From Dreams to Reality: Restoring GM’s Marvelous Motorama
Originally published on Apr. 10, 2024 by Andrew Summers. Special thank-you to Jonathan ‘Jonee’ Eisen for making this article possible.
Collector, Curator, Savior.
“Joe was always there first. He has a unique ability to see value before others do. My mother had a name for people like Joe who have a unique nature. She called them “characters,” crediting them with possessing an ability to do what others can’t. Joe has a reputation for finding cars that others haven’t caught on to yet and turning them into coveted gems.”
-Jay Leno, on Joe Bortz
We are proud to present a portion of Joe Bortz’s renowned collection of 1950s concept cars with six cars from GM’s famed Motorama shows. Each of these one-of-a-kind automobiles has its own unique story on how they came to be, what impact they had on the automotive industry in the 1950s, and how Joe Bortz found himself in possession of them. Here is the story of the LaSalle II Roadster, LaSalle II Sedan, and the Chevrolet Biscayne.
Joe Bortz: Dreamer
At 11 years old, after saving up money from his paper route, Joe Bortz found himself with access to GM’s Motorama at the International Amphitheater in Chicago Illinois. For him, it was that first exposure, that first opportunity to lay eyes on some of the most elegant and beautiful cars that the public had ever been introduced to, that led to an obsession he still hasn’t gotten over.
These beautiful cars were the fruit of GM’s prestigious Harley J. Earle, whose first job for GM as an independent designer was penning the 1927 La Salle Roadster, an assignment which led to his sentimental attachment to the La Salle marque. Earle would later become the first designer in the history of the automotive industry to hold a Vice President level position at a company. Famous for creating the first ever concept car in 1938, the Buick Y Job, Earle pushed the envelope for car design in an era of unprecedented optimism and prosperity. He called concept cars his “rolling laboratory”, and used the Y Job as a way to prototype engineering changes as well as gauging public interest in certain designs and features, which he then used to create highly desirable cars in an era before big manufacturers really put a priority on the looks of a car.
The Motorama cars were thematically derived from the idea of concept cars, meaning they were never intended to be road-worthy, but instead were meant as showpieces for GM to put on a grand display of its greatest works. These cars need not adhere to engineering constraints; engineers weren’t required to match the front grill and hood lines so that it would work with their pre-designed radiator for example, or use a specific oil pan that was mass-produced for the entire model range. Being free of these constraints, whether it was manufacturing, marketing, or cost, designers could push the boundaries with their designs as far as they wanted.
The Motorama cars were the result of the brightest minds and designers creating vehicles that would come to represent the future of not only General Motors, but American automobiles in general. Without the GM Motorama, we wouldn’t have seen iconic vehicles such as the original debut of the 1953 Corvette. Competition breeds innovation, and General Motors served as tough competitors once they took market share domination in the 1950s.
Joe Bortz found himself enamored with cars of the GM Motorama era, and couldn’t imagine touching them, much less owning the six vehicles on display in our GM Motorama exhibit. Three of the cars in particular, the LaSalle II Roadster, LaSalle II Sedan, and Chevrolet Biscayne, were saved by Joe after they had spent nearly thirty years in a junkyard.
Joe Bortz: Luck
Fast forwarding to 1959, two years before the conclusion of GM Motorama, the Motorama cars looked more like the cars on the road rather than the cars of the future, so General Motors had to make a decision about what to do with the aging concept cars in their possession.
GM tried selling a few of the Motorama cars, but found that releasing these cars to the public was an awful experience for both buyer and seller; never meant to be roadworthy, even though some moved under their own power, these cars were completely unserviceable, with one-off parts that were never tested for durability. Not to mention, many of these cars prototyped technologies that were unheard of, such as dual-overhead camshaft aluminum engines in the LaSalle II Roadster & Sedan, and couldn’t be risked falling into the hands of competitors.
These cars were simply meant to serve as GM’s grandest portfolio pieces, and as rolling artworks for the public’s entertainment.
Though many detested the decision, GM ultimately chose to scrap and destroy the cars given no real alternative. In sending out the vehicles to various scrapyards to be cut in half and crushed, the cars had apparently served their purpose. Some of the cars were intercepted and stolen away by their designers, saving their own greatest works. Several Motorama cars remain unaccounted for and are possibly sitting in barns or garages somewhere in the Midwest. Many cars weren’t so lucky, though.
GM sent representatives with the cars, escorting them along the way, to ensure their destruction. The LaSalle II Roadster & Sedan, along with the Cadillac El Dorado Town Car and Chevrolet Biscayne, were scheduled to be sent and destroyed on December 22nd and 23rd at a junkyard in Michigan named Warhoops.
Joe Bortz had timing on his side, 30 years before he knew it; the destruction slated to take place right in the middle of the holidays was the difference between the cars existing and not. Harry Warholak, owner of Warhoops, was commissioned with the destruction of these four concept cars in 1959, each of the cars needing to be cut in half and crushed.
GM’s representative arrived on the 22nd with two cars and ensured they were cut in half, yet to be crushed. Anecdotally, the GM’s representative said something to the effect of: “I’m not making this trip again tomorrow. It’s Christmas, and I’ll be spending time with my family. I’ll leave it in your hands, and assume the cars will be destroyed.”
The following day the other two vehicles arrived, and with four GM Motorama concept cars in his possession officially signed off by General Motors, Harry Warholak had an incredibly difficult choice to make. He couldn’t do anything with them besides destroy them, but it’s heartbreaking to destroy such magnificent and beautiful cars.
Officially, the cars were destroyed and gone.
Unofficially?
In the corner of the yard, stowed away in plain sight on top of other cars and under tarps, the four concept cars remained lost to time for the next thirty years.
Joe Bortz: Savior
By the 1980’s, Joe Bortz had become something of a savior of 1950s and 1960s concept cars. At the time he was criticized by some for collecting cars “nobody wanted”, but looking past the envy of critics, the reality is that he collected cars nobody could even find. These types of cars don’t pop up in the classifieds or on car lots, one really had to know their stuff to locate them – and Joe was a master of finding Motorama-era gems.
Fast-forward to 1988, Joe had heard rumors and found traces of the concept cars that were assigned to Warhoops. Many who had stumbled upon them had written off the cars; perhaps the assumption was that they were replicas, or that they may have been discarded first drafts, so the cars had successfully flown under the radar.
After a conversation with Harry Warholak, explaining his collection and why it mattered to him to get these cars, Joe had managed to claim ownership of the four concept cars that had been slated for destruction 30-odd years before. Joe then set out to reunite the halved cars, the LaSalle II Roadster and Chevrolet Biscayne, and sold off one car, the 1956 Cadillac El Dorado Town Car, to hall-of-famer Roy Warshawsky. The LaSalle II Sedan was kept in its original condition as it was found at Warhoops.
With Joe Bortz’s great attention to detail and care of these Motorama cars, we are proud to present our GM Motorama Exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum. To check out the exhibit in person and find out more online, visit www.petersen.org to purchase tickets.
