A sit-down with Joe and Betty Oros - legendary Detroit automotive stylists.
Fourteen years ago, when I was editor at our sister magazine - Mustang & Fords, I decided to visit with stylist Joe Oros. Because I lived in Simi Valley, California in those days, it was convenient for me to go visit Oros, who is credited with the 1965 Mustang. He lived not far from Simi Valley just up the coast. Actually, Oros was design chief at the Ford Studio in the early 1960s. It was the Ford Studio design - called Cougar - that won the Sporty Ford Car (Mustang) competition among Advanced, Ford, and Lincoln-Mercury studios.
Oros was an extraordinary man to spend a day with - intelligent and articulate. He wasn't just an automotive stylist, but an extraordinary stylist and designer with broad design talent. He has designed appliances, just to name one example, and untold dozens of other products we take for granted. He is an artist, sculptor, and painter. He is credited with the 1949 Ford when he was at the Walker design agency before joining Ford. Prior to Walker, he worked for General Motors at Cadillac. He's also the stylist behind more Fords than we have room to mention here.
Joe's wife, Betty, who has passed on, was the first female automotive stylist ever hired in Detroit. She was invited into Hudson at a time when women generally never had a chance at the opportunity. It was through their mutual interest in styling that Joe and Betty met in the first place.
We're going to take segments of that interview from 1995 with Joe and Betty Oros
and put them in Mustang Monthly in the coming months. Stay tuned.