In the mid-50s, Ford burst out of its somnolence and gave us a brisk breath of a future we would not see again in such pure urgency until the Jetsons:

Ford Mystère (1955).

Gracefully bent sheet metal, roller-coaster lines, massive dollops of chrome--to that we now added a seamless double glass canopy rich in compound curves (and never mind how people got in and out), plus the cheapest but most eye-catching coup of all: three-tone paint from a palette that would've done Vargas proud.

It wasn't all visionary, one-off models in those days. One free-lance designer, Raymond Loewy, working outside the loop, got Studebaker to mass-produce his dream of the future:

Studebaker Commander (1950).

Not bad, huh? The torpedo nose, the deeply sculpted hood, the one-piece curved windshield, the panoramic rear window, all those pieces of the future could be purchased at your local Studebaker dealer as early as 1950.

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