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The story of Avard T. Fairbanks

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The story of Avard T. Fairbanks

by Jim Benjaminson. Reprinted with permission from the Plymouth Bulletin. See the Bulletin for more photos!

In 1929, rising young sculptor Avard T. Fairbanks arrived at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor to head up the sculpture department. He needed a more reliable car than his 1928 Willys-Knight, which wouldn't start on cold winter mornings, but in the Depression, he didn't have money to get one.

Bird Wing


Fairbanks reasoned he could design a radiator cap ornament in trade for a new automobile. Chrysler Corporation, in nearby Highland Park, was an up-and-coming auto maker, with innovative engineering and designs; but its radiator caps, with their little Viking wings, needed improvement. Avard Fairbanks was just the artist to replace them with sculptural masterpieces.

At Chrysler headquarters, he was told they were about to introduce an all-new Plymouth, the PA series, featuring Floating Power (which meant shock-absorbing engine mounts). "The Smoothness of an Eight with the Economy of a Four" was the advertising pitch. Could he symbolize that in a radiator cap ornament?

Fairbanks designed a little mermaid (of Norse mythology) coming up out of a swirling wave...then gave her the wings of an eagle. The mermaid was a hit: Floating Power, indeed!

In return for his work on the little mermaid, Fairbanks was paid with a handsome, red 1932 Chrysler Royal Eight.

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Over the years these radiator caps have come to be known as "the Flying Lady." Only the Fairbanks family knows who she really is. Take a close look, the next time you see one; take a closer look at the point where her hips emerge from the swirling waves and where her tail disappears topside. Notice the little ridges that represent her fishy scales. She's a mermaid, all right!

The 1931 Plymouth was a runaway success. It pushed Buick out of third place and thrust Chrysler Corporation into the Big Three of auto makers. Walter P. Chrysler may have thought its success had to do with his engineering features such as hydraulic brakes, free wheeling and Floating Power, but Avard Fairbanks, never averse to taking due credit, always said, "Everyone just loved my little mermaid."

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There is a feature of the Little Mermaid on which almost everyone seems compelled to comment. It's not about the feathery pattern on her wings, nor her flowing wavy hair, nor her graceful emergence out of the waves. It's about her healthy torso! Fairbanks reply spoke strongly in her defense: "She's a mermaid, and that's just how mermaids are!" Dispute that if you can.

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The "Little Mermaid on the waves," as a symbol of floating power and Plymouth, soon got lost on the marketing people at Plymouth. A line drawing of the design appeared on each page of the sales brochures of the PA models, but the Fairbanks design was used only on the 1931 PA and 1932 PB Plymouths. The 1933 design, which was taller and slimmer, was the work of someone else. By 1934, Plymouth ornaments had become sailing ships; winged ladies of various designs were reserved for DeSoto, until 1949.

Avard Fairbanks' work for the Chrysler Corporation was not over, however. As he recalled in a Southwest Art magazine:

One evening I got an urgent call from the engineers at Dodge automobile company asking me to meet them in ten minutes. They explained that they had 10,000 cars that needed hood ornaments and that they wanted something as attractive as the ornament on a Rolls Royce, but for the cheapest car! I took along my clay and an animal book by my friend William Hornaday and spent the next several days at their headquarters. They brought in food and a couch and I went to work.

I suggested a mountain lion, a tiger, a jaguar and other animals. Finally I started modeling a mountain sheep. When the engineers read that the ram was the "master of the trail and not afraid of even the wildest of animals," they became enthusiastic about the symbol. Walter P. Chrysler wasn't as convinced. But I explained that anyone seeing a ram, with its big horns, would think "dodge." He looked at me, looked at the model, scratched his head and said, "That's what I want - go ahead with it."
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The Fairbanks family recalls it slightly differently:

For two weeks father worked on all sorts of models from mythology creatures to various powerful animals. Finally, he called the designers and Mr. Chrysler in to see three models of a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, a ram. He proposed the charging one.

They asked, "Why a ram?"

