Talisman (pronounced tal-is-muhn
or tal-iz-muhn)
(1) A
stone, ring, or other object, usually engraved with figures or characters
supposed to possess occult powers and worn as an amulet or charm; believed to
protect the wearer from evil influences
(2) Any
amulet or charm.
(3) Anything
or anyone, the presence of which exercises a remarkable or powerful influence
on human feelings or actions.
(4) A
trim option offered on the Cadillac Fleetwood (1974-1976).
1630–1640:
From the French or Spanish talisman, partly
from Arabic طِلَسْم (ṭilasm), from the Late Greek télesmon (completion, performance, consecrated object), and partly
directly from the Byzantine Greek τέλεσμα (télesma)
(talisman, religious rite, completion), from τελέω (teléō), (to perform religious rites, to complete), from τέλος (télos) (end, fulfillment,
accomplishment, consummation, completion”).
The Arabic word was also borrowed by Turkish, Persian & Hindi and the only explanation for the -n in western
European languages is replicated error. Derived
forms are the adjectives talismanic & talismanical and the adverb talismanically. Talisman is a noun & verb, talismaning & talismaned are verbs, talismanic is an adjective and talismanically is an adverb; the noun plural is talismans (talismen is non-standard). Talismanique is a French and not an English adjective.
Lindsay
Lohan wearing (non-Masonic) Evil Eye talisman, Los Angeles, March 2011.
The
Evil Eye is a talisman (or amulet), or talisman which is said to afford the
wearer protection against the forces of evil.
Examples of Evil Eye talismans have for some three-thousand years existed
in many cultures and are documented in early examples of the art of Judaism,
Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity, the forms including the Hebrew Ayin Ha’ra, the Turkish Nazar Boncugu, the Italian Mal Occhio, the Farsi Bla Band, the Arabic Ayin Harsha, the Scots Droch Shuil, the Spanish Mal Ojo (or El Oja), the French Mauvais
Oeil, the German Busen Blick and
the Roman Oculus Malus. The imagery is particularly ingrained in the Republic
of Türkiye where the symbolism is visible on symbol on currency, in architecture
and interior design, one often hung from the necks of new-born children
and even farm animals.
Freemason
Evil Eye talisman.
Also known as the “Eye
of Providence”, the symbol is not only part of Masonic ritualism but it appears
on both the reverse of the US dollar bill (in a pyramid’s top cap) and the
nation’s Great Seal. Although many of
the founding fathers of the US were confessed Freemasons, the official line is the
unfinished pyramid was intended to symbolise “strength and duration”, with the 13
levels representing the original states which formed the US while the eye was
there to acknowledge God’s sympathetic oversight of the fledgling nation. It’s claimed the Freemasons had no involvement
in these choices and that the cult didn’t begin publicly to display the evil
eye until well into the eighteenth century.
Whether prior to that they used it in secret is of course unknown except to them and also
a mystery is whether every member of the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or
is required to wear a concealed Masonic talisman. It’s never been denied and unless there’s a
defection, that too may remain a secret.
The
Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman, 1974-1976
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman in Sable Black over Dark Blue Medici Cloth.
Even by
the standards of the American automobile of the time, the 1971 Cadillac was
big. Replacing the previous range which
had run from 1965-1970, engineering innovations were limited and the changes mostly cosmetic, much of the manufacturer’s attentions now devoted to
conforming with the onrush of safety and pollution control legislation being imposed
by governments (the Californian authorities, cognizant of the conditions (climatic & social) which made pollution in Los Angeles and San Francisco a particular concern, becoming more rigorous than Washington DC or the other 49 states). In 1971 however,
although somewhat detuned, the 472 cubic inch (7.7 litre) V8 was still rated at
365 gross horsepower and, with the emission controls still only rudimentary,
retained the characteristics which by the early 1960s had meant Detroit’s
full-sized were acknowledged to have the world’s most refined engine-transmission
combinations. Even though typically
weighing over 5000 lbs (2300 kg) and built with few concessions to aerodynamic
efficiency, 1971 Cadillacs had power enough for performance to be described usually
as "effortless".
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman in Cotillion White over Dark Blue Medici Cloth.
Production
volumes dropped in 1971 but that was because of difficulties in industrial
relations and once new agreements were in place, sales quickly rebounded,
records set in 1972 and again in 1973, Cadillac for the first time, producing more
than 300,000 cars. There
were however warning signs on the 1973 cars.
