The Fabulous Brothers

To a generation of Americans, "Body by Fisher" was an advertising slogan that became a symbol of automobile quality and a phrase so pervasive in the language that The American Thesaurus of Slang even lists it as one definition of "a well-formed young woman." All General Motors cars -- some 70 million of them, from Chevrolets to Cadillacs (as well as some cars no longer around, such as La Salle and Oakland) -- have long borne a little metal plate with the proud phrase on it. The seven stocky brothers who made their name a Detroit legend have faded from most memories; three died, and the other four found the obscurity they preferred. Last week the Fisher dynasty all but drew to a close with the death of Charles Thom as Fisher, 83, the family patriarch and the last of the two brothers who started the Fisher Body Co.*

Following the Fumes. The rise to riches of the Fisher brothers was a Detroit success story second only to that of Henry Ford. The sons of a Norwalk, Ohio, blacksmith and carriage maker, the Fisher boys learned their trade at their father's forge, followed the gasoline fumes to Detroit as the horseless carriage appeared. Charles joined his older brother Fred in a job at the Wilson Carriage Co. In 1908, the brothers teamed up with an uncle and formed Fisher Body to make auto bodies.

The uncle soon backed out, but Charles and Fred sent for their other brothers to join them. The brothers made their biggest contribution to the auto industry by designing the first closed auto body, which turned motoring into an all-year instead of just a summer pastime. After Cadillac became the first to order the closed bodies, in 1910, the brothers rapidly expanded, earning a reputation for honesty and skilled craftsmanship. General Motors, their biggest customer, bought them out in 1926, paying the brothers $208 million in G.M. stock. They became key G.M. officers, helped to run the firm's new Fisher Body Division.

Gilt Monument. The Fisher fortune grew so large that the brothers were rumored to have dropped a cool $3 billion in the 1929 crash; it is estimated to be about $500 million even today. Their influence at G.M. began to decline after Fred and Charles resigned in 1934. Charles concentrated on managing the vast assets of the family investment company, filled his mansion with heavily carved furniture and valuable paintings, and in later years amused himself with a thoroughbred stable in Kentucky. Aside from the millions of bodies still turned out every year by G.M.'s Fisher division, the brothers have left a monument to their success in Detroit's Fisher Building, a 29-story gilt-crested skyscraper. It defiantly dwarfs the General Motors headquarters right across the street.

*Surviving brothers: William, 76; Edward, 72; Alfred, 70.

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