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[birds calling]

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NARRATOR:
It would come to be called
"Fordlandia,"

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two and a half million acres
of virgin rainforest--

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the size of Connecticut--
in the heart of the Amazon.

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And almost as soon as Henry Ford
had wired the $125,000

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that made him the sole owner
of this vast tract of jungle,

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he began transforming it.

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FILM NARRATOR:
The Ford Motor Company
is ever seeking

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ways and materials
to improve its products.

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One of the latest enterprises
of the company

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is the development of a rubber
plantation in Brazil.

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NARRATOR:
Rubber for tires
was his stated purpose,

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but as with many things
concerning Ford,

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there was a grander vision.

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In the primordial wilderness,

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he planned to build
a modern utopia

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modeled on small town America.

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STEVEN WATTS:
He came to believe that he was

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not only an economic
entrepreneur

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but a prophet
of proper living.

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Henry says, "Simple, plain,
honest, hard-working people,

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"that's the backbone of
not just the United States,

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"it's the backbone of the world.

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And I know how you have to live
in order to achieve that."

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NARRATOR:
Ford practiced what he preached.

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Through his own fierce
determination,

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he had risen from obscurity

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to become one of the most famous
and powerful men in the country.

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With the Model T-- the most
successful car in history--

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and the groundbreaking
"Five Dollar a Day" wage,

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Ford ushered in
the modern world.

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NANCY F. KOEHN:
The Model T greatly expanded
Americans' mobility,

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knitting America
very close together

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at the same time
that it opened

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American sense
of what was possible.

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So he liberated,

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at the individual level,
the human spirit.

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Henry Ford was a revolutionary.

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He changed all
of 20th-century America.

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We're living in Henry Ford's
world right now.

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NARRATOR:
But no matter his success, Ford
remained restless and driven,

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always seeking to control
what lay just beyond his grasp.

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The creator of an urban
industrial age,

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he longed for the simpler era
he had helped destroy.

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One of the nation's richest men,
he despised the wealthy

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and feared a vast conspiracy
threatened to bring him down.

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A hero to many
ordinary Americans,

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he battled his workers

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and bullied those who looked up
to him, including his only son.

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JOHN STAUDENMAIER:
What is it like to carry around
so much power

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that the ordinary wear and tear
of reality

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that most of us deal with
all the time,

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that keep us pretty sane,
is absent?

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NARRATOR:
As Henry Ford liked to tell it,
his was a rags-to-riches tale.

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He was a child genius
who fled an oppressive father

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to become one of the most
successful entrepreneurs

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the world had ever seen.

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It was a great story,
but only the last part was true.

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STEVEN WATTS:
Since young manhood,
if not childhood,

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Henry Ford felt a certain
sense of destiny,

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that he was slated
to do important things.

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He liked to picture himself
to others

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as a kind of heroic individual

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who climbed to success
against the odds.

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NARRATOR:
In fact, Henry Ford
was the eldest son

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of a caring, successful
Michigan farm couple.

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His parents expected
all their children

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to work alongside them
on the land.

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But when Henry
found the work tedious

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and began obsessing
over the machines

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that might make
farm life easier,

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his parents indulged him.

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They allowed him
to neglect his chores

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and set up a workbench
for him in the kitchen.

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Not only would he take apart
wrist watches

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and put them back together,

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but he would study
every machine he saw.

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NARRATOR:
Henry's father, William Ford,

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understood that his son longed
to learn more about machinery.

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When Henry turned 16,

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William arranged for him
to stay with an aunt in Detroit

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and even found Henry a job.

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[horse hooves clopping]

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On a cold day in December 1879,
Henry walked the nine miles

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from his family farm
to the city.

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There, he would
reinvent himself.

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NARRATOR:
For more than a decade,

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Ford worked long hours
in one shop after another,

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forging a career as
an expert machinist.

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By the time he was 31,

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he was chief engineer at the
Edison Illuminating Company,

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the pioneer in providing
electricity to American cities.

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As exciting as Edison was,
Ford's passion lay elsewhere.

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WATTS:
The notion of horseless carriage
was in the air.

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And he and all of his buddies,

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00:07:03,940 --> 00:07:08,358
they just devoured magazines
and newspaper articles,

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00:07:08,393 --> 00:07:10,499
and I think Ford
just soaked that up.

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Transportation in America
was terrible

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once you got away
from the railroads.

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Terrible!

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It was an enormous burden.

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I mean, if you're living
on the farm,

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getting around on land

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is one of the biggest
problems people have.

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NARRATOR:
At the dawn of the automobile
industry in the 1890s,

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most people saw the car as
a luxury item for the wealthy.

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Ford had a different vision.

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He never forgot his feelings
of isolation living on the farm

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and imagined that others
shared his longing

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for greater mobility.

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If he could build a reliable
horseless carriage,

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Ford believed, he could
change people's lives.

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BRINKLEY:
He wanted to really change
the tenor of his times.

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He is going to transform
the world

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by building a type of cheap car
that everybody could have.

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NARRATOR:
All the late nights
and long weekends,

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the hard-earned cash spent
on sheet iron and gasoline,

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the false starts
and wrong turns,

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none of it mattered
when on June 4, 1896,

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Ford drove
his horseless carriage

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through the streets of Detroit
for the first time.

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As the rickety vehicle bounced
down Grand River Avenue,

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a friend cycled ahead to warn
pedestrians out of the way.

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The quadricycle, as Ford dubbed
it, had 28-inch bicycle wheels,

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a top speed of 20 miles
per hour, and no brakes.

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It couldn't go in reverse
and was prone to overheating.

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Yet wherever he went,

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the quadricycle drew crowds
of curious bystanders.

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Soon he attracted the attention
of more than a dozen

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of Detroit's most
prominent leaders,

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including the mayor himself,

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all eager to invest in Ford
and his machine.

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There's some people,

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when they walk into a room,
you notice them.

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He has an inner
self-confidence.

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That means the way
he carries himself,

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you're going to notice it.

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NARRATOR:
Within three years
of the inaugural drive,

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Ford had quit
his engineering job.

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In a brick building
on Cass Avenue in Detroit,

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he assembled a team of 13.

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The Detroit Automobile Company,
incorporated on August 5, 1899,

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was one of the first car
manufacturing firms in the city,

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but it wouldn't be the last.

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The automobile industry
was exploding.

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57 other firms were founded
the same year.

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Within two years,
there would be more than 100.

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00:10:03,050 --> 00:10:05,121
There are all kinds of people
that Henry Ford knows

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00:10:05,156 --> 00:10:06,951
that are tinkering and playing

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00:10:06,985 --> 00:10:09,332
and trying to produce
a prototype.

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All men, all interested
in machines,

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but all without a big picture
view of what this could become.

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NARRATOR:
A company spokesman

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hailed Ford's first model
as "near perfect,"

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00:10:22,863 --> 00:10:25,348
but when it went on sale,
it looked more like

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a "horse-drawn delivery wagon
without the horse."

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It was high-sided, heavy,

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and due to problems with
the ignition and carburetor,

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rarely ran for more than
a few minutes at a time.

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00:10:37,257 --> 00:10:40,709
His backers pushed
for a new luxury model

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that was more reliable.

