The Mustang Gallops into Automotive History

New York World's Fair Mustang Introduction.

The recession of the late 1950s hit Detroit especially hard. Money was tight and car sales fell for the Big Three [General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler]. Factories were struggling to keep their workers employed and their plants open. In response to that, Ford Motor Company (FoMoCo) reorganized their corporation and formed an Automotive Assembly Division promoting middle-management marketing man Lee Iacocca to head the division.

Lee Iacocca's challenges were many, but his goals were well-defined. He championed shifting production to smaller, fuel efficient cars and dressing them up to enhance their appeal to an economy-minded market. His first success was the Falcon Futura. The car was stylish, comfortable, and economical. Afterall, gas averaged thirty-one cents a gallon in 1961.

Iacocca formed a secret Fairlane Committee to come up with a new car concept unlike anything else on the market. FoMoCo needed a dynamic new car to capture a greater share of the youth market.

Their market research in 1961 indicated that a tidal wave of teenaged Baby Boomers [post World War II babies] were coming of age soon and itching to get behind the wheel of a sporty-looking car they could afford. By 1965, 40% of the United States population would be under 20 years old. By 1970, half of Americans would be under 25 years old. FoMoCo wanted to tap into that market.

The Edsel's 1958 introduction with Edsel Ford's three sons.

The wounds from the Edsel debacle were still fresh at FoMoCo leading to a company shakeup. Iacocca knew the Edsel was advertised as the Car of the Future, but it was a product in search of a market it never found. Here was a market in search of a product. FoMoCo tailored their new product for this new market.

Since the original 1955 two-seater Thunderbird was reborn as a four-seater, suburban luxury car in 1958, FoMoCo received lots of mail asking for another two-seater. But Ford's market research indicated a two-seater did not have the mass appeal they were looking for. That market was limited to a mere 100,000 units.

The parameters for their new concept car required it to be sporty but capable of seating four passengers; it had to be lightweight, under 2,500 pounds; and it had to be inexpensive, no more than $2,500 with special equipment included as part of their standard model to sweeten the deal.

Helping to cut engineering and production costs, the chassis and the power train of the Ford Falcon were chosen. What this car needed was a new skin. Iacocca initiated a competition among seven designers to come up with clay mockups of the exterior design fit to specific platform specifications.

On August 15, 1962, Henry Ford II picked the model he liked best by saying "That's it!" The winning model was designed by Dave Ash's design team, for Joe Oros, FoMoCo's Design Studio head. In profile, the car had a long hood, a swept-back cabin, and a short deck [trunk].

Car designers want to see their vision transformed into sleek sculpted steel, but automotive engineers have to figure how to put the actual car together and make it work. Once the model was approved, the battle between the designers and the engineers began in what they called "the battles of the inch."

First was the battle of the radiator cap that would not fit under the stylist's low hood. The solution was to raise the hood a quarter inch and the engineers counter-sunk the cap.

Next, the stylists designed the back bumper to fit flush with the rear quarter panels for a clean look. The engineers wanted to simply bolt the bumper with brackets onto the back of the car like they had always done. The designers won that battle.

The last disagreement was between Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca over leg-room for the rear seats. Ford was a large man who wanted an extra inch. Iacocca argued that it would spoil the lines of the car. Ford won that battle.

Next, the car needed a name. Hundreds of names were whittled down to several finalists including Colt, Bronco, Mustang, Puma, Cougar, and Cheetah. Cougar was the front runner until Mr. Ford became embroiled in a messy divorce, and the publicity department was afraid the name Cougar might cause some unnecessary notority or embarassment for their boss.

At the same time, the name Mustang did well in their market research. The name was felt to embody the spirit of the wide open spaces and recalled the famous World War II fighter plane. Once the name was decided upon, the Mustang's signature galloping horse front grill was designed.

What has become one of the most iconic and famous emblems in automobile history was criticized early on by a reporter at a FoMoCo press conference. His observation was that the horse was running in the wrong direction. Obviously, the reporter spent too much time at the track where the ponies only run counter-clockwise. Iacocco's wise reply was "Wild horses run anywhere they damn well please."

The Mustang was introduced in Ford showrooms on April 17, 1964. It came as a two-door coupe or convertible. Five months later, a three-door hatchback was introduced. The Mustang came with a three-speed automatic transmission or a four speed manual, both console mounted on the floor. At first, there were two, straight-six engine choices available, with V-6 and V-8 options offered later in the Mustang's run. The basic car was equipped with front disk brakes, all for the low sticker price of $2,368.

