Induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame is reserved for those who have made a significant impact on the automobile. This is the single greatest honor in the automotive business. Inductee contributions are chronicled among the great men and women who have had a positive influence on the industry.
For Alex Tremulis, induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame completes a full circle of a long and storied career. First, the induction ceremony was held in the same building and same auditorium where the great Harley Earl directed the continuing efforts of his famous “Art and Colour” styling studio, one of the most advanced styling teams in automotive history, and the same general area where a young Alex Tremulis first took art classes at GM's training school in 1933 and then refined his techniques while designing for Earl’s Oldsmobile Division in 1937.
For Alex Tremulis, induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame completes a full circle of a long and storied career. First, the induction ceremony was held in the same building and same auditorium where the great Harley Earl directed the continuing efforts of his famous “Art and Colour” styling studio, one of the most advanced styling teams in automotive history, and the same general area where a young Alex Tremulis first took art classes at GM's training school in 1933 and then refined his techniques while designing for Earl’s Oldsmobile Division in 1937.
 GM's Argonaut Building, the home of Harley Earl's Art and Colour from 1937 to 1955, and where Alex Tremulis first worked in Harley Earl's Oldsmobile styling studio. GM would later donate the building to the College for Creative Studies. |  Today, the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education houses the College for Creative Studies, the same school where Alex Tremulis taught automotive design in the 1960's and the site for the 2014 Hall of Fame induction ceremony. |
Tremulis' start was somewhat less auspicious than the remainder of his career: The fancy drafting pencil sharpener was like none that he had been familiar with and he had to ask for assistance to use it. It turns out that a simple cap covered the hole for the business end of the pencil. Not the best way to make a first impression, but his tenure within Harley Earl’s organization would be short-lived anyway. He spent three months in GM's school and then returned to Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg where he would soon become the Chief Stylist at the age of 22, after Gordon Buehrig (Hall of Fame Inductee, 1989) left the company. Following the close of A-C-D, Alex would again return to General Motors, this time as a designer for the Oldsmobile Division in the Argonaut Building, but again, that relationship would end rather abruptly.
Alex tells the story of his brief stay with Oldsmobile:
"When Auburn-Cord folded I went to the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors. One of the first things they wanted me to do was to buy a new Oldsmobile at special employee rates. I think they offered the car to us for $600. I still couldn’t afford a new car so I kept on driving the same old 1935 Ford Roadster, the first car I owned.
"When Auburn-Cord folded I went to the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors. One of the first things they wanted me to do was to buy a new Oldsmobile at special employee rates. I think they offered the car to us for $600. I still couldn’t afford a new car so I kept on driving the same old 1935 Ford Roadster, the first car I owned.
I really liked that Ford, especially after I put on the twin intake manifolds that came off of one of the 10 Ford Indianapolis race cars in 1935. At that time I had the only Ford on the street with dual intake carburetors. And because I couldn’t afford a Duesenberg, I had two exhaust pipes coming out the side. I had a lot of fun with that car. But unfortunately I did a dumb thing, which was a stupid mistake on my part:
We had a big styling department picnic for the Oldsmobile Division. All of the stylists had just bought their new $600 1938 Oldsmobiles. All of them had 6 cylinders except the boss’s car which had eight cylinders. On the way to the picnic, the boss went by all the six’s, and then I made the mistake of going out after him, and passing him. I guess he was pretty embarrassed.
The next day I was called into my supervisor’s office where I was told what I had done had been in very poor taste. And that I should not have embarrassed the entire styling section with an old 1935 Ford. They even accused me of cheating because my car was practically a race car. I was told I had to give up the car. This I refused to do. In a matter of a month I was laid off."
We had a big styling department picnic for the Oldsmobile Division. All of the stylists had just bought their new $600 1938 Oldsmobiles. All of them had 6 cylinders except the boss’s car which had eight cylinders. On the way to the picnic, the boss went by all the six’s, and then I made the mistake of going out after him, and passing him. I guess he was pretty embarrassed.