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But Ford stalled,

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determined to work out engine
and design problems

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before building another car.

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KOEHN:
He would move parts around,
and then he would test it.

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00:10:53,376 --> 00:10:55,620
And then he would go back
and move some more parts.

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There's a kind of both
breadth of vision

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in that kind of activity,

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00:10:59,762 --> 00:11:03,007
but there's also a kind
of monomaniacal focus.

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No detail is too small,

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00:11:06,389 --> 00:11:09,151
but the overall objective,
"make the thing better,"

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is never lost sight of.

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NARRATOR:
As his investors
increased the pressure,

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Ford bought himself time
by having his employees

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00:11:20,196 --> 00:11:24,062
make parts for vehicles
he never planned to build.

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Meanwhile, he continued
to experiment.

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WATTS:
His investors want to make
an expensive car

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to sell to wealthy people.

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Ford disagrees fundamentally.

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00:11:35,384 --> 00:11:37,800
He wants to create a car
for the people.

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He's trying to perfect
an invention.

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00:11:40,700 --> 00:11:43,599
In order to keep doing the trial
runs and get it better,

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it's going to take
a lot of capital

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00:11:46,153 --> 00:11:48,777
to keep testing,
keep testing.

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NARRATOR:
Finally realizing
they were being duped,

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his backers pulled the plug.

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In the three years that
the fledgling car industry

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had existed in America,

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00:12:00,098 --> 00:12:02,756
Henry Ford had managed
to squander his chance

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00:12:02,791 --> 00:12:05,897
to be part of it.

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00:12:05,932 --> 00:12:10,315
And he knew exactly
who to blame: his investors.

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00:12:10,350 --> 00:12:14,285
"From here in," Ford declared,

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00:12:14,319 --> 00:12:17,771
"my shop is always
going to be my shop.

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00:12:17,806 --> 00:12:23,397
I'm not going to have a lot of
rich people tell me what to do."

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00:12:23,432 --> 00:12:27,539
BRINKLEY:
He hated the people that
invested in him, loathed them.

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00:12:27,574 --> 00:12:32,061
These were the scum of America
to Henry Ford.

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00:12:32,096 --> 00:12:36,928
These are the people that looked
down on the slang of the farm

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00:12:36,963 --> 00:12:40,276
and the kinfolk of his that had
worked the land for generations.

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00:12:40,311 --> 00:12:42,934
He did not like these people.

200
00:12:46,420 --> 00:12:50,390
[people talking excitedly]

201
00:13:00,849 --> 00:13:05,439
[engine sputtering]

202
00:13:05,474 --> 00:13:08,132
NARRATOR:
While Ford was stalling
his investors,

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00:13:08,166 --> 00:13:12,964
he had also been working on
a secret project: a race car.

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00:13:12,999 --> 00:13:16,830
Intrigued by the challenge
of building an engine

205
00:13:16,865 --> 00:13:19,143
that could achieve high speeds,

206
00:13:19,177 --> 00:13:21,524
he also harbored
a greater ambition:

207
00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:26,840
to make a name for himself
and start a new car company.

208
00:13:26,875 --> 00:13:30,257
In October 1901,

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00:13:30,292 --> 00:13:33,882
Ford took on the most famous
driver in America

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00:13:33,916 --> 00:13:36,436
in the first automobile race
in Michigan.

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00:13:36,470 --> 00:13:41,475
Interest in the event
was intense.

212
00:13:41,510 --> 00:13:43,753
Shops closed.

213
00:13:43,788 --> 00:13:46,446
One judge adjourned his court
for the afternoon,

214
00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:49,035
and packed streetcars ran out
to the parade ground

215
00:13:49,069 --> 00:13:52,521
every 30 seconds.

216
00:13:52,555 --> 00:13:56,836
Ford had no experience
driving at high speeds

217
00:13:56,870 --> 00:14:00,287
and no money
to pay a professional,

218
00:14:00,322 --> 00:14:05,154
but he had faith in the
superiority of his engine.

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00:14:05,189 --> 00:14:09,227
BRINKLEY:
The whole art of making it
in America is about audacity.

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00:14:09,262 --> 00:14:11,712
You've got to be reckless.

221
00:14:11,747 --> 00:14:13,507
You've got to take such risk

222
00:14:13,542 --> 00:14:15,371
that you can't be afraid
to fail.

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00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:21,895
NARRATOR:
For the first third of the ten-
mile race, Ford lagged behind,

224
00:14:21,930 --> 00:14:24,794
struggling to control his car
on the curves.

225
00:14:26,900 --> 00:14:31,111
Then on the sixth lap,
he started to close the gap.

226
00:14:31,146 --> 00:14:34,321
After his opponent's
engine overheated,

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00:14:34,356 --> 00:14:37,911
the crowd erupted
as Ford zoomed past his rival,

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00:14:37,946 --> 00:14:41,363
winning the race
by nearly a mile.

229
00:14:41,397 --> 00:14:47,921
The aspiring automaker emerged
from the victory a local hero.

230
00:14:47,956 --> 00:14:51,787
"Henry Ford broke into the front
ranks of American racing,"

231
00:14:51,821 --> 00:14:53,927
crowed the Detroit News,

232
00:14:53,962 --> 00:14:57,758
"by the wonderful performance
of his machine yesterday."

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00:14:57,793 --> 00:14:59,864
WATTS:
Even after all the failures

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00:14:59,899 --> 00:15:01,383
that Henry Ford had,

235
00:15:01,417 --> 00:15:04,489
he was convinced
that he should plunge ahead.

236
00:15:04,524 --> 00:15:07,665
He wasn't convinced
that he had failed.

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00:15:07,699 --> 00:15:10,150
It was sort of a momentary
setback.

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00:15:10,185 --> 00:15:14,568
It's an absolute confidence
in your own talent

239
00:15:14,603 --> 00:15:17,088
and an absolute confidence
in your own vision

240
00:15:17,123 --> 00:15:19,263
of doing something important.

241
00:15:19,297 --> 00:15:21,368
NARRATOR:
Ford followed his first win

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00:15:21,403 --> 00:15:24,647
with a string of highly
publicized victories.

243
00:15:24,682 --> 00:15:28,099
Within months, he had attracted
a new slate of investors.

244
00:15:28,134 --> 00:15:31,689
On June 16, 1903,

245
00:15:31,723 --> 00:15:34,554
he incorporated
the Ford Motor Company.

246
00:15:34,588 --> 00:15:39,697
Ford's audacity and courage
had won him another chance.

247
00:15:45,151 --> 00:15:48,706
Within weeks, the company's
first model was unveiled:

248
00:15:48,740 --> 00:15:53,366
a two-seater with a reliable
eight-horsepower engine.

249
00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:56,748
The first order
came from a Chicago dentist,

250
00:15:56,783 --> 00:15:59,441
and much to the delight
of company shareholders,

251
00:15:59,475 --> 00:16:01,995
the orders kept coming.

252
00:16:02,030 --> 00:16:03,652
Within less than two years,

253
00:16:03,686 --> 00:16:07,138
the Ford Motor Company
was producing 25 vehicles a day

254
00:16:07,173 --> 00:16:10,107
and had sold
more than 1,000 cars.