Although not yet the battering-rams later bolted on, the
bumper bars had grown bigger and heavier and, for the first time, the emission
controls began to be noticed, becoming intrusive by 1974, drivability suffering, power down and fuel
consumption up. The typical Cadillac
owner might not have been much troubled by the gas (petrol) bill but they certainly
noted, and complained about, the loss of power and occasionally stuttering
engines; much worse was to come. 1973
would be the last good year for the “old” American economy which, sustained by
the unusual circumstances of the post-war boom had, with the odd minor glitch,
maintained an unprecedented general prosperity for over twenty years. A generation now existed which knew no other
world but the world shifted on 17 October
1973 when OAPEC (the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) imposed the first oil embargo, ending the boom which had
been fed by cheap, limitless energy.
Suddenly, in the US, not only was gas more expensive,
the cost of a barrel of oil having quadrupled overnight, but there were, at least briefly, genuine
shortages. Even Cadillac owners with
money enough to pay for a tank of gas found themselves in long queues, sometimes not able to find any for sale.
1972 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency front compartment in Black.
It was
a short, sharp shock; oil supplies within months began
again to flow but prices remained high. Cadillac sales fell twenty-odd percent in
1974 but it was actually a good result, the company continuing to dominate its
market sector, its performance better than many. The performance of the cars was less
impressive, the bumpers ever bigger, the power lower and the driveability issues
caused by the emission control devices worse.
At the time, there wasn’t much Cadillac could (or was prepared) to do about
these things but resources were found to add even more luxury. For years, the industry had been creating ever
fancier versions of its lines, even the lower-priced being augmented with
luxury versions, sometimes called “Brougham”, a phenomenon which the website Curbside Classic dubbed "the great brougham era" and date from Ford's 1965 introduction of the "LTD" option for the Galaxie: to that Chevrolet responded with the Caprice and the bling race had begun. Neither of those modest tart-up jobs troubled the thoughts of the Cadillac board but, although domestically, Cadillac had long
faced competition from Lincoln and Imperial, what must have been galling in the milieu of the great brougham era was
the threat which later emerged from within. Oldsmobile, two
notches down the General Motors (GM) pecking list from Cadillac, in 1972 introduced a special "anniversary" version of their top-of-the-range Ninety-Eight four-door hardtop, the package including not just
tufted velour upholstery but finished it in the "loose pillow" style beloved by interior decorators. In the Oldsmobile, the "pillows" were fixed rather than loose but the look was there.
Regency at Tiffany's: Publicity shot for 1972 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency. All the "anniversary" Regency models were four-door hardtops in a specially mixed shade of gold with the choice of a "Black" or "Covet Gold" velor interior. In 1971-1976, the full-size Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs were all built on GM's shared C-Body platform, differing in external panels, internal trim, engines and detailing. At a distance, many would have found it difficult to tell C-Body Oldsmobile from a Cadillac.
By
1972, there were so many “Broughams” on the market Oldsmobile must have thought
the tag was becoming a bit common so to mark the company’s 75th anniversary,
they called their new creation the “Regency”.
Vague as many Americans might have been about the origin of “brougham”,
most probably assumed “regency” had something to do with royalty so as an
associative pointer it was good. The
Ninety-Eight Regency in 1972 was however as audacious as the LTD had
half-a-decade earlier been tentative because it was beyond Cadillacesque in its
aspirations; nothing in Cadillac’s showrooms could match the conspicuous
opulence of the Regency’s black or gold, “pillow effect”, tufted velour
upholstery. A run of 2,650 Ninety-Eight
Regency cars was built and they were so well-received a (non-anniversary) model
was in 1973 added to the range as a regular production model. By 1982, Oldsmobile must have concluded the
message needed again to be drummed into buyers so they introduced the Regency
Brougham.
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman rear compartment in Dark Blue Medici Cloth with optional pillows. The pillows (which many would have described as "cushions") were also available on the Talismans trimmed in leather. The world should have more leather pillows.
The Regency
package was a US$372 option for the Ninety-Eight which had a base price of US$5097.60. In Cadillac’s boardroom, as the brochure was
passed around the table, it must have seemed act of impertinence and one which
GM’s management once would not have tolerated.
The so-called “Sloan ladder of success” was conceived by
Alfred P Sloan (1875–1966; president of General Motors (GM) 1923-1937 and chairman of the board 1937-1946)) and the idea was that as a customer’s wealth
increased, they would take the “next step on the ladder”; by 1930 that
ladder had nine rungs with Chevrolet at the bottom and Cadillac the top. That meant the “middle class” had seven GM
brands to choose from, all positioned at ascending “price points” and what this
meant was a customer could advertise their increasing wealth and upward social
mobility by moving up a rung, trading in their car for one a rung (or more) up
in the hierarchy. For the system to
work, it was important the products of one division not trespass into the bailiwick
of another and in Mr Sloan's time this discipline was maintained.