Iacocca gave free rein to his marketing expertise and saturated the media with Mustang ads like no product had before. FoMoCo ran glossy ads in national magazines with stories about their youth-oriented car, and 420 local television stations were sent footage of the car for their feature stories.

Radio DJs were given Mustangs to test drive and plug over their airwaves. In Detroit, radio jocks were allowed to put the Mustang through its paces on Ford's test track in Dearborn, Michigan. Images of the Mustang appeared on 15,500 outdoor billboards nationwide and the car was displayed in the lobby of Holiday Inn motels and other high traffic venues like airport terminals in twelve major United States cities.

The evening before the car's debut, FoMoCo bought simultaneous time on all three major television networks from 9:30 to 10:00 pm. Twenty-eight million viewers of Perry Mason [CBS], Hazel [NBC], and Jimmy Dean [ABC] were wowed with Mustang advertising. 

Forty-four college newspaper editors were given the use of Mustangs to show off on their campuses for the spring term. No stone was left unturned to generate interest. As a final touch, Hayden Fry, football coach of the Southern Methodist University Mustangs, received a blue and red [school colors] Mustang as part of the car's debut launch.

After the Mustang's meteoric rise in the marketplace, Time and Newsweek featured simultaneous cover stories on the Mustang that Iacocca said led to the sale of an extra 100,000 units. By December of 1964, the Mustang had "the most successful new car launch ever introduced by the auto industry," reported Frank Zimmerman, Ford marketing chief.

At first, FoMoCo planned to produce only 100,000 Mustangs using only a portion of the Dearborn Assembly Plant. Before the car went to market, it was clear that demand was going to be greater than anticipated, so the whole plant was changed over to exclusive "Pony Car" production. Soon, another Ford plant in San Jose, California went online to boost yearly capacity to 360,000 cars.

In 1965, a third Ford plant in Metuchen, New Jersey was added to boost output to 440,000 cars prompting FoMoCo Assistant General Manager Don Frey to credit the Mustang's success on unprecedented market penetration. The Mustang is the only Ford nameplate that has been in continuous production since its introduction.

Latest Mustang Trotted Out

Dodge Brothers Stand Up To Henry Ford

Automobile pioneers John and Horace Dodge

John Francis Dodge [October 25, 1864 - January 14, 1920] and Horace Elgin Dodge [May 17, 1868 - December 10, 1920] were born in the era of the horse and buggy, and the marvel of the age, the steam engine locomotive. They were born in Niles, Michgan where their father Daniel Rugg Dodge operated his own machine shop next to his house repairing steam engines for boats and farm equipment. He often had to machine his own custom, precision parts. 

In addition to his sons' traditional book learning, John and Horace learned to operate machine tools under the watchful eye of their father. Both boys were mechanically inclined. The family moved several times before settling in Detroit in 1886 where work in the stove, boiler, carriage, and wagon industries was booming. The brothers apprenticed in different machine shops aound Detroit learning their trade to become skilled journeymen.

In 1892, the brothers began working in Windsor, Ontario, at the Dominion Typograph Company owned by Frederick Samuel Evans. While working for Evans, Horace and John invented and manufactured the enclosed four-point, wheel ball bearing hub for bicycle pedal assemblies which made biking easier and more enjoyable. 

The brothers were granted a patent in 1896 and went into business with Evans to create the popular E&B [Evans and Dodge] bicycle which soon became known as the "Maple Leaf." In 1900, they sold their interest in the company for $7,500. 

With that start-up money, the Dodge brothers were able to open their first machine shop called the Dodge Brothers Company on the ground floor of The Boydell Building at 132-137 Beaubien Street and Lafayette Avenue. They began their enterprise as builders of special machinery and high-speed pleasure craft, but the manufacture of automobile parts and components soon took precedence.

A Detroit Free Press Sunday feature article dated September 1, 1901, proclaimed in its headline "Dodge Brothers Open One of the Most Complete and Modern Machine shops in Michigan. Everything is New and Up-To-Date." 

The Free Press staff writer wrote a glowing description of the factory: "The typical machine shop of the age is dimly lit and litter-obstructed. In contrast, the Dodge Brothers machine shop has an orderly appearance with a thoughtful arrangement of machines to facilitate production and minimize the handling of machine parts, with the greatest ease and rapidity at a fraction of the expense and time employed in the days when hand labor dominated manufacturing [sic]. Machines of the latest design are used intelligently operated by the highly skilled labor force. Their reputation for quality is unequaled."

