Whether we know it or not, we share a visual language of sorts. Not words, exactly, but symbols, like all the little visual hints like mirrors and pomegranates and lack of shoes or whatever in Jan Van Eyck’s 1434 Arnolfini Portrait. Today, though, I just want to focus on one of my favorite visual symbols of mid-century car advertising, the floating glove.
The floating glove shows up in a number of car ads and brochures, I think likely starting in the 1930s and continuing into the 1960s. The job of the floaty glove is to point out important things in illustrations, just in an especially oddly elegant yet ghostly way.
Here’s Renault’s take, in this 4CV brochure, checking the oil:
Renault’s glove also does some shifting, which is a bit beyond the usual float-and-point job:
In this 1957 Opel brochure, the floating glove is definitely present, but this time a bit more elegant, and, as gloves are wont to do, is traveling in pairs. We’re introduced to the gloves at the very beginning of the brochure:
The have slender fingers and glittering jewelry, and are making a strange gesture, one that we see again on the gloves, this time enveloping this elegant lady’s hands:
The gesture is a little different here, with both index fingers touching. What does this gesture mean? She seems to be quite deliberate in making that gesture, right in front of Professor Brownsuit’s face. Then, in the copy next to her, we see a bunch of similar gloves floating about, pointing at dots of related color, that I suppose are important Opel-focused points in that wall of text.
These gloves can be found dancing all over the copy in this brochure, pointing, or, in the case here, it looks like counting?
Here we have one that seems to just be caressing that rear window, and then another pointing to…the distributor? The nut on the shock tower mount? These are some busy gloves, floating about, demanding our attention.
Speaking of grabbing attention, look at this great dash design on the ’57 Opel Kapitan:
Look how that winged-shape motif is in the steering wheel supports and then is echoed in the line of the dash top itself, where it cleverly becomes the radio! I love it.
I’m not sure the lady in the brochure thinks my focus on floating gloves is worth a damn. Just check out this look she’s giving me:
Ouch. That’s the devastating look of someone convinced they’re dealing with an idiot. Sorry, lady.
“winged-shape motif”
So they had The Autopian symbol all the way back then! Wow, y’all have been around a long time
The caption for the lady (?) and the suave dude sort of writes itself.
But being a Monday, I will refrain from making the comment that comes to mind first…so will wait for the meds to kick in?
As hard as that may be.
Why did women stop wearing gloves everywhere? Is it because the whole world is no longer constantly covered with a tangible layer of soot?
That „winged“ motif was also used at the rear of the Kapitän. The central pod houses the illumination for the licence plate:
https://www.fahrzeugbilder.de/bild/PKW+Oldtimer~Opel~Kapitan/154818/heckansicht-eines-1954180er-opel-kapitaen-oldtimertreffen.html
Volkswagen should have used this concept in its advertising for the Thing.
I hereby demand that VW bring the Thing back so I can get paid for this idea.
“Just check out this look she’s giving me”
Ah, That look of unconditional Love so often seen from mom, girlfriends, passersby!
From the second picture of the 4CV:
Which means a light in the engine bay. Why is that not an option on modern cars? Refilling your
blinker fluidwindshield wiper fluid in the middle of the night is always a big mess because you can’t see anything.These gloves made me think of this crash video. There’s an arm, hand laying peacefully under the back of trailer. Warning. Quite gory.
https://youtu.be/jb0xf2lDmLQ?si=DVwk_9rKDJ1I6nOT
G-love is recommending the Special Sauce.
Unfortunately, after the 60’s, the floating gloves had a hard time finding work. Some found themselves on the cover of a heavy metal album with a greased naked woman wearing a dog collar.
To be fair, you should have seen the cover the band wanted to do. It wasn’t a glove, believe me.
A Spinal Tap reference will always get a like from me. Hopefully you end up with 11 of them.
Once the Addams Family ran its’ course, the Hamburger Helper commercials paid the bills for decades. Unfortunately, being part of OJ’s Brentwood crowd meant that he ended up spending most of 1994 and ’95 in an LAPD evidence locker.
Have you considered that these are not floating gloves, but invisible people wearing nothing but gloves?
“If you actually lived up to the name on the back of your car, Clauss, at the end of the night you might find out that the clitoris feels just like the tip of my finger. But, instead, you showed up late, didn’t bring flowers, insulted my mother, and have generally been acting like a BRO since you’ve arrived.”
I’m ecstatic to see “Thing” had a lucrative career and was not a financial burden on the Addams.
She’s definitely counting off the positive attributes of the Opel. The word ‘Deswegen’ above the disembodied pair of black gloves roughly translates as ‘because of this,’ so focusing on the reasons the Opel is a good choice, especially for discerning women.
The top image looks like Thing is taking a special lady friend out for an evening at the opera or some other elegant thing that fancy people do. He even bought her a beautiful gold watch for the evening. From a hand’s perspective though the wrist is basically the neck, so she’s wearing a giant gold clock around her neck like Flava Flav.
My first thought was “Thing” and a loved one. But do they dress same or contrasting? Decisions.
I think we posted within a minute of each other or something. Whenever I see the floating glove in an old car ad, I always think of Thing.
But he? is now clothed. Odd.
Great minds think alike. You have a better sense with words.
Of course he’s clothed. You can’t have him naked in an ad published for the general public. Of course you couldn’t actually see him, but you’d know, and so would management and the authorities.
My favorite disembodied gloves are from the old versions of the Mille Bornes card game – the “Driving Ace” (As du Volant) card, played to get you out of bad situations like flat tires or accidents.
https://es.pinterest.com/pin/563583340849427707/
By the ’80s, it’s on a very Citroen-esq steering wheel even.
A fellow Mille Bournes player! There must be dozens of us!
A friend of mine introduced me to this game when I was in… middle school, maybe? I loved playing it with him, but haven’t seen a deck since. Thanks for the reminder!
I’ve been playing since 6th grade (in the 60s) and still have that same deck with the fancy plastic tray. Unfortunately, the cards themselves are a bit beat up so I use newer decks (the “Right of Way” has a corner missing making it pretty well marked).
“Thing” really gets around. He/she??? even dresses up on occasion and has a partner. Way to go!!
I noticed that look right away too. Reminds me of how my wife looks at me when I do something stupid.
The look that says “I still love you, but JFC that was dumb.”
No gloves in the Ford Bronco brochure?
The Bronco’s been discontinued. We’re trying to shed that whole fugitive on the run thing. This is the Escape!