The next day I was called into my supervisor’s office where I was told what I had done had been in very poor taste. And that I should not have embarrassed the entire styling section with an old 1935 Ford. They even accused me of cheating because my car was practically a race car. I was told I had to give up the car. This I refused to do. In a matter of a month I was laid off."
2002 Student Show at CCS: Aston Martin by Rudolf Gonzalez By 1955, Harley Earl’s design team had left the Argonaut Building, but the buliding's future lease on life would yet again have a deep connection to Tremulis. In 2007, General Motors donated the building to the College for Creative Studies, a design school that had its roots in the early 1900's. They restored and upgraded the Argonaut Building in 2008. Back in the 1950’s, CCS was known as the Detroit Society for Arts and Crafts. As it turns out, while Tremulis was a studio head for Advanced Design at Ford, he recruited students from the top automotive design schools to bring into Ford’s automotive styling groups. Ford’s freshmen designers would begin their careers in his studio and learn the tricks of the trade prior to being assigned to other areas where they showed the most potential.
By the mid-1960’s, Tremulis had left Ford, yet maintained his teaching at the school under the direction of a much-loved Homer LaGassey. There he would often bring in guest speakers such as Art Arfons, as shown below, who talked of Tremulis’ advanced streamlining ideas as they applied to his record-setting Green Monster. Other future Hall of Famers would be in several of Tremulis’ classes. As he would often say, he was most proud of the successes that his many students enjoyed throughout their own storied careers.
c.1965, Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, Alex Tremulis (far left) brings in Art Arfons (immediate right of illustration) to lecture on the aerodynamics of land speed record vehicles. On the left of Tremulis' Green Monster rendering a young Jerry Palmer is soon to graduate and head off to his own illustrious career in automotive design.
So it was with great reverence that Jack Telnack, one of Tremulis’ former students and Automotive Hall of Fame member (2008), would introduce many of Tremulis’ irreverent antics to the induction ceremony’s audience. Upon graduation from Art Center College of Design, Telnack would rise quickly through the ranks at Ford to become the Vice President for Global Design and is supremely qualified to talk of Tremulis' impact on automotive styling and design history.
For such a long career spanning over half a century, it's important to gain insight into what kept him inspired through the tough times, of which he had many. Two photographs were etched in Alex's memory from a very early age, and these images helped keep the designer focused throughout his life.
 |  |
Both photographs hung on the office wall of Alex's father, a physician, where the young future designer would often accompany his Dad. The streamlined image of Tommy Milton's twin-engine Duesenberg racer setting a land speed record on the Daytona beach in 1920 would work its way into many of Tremulis future designs, each one a bit lower and more streamlined than the last. For Tremulis, it would form the basis for over half a century of automotive design incorporating the most advanced concepts in streamlining. It would also be his first introduction to the Duesenberg marque that would be interlaced throughout his entire half-century of automotive design.
The second image of Ralph DePalma pushing his race car to the finish of the 1912 Indianapolis 500 taught the young Tremulis to be tenacious and to never give up. DePalma had led the race for over 196 of the 200 laps and when his Mercedes finally gave out and he had to push his car over the finish line. In those days, if you didn't complete the entire 500 miles, you didn't get paid. As fate would have it, DePalma's feat was heroic, yet all for naught, as the rules stated the car had to finish under its own power, negating the laps logged while the car was broken down. It only served to further the point that no matter what the outcome, you have to give your best effort and never give up, a lesson he would revisit many times throughout his career, especially as an early pioneer of streamlining and aerodynamics.
In still yet another twist of fate, perhaps it's serendipity, that Preston Tucker and Alex Tremulis are reunited in the Automotive Hall of Fame, as they'll be linked side-by-side alphabetically for what will probably be a very, very long time.