Of course, while one can climb a ladder, one can also climb
down and a former Cadillac buyer finding themselves in circumstances so reduced
as to have to visit the Chevrolet dealer might have been said to be on the “Sloan ladder of failure”. Nor was it socially obligatory for the rich
to ascend to the top rung. Before her first
husband became president, Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994; US First Lady
1961-1963) went to old Joe Kennedy (1888–1969) and told him she’d like to buy a
Ford Thunderbird on the basis: “What could be More American than that?” Promptly she was told: “The Kennedys drive Buicks!” Actually even that wasn’t always true because
the car Ted Kennedy (1932–2009) drove off a bridge in the “Chappaquiddick Incident”
was a 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 (not even the most expensive Oldsmobile) which belonged to his mother. The crash happened shortly before midnight on
18 July 1969, after the then senator had left a cocktail party in the company
of Mary Jo Kopechne (1940-1969) who had worked on Robert F Kennedy’s (RFK,
1925–1968; US attorney general 1961-1964) presidential campaign in 1968. Ms Kopechne died in the crash, Senator
Kennedy not reporting the matter for more than ten hours after he left the
scene. The ladder was fully evolved by
1929, the rungs tagged thus:
Chevrolet: The
entry-level range with the lowest price; a high volume “value for money” pitch
using the concept perfected by Ford's Model T (1908-1927).
Pontiac:
Introduced in 1926, the Pontiac would once perhaps have been called the
“Chevrolet Deluxe” but it was in the 1920s the ages of mass-consumerism and
modern marketing began; the creation of a separate nameplate was an indication
of how the techniques of capitalism were evolving.
Oldsmobile:
Before the brand-name proliferation, Oldsmobile was GM’s classic “middle-class”
car, sitting between Chevrolet and Buick.
Marquette:
Marquette existed only between 1929–1930 and was a product of a gap existing in
Mr Sloan’s price-point structure between Oldsmobile and Buick. Again, the view was it was better to have a
defined range in the segment rather than an “Oldsmobile Deluxe” or dilute the
appeal of the next rung with a lower-cost Buick.
Oakland:
Oakland was unusual in that it pre-existed Pontiac, the latter introduced as
Oakland’s more expensive companion but, because Pontiac proved much more
successful, it would survive the later cull while Oakland would be axed.
Buick: The
classic upper-middle-class brand, offering luxury and performance but without
the exclusivity of a Cadillac.
Viking:
Another short-lived (1929–1930) venture, Viking was the premium companion to
Oldsmobile and slotted between Buick and LaSalle.
LaSalle:
Best thought of as cheaper Cadillac, it was another of the brands there to
avoid diluting things with an “entry level Cadillac” which of course it was in
all but name.
Cadillac: The
top rung, competing not only high-end domestic brands like Packard, Duesenberg and Lincoln but also the best of the Europeans.
The effects
of the Great Depression meant the experiment didn’t last and GM would soon to
revert to six divisions, the newcomers Viking and Marquette axed while Pontiac,
which had proved both more successful and profitable than the shuttered
Oakland, survived, joining LaSalle which lingered until 1940 and then there
were five. Even then five was debatably
at least one too many but the ladder survived into the post-war years when
economic conditions suited the structure and by the mid-1950s both Ford and
Chrysler were emulating the model although for both it proved a brief
fling. By the twenty-first century, GM was
down to three (Chevrolet, Buick & Cadillac), Ford two (Ford, Lincoln) and
Chrysler two (Dodge, Chrysler (although they separated the pickup business as
RAM)).
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman rear compartment in Medium Saddle leather.
