Automobile Hood Ornaments

Postwar auto styling often combined two popular themes—aviation and sex. A 1948 Buick brochure features a phallic hood ornament that is also reminiscent of a fighter aircraft gunsight.

The 1956 Oldsmobile ornament was shaped like a rocket. But a brochure cover that juxtaposed the rocket with a bare-shouldered woman crying “Oh-h-h!” carried an unmistakable sexual subtext.

Images: From the Collections of The Henry Ford. 1) Automobile Product Literature 1948 Buick, Sales Lit. & 2) Automobile Product Literature 1956 Oldsmobile, Sales Lit..

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