255
00:16:10,141 --> 00:16:13,662
But the man at the top
wasn't satisfied.

256
00:16:15,802 --> 00:16:20,669
In early 1907, Ford walled off
a corner of his factory

257
00:16:20,703 --> 00:16:23,983
on Piquette Avenue
in downtown Detroit.

258
00:16:24,017 --> 00:16:26,778
The room had a door
wide enough for a car

259
00:16:26,813 --> 00:16:28,953
and a lock to keep out everyone

260
00:16:28,988 --> 00:16:31,231
but his top engineers
and mechanics.

261
00:16:31,266 --> 00:16:35,615
Then he set his team to work.

262
00:16:35,649 --> 00:16:37,548
He had them experiment
with innovative designs

263
00:16:37,582 --> 00:16:39,584
for igniting the engine

264
00:16:39,619 --> 00:16:42,484
and a more flexible
suspension system.

265
00:16:42,518 --> 00:16:44,382
They tried new types of steel

266
00:16:44,417 --> 00:16:48,352
that would be lighter,
but tougher.

267
00:16:48,386 --> 00:16:52,597
"If a suggestion appealed
to him," a colleague recalled,

268
00:16:52,632 --> 00:16:55,428
"he first showed it
in a quick flash of his eyes

269
00:16:55,462 --> 00:16:57,602
"and an approving smile.

270
00:16:57,637 --> 00:16:59,466
"He never ran out of ideas,

271
00:16:59,501 --> 00:17:02,435
and it was impossible
to keep up with him."

272
00:17:02,469 --> 00:17:06,715
WATTS:
He thinks nothing
of plunging down

273
00:17:06,749 --> 00:17:09,476
onto the floor of the factory

274
00:17:09,511 --> 00:17:13,756
and leaping in to help
do the job at hand,

275
00:17:13,791 --> 00:17:16,138
getting covered with oil
and grease,

276
00:17:16,173 --> 00:17:18,796
joking with the men,
working with the men.

277
00:17:18,830 --> 00:17:21,212
He's very loose,
very participatory,

278
00:17:21,247 --> 00:17:22,524
and they love him.

279
00:17:22,558 --> 00:17:25,527
I think that mechanical
intuition that he had

280
00:17:25,561 --> 00:17:28,185
created a kind of charisma
that drew people to him

281
00:17:28,219 --> 00:17:29,703
and drew other
creative people to him.

282
00:17:29,738 --> 00:17:31,636
He promoted people
who had a drive,

283
00:17:31,671 --> 00:17:33,466
people that didn't sleep,

284
00:17:33,500 --> 00:17:35,537
people that wanted
to work harder,

285
00:17:35,571 --> 00:17:37,642
people that weren't
in the game

286
00:17:37,677 --> 00:17:40,024
because of the superficial
reasons

287
00:17:40,059 --> 00:17:42,440
but really wanted
to perfect his company.

288
00:17:42,475 --> 00:17:47,031
NARRATOR:
Every few months,
Ford introduced a new model,

289
00:17:47,066 --> 00:17:49,965
making his way through
the alphabet.

290
00:17:49,999 --> 00:17:53,106
But the Model K was too heavy
and expensive;

291
00:17:53,141 --> 00:17:56,454
the Model N,
though lighter and cheaper,

292
00:17:56,489 --> 00:18:00,458
had an engine cast in four
pieces rather than one block.

293
00:18:00,493 --> 00:18:05,118
Ford kept at it.

294
00:18:05,153 --> 00:18:07,362
"He wanted to help people,

295
00:18:07,396 --> 00:18:10,227
and we as young men in the shop
looked up to that,"

296
00:18:10,261 --> 00:18:11,883
one worker remembered.

297
00:18:11,918 --> 00:18:14,334
"We could see that
Mr. Ford's mind

298
00:18:14,369 --> 00:18:16,681
"went to the farmer
and the mechanic

299
00:18:16,716 --> 00:18:19,167
and to the people who lived
in the hinterland."

300
00:18:19,201 --> 00:18:23,895
CASEY:
Even if you were on the factory
floor assembling these cars,

301
00:18:23,930 --> 00:18:27,278
you knew you were part of
something that was happening,

302
00:18:27,313 --> 00:18:28,555
something that was new,

303
00:18:28,590 --> 00:18:30,039
something that was changing
the country.

304
00:18:30,074 --> 00:18:34,492
I think it was the same kind
of excitement

305
00:18:34,527 --> 00:18:36,874
that the man-on-the-moon
mission people had.

306
00:18:36,908 --> 00:18:40,222
There are a handful
of those kinds of moments

307
00:18:40,257 --> 00:18:42,638
in American history

308
00:18:42,673 --> 00:18:48,161
where there's a dream
that is so big in its potential,

309
00:18:48,196 --> 00:18:51,613
and you think you got it,
and then you get it.

310
00:19:16,224 --> 00:19:20,124
NARRATOR:
In October 1908,
after two years of development,

311
00:19:20,159 --> 00:19:23,610
Henry Ford introduced
the latest in his alphabet line:

312
00:19:23,645 --> 00:19:27,235
the Model T.

313
00:19:27,269 --> 00:19:31,549
It had a four-cylinder,
20-horsepower engine,

314
00:19:31,584 --> 00:19:34,138
a vastly improved transmission

315
00:19:34,173 --> 00:19:36,278
and an ingenious
magnetic generator

316
00:19:36,313 --> 00:19:39,557
that provided power
for an ignition and lights.

317
00:19:41,628 --> 00:19:45,632
With an open top
and an optional cover,

318
00:19:45,667 --> 00:19:50,223
it came in just one color:
green at first, later black.

319
00:19:56,988 --> 00:19:59,715
Weighing only 1,200 pounds,
the Model T could go

320
00:19:59,750 --> 00:20:03,926
40 miles per hour
on a smooth, straight road.

321
00:20:05,790 --> 00:20:10,312
It was also remarkably durable.

322
00:20:10,347 --> 00:20:12,694
They didn't break down a lot
compared to other vehicles,

323
00:20:12,728 --> 00:20:15,317
and when they did, they were
very simple to repair.

324
00:20:18,458 --> 00:20:22,048
This wasn't somebody just
ginning out a product.

325
00:20:25,431 --> 00:20:28,572
This was a quality
to the economical car

326
00:20:28,606 --> 00:20:33,611
that the world had never even
imagined could be possible.

327
00:20:33,646 --> 00:20:39,168
NARRATOR:
At a time when the average car
cost more than $2,000,

328
00:20:39,203 --> 00:20:42,379
the Model T sold for just $850,

329
00:20:42,413 --> 00:20:44,588
and the price soon
would begin to drop.

330
00:20:48,488 --> 00:20:52,216
The response was immediate
and overwhelming.

331
00:20:52,251 --> 00:20:54,563
Orders poured in from doctors,

332
00:20:54,598 --> 00:20:58,498
traveling salesmen,
artisans and farmers--

333
00:20:58,533 --> 00:21:03,917
people who had never dreamed
of becoming motorists.

334
00:21:03,952 --> 00:21:06,299
GRANDIN:
The Model T changed everything.

