Cadillacs featured all-new styling for 1950 with the unveiling in January at GM’s Mid-Century Motorama held at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Cadillac sales brochures didn’t call those pointed appendages fins, rather referring to them as a “distinctive rear fender treatment with tail lamps in the up-sweep.” Although Cadillac was on its second restyling since World War II, the chassis was still a prewar design. First introduced in 1949, its advanced 331 c.i.d., overhead valve 160 h.p. V-8 was considered “the bomb” by performance buffs and became a popular installation in 50s specialty and racing cars. 

Although Cadillac cataloged a factory-built Series Seventy-Five limousine, this executive car is built on the shorter Series Sixty Special chassis. Sixty Specials were immediately identifiable by eight vertical chrome louvers on the lower edge of the rear doors. An internal Cadillac production memo states the body of this car as style 6019 and “car sent to styling section for special work will be shipped to New York Branch for delivery to Mr. Bradley when completed.” Mr. Bradley refers to Albert Bradley, who was Chairman of General Motors between 1956 and 1958, and largely credited with establishing the financial operations system still in use at GM. This car is in original, unrestored condition.