When Detroit went to Broadway: GM’s industrial musical era

During the golden age of the American automobile, particularly the 1950s and ’60s, GM was among a number of manufacturers staging elaborate “industrial musicals” for its dealer network. These were no amateur corporate productions. Broadway writers, composers, performers and dancers were recruited to create lavish theatrical spectacles around new models, complete with original music, choreography and specially designed outfits.

Costume designer Winn Morton played a fascinating role in creating those worlds. His surviving sketches reveal how fashion, theatre, marketing and automotive design converged in an era when selling a new car could involve something remarkably close to staging a Broadway show.

Car Design News: The Wynne Morton sketches were created for what were known as “industrial musicals.” What exactly were these shows?

Natalie Morath: GM was not the only brand that pursued this kind of show, but obviously we were among the biggest. Ford and Chrysler did this as well. Pretty much all of the big American brands would do these.

This would have been in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s — with the ’50s and ’60s really being the peak of these musicals. When Broadway composers, directors, writers, actors, dancers — all that talent — were in between shows, they would be recruited and actually paid pretty well to put on musical theatre about these brands.

CDN: What role did these musicals play for General Motors?

NM: They might be about new product launches or the upcoming product line. For General Motors specifically, these musicals were staged for dealers.

If it was a Cadillac story it needed to have glamour and luxury. A Chevy story had to be young and sporty

At our big dealer conventions — where it might be every GM dealer in the Chicago area, for example — they would get together annually, perhaps at a hotel ballroom, and the musical would be shown as part of the day’s proceedings and entertainment.

Because of that, it was such a specific, intentional audience. Recordings are incredibly rare and very collectible.

One of the things they would also do was use the theatre environment to address news stories about the company, some kind of controversy, or maybe a product that didn’t do well. It gave GM’s PR and communications teams a way to make some jokes and maybe laugh at themselves a little bit in an appropriate venue.

CDN: These were exclusively dealer events, but presumably there was a message that was ultimately intended to trickle down to customers?

NM: Definitely. They were introducing new vehicles, so there would already be an idea of who this car was for: How are we going to sell it? What is the look? What is the feel?

The writers of the musical would probably be given a lot of information from design or marketing telling them, “These are the points you need to hit. This is the vibe we want.”

If it was a Cadillac story, it needed to have glamour and luxury. If it was a Chevy story, it needed to be young and sporty.

With the singers and dancers and costumes and all of that, it became a very cohesive story. What you saw there would then trickle down into the printed materials that appeared at dealerships and other, more public-facing materials that came out once those vehicles were launched.

Sometimes there would even be little phrases, themes or titles that would get used again and again.

CDN: Looking at Winn Morton’s costume designs, there are characters dressed as everything from workers to figures who might be conductors or pilots. What was Morton trying to achieve with these designs?

NM: It would have been so much more than just the car. It’s the car, it’s the customer, it’s the clothes they wear. Where do they shop? Where do they live? What kind of house do they live in? What kind of job do they have?

It’s imagining this entire world for them to occupy. And that is still an exercise that is run at GM Design today. It’s never just the car. It’s so much more.

What kind of phone does this customer use? What kind of pen do they like to write with? Where do they like to go on vacation? Are they a dog person or a cat person? It goes on and on — the level of thinking and detail.

But that’s also how designers are. They are that way about everything themselves, and so naturally that is how they conceptualise the car.

I think GM has always really emphasised that, especially because, back in the day, we did so much more than car design. We did so much industrial design. And because our design centre is based at the GM Tech Center, which was designed by Eero Saarinen, we have the influence of mid-century modern architecture and International Style architecture.

CDN: So it was really a holistic approach to design?

NM: Completely holistic. Morton would have been looking at images of the car. He would have had a profile of who the customer was. He would have had a script for the musical and understood what they were trying to sell.

So it would already have been built out as this much bigger story.

CDN: How closely did these costumes reflect the wider GM design environment of the period?

NM: Someone could put on one of those costumes and walk down the hallway in this building, and if you took a photo, you’d think it was the 1960s.

CDN: One of the recreated garments looks remarkably like Cadillac’s Sollei yellow. How was that piece produced?

NM: We actually had a trim technician in our shops whose day-to-day work is on interiors and upholstery for concept vehicles. She took a break from that for a couple of weeks and did the pattern. She sewed the dress from scratch and did the hand-beading on it.

It was so fun to collaborate on that with her. I was blown away. I know they have incredible craftsmanship skills — obviously I see that every day — but to see them do something completely different from automotive craftsmanship was so fun.

CDN: Are there particular Winn Morton designs that stand out to you?

NM: I really like this flapper-looking dress with a diamond pattern. It looks very Great Gatsby-esque.