The second image of Ralph DePalma pushing his race car to the finish of the 1912 Indianapolis 500 taught the young Tremulis to be tenacious and to never give up. DePalma had led the race for over 196 of the 200 laps and when his Mercedes finally gave out and he had to push his car over the finish line. In those days, if you didn't complete the entire 500 miles, you didn't get paid. As fate would have it, DePalma's feat was heroic, yet all for naught, as the rules stated the car had to finish under its own power, negating the laps logged while the car was broken down. It only served to further the point that no matter what the outcome, you have to give your best effort and never give up, a lesson he would revisit many times throughout his career, especially as an early pioneer of streamlining and aerodynamics.
In still yet another twist of fate, perhaps it's serendipity, that Preston Tucker and Alex Tremulis are reunited in the Automotive Hall of Fame, as they'll be linked side-by-side alphabetically for what will probably be a very, very long time.
Tremulis’ induction had such great historical significance with amazing coincidences: The ceremony was in the same building where he worked for Harley Earl, recruited the students from the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (now CCS) into Ford, taught automotive design for Homer LaGassey at the College for Creative Studies, and he was introduced by fellow Hall of Famer and former Tremulis student Jack Telnack. It truly was a Circle of Life.
Add to all this, it was 32 years ago that the Automotive Hall of Fame awarded Tremulis the Distinguished Service Citation. And just who would be among those congratulating Alex on his award? It would be none other than fellow 2014 inductee, Keith Crane!!!
Finally, Alex's induction into the Hall of Fame concluded with a passage from one of his many literary works:
“From the days when I got my first inspiration for drawing the lines of an automobile from my father, I was fascinated with that form of vehicular travel and the speed and excitement that went with it. Even though as a boy I did not translate the thought into words, I knew that the very instant I picked up my pencil from a car sketch, that particular idea was already obsolete and I must go on to another and another, each new one discovering some combination of curves, lines and angles to achieve a result.
A lifetime of working within the exciting environs of the auto industry has brought me into contact with so many fine and great people I feel greatly rewarded, rich though I am not.
There have been achievements aplenty to give me pleasure, but failures and set-backs in sufficient quantity to prevent me from being complacent.
I look back at my many auto models, prototypes, drawings and production cars with great fondness and pride and feel that each of them, in their particular way, was great. But my wildest feeling of excitement and raw pleasure comes from anticipating what that car, the car of tomorrow, will be..."
All the members of the Tremulis family, both in attendance and in absentia, give our sincere thanks to Bill Chapin and the nomination committee at the Automotive Hall of Fame, the entire crew of the College for Creative Studies for their magnificent and historic facilities, Jack Telnack for his wild recollections and insight into Alex Tremulis, and to all those who have shared and supported Alex's vision for a better tomorrow.
A lifetime of working within the exciting environs of the auto industry has brought me into contact with so many fine and great people I feel greatly rewarded, rich though I am not.
There have been achievements aplenty to give me pleasure, but failures and set-backs in sufficient quantity to prevent me from being complacent.
I look back at my many auto models, prototypes, drawings and production cars with great fondness and pride and feel that each of them, in their particular way, was great. But my wildest feeling of excitement and raw pleasure comes from anticipating what that car, the car of tomorrow, will be..."
All the members of the Tremulis family, both in attendance and in absentia, give our sincere thanks to Bill Chapin and the nomination committee at the Automotive Hall of Fame, the entire crew of the College for Creative Studies for their magnificent and historic facilities, Jack Telnack for his wild recollections and insight into Alex Tremulis, and to all those who have shared and supported Alex's vision for a better tomorrow.
And heartfelt congratulations to fellow Hall of Fame inductees Keith Crane, Ferdinand Piech, Dave Power, and to Distinguished Service Citation recipients Ken Gross and Frank Venegas Jr., and also Industry Leader of the Year James Lentz. What great company with which to be inducted...
To learn more about Alex Tremulis' involvement with Preston Tucker and the iconic Tucker automobile, just click the photos below linked to the articles:
 |  |
RSS Feed
