Schwinn spend 30+ years in a focused effort to get American adults (back) on bicycles. They needed something enticing enough to get riders aboard and comfortable and non-challenging enough to keep them there. In the mid-to-late 1960s Brilando came up with stem shifters and 'Safety' (sic) brake levers, and made exotic 'European' drop bar bikes rideable for Joe and Jane Casualcyclist. Then America experienced the Bike Boom.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_ba-n.html#bikeboom

Bicycle Retailer had a picture of him later in life. Here he is during his Olympic years: