[ last update: 04.08.2014 ]

The (new) Cadillac Database©

Photo Pages
Cadillac

1929


Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
or go back to the Cadillac photo index page to pick another year
or go to the  La Salle photo index page 

 

Unless otherwise specified all photos and illustrations are from Yann Saunders'
collection of Cadillac photos, advertisements and product catalogs,
reproduced courtesy of the Cadillac Motor Car Division and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club

 

Among the most beautiful product catalogs I have seen is the 1929 Cadillac all-model color brochure from which the pictures below have been excerpted for your viewing pleasure. 

In addition to the regular line illustrated in these pages, Fleetwood built many custom and semi-custom models; if I don't run out of Web space, I may include photos of some of them in the future.

The quality of these artist's renderings and the color selections for each model are, in my opinion, on a par with their 1927 and 1928 proposals.  However, it seems that the majority of people who, in 1929, could afford to buy a Cadillac, chose more discreet colors than those illustrated in the catalog.   Fortunately, the collectors who own and restore these models today - especially the open cars - have access to pictures like these and will generally go for a more flamboyant color scheme than the one initially chosen by the original owner.

The catalog from which are drawn the pictures below has a chocolate-colored cover with a black "zig-zag" border;  the word "CADILLAC" appears at the top center, in large, white, upper case letters with a black shadow for emphasis.  Below the title is the plain Cadillac crest [no color] resting on a kind of "graphic explosion" of flags,  flag staffs and a decorative horizontal frieze.  I believe this was the best literature item for 1929;   it was printed in detroit by Evans-Winter-Hebb.  The date on one of the inner, front pages is shown as MCMXXVIII, that is 1928, although the models are those of 1929.

I have shown the cars in ascending order of their list prices.   I do not have prices for individual  Fleetwood models but, on the 1929 pricelist, we are told that prices for the Fleetwood models range from $4195 to $7000.

The new, 1929 models were shown first at a Distributors' Convention (in New York ?) on July 30-31 and  August 1-2, 1928. At that time it was stated by the company that the models shown would be available for shipment to dealers in September 1928.

 

The standard model range
with bodies by Fisher

 

P29cp2.jpg (7657 bytes)
The cheapest offering in 1929 was this
coupe for 2 passengers; it is Fisher
style #158 and it cost $3295

 

P29rds.jpg (7730 bytes)
The roadster for 2-passengers, Fisher style #155,
is one of the most sought after body styles today. 
In 1929 it cost $3350; today $100,000 will buy a nice one

 

P29trg7.jpg (7662 bytes)
This popular and spacious, open family touring car
carried Fisher style #1;  It listed for $3450. In fine
condition today, you might pay $100,000 for one

 

P29pha4.jpg (7528 bytes)
The standard  phaeton for 4 passengers had many adepts in Hollywood. 
Fisher style numbers were #101 and #102.
This model cost $3450.  Today, it could fetch $115,000

 

P29tnsd.jpg (7768 bytes)
This close-coupled sedan for city dwellers could
accommodate five passengers in comfort.  It was
Fisher style #152 (town sedan) and listed for $3495

 

 



Artist's view of the town sedan (above, left)

 

 

P29cp5.jpg (8299 bytes)
Another popular city car was this coupe
for five passengers that listed for $3595.
It carried Fisher style #178

 

29cp5passS.jpg (9929 bytes)    29cp5passiS.jpg (5736 bytes)
A survivor, in 2007

 

P29cvcp.jpg (7715 bytes)
For the same money ($3595), the trendy gent from
suburbia and the up-and-coming Hollywood starlet
probably preferred this convertible coupe (Fisher style
#168);  today, a nice one will set you back $100,000

 

P29sd5.jpg (7718 bytes)
Volume sales of Cadillac cars centered on the sedans
for five and seven passengers.  This is the 5-passenger
model (Fisher style #159); it is recognizable by the
smaller quarter window; it cost $3695

 

