2010 Cadillac & LaSalle Club Grand National Convention was in Kansas City. Part 1: 1960 and older

In 1902, Henry Leland founded was has become the most successful luxury car brand in American history--Cadillac. While fine cars from Packard, Duesenberg, Pierce Arrow, Auburn, Imperial, and others have come and gone, General Motors' flagship continues to produce world-class cars to this day.

This weekend, the 2010 Cadillac & LaSalle Club Grand National event, hosted by the Cadillac Club of Kansas City, was held in Overland Park, Kan., and some of the finest examples of this storied nameplate gathered at the Doubletree Hotel for an extraordinarily impressive display.

Because there were too many beautiful cars to do justice in just one slideshow, we're splitting this article into two parts to give you as many pictures as we can.

For this part, we'll look at Cadillacs built before 1961. This break-off point was chosen because 1960 was basically the last year of the excessive, chrome-drenched models stereotypical of early Cadillacs. By '61, there was much less chrome, the famous fins shrunk quickly, then disappeared, and public tastes became more restrained.

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