335
00:21:06,334 --> 00:21:09,923
It gave people a new sense
of power and authority

336
00:21:09,958 --> 00:21:12,961
and control over their lives.

337
00:21:12,995 --> 00:21:18,173
You can go wherever you wanted,
and you can go by yourself.

338
00:21:18,207 --> 00:21:22,453
You can get in your car,
and you have access now

339
00:21:22,488 --> 00:21:25,318
to towns, to cities,

340
00:21:25,353 --> 00:21:32,118
to places that were beyond your
reach just a few years earlier.

341
00:21:36,433 --> 00:21:39,919
WATTS:
Ford has a sense
that this is it,

342
00:21:39,953 --> 00:21:44,406
that he's reached some kind
of culmination in his work.

343
00:21:44,441 --> 00:21:48,376
And I think the sales of the
car, as they begin to take off,

344
00:21:48,410 --> 00:21:51,275
only reinforces this notion

345
00:21:51,310 --> 00:21:53,967
that he's finally got
to where he wants to go.

346
00:21:56,245 --> 00:21:59,076
NARRATOR:
A farm wife from Rome, Georgia,

347
00:21:59,110 --> 00:22:01,699
wrote Ford a letter
of appreciation,

348
00:22:01,734 --> 00:22:03,632
one of thousands:

349
00:22:03,667 --> 00:22:05,669
"Your car lifted us
out of the mud.

350
00:22:05,703 --> 00:22:09,949
It brought joy into our lives."

351
00:22:20,028 --> 00:22:23,859
NARRATOR:
They met at a country dance
when Henry was 21.

352
00:22:23,894 --> 00:22:25,620
He liked to tell people

353
00:22:25,654 --> 00:22:29,762
he knew right away that Clara
Bryant was the woman for him.

354
00:22:29,796 --> 00:22:34,318
After their wedding, the couple
waited five years for a baby.

355
00:22:34,353 --> 00:22:36,803
Finally, a son arrived.

356
00:22:36,838 --> 00:22:40,428
He would be their only child.

357
00:22:40,462 --> 00:22:42,913
Edsel had a very good
relationship with his father

358
00:22:42,947 --> 00:22:44,811
as a youngster.

359
00:22:44,846 --> 00:22:46,572
He admired his father.

360
00:22:46,606 --> 00:22:49,506
He was interested in the
automobiles his father made.

361
00:22:49,540 --> 00:22:54,027
He tagged along with his dad
to work.

362
00:22:54,062 --> 00:22:56,789
NARRATOR:
Henry and Clara sent Edsel

363
00:22:56,823 --> 00:22:59,654
to Detroit's most prestigious
all-boys school,

364
00:22:59,688 --> 00:23:01,759
where he excelled.

365
00:23:01,794 --> 00:23:04,900
But Ford wasn't convinced
a prep school education

366
00:23:04,935 --> 00:23:08,697
was what his son needed most.

367
00:23:08,732 --> 00:23:12,011
Henry had barely completed
eighth grade.

368
00:23:12,045 --> 00:23:16,429
Success, he believed,
depended on hard work.

369
00:23:16,464 --> 00:23:19,536
His own life proved it.

370
00:23:19,570 --> 00:23:24,299
BRINKLEY:
Henry Ford was not very high
on interior life.

371
00:23:24,333 --> 00:23:27,613
Sentiment rotted the soul.

372
00:23:27,647 --> 00:23:30,823
You could be sentimental
if you were action-oriented,

373
00:23:30,857 --> 00:23:32,721
but the main thing was to do.

374
00:23:32,756 --> 00:23:34,447
"What are you doing?

375
00:23:34,482 --> 00:23:35,862
"Don't tell me what you know.

376
00:23:35,897 --> 00:23:37,588
What are you doing,
what have you done?"

377
00:23:40,349 --> 00:23:43,629
NARRATOR:
Ford wanted his son to spend
as much time as possible

378
00:23:43,663 --> 00:23:46,597
in coveralls
on the factory floor,

379
00:23:46,632 --> 00:23:49,324
where he was tougher on Edsel
than anyone else,

380
00:23:49,358 --> 00:23:52,396
frequently creating problems
for him to solve.

381
00:23:52,431 --> 00:23:56,158
Most of the time,
the bright and eager Edsel

382
00:23:56,193 --> 00:23:59,161
lived up to his father's
expectations.

383
00:24:01,923 --> 00:24:04,719
"I've got a boy
I can be proud of,"

384
00:24:04,753 --> 00:24:06,790
Henry told a colleague.

385
00:24:06,824 --> 00:24:09,724
"He's sure taking
an interest in his work."

386
00:24:26,499 --> 00:24:31,297
STAUDENMAIER:
When they launch the Model T,
it becomes clear pretty soon

387
00:24:31,331 --> 00:24:35,094
that they have hit
a grand slam home run

388
00:24:35,128 --> 00:24:39,029
and that this market is immense.

389
00:24:39,063 --> 00:24:41,238
Think of a gigantic
vacuum cleaner,

390
00:24:41,272 --> 00:24:44,241
right at the door of the plant,

391
00:24:44,275 --> 00:24:47,796
sucking every finished vehicle
out-- "Boom!"-- like that.

392
00:24:47,831 --> 00:24:52,594
NARRATOR:
On January 1, 1910,
Ford moved his production line

393
00:24:52,629 --> 00:24:55,355
to a vast new factory
on the outskirts of Detroit

394
00:24:55,390 --> 00:24:57,634
called Highland Park.

395
00:24:57,668 --> 00:25:00,775
He declared the company would
soon achieve his ambitious goal

396
00:25:00,809 --> 00:25:04,468
of producing 1,000 Model Ts
a day.

397
00:25:04,503 --> 00:25:09,300
GRANDIN:
His whole business model
is to sell a cheap product.

398
00:25:09,335 --> 00:25:12,027
And the way that you create
cheap products

399
00:25:12,062 --> 00:25:14,927
is by making more of them
in a shorter amount of time.

400
00:25:14,961 --> 00:25:18,655
NARRATOR:
While Ford was able to make
the machine parts quickly,

401
00:25:18,689 --> 00:25:22,382
assembling the cars
bogged down the process.

402
00:25:22,417 --> 00:25:26,559
KOEHN:
A friend of Ford's once
compared him to a kind of boxer,

403
00:25:26,594 --> 00:25:30,598
tiptoeing and dancing
round the factory floor,

404
00:25:30,632 --> 00:25:32,738
all the time thinking about,
"What could we do here?

405
00:25:32,772 --> 00:25:34,325
"What could we do there?

406
00:25:34,360 --> 00:25:36,224
"How could we change
the production process

407
00:25:36,258 --> 00:25:38,916
"to make the car
better and cheaper

408
00:25:38,951 --> 00:25:41,505
and bring out
even more of them?"

409
00:25:41,540 --> 00:25:45,371
CASEY:
While they're groping about
for improvement,

410
00:25:45,405 --> 00:25:47,718
someone begins to think about
the meat-packing plants

411
00:25:47,753 --> 00:25:53,068
where the carcass of a hog
or cow is hung on a conveyor

412
00:25:53,103 --> 00:25:55,588
and it moves through the plant,

413
00:25:55,623 --> 00:26:01,076
past meat cutters
who cut pieces off the animal.