The Dodge brothers' machine shop soon became busy making precision automobile parts and sub-assemblies like chassis, axles, transmissions, clutches, and complete engines. In 1902, the Dodge brothers signed a major contact with  Ransom E. Olds to produce quality transmissions for his Oldsmobile line. Much to Mr. Olds' chagrin, the contract was not renewed the following year because Henry Ford contracted with the Dodge brothers to exclusively build complete engines and other automobile components in 1903. 

The Dodge brothers agreed to supply 650 Model A engines, transmissions, and axles at $250 each. The added business soon outgrew their shop's floor space, so they built a larger two-story building at Hastings and Monroe Streets in 1906. That space today is the Greektown Casino Hotel parking structure. 

By 1908, they outgrew the Hastings Street facility and began building their own modern factory complex in Hamtramck, Michigan, on sixty-seven acres of vacant land on Joseph Campau Avenue where property taxes were cheaper than in Detroit. 

The four-story, four-building complex contained an extensive machine shop, a power plant, a forging plant, and company headquarters, all with plenty of natural light and ventilation from steel-framed windows. Everything was well-organized in a thoughtful, systematic way. 

The plant came equipped with four cafeterias, male and female restrooms with separate lounges in each, and a well-equipped clinic and first aid center. Automakers from around the world came to see Dodge's state-of-the-art parts factory converted into an automobile plant.

***

Henry Ford

In the beginning, very little of the original Ford Motor Company cars were actually manufactured by Ford, including the bodies, powertrains, and chassis. FoMoCo was essentially an assembly business which subcontracted much of its mechanical work to independent machine and tool & die shops around the Detroit area.

The Dodge brothers became Ford stockholders when they each bought 50 shares in 1902. They paid $3,000 cash and pledged $7,000 worth of Dodge manfactured car parts to help Ford get his fledgling company on its feet. 

It was not long after that when Henry Ford realized what he had done when he signed over 10% of his company's stock to them. The Dodge brothers were double-dipping. On the front end, they made money selling automobile components and parts to Ford, and on the back end, they drew handsome dividend checks based on FoMoCo profits.

In 1905, Ford began producing his own engines and transmissions in a move towards self-sufficiency. In 1910 when Ford sold his Piquette Plant and moved into his newly built Highland Park Plant [the largest auto plant in the world at that time] the Dodges realized it was not in their best interests to remain tied to Henry Ford. 

In August of 1913, John Dodge resigned as Ford vice-president, but the brothers remained on the board of directors. The Dodge brothers announced they would quit supplying parts to FoMoCo, so they could begin producing their own cars. They retained their Ford stock and counted on their million-dollar yearly dividend to help finance their rival operation. 

Henry Ford felt betrayed and vindictive. The embittered industrialist began to squeeze the Dodge brothers and Ford's half-dozen other minority stockholders out of their dividends. He wanted to exercise full control of his company without stockholder interference. 

To make it more difficult for the Dodge brothers to attract and retain workers for their new automobile plant, Henry Ford and his vice-president James Couzens announced on January 5, 1914, that FoMoCo would double wages for their assembly-line workers to five dollars a day. 

The move was touted in the national newspapers as a way for Henry Ford to stabilize the chronic absenteeism and high 300% turnover rate of his workforce with a more dependable worker. Paying out higher wages also made it possible for many Ford employees to buy a car on credit for the first time, a car they had a hand in making.

Consequently, sales and productivity surged. Soon, with efficiency refinements in the assembly line and speeding up the line, the time to produce a Model T dropped from 12.5 hours to 93 minutes. FoMoCo doubled its profits in less than two years. Henceforth, Henry Ford was portrayed as the industrial Moses who led his people into the consumer-driven, blue collar middle class.

But the Dodge brothers and the Wall Street Journal criticized Ford's five-dollar-a-day plan as a stratagem to discourage workers from looking for work at their new Dodge plant where they paid only three-dollars a day. 

Thousands of people came from all over the United States to find work at the Highland Park Ford plant and job riots broke out. Ford Security turned waterhoses on the crowd in bitter cold January weather. FoMoCo was compelled to announce they would hire only workers who lived within the Detroit city limits. 