Cadillac
scrambled to respond to the implications of the Regency, offering in 1973 the d'Elegance package, a US$750 option
which included a plusher interior and a bundle of otherwise optional features. However, all the d'Elegance stuff did was
match what others were doing and there was still the corporate memory of the
Cadillac mystique, a hankering for the time when Cadillac had been the
“standard of the world”, a reputation built in the 1930s on basic engineering
such as 16-cylinder engines and maintained a generation later with cars such as
the Eldorado Brougham, one time the term "Brougham" described something truly
impressive. By 1974 the world had
changed and such extravagances were no longer commercially viable (in truth 400
Eldorado Broughams made for 1957 didn't make a profit either) but what could
still be done was to add more "gingerbread" so for 1974, Cadillac
announced the Talisman package (option code V4U). Much
more expensive than the d'Elegance and consequently that much more exclusive,
the Talisman included an extended centre console, the front section housing an
illumined writing tablet, the rear a storage compartment. This had been done before but never with this
opulence although it had the effect of reducing the huge car, a size which
historically had been a six-seater, into something strictly for four and as a
marketing strategy, that made sense, indifference to practicality a signifier
of wealth. The interior was available in
four colors in "Medici crushed velour" at US$1800 or in two shades in
leather at US$2450 at a time when the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price) of a Chevrolet Vega (GM’s entry-level
sub-compact) was US$2617; "Medici crushed velour" had about the same
relationship with history as Chrysler's "fine Corinthian leather" had with geography. The Talisman additionally
gained matching deep-pile interior carpeting and floor-mats, a fully padded
"elk grain" vinyl roof, exterior badge identifications, a stand-up,
full-colour wreath & crest hood ornament and unique wheel-covers. For those who needed more, for an additional
US$85, a matching pillow and robe was available, the latter unfortunately
not cut in leather. Optioned with the
leather package, a 1974 Cadillac Talisman cost about US$13,200, matching what
the company charged for the even bigger Fleetwood 75 limousines. The additional gingerbread wasn’t all that
expensive to produce; what Cadillac was selling was exclusivity and the market
responded, 1898 Talismans coming off the production line that year, all sold at
a most impressive profit. The interior
trim choices in 1974 were:
510 Black Medici Cloth.
525 Dark Blue Medici Cloth.
546 Medium Amber Medici Cloth.
548 Dark Terra Cotta Medici Cloth.
565 Dark Blue Leather.
585 Medium Saddle Leather.
Most prized today are the relative handful trimmed in leather, the orthodoxy in the collector market that all were in Medium Saddle. If any were sold with the Dark Blue leather, none appear now to exist and Cadillac’s records don’t list the production breakdown.
1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman front compartment in Dark Rosewood Medici Cloth.
The
leather option didn’t survive beyond the first season, four
colors of velour the only Talisman choices in 1975 and gone too was the
rear-console extension, reportedly because of feedback from dealers who noted the comments from customers expressing a preference for the flexibility to carry an
additional passenger. It was an era of
high inflation so the deletion of the hardware secured only a two-dollar reduction
in price and in the gloomy economic climate of 1975, sales dropped to 1238. The big platform, which had seemed so appropriate a half-decade earlier, was in its last days, a dinosaur unable to adapt to the shock of a strange new environment but for its final fling there were minor
improvements. Although engine size had
been increased to 500 cubic inches (8.2 litres), output was down to 190
horsepower (although this was less of a drop than it may appear from the 365 of 1971 because of the
change in quoting power from gross to net) but the addition of catalytic
convertors and, later in the year, fuel injection, did allow some retuning,
improving drivability. The bumpers were
the biggest yet and fuel economy, although improved, remained dire. The interior trim choices in 1975 were:
19B Black Medici Cloth.
29B Dark Blue Medici Cloth.
51B Medium Maize Medici Cloth.
79B Dark Rosewood Medici Cloth.
1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman front compartment in Black Medici Cloth.
The end
of the line came in 1976, the final year for the big Cadillacs which had
evolved over three quarters of a century.
With so much corporate energy devoted to the new, smaller cars, on the dinosaurs changes were restricted mostly to trim and detailing although the newly-lawful rectangular headlights, adopted throughout the industry to
permit lower hood (bonnet) lines and thereby (slightly) slipperier aerodynamics, were spliced
in. Inside, new interior colors were
offered and simulated Rosewood replaced the equally fake distressed pecan vinyl appliqués
on the instrument panel, doors, and rear quarter trim. Inspired by the Oldsmobile Regency which had
caused such a stir in 1972, soft, thickly pillowed seats were now standard and
the d'Elegance package with its accoutrements could still be added but bowing
out after 1976 would be both the 500 cubic inch V8 and the Talisman package, available for its swansong in five colors at US$1813.
GM made no secret this was the last year of the big Cadillacs and sales spiked,
a new record of 309,139 cars of which 1200 were Talismans. Befitting the funereal atmosphere, the interior trim choices in 1976 were restricted to somber black & blue:
19E Black Medici Cloth.
26E Dark Blue Medici Cloth.
1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman.