Father responded, "It is sure-footed; it's the King of the Trail; it won't be challenged by anything." They nodded their heads. Then father, with a bit of corny humor, added, "And if you were on the trail and saw that ram charging down on you, what would you think? - DODGE!" To which Walter Chrysler excitedly replied "That's it! The ram goes on the Dodge!"
Recreation
Avard left his models at Dodge headquarters for a few months. When he returned he was surprised to see an assembly plant lot full of new Dodges with rams on their hoods. He immediately sought an audience with K. T. Keller, President of Dodge Division, who explained that in his absence, they had to move ahead, so their own designer modified the ram ornament for production.

They had tilted the head down a bit more and pulled the horns away from the head, a suggestion Avard had made but thought would be too costly for production. In fact, it was an expensive item but so beautiful that new Dodge owners were constantly troubled with thefts of their rams. Thousands had to be produced as replacements.

Avard reminded Mr. Keller that copyright laws do apply to sculpture and artistic designs, and Mr. Keller very quickly offered to pay him with another new car. But with the big red Chrysler already at home, he asked instead for a royalty on the design. They finally settled on a check for the full retail price for a top-of-the line Dodge Eight: $1,400.

For that amount (rather paltry by today's standards), Dodge got one of the most enduring corporate symbols in American history.

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A ram of one sort or another went on the hood of every Dodge car and truck from 1932 to 1954. It remained on the badges of Dodge cars until Ram was broken off, and Ram still symbolizes tough trucks for Chrysler.

Unlike the Plymouth "Little Mermaid" (for which Fairbanks received no public credit and which has sometimes erroneously been credited to Chrysler stylist Harry Henderson), Fairbanks was given full credit for the Ram design. In a four-page brochure entitled A Fitting Symbol For Dodge Dependability, page one features a closeup drawing of a ram's head against a mountain backdrop. Pages two and three explain the history of the mountain sheep. Page four finally gets around to giving credit where credit is due, reading:

To Mr. A. E. Fairbanks [in reality, his middle initial was T], sculptor of the art department at the University of Michigan, should be extended the credit of this personification of Dodge dependability and performance.

Deftly sculptured by Mr. Fairbanks' hands, the Bighorn literally dashes forth upon the radiator of the Dodge Six and Eight with swift and sagacious speed.
Portrait Art Forehead Self-portrait Sculpture
Although the Dodge Ram was the last ornament Avard Fairbanks designed for Chrysler Corporation, his most influential contribution to the auto industry may have come as Chrysler engineers watched him modeling in clay. He taught them how to use clay instead of wood, and sculpture techniques instead of carpentry for their design mockups.

Fairbanks' work is also found on the 1933 Hudson Essex Terraplane. The hot performance car of 1933 (it won the Pike's Peak Hill Climb and set records on the sands of Daytona Beach), the Terraplane was given an ornament of the griffin, the mythological lion with an eagle head and wings; its wing pattern is a close match to Plymouth's winged mermaid. This time he signed the ornament and took an Essex Eight in payment.

Avard Fairbanks went on to a distinguished career as an educator, anatomist and sculptor, creator of over a hundred public monuments (including the sculpture of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois). His other works include a bronze portrait-sculpture of Walter P. Chrysler in the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia; three Pony Express Monuments; four bronzes of George Washington on the George Washington University campus; three marble portraits of Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theater; a colossal marble head of Lincoln and three bronze statues in the U.S. National Capital; a bust of North Dakota Governor John Burke; and the "Statue of a Pioneer Family" on the capitol grounds at Bismarck, North Dakota.

Tap Canidae Sporting Group Dachshund Pointer
Avard Tennyson Fairbanks was born in Provo, Utah, in 1897. He passed away January 1st, 1987, in Salt Lake City.

Special thanks to Avard T. Fairbanks' sons, David N. F. Fairbanks, MD, Eugene F. Fairbanks, MD, and Grant R. Fairbanks, MD for their assistance with this story; The Avard T. Fairbanks Academy of Fine Arts; Marv Raguse, Jr., and Jeffrey Godhsall of Chrysler; and "Avard Fairbanks, Higher Ideals by Athelia Tanner Woolley," Southwest Art, February 1987.



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