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Norm Pinnow was one designer that I always felt was underappreciated for
his talents. He came to Superior in the early to mid '50's from Henney, as
did a lot of talented people, and he was the one who really made Superior
the styling leader of coachbuilders from that point on. Richard Arbib got
all the credit at Henney, and Norm Pinnow went relatively unnoticed, but he
had a free hand at Superior, and he put made good use of it. He actually
said that when the '59 Crown Royale was first shown at the '58 NFDA
convention, they were afraid ti wouldn't go over, yet it turned out to be
one of the most successful styling themes ever for a professional car. I'd
also guess that he was the one responsible for the Superior hardtop hearses
a few years earlier, and that was before most passenger car builders even
had 4 door hardtops in their offerings. Norm is still around as far as I
know, and he's among the last of the breed, in that younger designers lack
the abilities and feel for design that he had. His work looked so good
because he knew how to use lines to deceive the eyeball, and nobody bothers
with things like that now. He did as much as, if not more, for Superior than
Arbib did for Henney, yet he's been relatively unrecognized by comparison.
Sometimes its possible to notice a "changing of the guard" in industry, and
it's certainly been noticeable in the funeral car business as far as
designers were concerned. Norm Pinnow, Walt Cassens, Willard Hess, and a few
others knew how to design a car and make it look good in spite of its
greater height and the practical concerns necessary, and nobody seems to be
able to do what they did now. © 2004 Bernie DeWinter - Coachbuilt.com |