414
00:26:01,111 --> 00:26:04,321
"What if we turned that around?

415
00:26:04,355 --> 00:26:06,979
"What if we put in some machine
that we want to assemble

416
00:26:07,013 --> 00:26:08,808
"and we move it past people

417
00:26:08,843 --> 00:26:10,603
and we have people
put things on?"

418
00:26:10,638 --> 00:26:14,952
NARRATOR:
Ford's team tried out the idea

419
00:26:14,987 --> 00:26:17,058
in the flywheel
magneto department,

420
00:26:17,092 --> 00:26:19,578
where the device
that generated electricity

421
00:26:19,612 --> 00:26:21,752
for the ignition system
was made.

422
00:26:21,787 --> 00:26:26,067
Rather than having one person
build a coil at a time,

423
00:26:26,101 --> 00:26:29,242
the supervisor broke down
the individual tasks

424
00:26:29,277 --> 00:26:32,625
into a sequence
driven by a conveyor.

425
00:26:32,660 --> 00:26:36,077
The new system reduced the time
it took to make a magneto

426
00:26:36,111 --> 00:26:39,908
from 20 minutes
to 13 minutes, ten seconds.

427
00:26:39,943 --> 00:26:42,601
CASEY:
And then somebody says,

428
00:26:42,635 --> 00:26:47,916
"Well, if it works on magnetos,
what about transmissions?

429
00:26:47,951 --> 00:26:50,125
"What about axles?

430
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:55,199
Well, what about engines?"

431
00:26:55,234 --> 00:27:00,101
Productivity goes way up,

432
00:27:00,135 --> 00:27:03,138
time to produce a car
goes down,

433
00:27:03,173 --> 00:27:07,004
and they realize, "We're
really onto something here."

434
00:27:33,444 --> 00:27:34,860
♪ 

435
00:27:47,148 --> 00:27:50,013
NARRATOR:
Under the old
stationary system,

436
00:27:50,047 --> 00:27:52,532
the record time
for assembling a car

437
00:27:52,567 --> 00:27:55,950
had been 12 hours
and 13 minutes.

438
00:27:55,984 --> 00:27:58,262
Using the assembly line process,

439
00:27:58,297 --> 00:28:02,715
it took one hour
and 33 minutes.

440
00:28:02,750 --> 00:28:07,444
By the fall of 1913,
Ford had established

441
00:28:07,478 --> 00:28:10,136
the first automobile
assembly line in the world

442
00:28:10,171 --> 00:28:13,622
and controlled nearly half
the American car market.

443
00:28:17,937 --> 00:28:21,630
Henry Ford had achieved
his coveted goal:

444
00:28:21,665 --> 00:28:26,670
his company was now producing
1,000 cars a day.

445
00:28:51,281 --> 00:28:53,870
BRINKLEY:
Efficiency becomes a religion
to Ford.

446
00:28:53,904 --> 00:28:55,975
Time is a product.

447
00:28:56,010 --> 00:28:59,220
You get the maximum
you can out of every hour.

448
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:05,364
BEVERLY GAGE:
Rather than being a craftsman,

449
00:29:05,398 --> 00:29:06,952
rather than having
a variety of tasks

450
00:29:06,986 --> 00:29:11,473
and creating a single product,

451
00:29:11,508 --> 00:29:20,068
you were going to stand
in one place all day long

452
00:29:20,103 --> 00:29:24,832
and do the same repetitive task
over and over and over again.

453
00:29:32,011 --> 00:29:35,083
Ford had a tremendous faith
that with the principle

454
00:29:35,118 --> 00:29:37,361
of assembly line production,
anyone could do it.

455
00:29:37,396 --> 00:29:42,366
So he didn't require skill.

456
00:29:42,401 --> 00:29:44,368
Skill was actually
engineered out of it.

457
00:29:48,821 --> 00:29:51,686
GRANDIN:
People describe him
as being less emotional

458
00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:54,309
than he was mechanical.

459
00:29:54,344 --> 00:29:57,036
He once said that it took

460
00:29:57,071 --> 00:30:01,661
7,882 distinct motions
to make a Model T.

461
00:30:01,696 --> 00:30:03,491
And then he goes on
even further

462
00:30:03,525 --> 00:30:07,875
to break that down into how many
can be done by able-bodied men,

463
00:30:07,909 --> 00:30:09,842
how many can be done
by one-armed men.

464
00:30:09,877 --> 00:30:13,190
So there's a certain kind
of imagining human motion

465
00:30:13,225 --> 00:30:18,644
in very rote, mechanical
and dehumanizing ways.

466
00:30:21,923 --> 00:30:25,099
NARRATOR:
"Fancy a jungle
of wheels and belts,

467
00:30:25,133 --> 00:30:29,655
of men, machinery and movement,"
one journalist noted.

468
00:30:29,689 --> 00:30:33,210
"Add to it every kind of sound
you can imagine:

469
00:30:33,245 --> 00:30:38,595
"the sound of a million monkeys
quarreling,

470
00:30:38,629 --> 00:30:41,287
"a million lions roaring,

471
00:30:41,322 --> 00:30:44,118
a million sinners groaning
as they are dragged to hell."

472
00:30:51,263 --> 00:30:55,094
Many workers found
the assembly line so alien,

473
00:30:55,129 --> 00:30:57,407
so monotonous
and physically exhausting,

474
00:30:57,441 --> 00:31:00,582
they quit after just a few days.

475
00:31:00,617 --> 00:31:04,034
Company managers calculated

476
00:31:04,069 --> 00:31:06,899
that every time they wanted to
add a hundred men to the rolls,

477
00:31:06,934 --> 00:31:09,626
they had to hire nearly
a thousand.

478
00:31:09,660 --> 00:31:14,113
KOEHN:
Now, think about what it cost
to find and train

479
00:31:14,148 --> 00:31:17,185
and bring workers up to speed
in a factory,

480
00:31:17,220 --> 00:31:19,084
and get them productive
and efficient

481
00:31:19,118 --> 00:31:21,327
and not making many mistakes.

482
00:31:21,362 --> 00:31:24,434
He desperately wanted
to reduce turnover.

483
00:31:24,468 --> 00:31:27,506
That just made good strategic
and economic sense.

484
00:31:27,540 --> 00:31:30,992
You cannot sustain
the speed of a line

485
00:31:31,027 --> 00:31:33,270
if you have to invest
so much of your resources

486
00:31:33,305 --> 00:31:36,964
in training people,
even minimally, to do the work.

487
00:31:36,998 --> 00:31:39,380
So they have a huge crisis.

488
00:31:39,414 --> 00:31:42,659
NARRATOR:
With his company's future
on the line,

489
00:31:42,693 --> 00:31:45,765
Ford would propose
an unprecedented strategy,

490
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:48,216
one that would astonish
his workforce,

491
00:31:48,251 --> 00:31:50,391
confound his competitors

492
00:31:50,425 --> 00:31:53,014
and lead observers to predict
the imminent ruin

493
00:31:53,049 --> 00:31:55,085
of the Ford Motor Company.