There were other strings attached to the higher wages, like sobriety which was monitored by the Ford Sociological Department. Rather than deprive the Dodge brothers of employees, the result of Ford's plan left the brothers with their choice of the most qualified people from all over the country.

The next scheme Henry Ford devised to squeeze the Dodge brothers out of his company was offering everyone who bought a Model T in 1914 a $50 rebate check, thus denying the Dodge brothers and the other minority investors millions of dollars of dividends. Each time Henry Ford lowered the price of the Model T, the profit pie shrank accordingly. An increase in sales often made up the difference.

Once again, Henry Ford looked like the Rainmaker to the public. John and Horace Dodge were still on the FoMoCo board of directors and were outspoken in their opposition to Ford's blantant disregard for shareholders' rights which cost the minority stockholders millions of dollars in lost dividends.

To further anger the minority stockholders, Henry Ford announced in August of 1916, that rather than pay out dividends to shareholders, he planned to shut down Model T production to expand his manufacturing capablity and develop a whole new automobile. This move adversely affected Ford dealers nationwide as well as workers and stockholders. 

The Dodge brothers knew what was going on. Ford could not stand anyone stealing his thunder, and the positive media attention the Dodge brothers plant was receiving in the national and international press stuck in Ford's craw. Henry Ford wanted to be the only Golden Boy in Detroit.

Ford quietly began to break ground on an industrial complex along the banks of the Rouge River on a scale the world had never seen. Something that would impress even the most discriminating pharaoh of ancient Egypt, an industrial complex that takes in raw materials at one end and converts them into finished automobiles at the other. Ford's vindictive mind reasoned that turnaround was fair play. FoMoCo helped finance the Dodge factory complex; it was only fitting that they help finance his vision.

Henry Ford's Rouge Plant industrial complex

Ford purchased Dearborn farmland that was over a mile of Rouge River waterfront and a mile and a half wide with his own money. He announced that his Rouge project was a personal one. Ford incorporated a new company named Henry Ford and Son which would produce Fordson tractors. Henry Ford told the press that the Rouge River site would involve "no stockholders, no directors, no absentee owners, and no parasites." This was a direct swipe at the Dodge brothers.

When Ford announced his intention to build his own blast furnace and coke plant to make massive amounts of raw steel, the Dodge brothers knew the Ford tractor plant was destined to mass produce automobiles. The brothers refused to take that lying down. 

On November 2, 1916, the Dodge brothers filed a law suit on behalf of the minority stockholders requesting that the FoMoCo pay out a minimum of 75% of its cash surplus to shareholders, amounting to over $39 million.

After more than two years working itself through the court system, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Dodge brothers' lawsuit. Ford was ordered to pay over $19 million to stockholders with $1.5 million in interest. The money hardly mattered to Henry Ford. As the majority stockholder, he owned 58.5% of FoMoCo stock. His payout was close to $12 million.

Henry Ford was determined to buy out his stockholders, so his company would be 100% family owned. While he and his wife Clara took an extended vacation in Southern California, his twenty-five-year-old son Edsel was entrusted with the task of buying out the minority stockholders. 

The opening bid offered was $7,500 per share. The Dodge brothers knew the bid was undervalued. They negotiated for $12,500 per share. On their original investment of $10,000 in 1902, the brothers made $9.5 million in dividends and sold their Ford stock in 1919 for an additional $25 million, realizing a grand total of $34.5 million.

After the settlement was announced, members of the automobile press asked John Dodge for a statement. "Someday," he said, "people who own a Ford are going to want an automobile." In two short years from 1914 through 1915, the Dodge Model 30-35 touring car ranked second behind Ford in total sales.

A 1915 Dodge four-door sedan used by the United States Army.

 

Dodge cars were clearly superior to Ford's Model T. They had solid all-steel bodies rather than sheet metal fastened to a wooden frame; the Dodge four-cylinder engine developed 35 hp, almost twice that of the Model T's 20 hp; the electrical system was 12 volt, compared to the Model T's 6 volt system; the Dodge car used a sliding-gear transmission, rather than the Model T's old-fashioned planetary transmission; and the stylish body came in a variety of colors, while the Model T came only in black.

By 1920, Henry Ford's protracted battle with the Dodge brothers and his heavy debt load financing the construction of the Rouge Plant left Ford close to bankrupcy.

But Ford's financial problems gave the Dodge brothers little comfort. While attending an automobile banquet in New York City, both brothers contacted the Spanish flu. John suffered for a week before dying at the age of fifty-six on January 15, 1920, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel with his wife by his side. 

