Los Angeles history -- car designer

The tail fin era General Motors designer Chuck Jordan visits Los Angeles to encourage young car nuts to pursue their dreams. His advice: 'Start as bold as you can.... If you don't start out ambitious enough, it will be drained down to nothing.' Above, Chuck Jordan's design for the 1959 Eldorado. Below, the 1955 Chevrolet Cameo.

One of the joys of this blog is that I never know what I'm going to find in the daily paper. It could be some tragic killing or an oddball brite. But today, I fell into the rabbit hole of research with a brief story about a local boy who made good as a General Motors car designer after winning a student contest 11 years before. His name was not, as Bill Dredge wrote in The Times in 1958, Chuck Gordan. He was, in fact, Charles M. "Chuck" Jordan, designer of the 1955 Chevrolet Cameo), the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado and many other autos. Chuck Jordan's winning entry in the 1947 Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild contest. Photo by Harry Schoepf As for the contest, back in 1947, Jordan received a brief writeup in the weekly auto column after winning the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild Award.  We caught up with him again in 1965 when he was in charge of the automotive design studios at General Motors Styling. By then, the Fullerton High graduate was visiting the Art Center to monitor students' progress on a special design project. "A man has to have a real sincere interest in cars," Jordan told The Times' Bob Thomas. "Otherwise they get awful tired within a year working with cars. Every designer we have is a car bug. Also he must have the talent to design new, bold ideas. We're not after face-lifters or customizers. It takes a real talent to dig up something new." As for the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild Award, the contest that was started as philanthropy project during the Depression was eliminated in 1968 as a cost-saving measure. Motor Trend has a long interview with Jordan on its website. The Automotive Chronicles has an article on a reunion of Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild Award winners.

At left, Los Angeles endures another smog alert ... The latest in a series of  pipe bomb blasts raises fears on the Westside ... The cost of living declines for the first time in two years ... The U.S. keeps Red China out of the United Nations ... And the front page lineup of UCLA and PIttsburgh for their game at the Coliseum. UCLA is the 7-point favorite, The Times says.

In sports, USC beats Oregon 21-0 at the Coliseum ... In Chicago, the Dodgers beat the Cubs, 5-1, with runs by Ron Fairly and Don Demeter, giving Ralph Mauriello his first major league win ... Gene Littler sets a personal record of 62 in the second round of the Hesperia Open ... And sports editor Paul Zimmerman takes a look at the upcoming game between the Rams and the Steelers, especially quarterback Jack Kemp.