Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac
Upon his arrival in America, La Mothe adopted his title after the town of Cadillac, Gironde in southwestern France. The city of Detroit became the world center of automobile production in the 20th century. William H. Murphy and Henry M. Leland founded the Cadillac auto company and paid homage to him by using his name for their company and his armorial bearings as its logo in 1902. Various places bear his name in America, in particular Cadillac Mountain in Maine and the town of Cadillac, Michigan.
Cadillac
Cadillac's other distinctive styling attribute was its front-bumper. What had started out after the war as a pair of artillery shell-shaped bumper guards moved higher on the front-end design as the 1950s wore on. Becoming known as Dagmar bumpers for their similarity to the buxom 1950s television personality, they were toned down in 1958 and gone the next year. 1956 saw the introduction of the pillarless four-door hardtop sedan, marketed as the "Sedan de Ville"; a year later the feature appeared in all standard Cadillacs. The fledgling automotive magazine "Motor Trend" awarded its first "Motor Trend Car of the Year" to Cadillac in 1949 for its innovative overhead valve V8 engine. While the company initially snubbed the honor, it now proudly references its "Car of the Year" wins in publicity material. On November 25, 1949, Cadillac produced its one-millionth car, a 1950 Coupe de Ville. It also set a new sales mark of 100,000 cars, matched in 1950 and 1951. 1949 also saw the introduction with Buick of the first mass-produced hardtop coupe, a closed-body style without a "B" pillar. Marketed as the Coupe de Ville, it would become one of Cadillac's most popular models for many years.