Horace was also critically ill in a room down the hall from his brother, but he recovered in four days. Horace never recovered emotionally from the sudden death of his brother who had been his business partner all of their adult lives.

Eleven months later, while staying at this Florida home, Horace died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of fifty-two, with his wife and son at his side on December 10, 1920. His married daughter was overseas and could not make it back for her father's funeral.

In 1925, the Dodge widows sold their husbands' company to Dillon, Read & Company for $146 million to become the largest cash transaction in United States history, that is until 1928 when Walter Chrysler purchased the company for $170 million.

Chrysler boasted to the automotive press that the purchase of Dodge Motors was the smartest financial decision he ever made. The mid-priced Dodge fit nicely between  Plymouth on the low-priced end and Chrysler on the high-priced end. Chrysler Motors now took its place among Detroit's Big Three automakers.

The Tragedy of Edsel Ford 

Connie Kalitta "The Bounty Hunter" vs. Shirley "Cha-Cha" Muldowney

Baby Boomers who grew up in the Detroit area and listened to Windsor radio station CKLW were familiar with advertisements for the Detroit Dragway located at Sibley and Dix. The ads always began with "Saturday, SATURDAY NIGHT, at the DETROIT DRAGWAY." Then the card for the automotive duels would be hyped. If you don't remember or aren't old enough to know what I'm talking about, I have a link to an audio at the end of this post.

Connie Kalitta with top fuel dragster in 1967.

Two of the most popular drag racers of the 1970s and 1980s were Connie Kalitta "The Bounty Hunter" and Shirley "Cha-Cha" Muldowney. Connie was from Mount Clemens, Michigan, and Shirley was from Schenectady, New York. They shared a professional and personal relationship from 1972-1977. Connie gave Shirley a Funny Car he no longer raced, and he acted as her crew chief for many of her early races. In those days, Shirley was known as "The Huntress." 

Kalitta began drag racing when he was a sixteen-year-old student at Mount Clemens High School. He worked himself up the ranks of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) to become one of the sport's top drivers. Known as The Bounty Hunter, Kalitta was the first driver to reach 200 mph in a sanctioned NHRA event. In 1989 at the Winter Nationals, Kalitta was the first driver to break the 290 mph barrier with a 291.54 mph qualifying run.

In all, Kalitta won ten national titles and was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992. The NHRA compiled a list of the Top 50 Drivers for their fiftieth-anniversary in 2001. Kalitta ranked 21st on the all-time list, and in 2016, he became the first recipient of the NHRA's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kalitta's first NHRA win came in 1964 in Bakersfield, California. In 1967, he won his first NHRA title. With the prize money, he bought his first airplane--a Cessna 310--and started his company Kalitta Air at the Willow Run Airport shipping freight for the Ford Motor Company (FoMoCo)--his racing sponsor. 

Kalitta Air and Kalitta Motorsports company photograph.

For a time, Kalitta retired from racing and directed his attention toward building up his air freight business. Now he has a fleet of about 100 planes, many of them 747s. In addition to a bread-and-butter FoMoCo parts distribution contract, Kalitta Air provides charter flights for Medical Flight Services, Air Ambulance Specialists, the Shriners' Children's Hospital and the United States Department of Defense, to name a few. It is not generally known that Kalitta Air keeps a 747 on standby to work with the military to return fallen service men and women to their homes.

Kalitta no longer races, but he is the CEO of Kalitta Motorsports in Ypsilanti, Michigan which sponsors four cars and drivers. His love of racing became a lifelong pursuit and a way of life.

***

Shirley Muldowney

Connie Katilla first met Shirley Muldowney in 1966 at Raceway Park in Illinois when she was racing a dragster with her husband as her mechanic. In 1972, Shirley divorced Jack Muldowney when she wanted to advance to top fuel funny cars, and he refused to live the life of a Gypsy to compete on the NHRA circuit. Doubtless, there were other personal issues as well no doubt.

 

Shirley moved in with Kalitta in 1972. On the track, Kalitta was The Bounty Hunter and Muldowney became The Huntress. Connie soon tagged Shirley with the nickname Cha-Cha which she never liked but became part of her NHRA branding.

After her split from Kalitta, Shirley went on to make a name for herself in this male macho sport. At first, she had trouble attracting sponsors and finding a crew that would work with a woman. But when Shirley "Cha-Cha" Muldowney showed up at the track with her hot pink car, cowboy boots, and crash helmet, she started filling the grandstands. Even her pit crew wore hot pink team shirts.

Muldowney defied traditional gender stereotypes head-on and challenged sexism in the racing culture like Billie Jean King had done for tennis in 1973's Battle of the Sexes against Bobby Riggs. Both ladies proved women can compete in a man's world.

Shirley Muldowney was the first woman to receive a NHRA license to drive top fuel dragsters. She was the first person--man or woman--to win three NHRA national events in a row. In 1980, Shirley won the World Finals by beating her rival Connie Kalitta, and in 1982, she won an unprecedented third NHRA Top Fuel Championship.

Muldowney's achievements were not lost on Hollywood. She got the big screen treatment in 1983's Heart Like a Wheel starring Bonnie Bedelia as Muldowney and Beau Bridges as Connie Kalitta. Muldowney has said the film did not capture her real life very well but was good for the sport.

On the heels of her celebrity, Muldowney was faced with her biggest challenge. In June of 1984, her dragster crashed at over 250 mph at Sanair Speedway near Montreal, Canada. A front tire shredded and got twisted up in a wheel causing the car to lose control for 600 feet before crashing. Shirley was left with broken legs, crushed hands, a shattered pelvis, and a severed thumb. Determined to race again, she undertook two years of grueling physical therapy and recovery. Her first race back was against "Big Daddy" Don Garlits--a personal friend of hers. She lost. Shirley retired from active racing in 2003.

During her career, she won eighteen NHRA National events and was ranked 5th on NHRA's 2001 list of its Top 50 Drivers earning her the title of First Lady of Drag Racing. Her memoir Shirley Muldowney: Tales from the Track was released in 2005 depicting her drag racing life. The same year, Muldowney was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. Muldowney still makes personal appearances at racing events to raise money for her charitable organization, Shirley's Kids, which helps children in need in cities where drag racing is a part of the community. Shirley can literally be called a trailblazer for women's equality.

***

CKLW radio commercial for the Detroit Dragway from 1966: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbrdImfvFmQ

1982 U.S. Nationals Championship drag race between Kalitta and Muldowney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Q8f6bsfI0  

Muldowney on the Johnny Carson Show in 1986 after her 1984 catastrophic car crash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FeaqiczHzI

The Tragedy of Edsel Ford - Death by a Thousand Cuts

Edsel Ford

Unlike Edsel Ford's children, Edsel was not born in the lap of luxury. His father and mother, Henry and Clara, lived on the cusp of poverty while Henry invested every spare cent he could earn at the Edison Illumination Company in Detroit to develop his horseless carriage made of four bicycle wheels, a carriage frame, a tiller steering lever, an upholstered bench seat, and a two-cylinder, four horsepower, chain driven engine. He called his contraption the Quadricycle.

On June 4th, 1896 at the age of thirty-two, Henry Ford took the first of many test drives. Although he had no memory of it, his four-year-old son Edsel took his first ride in a self-powered vehicle. Ford quit his job at Edison in 1899 to focus on building automobiles and formed the Detroit Automobile Company. Two years later [1901], he formed the Henry Ford Company, and two years after that, he founded the Ford Motor Company [1903]. While Henry struggled to dominate the early automobile business, he and Clara lived in twelve different places before he had Fair Lane manor built in 1913 through 1915. Edsel was in his early twenties when the mansion was completed.

Ford's original quadricycle

Although his parents doted on him, Edsel's home life was anything but stable. As a child, Edsel went to a private grammar school in Connecticut and then attended Detroit University School, a local private college preparatory school. The family company was the most stability Edsel had in his young life. He grew up with the Ford Motor Company (FoMoCo) and would hang around the design and pattern shops on his school vacations where he became acquainted with master model-maker and Ford engineer Charles "Cast Iron Charlie" Sorensen. Sorensen, who over the course of his forty-year career with Henry Ford and his company, would become young Edsel's lifelong friend and mentor.

Rather than take the next step into a university education, Edsel made the decision to enter the family business at age eighteen. I'm sure his father prompted him to make this decision. Henry Ford was a no-nonsense, self-made man who was distrustful of university educated types. All of the early, key people in the company had come up the hard way like Ford did. But rather than break Edsel in on the grimy foundry floor or the assembly line, Ford sent his son to work in the business end of the operation in financing. Edsel never dressed less than sartorial [well-tailored]. His personal taste in clothing was impeccable in stark contrast to those he worked with, but his work ethic and integrity soon won over most people.