1929 was the year of "daring art conceptions"; in an advertising fantasy, Cadillac's in-house magazine "The Crest" likened some of the year's colorful creations to the following works of master artists of the world: Boticelli's The Magnificent), Rembrandt's The Noble Slav, Velasquez' Philip IV of Spain, Frans Hals' The Laughing Cavalier, Watteau's The Conversation [the latter inspired a La Salle 5-passenger Sedan], Sir Joshua Reynolds' Col. George Coussmaker, Corot's Souvenir of Normandy, Vermeer's Head of a Young Girl [the latter inspired the color scheme of a 2-pass. convertible coupe, like the one in the previous row, left; it was finished in  pale blue, gray and gold], the Titian's Flora, Holbein's King Henry VIII, Gainsborough's Blue Boy, Sargent's Carnation Lily, Lily Rose, Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Sorolla's Swimmers, Rubens' Le Chapeau de Poil, Whistler's Cremone Lights and Michaelangelo's decorated ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

 

 

29vic1.jpg (7080 bytes)    29vic2.jpg (6177 bytes)    29vic3.jpg (5820 bytes)

29vic4.jpg (5462 bytes)    29vic6.jpg (5036 bytes)    29vic5.jpg (7686 bytes)
The body tag on this custom convertible Victoria shows it to have begun life as a 7-pass. sedan;
it certainly won't escape the collector-investor that a convertible style is far more desirable than a sedan

 

 

P29sd7.jpg (7976 bytes)    29-7pass.jpg (20043 bytes)
The sedan for seven passengers (Fisher style #162)
always was among the best sellers. The 1929 model
cost $3795.  Of course, today, sedans are not the
"hottest" collectibles; this one might fetch $40,000

 

P29spha4.jpg (6783 bytes)
In my opinion, this is the most thrilling of all pre-WW2
Cadillac body styles (although I am not a fan of  convertible models);
this  Fisher style, #151, sold for $3950. 
A prime example, today,  will fetch upwards of $125,000!

 

29SpPha.jpg (23785 bytes)
Period photo, Motor [ZTV coll.]

29SPPHDS.JPG (8172 bytes)    29SPPHD2.JPG (9654 bytes)
This exceptional survivor belongs to enthusiast Dick Shappy of RI

29dc_srv.jpg (23789 bytes)
This survivor is done in the same paint scheme, as seen in
the artist's view of the regular phaeton in the 1929 product brochure
[ Photo: Internet, 12/2005 ]

    
The survivor (at left) resides in Australia; the one on the right was snapped in Amelia Island circa 2011-12


One more superb survivor

29SptPhaPress.jpg (13603 bytes)
These representatives of GM arrived at San Francisco international airport on March 25, 1954, to paticipate in the GM Motorama;
to demonstarte the advances made in automobile transportation, the GM people were met by the Count of El camino, driving this 1929
Cadillac sport phaeton; of course, a 1954 limousine was also lying in wait, just in case of a mechanical problem with the old car;
seated in the rear are G.W. Murphy, GM dealer in Hawaii,  N.C. Baptiste, Cadillac dealer in Hawaii; the front seat passenger is
GM Vice-President N.S. Hoglund (father of GM's current dirtector, William Hoglund); the Count of  El Camino is at the wheel
[ Photo and info:  Internet, 2007 ]

 

 

P29imp7.jpg (7674 bytes)   
Also part of Cadillac's "bread-and-butter" line was the ever-popular 
and spacious limousine for seven passengers; it had a division and
comfortable auxiliary seating for two; the price in 1929 for Fisher
style #163 was $3995, i.e. about ten times less than its value today


A survivor found on the Internet in 2013

 

 

Fleetwood Custom Jobs
[ many more were made ]

 

29sdnett.jpg (21253 bytes)
This is a Fleetwood custom job known as a "Sedanet" or "Sedanette";
it looks like an all-weather phaeton, except that the top is fixed:
the metal roof is covered with coupienne (leather with a cloth-like grain)

29TCFLTW.JPG (12240 bytes)    29CadTC.jpg (16840 bytes)
Left: factory photo of Fleetwood style #3125, town car for 7 passengers
Right: a lovely, surviving Fleetwood style #3591, town car for 7 passengers

