used on a car,” Marketti said. “It was long and low and totally bedecked with chrome--it was over the top. It was the ultimate styling statement of the ‘50s.”
Other Holls designs include the 1964 Buick Riviera, the 1967 Camaro and the Oldsmobile Aurora--very different from each other but all great looking in their own way, Marketti said. He speculated that Holls got his “swoopy sense of style” from the great French coach builders of the 1920s, whom he admired.
Randy Ema, who collects Duesenbergs and other classic cars in Orange, said support material such as Holls’ is invaluable to historians and to people who collect and restore classic cars.
“More and more of these things are being discarded by the manufacturers,” Ema said. “The things he saved may be the only stuff that’s left. We don’t know.”
David Gooding, president and chief executive of Beverly Hills-based RM Auctions, which specializes in antique and classic cars, said such material can be used to authenticate cars for purchase and to assist those preparing cars to show.
“The best things are good photos,” Gooding said. “Good photographs don’t lie.”