In 1915, James Couzens resigned as secretary/treasurer of FoMoCo in protest of Henry Ford's public, pacifist statements and pro-German sentiments while on a European "peace ship" mission. Edsel was the heir apparent and succeeded Couzens becoming the company's first finance director--a title made especially for Edsel. His father did not like titles for his excutives and preferred they be called simply "Ford Men." Henry Ford felt he could utilize and control them better if there was ambiguity in the management ranks.

The company's great chain of being had room for only one person at the top--Henry Ford. Despite that, Henry stepped aside in 1919, and Edsel became the president of the company while Henry remained on his company's board of directors. The elder Ford held over 50% of the company's stock. That was his trump card. With his son, Henry began a secret project which resulted in the development of a small block V-8 engine and the Model A, which saved the company from bankrupcy and the General Motors Corporation whose Chevrolet division was eating away at FoMoCo's dominance in the low priced market.

Here is where the plot thickens: A year after Edsel's management promotion, he married Eleanor Lowthian Clay [19], a socialite who was the niece of J.L. Hudson, the department store founder. The newlyweds did not want to live at the Fair Lane manor with Edsel's parents. The elder Fords were crestfallen. They had Fair Lane built especially with the thought of keeping Edsel under their wing. The manor was built near the banks of the Rouge River with a built-in swimming pool, a game room, a bowling alley, a billiards room, a boathouse, and a riding stable all designed with their son in mind.

According to Charles Sorensen in his autobiography My Forty Years with Ford, "Father and mother wanted to keep their only son close to them and guide his every thought.... Like all normal young people, Edsel wanted to be on his own to see and experience the world." Important people began to admire and respect the young executive which rankled his father who was jealous of anyone who seemed to wield influence with his son. "Henry Ford's greatest failure was expecting his son to be like him," Sorensen wrote. "Edsel's greatest victory, despite all obstacles, was in being himself."

The Edsel Fords made their first home in Detroit's Indian Village neighborhood on Iroquois Street where all four of their children were born: Henry II [1917], Benson [1919], Josephine [1923], and William Clay [1925]. In 1929, the Edsel Fords moved to Gaukler Point in Grosse Pointe with 3,000 feet of shoreline on Lake St. Clair and a walled-off, massive estate. Grosse Pointe was where wealthy and influential Detroiters lived, some residents with ties to Ford's arch competitor General Motors.

Henry II [the Deuce], Benson, Josephine, William Clay

The Henry Fords were nonsmoking teetolalers who disapproved of rumors of Edsel's riotous living, like attending cocktail parties and joining a country club. Edsel was being surveilled by Harry Bennett's men. It was being reported that Edsel was being corrupted by alcohol. The Edsel Ford's always kept a fully stocked bar in their home, even during Prohibition. Henry was distrustful of Edsel's new friends in Grosse Pointe, but Edsel chose his own friends and adopted a modernist sensibility apart from the fundamentalism of his parents.

With the help of his wife Eleanor, Edsel educated himself in the arts and literature and became an art collector. In contrast, Henry Ford was raised a farm boy with a sixth grade, rural education who was fond of saying, "A Ford can take you anywhere, except into society." He was wrong. This was the beginning of a serious riff between Edsel and his father.

Henry Ford put his controversial henchman Harry Bennett on Edsel's neck to disabuse him of the notion that he was actually the president of FoMoCo. It was clear to everyone that Edsel wore the mantle, but his father was the power behind the throne. Edsel had the title but not the scepter that went with it. Sorensen noted that "Henry could not let go, and Edsel did not know how to take over."

Harry Bennett with Henry Ford

Edsel always deferred to his father's edicts and allowed him to trample on his dignity, first with the company and later by tampering with the private lives of Edsel's family and inlaws, usually through the efforts of Harry Bennett. The elder Ford was primarily responsible for crushing his son's spirit. Ford believed his son was weak, and he blamed himself for overprotecting Edsel with the "cushion of advantage." For the sake of the company, Henry felt he needed to toughen the boy up.

Of his many transgressions against his son, the elder Ford found fault with anything Edsel wanted to do to make FoMoCo more competitive. Edsel wanted to modernize the company with college-educated executives, but Henry would not stand for that. He wanted his executives to start at the bottom and work themselves up the corporate ladder.