29CusMahy.jpg (8793 bytes)
This elegant Fleetwood town cabriolet was for many years
in the collection of the late Ghislain Mahy, of Belgium

29TC.jpg (8195 bytes)
Here's another rare, surviving Fleetwood town car

29-3880P.JPG (23876 bytes)
All-weather phaeton by Fleetwood, style #3880-P
[ Source:  Motor, Jan. 29 - Z. Taylor Vinson collection ]

 

 

Details

 

P29rrst.jpg (6573 bytes)

 

P29dash.jpg (5121 bytes) P29rrst2.jpg (4321 bytes)
 

P29drpnl.jpg (5307 bytes)

 

From top left, clockwise:
1) luxurious rear seating with  window blinds all round, 2) the instrument board and outer sun visor, 3) smoking and vanity cases, armrest storage,
4) trunk louver and spare tire carrier,  5) door frieze, ash receiver and stylish Ternstedt hardware
P29trnk.jpg (8287 bytes)

 

More details

 

P29eng2.jpg (9208 bytes)
Easy ID for 1929: fender-mounted parking
lights combined with hood vent louvers on
the rear section of the hood side panels

 

P29eng.jpg (7409 bytes)
The V8 motor is described as:  "the supreme achievement  of automotive engineering... motive power exquisitely refined, intimately adapted to the uses of a fine car"
 

P29limin.jpg (9566 bytes)
The interior of the sedan for
seven passengers looked like this

 

P29drvst.jpg (7705 bytes)
In the sedan models,
the front seat  was adjustable

 

Still more details

 

P29detl1.jpg (11047 bytes)
Above, left, a useful hood side vent door (air conditioning was still a few years away!)
Right, the front clip (also used as the background image for this page); this view again
shows the year's easy ID features, that is the fender-mounted parking lights
combined with hood louvers that don't extend the full width of the hood side panels

 

 

P29detl2.jpg (11625 bytes)
Above, left: battery and tool compartments were located in the sill, below the front doors.
Center: matching smoking and vanity cases were a welcome part of the appointments in
the rear compartment of the larger sedans.  Right, the Cadillac crest stands out against
the new chrome finish  of the radiator housing [Cadillac introduced chrome-plating in 1929]

 

 

 

 

Devastation in Los Angeles

29lafire.jpg (5911 bytes)
There was a massive blaze, in Los Angeles, during the 1929 auto show;
in this press photo of the day, we see the Cadillac-LaSalle section where
fire and water damage caused a loss of some $85,000
[ that's almost a million dollars in today's money !]

 

 

 

 

FRFLAG.JPG (773 bytes)

L'année 1929 sera le début d'une période noire pour toute l'industrie américaine (...et l'histoire ne fera que se répéter 60 ans plus tard).

Ceux d'entre vous qui s'y connaissent en économie politique pourront peut-être nous expliquer comment les USA ont pu basculer de façon si soudaine, en octobre 1929, de l'âge d'or qu'avaient été les années vingt, dans l'âge plutôt pas marrant des années trente (j'en sais quelque-chose, je suis de '39!).

Mais mon propos n'est pas de rappeler de pénibles souvenirs à nos aînés. Que non point. Je trouve simplement étonnant et curieux à la fois que pendant cette période de profonde dépression, Cadillac ait pu produire les plus fabuleuses voitures "de série" qu'ait jamais eu à connaître le petit monde des collectionneurs à venir et qui allait voir le jour quelque vingt ans plus tard. Je rappelle à cet effet que la création du Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc. (USA) remonte à 1958 et qu'à cette époque on pouvait acheter pour $1000 à $1500 un roadster [spider] Cadillac à moteur V-16 dont la cote en 1989 dépassait le demi-million de dollars!

A mon goût, 1928 marque un tournant important pour l'industrie automobile américaine. Jusque là, on s'était contenté de fabriquer des véhicules «utilitaires», c'est à dire des automobiles conçues pour vous transporter de «A» en «B».

