Page 31 - Sample pages "Raymond Henri Dietrich" by Necah S. Furman

RIGHT: Ray consults with his assistant
and top designer
at Chrysler, Herb Weissinger (standing). Seated is Buzz Grisinger, another talented designer. (DPF)
OPPOSITE: The Chrysler design protocol required numerous steps and approvals. Ray as Director of Exterior Art and Body Design is shown reviewing a design with Al Smith. (DPF)
283 THE CHRYSLER CONNECTION (1932-1940)
saw and voiced his opinion in words that were not in the dictionary. “Personally,” he said frankly, “I had always taken an interest and delved freely and frankly into styling, especially after experiencing so much resistance to our Airflow style. Our return to what I considered backward styling, moving back into the wedge shaped and narrow front end treatment ... continued to bother me. I guess I still had a chip on my shoulder.”64
Breer appears to have been referring here to Dietrich’s design influence and his attempt to salvage the Airflow models by making them resemble the Airstream, notably with changes to the frontal aspect. Paradoxically, Breer had just criticized in previous paragraphs what he called Dietrich’s “obsession for ample roundness in every manner and form,” which he and others [engineers] considered that he “carried to extreme.”65
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