In 1919, Henry Ford bought the Dearborn Independent newspaper. At his personal direction, Ford instructed his editor William Cameron and his FoMoCo administrative assistant Ernest Liebold to begin a journalist rampage against the Jews and the International Banking Conspiracy. Edsel had many Jewish friends and implored his father to shut down his antisemitic screed. To compound matters, Henry Ford required his dealers to include a copy of the newspaper in every new vehicle sold resulting in lost sales. American Jews would not be caught dead buying a Ford car.

In 1922, many of the articles were compiled into a book called The International Jew, which sold well in the United States and found an enthusiastic audience in Germany. Thirty-three-year-old German militant Adolf Hitler kept a well-read, dog-eared copy of the book on his desk and had a signed photo of Henry Ford on the wall of his office. After losing a very public and expensive lawsuit, Henry Ford was forced to shut down the paper in 1927, but the damage had been done, much to the personal embarrassment of Edsel and Eleanor.

Another tramatic event for FoMoCo was the Battle of the Overpass on May 26, 1937 between underworld thugs hired by Harry Bennett and the United Auto Workers (UAW), who were distributing pro-union literature on the Miller Road pedestrian bridge leading into the Rouge Plant. Detroit News photographer James J. Kilpatrick, snapped a few quick photos and jumped into a waiting car to avoid a beating and a busted up camera. The photos appeared in the evening edition of the Detroit News, and by morning, it was picked up nationally and internationally.

Edsel was struggling with his health and wanted the company to settle the contract which had already been settled at General Motors and Chrysler Corporation. Henry Ford wanted to dig in and bust more heads. He gave Harry Bennett free reign and unlimited funds to break the UAW, which Ford believed was communist-inspired socialism. Clara Ford summoned Charles Sorensen to Fair Lane to ask, "Who is this [Harry] Bennett, that has so much control of my husband?" She did not like what she heard from Sorensen.

Clara Ford threatened her husband Henry with divorce and selling off her FoMoCo stock if a contract settlement was not reached immediately. That got the old man's attention, but Edsel was in no condition to negotiate, so in a stroke of twisted irony, Ford had Harry Bennett represent the company and settle the contract.

Clara Bryant Ford

In another blunder of epic proportions, Henry Ford was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle for his 50th birthday in 1936 as a token of Adolph Hitler's admiration. The medal made of gold was replete with four Nazi swastikas. Mindful of its propaganda value, Hitler's two German representatives stood on each side of Henry Ford with the medal hanging prominately around his neck and had a publicity photo taken. The photo appeared in newspapers worldwide. Ford appeared sympathetic with the Nazi cause in Europe, prompting many Americans to again question whose side Ford was on and consequently losing FoMoCo business. Edsel Ford pleaded with his father to denounce Hitler publicly, but he would not relent.

Edsel was friends with Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who Henry Ford despised as a socialist. When President Roosevelt asked Edsel Ford to get behind the World War II war effort, Edsel agreed to put the might of FoMoCo behind the war effort and vowed to do anything he could. Henry did everything he could to undermine the Willow Run bomber project fearing the government would take over his company, but after Hitler invaded Poland, Ford was forced to admit that Hitler was a dictator and enemy of the United States.

Along with plant manager Charles Sorensen and architect Albert Kahn, Edsel Ford dedicated the last years of his life to designing and constructing the largest bomber plant in the world which became the cornerstone of the United States' Arsenal of Democracy. The stress and strain of the job and the harassment by his father and Harry Bennett finally caught up with Edsel. In January of 1942, Edsel was operated on for stomach ulcers. The elder Ford believed his son only needed to "change his way of living." He thought his chiropractor could cure him. When surgeons opened Edsel up, they discovered incurable metastatic stomach cancer. Edsel Ford hung on for eighteen months but died at one-ten a.m. on May 26, 1943 from cancer and undulant fever brought on by drinking unpasteurized milk from Ford Farms.

B-24 Liberator Bomber

Although Edsel did not live to see the end of World War II, his boast of producing a complete B-24 bomber every hour was achieved. The Willow Run Bomber Plant and adjoining airport represent Edsel's greatest achievement against overwhelming odds where the stakes could not have been higher. His father's fame plateaued after the construction of the Rouge Plant; Edsel's fame rests squarely upon the miracle of the B-24 Bomber Plant. The elder Ford may have put America on wheels, but his son was instrumental in making the world safe for democracy and preserving the American way of life.

The Willow Run Story