Detroit Heritage : The 1930's

This 1936 DeSoto Airstream Six embodied a return to conventional styling after Chrysler Corp.'s adventure with the radically streamlined Airflow. DeSoto continued to build the Airflow in 1936, but dropped it at the end of that model run. It also dropped the Airstream name, quickly burying all vestiges of the technologically advanced but saleswise disasterous Airflow.

The Terraplane was introduced in 1932 as a model of the Essex, which Hudson had launched in 1919. In a spectacular aviation-oriented christening ceremony, the first Terraplane was delivered to Orville Wright and the second to famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart. The new Terraplane was so successful that in 1933 it was spun off into its own car line. This 1937 Terraplane was the last as an independent car line. In 1938, it became a model of Hudson, then the name was dropped in 1939.

After ending their association with Dodge upon its acquisition by Chrysler Corp., the Graham brothers, Joseph, Robert and Ray, launched their Graham-Paige automobile in 1928 at the New York Auto Show with a lavish affair featuring world champion boxer Gene Tunney and Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne. The Graham-Paige set a production record in its first year of 73,195, exceeding the previous mark set in 1926 by the new Pontiac. In 1930, "Paige" was dropped and the car became the Graham. As the Great Depression wore on, sales dropped dramatically. Ray Graham committed suicide in 1932. The company fought to survive with advanced styling and supercharged engines. This 1938 Graham was one of the maker's more spectacular efforts to stay alive, with a styling concept it called the "Spirit of Motion." Most people called it the "sharknose." It met the same fate as Chrysler's Airflow. Graham quit building cars in 1940.