494
00:32:07,166 --> 00:32:10,963
NARRATOR:
In the early days of 1914,

495
00:32:10,998 --> 00:32:13,655
Henry Ford convened
a top-secret meeting

496
00:32:13,690 --> 00:32:16,900
with his senior managers.

497
00:32:16,935 --> 00:32:19,006
He spent the first few minutes

498
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:21,663
scribbling numbers
on a blackboard.

499
00:32:21,698 --> 00:32:24,839
In one column,
he wrote "$26 million"--

500
00:32:24,873 --> 00:32:27,842
the company's profits
for the previous year.

501
00:32:27,876 --> 00:32:31,121
As his colleagues
looked on, baffled,

502
00:32:31,156 --> 00:32:35,677
Ford jotted down
another number, "$2.34"--

503
00:32:35,712 --> 00:32:38,508
the daily wage
of an assembly line worker.

504
00:32:38,542 --> 00:32:41,442
Then he wrote
three dollars a day,

505
00:32:41,476 --> 00:32:44,100
four, four dollars
and fifty cents,

506
00:32:44,134 --> 00:32:47,966
and finally,
five dollars a day.

507
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,072
One member of Ford's team
vehemently protested,

508
00:32:51,107 --> 00:32:53,626
while another fumed silently.

509
00:32:53,661 --> 00:32:55,076
Ford stood his ground.

510
00:32:55,111 --> 00:32:59,011
A wage of five dollars a day,
he insisted,

511
00:32:59,046 --> 00:33:01,565
would not simply reduce
worker turnover,

512
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:03,671
it would increase business.

513
00:33:03,705 --> 00:33:05,845
For most of American history,

514
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:08,641
America was a producer society.

515
00:33:08,676 --> 00:33:10,057
The values of production,

516
00:33:10,091 --> 00:33:12,645
primarily agricultural
production,

517
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:14,716
were the dominant ones.

518
00:33:14,751 --> 00:33:18,962
And those values really give way
very, very quickly,

519
00:33:18,997 --> 00:33:22,862
beginning around the turn of the
19th, into the 20th century,

520
00:33:22,897 --> 00:33:25,831
into a set of values
around consumption.

521
00:33:25,865 --> 00:33:28,730
And it's all about,
"What do I own?

522
00:33:28,765 --> 00:33:33,287
How do I get and then spend?"

523
00:33:33,321 --> 00:33:36,083
WATTS:
Ford put forward the notion

524
00:33:36,117 --> 00:33:40,915
that raising wages would allow
workers to be consumers.

525
00:33:40,949 --> 00:33:43,918
And whatever you may have lost
on the front end,

526
00:33:43,952 --> 00:33:47,439
you would get many times over
on the back end.

527
00:33:47,473 --> 00:33:51,443
And that, he knew, was where
the central action was

528
00:33:51,477 --> 00:33:53,445
economically
in the modern world.

529
00:33:53,479 --> 00:33:56,241
NARRATOR:
As far as Ford was concerned,

530
00:33:56,275 --> 00:34:00,072
the thousands of Model Ts
hurtling off his assembly line

531
00:34:00,107 --> 00:34:03,317
offered much more than
affordable transportation.

532
00:34:03,351 --> 00:34:06,941
They promised leisure, abundance
and a shared prosperity.

533
00:34:06,975 --> 00:34:09,530
Someday, he imagined,

534
00:34:09,564 --> 00:34:13,534
every worker would be able
to buy a new Ford car.

535
00:34:15,812 --> 00:34:21,990
On January 5, 1914, Ford went
public with his audacious plan.

536
00:34:22,025 --> 00:34:25,684
"At one stroke, we will reduce
the hours of labor

537
00:34:25,718 --> 00:34:28,342
from nine to eight,"
he told the press,

538
00:34:28,376 --> 00:34:30,551
"and add to every man's pay

539
00:34:30,585 --> 00:34:33,795
a share of the profits
of the house."

540
00:34:33,830 --> 00:34:38,110
His fellow automakers were
appalled by Ford's announcement,

541
00:34:38,145 --> 00:34:41,389
certain that higher wages
would devastate the industry.

542
00:34:41,424 --> 00:34:44,012
One business leader
dismissed the idea

543
00:34:44,047 --> 00:34:46,774
as "the most foolish thing
ever attempted

544
00:34:46,808 --> 00:34:48,051
in the industrial world."

545
00:34:53,470 --> 00:34:55,852
But the real verdict came
next morning

546
00:34:55,886 --> 00:34:58,786
when 10,000 men showed up
at the factory gates

547
00:34:58,820 --> 00:35:02,721
eager for a job
at the Ford Motor Company.

548
00:35:02,755 --> 00:35:06,587
Same work, just as boring, just
as repetitive, just as hard.

549
00:35:06,621 --> 00:35:09,383
But you got people
who never dreamed

550
00:35:09,417 --> 00:35:10,763
they could make
this much money.

551
00:35:22,258 --> 00:35:26,020
NARRATOR:
Ford's five-dollar day did more
than solve his turnover problem.

552
00:35:26,054 --> 00:35:28,678
It transformed him into
a national sensation.

553
00:35:33,407 --> 00:35:35,374
The story was picked up

554
00:35:35,409 --> 00:35:37,687
by papers across the country
and around the world.

555
00:35:42,036 --> 00:35:45,557
Thousands of newspapers
published biographies.

556
00:35:50,217 --> 00:35:52,702
The New York Timesalone
ran 35 stories,

557
00:35:52,736 --> 00:35:58,121
and nearly two dozen national
magazines wrote features.

558
00:35:58,156 --> 00:36:02,367
BRINKLEY:
He has created the Model T,
the people's car,

559
00:36:02,401 --> 00:36:06,371
he's brought the first modern,
moving assembly line,

560
00:36:06,405 --> 00:36:10,892
and he's revolutionized
how workers get paid.

561
00:36:10,927 --> 00:36:13,792
People are saying,
"What's next for this guy?"

562
00:36:15,656 --> 00:36:19,867
[crossing signal bell ringing]

563
00:36:26,322 --> 00:36:30,291
KOEHN:
Lots and lots of people in
America and outside of America

564
00:36:30,326 --> 00:36:32,983
are fascinated by Henry Ford.

565
00:36:33,018 --> 00:36:37,229
And he, seemingly
uninterested in money,

566
00:36:37,264 --> 00:36:40,543
is very interested in being
in the public spotlight.

567
00:36:42,959 --> 00:36:46,273
NARRATOR:
A few months after his
five-dollar-day announcement,

568
00:36:46,307 --> 00:36:48,792
Ford established his own
"moving picture" department.

569
00:36:52,451 --> 00:36:54,039
Its first production,

570
00:36:54,073 --> 00:36:57,560
 How Henry Ford Makes 
One Thousand Cars a Day,

571
00:36:57,594 --> 00:36:58,906
was released that summer

572
00:36:58,940 --> 00:37:00,597
in movie theaters
across the country.

573
00:37:00,632 --> 00:37:04,774
BRINKLEY:
Henry Ford was not bashful
about self-promotion.

574
00:37:04,808 --> 00:37:07,949
I mean, in many ways
he's the king of it.

575
00:37:07,984 --> 00:37:10,262
And film was another way
to promote himself.