C'est sous l'impulsion du grand Harley Earl (grand autant par sa stature que par son talent), transfuge des studios Don Lee de Hollywood où les stars de l'époque se faisaient faire des carrosseries à la mesure de leur personnalité parfois exubérante, que fut créé chez Cadillac le «Art and Color Section».

La première réussite de Earl, très largement inspirée des Hispano-Suiza et autres Isotta-Fraschini habillées par les maîtres-carrossiers européens de l'époque, fut le torpédo LaSalle de 1927.

Sous le titre «Nature's Studio» (l'atelier de peintre de Dame Nature), le catalogue Cadillac de 1928 regorge de splendides carrosseries dont on retrouve tous les coloris dans la nature, dans la faune et dans la flore. Les catalogues de 1928 et 1929 sont d'une telle qualité graphique qu'il me paraît inconcevable de ne pas les publier dans leur intégralité dans ces pages.

Il serait superfétatoire (à ne pas confondre avec une «super fête, à Thoire») que de faire l'éloge des graphistes du «Art and Color Section». En effet, la qualité de leur travail se rapproche du surréalisme du regretté Andy Warhol.

A chacune des photos tirées du catalogue 1929, correspondent également un plan et un profil qui permettront au profane de mieux cerner le type de carrosserie dont il est question ainsi que la disposition intérieure.

Au plan technique, qui n'est pas mon fort, je vous fournirai simplement quelques données tirées de ces deux prospectus.

Les Cadillac de 1929 utilisaient un moteur V8 de 5588cc dont les cylindres étaient opposés à 90°; l'alésage et la course étaient respectivement de 841,4 mm et 1254,1 mm. Ce V8 développait plus de 95CV. La tranmission Syncro-Mesh brevetée par la firme permettait le passage en douceur des vitesses à tous les régimes. Le diamètre. de braquage était de 701cm vers la droite et de 764,5cm vers la gauche, pour un empattement de 355,6cm. Déjà les Cadillac possédaient un double circuit de freinage et des glaces en verre Sécurit. L'allumage se faisait par le système breveté Delco alimenté par un accu 6V de 130 Ah.

Toutes les photos ci-dessus sont tirées du luxueux catalogue Cadillac, en couleurs, de l'année 1929. Le luxe et le confort des intérieurs en drap n'échappera à personne. On remarquera les stores à rouleau en soie pour toutes les glaces AR, le repose-pieds (de larges strapontins sont intégrés dans la partie inférieure du dossier de la banquette AV), le brocart sur les panneaux de portières, les entourages de glaces, de parebrise et de lunette AR en noyer.

Parmi les illustrations ci-dessus on remarquera:

-  le compartiment du chauffeur (la petite manivelle au plafond sert à faire coulisser le barebrise vers l'avant)
-  le clapet extérieur de ventilation du compartiment chauffeur
-  la calandre et les phares distinctifs (c'est en 1929 que Cadillac monte les lanternes sur les ailes AV pour la première fois)
-  le parechocs AV bi-lame
-  le volant à quatre branches
-  les feux AR et la tôle de protection du réservoir d'essence
-  la roue de secours unique à l'arrière qui empêche l'installation d'un porte bagage (on pouvait néanmoins faire monter deux roues de secours dans les ailes AV)
-  le luxueux habitacle arrière (on voit à gauche le nécessaire à fumeurs et à droite le nécessaire à maquillage de Madame)
-  la banquette avant réglable, pour le confort des chauffeurs petits et grands
-  au niveau du marche-pied droit le coffre à outils et de l'autre le compartiment pour les accus
-  les panneaux intérieurs de portières réhaussés de brocart
-  les accoudoirs des places AR avec poche pour le courrier et les petits paquets
-  les armoiries Cadillac ornant la calandre

Les prix des Cadillac en 1929 oscillaient entre $ 3295 et  $ 3995

 

 

Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
or go back to the Cadillac photo index page to pick another year
or go to the  La Salle photo index page

 

© 1996, Yann Saunders and the Cadillac-LaSalle Club. Inc.
[ Background image:  1929 front clip (easy ID features) - from the 1929 product brochure ]