576
00:37:16,095 --> 00:37:20,479
NARRATOR:
Journalists fell for the
carefully crafted message.

577
00:37:20,514 --> 00:37:24,414
Henry Ford was one of the
richest men in the world,

578
00:37:24,449 --> 00:37:28,384
the press reported,
but money had not changed him.

579
00:37:28,418 --> 00:37:31,352
He still loved nothing more
than a home-cooked meal

580
00:37:31,387 --> 00:37:36,081
and an afternoon
working on his farm.

581
00:37:36,115 --> 00:37:39,395
He was a genius inventor
with simple tastes

582
00:37:39,429 --> 00:37:43,157
despite his dramatic success.

583
00:37:43,191 --> 00:37:45,573
"There is not much
outward difference

584
00:37:45,608 --> 00:37:47,782
between Ford and his workmen,"

585
00:37:47,817 --> 00:37:50,095
a reporter
for the Evening Worldwrote.

586
00:37:50,129 --> 00:37:53,478
"He is just the hard-working
mechanical genius that he was

587
00:37:53,512 --> 00:37:56,998
ten or 20 years ago."

588
00:37:59,138 --> 00:38:01,140
Cameras captured him
with movie stars,

589
00:38:01,175 --> 00:38:02,935
politicians and celebrities,

590
00:38:02,970 --> 00:38:05,144
like aviator
Charles Lindbergh

591
00:38:05,179 --> 00:38:07,975
and Helen Keller.

592
00:38:08,009 --> 00:38:11,392
His idol,
the inventor Thomas Edison,

593
00:38:11,427 --> 00:38:15,327
embraced Ford as a friend
and fellow visionary.

594
00:38:15,362 --> 00:38:19,124
CASEY:
Ford recognizes that he himself
is being transformed

595
00:38:19,158 --> 00:38:24,440
from a big-time player
in the automobile industry

596
00:38:24,474 --> 00:38:27,339
to just a big-time player.

597
00:38:29,514 --> 00:38:31,792
WATTS:
He begins to believe
the headlines:

598
00:38:31,826 --> 00:38:33,518
Henry Ford the great man;

599
00:38:33,552 --> 00:38:35,174
Henry Ford the folk hero;

600
00:38:35,209 --> 00:38:37,694
Henry Ford, changing the world.

601
00:38:37,729 --> 00:38:39,903
He soaks all of that in,

602
00:38:39,938 --> 00:38:42,768
this farm boy
from Dearborn, Michigan,

603
00:38:42,803 --> 00:38:44,322
and he begins to believe
that stuff.

604
00:38:46,289 --> 00:38:48,429
NARRATOR:
Many of the men
who worked for Ford

605
00:38:48,464 --> 00:38:51,639
were well aware of their boss's
growing ego,

606
00:38:51,674 --> 00:38:54,642
and one story in particular
served as a warning

607
00:38:54,677 --> 00:38:57,749
to anyone who might
challenge him.

608
00:38:57,783 --> 00:39:01,269
During a summer
when Ford was in Europe,

609
00:39:01,304 --> 00:39:04,445
his team had built a prototype
for a new car.

610
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:09,450
A successor to the Model T,
they believed, was long overdue.

611
00:39:09,485 --> 00:39:13,109
WATTS:
Ford comes in unannounced.

612
00:39:13,143 --> 00:39:16,423
He walks around the car
several times,

613
00:39:16,457 --> 00:39:18,908
opens the door
on the passenger side

614
00:39:18,942 --> 00:39:23,326
and literally
rips it off the hinges.

615
00:39:23,361 --> 00:39:25,742
He walks around
to the other side,

616
00:39:25,777 --> 00:39:29,125
rips the door
off the driver's side.

617
00:39:29,159 --> 00:39:32,266
And he proceeded to demolish
the car by hand.

618
00:39:32,300 --> 00:39:36,374
[glass shattering]

619
00:39:36,408 --> 00:39:39,446
NARRATOR:
The message was clear:

620
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:43,967
Henry Ford, and no one else,
was in charge.

621
00:39:59,327 --> 00:40:02,123
NARRATOR:
"The impression
had somehow got around

622
00:40:02,158 --> 00:40:04,816
that Henry Ford is
in the automobile business,"

623
00:40:04,850 --> 00:40:07,577
observed a close associate.

624
00:40:07,612 --> 00:40:09,890
"It isn't true.

625
00:40:09,924 --> 00:40:13,203
"Cars are the byproducts
of his real business,

626
00:40:13,238 --> 00:40:17,484
which is the making of men."

627
00:40:17,518 --> 00:40:21,384
Ford's five-dollar day
wasn't guaranteed;

628
00:40:21,419 --> 00:40:23,593
he called it an incentive wage

629
00:40:23,628 --> 00:40:27,286
and it came with
strings attached.

630
00:40:27,321 --> 00:40:30,842
Ford required his
immigrant workers,

631
00:40:30,876 --> 00:40:33,603
who represented as many
as 53 nationalities

632
00:40:33,638 --> 00:40:36,330
and spoke more than 100
different languages,

633
00:40:36,364 --> 00:40:40,507
attend the company's
English Language School.

634
00:40:40,541 --> 00:40:45,373
The school's curriculum relied
heavily on mass recitation

635
00:40:45,408 --> 00:40:48,446
and included practical lessons

636
00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:51,690
based on daily life
and routines.

637
00:40:51,725 --> 00:40:53,692
After six months of study,

638
00:40:53,727 --> 00:40:56,971
graduating workers participated
in a ceremony called

639
00:40:57,006 --> 00:41:00,354
"The Pageant
of the Ford Melting Pot."

640
00:41:00,388 --> 00:41:03,081
STAUDENMAIER:
There's a great big pot.

641
00:41:03,115 --> 00:41:06,878
The graduates, all dressed
in native costume,

642
00:41:06,912 --> 00:41:11,572
climbed a ladder up and jumped
into the pot and disappeared.

643
00:41:11,607 --> 00:41:15,749
Then the teachers came out
with big long wooden spoons

644
00:41:15,783 --> 00:41:18,821
and stuck them in the pot
and walked back and forth,

645
00:41:18,855 --> 00:41:21,133
a little choreography,
stirring the pot.

646
00:41:21,168 --> 00:41:25,172
The workers come out
of the same pot, one by one,

647
00:41:25,206 --> 00:41:30,488
wearing a suit, a straw hat, and
waving a little American flag.

648
00:41:30,522 --> 00:41:35,113
NARRATOR:
But Ford didn't limit
his reforms to the classroom;

649
00:41:35,147 --> 00:41:38,116
he was determined to change
how his workers lived.

650
00:41:40,256 --> 00:41:43,259
In the months following the
five-dollar day announcement,

651
00:41:43,293 --> 00:41:45,019
neatly dressed men

652
00:41:45,054 --> 00:41:47,919
prowled Detroit's working-class
neighborhoods

653
00:41:47,953 --> 00:41:52,406
seeking out the family, friends
and landlords of Ford employees.

654
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:54,788
They were inspectors

655
00:41:54,822 --> 00:41:57,929
from the new Ford
Sociological Department,

656
00:41:57,963 --> 00:42:00,725
sent to probe into
the most intimate corners

657
00:42:00,759 --> 00:42:02,416
of workers' lives.

658
00:42:04,867 --> 00:42:07,179
STAUDENMAIER:
How clean was the house?

659
00:42:07,214 --> 00:42:10,700
Did they have
drinking problems evident?

660
00:42:10,735 --> 00:42:13,116
Did they send money back
to the Old Country?

661
00:42:13,151 --> 00:42:14,532
Not to be done.

662
00:42:14,566 --> 00:42:16,257
Were they legitimately married?

663
00:42:16,292 --> 00:42:18,121
Were they keeping boarders
in the house?

664
00:42:18,156 --> 00:42:19,122
Bad idea.

665
00:42:19,157 --> 00:42:21,849
There was a laundry list

666
00:42:21,884 --> 00:42:24,645
of what I'd call
social engineering,

667
00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:28,960
and that was Henry saying,

668
00:42:28,994 --> 00:42:32,446
"These peasants have got
to become Americans,

669
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:37,485
"so we're going to use
the five-dollar day

670
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:40,937
to also Americanize them."

671
00:42:40,972 --> 00:42:44,182
NARRATOR:
If a worker failed inspection,

672
00:42:44,216 --> 00:42:46,909
he was given time
to amend his ways

673
00:42:46,943 --> 00:42:50,257
and his additional wages
were held for him.

674
00:42:50,291 --> 00:42:54,744
If he failed a second time,
he was fired.

675
00:42:54,779 --> 00:42:58,472
GAGE:
It's a level of invasion
of privacy

676
00:42:58,506 --> 00:43:01,889
that is, I think, almost
unthinkable in our world.

677
00:43:01,924 --> 00:43:04,409
But Henry Ford expected
his workers

678
00:43:04,443 --> 00:43:06,135
to behave in certain ways,

679
00:43:06,169 --> 00:43:07,930
and he was going to enforce
that behavior.

680
00:43:07,964 --> 00:43:11,105
And there were almost no laws
or institutions

681
00:43:11,140 --> 00:43:14,246
that stood in his way of
exerting that kind of control.

682
00:43:14,281 --> 00:43:18,423
Part of Henry is an idealist.

683
00:43:18,457 --> 00:43:22,772
And part of him also thinks
that he has the insight

684
00:43:22,807 --> 00:43:26,051
to teach other people
how to live.

685
00:43:29,468 --> 00:43:34,370
NARRATOR:
In 1915, Henry and Clara
moved into a new home,

686
00:43:34,404 --> 00:43:38,546
a fenced and guarded 1,300-acre
estate named Fair Lane.

687
00:43:38,581 --> 00:43:44,622
STAUDENMAIER:
The level of fame and celebrity
that swoops down on him,

688
00:43:44,656 --> 00:43:46,658
almost without warning...

689
00:43:46,693 --> 00:43:48,418
He was not ready
for that at all.

690
00:43:48,453 --> 00:43:51,076
There are no neighbors
where he lives.

691
00:43:51,111 --> 00:43:54,355
Fair Lane is an island,
and a protected one.

692
00:43:57,427 --> 00:43:59,775
NARRATOR:
The Fords had chosen
to construct

693
00:43:59,809 --> 00:44:02,087
their 31,000-square-foot home

694
00:44:02,122 --> 00:44:04,158
in the farming community
of Dearborn,

695
00:44:04,193 --> 00:44:06,022
where they had both grown up,

696
00:44:06,057 --> 00:44:08,438
rather than the elite suburb
of Grosse Point,

697
00:44:08,473 --> 00:44:10,440
where most wealthy
Detroiters lived.

698
00:44:14,065 --> 00:44:16,654
They kept to themselves,
rarely entertaining.

699
00:44:20,968 --> 00:44:22,798
Henry preferred boxing

700
00:44:22,832 --> 00:44:26,077
with the men who kept Fair
Lane's power plant running

701
00:44:26,111 --> 00:44:28,838
or helping his neighbors
with their harvest.

702
00:44:28,873 --> 00:44:33,463
GAGE:
Henry Ford remains
really an outsider

703
00:44:33,498 --> 00:44:36,915
in some very fundamental ways.

704
00:44:36,950 --> 00:44:39,987
Though he is one of the richest
men in the United States

705
00:44:40,022 --> 00:44:42,265
and in many ways in the world
at this point,

706
00:44:42,300 --> 00:44:48,375
he thinks of himself
as a virtuous producer.

707
00:44:48,409 --> 00:44:51,758
He is not like those
kind of parasitic,

708
00:44:51,792 --> 00:44:56,417
in some ways rarified elite,

709
00:44:56,452 --> 00:44:59,731
out-of-touch
bankers and lawyers.

710
00:44:59,766 --> 00:45:03,079
BRINKLEY:
He never wanted to be part
of the social elite.

711
00:45:03,114 --> 00:45:06,565
He didn't want to interact
with Biff and Buff

712
00:45:06,600 --> 00:45:08,429
and know the Rockefellers.

713
00:45:08,464 --> 00:45:11,570
He did not care an iota
for those people.

714
00:45:11,605 --> 00:45:14,228
What he cared about
were the fellow people

715
00:45:14,263 --> 00:45:15,816
who could talk machinery
with him.

716
00:45:18,888 --> 00:45:22,340
NARRATOR:
Even though he had hated working
on the farm when he was young,

717
00:45:22,374 --> 00:45:27,828
Ford embraced it now,
cutting hay and threshing wheat.

718
00:45:27,863 --> 00:45:30,417
He foraged through the woods,

719
00:45:30,451 --> 00:45:33,316
chopping down trees
and looking for wildlife.

720
00:45:36,734 --> 00:45:40,013
He imported 600 pairs
of songbirds from England

721
00:45:40,047 --> 00:45:42,532
so that he and Clara
could watch them together.

722
00:45:42,567 --> 00:45:46,088
But the nuthatches,
finches and linnets flew away,

723
00:45:46,122 --> 00:45:49,781
never to be seen again.

724
00:45:49,816 --> 00:45:55,166
Ford didn't have much better
luck controlling his son.

725
00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:58,583
He had built Fair Lane
with his family in mind:

726
00:45:58,617 --> 00:46:02,173
three large greenhouses
for Clara and her roses

727
00:46:02,207 --> 00:46:05,832
and a bowling alley and indoor
swimming pool for Edsel.

728
00:46:05,866 --> 00:46:08,835
But Edsel was almost never home,

729
00:46:08,869 --> 00:46:11,941
preferring to socialize
on the other side of the city

730
00:46:11,976 --> 00:46:15,427
with the sons and daughters
of Detroit's aristocracy.

731
00:46:15,462 --> 00:46:20,398
He married into one
of the city's elite families

732
00:46:20,432 --> 00:46:22,434
when he wed Eleanor Clay,

733
00:46:22,469 --> 00:46:24,747
the niece of the founder
of Hudson's,

734
00:46:24,782 --> 00:46:27,474
Detroit's premier
department store.

735
00:46:27,508 --> 00:46:30,235
By the time Edsel was
in his early twenties,

736
00:46:30,270 --> 00:46:32,341
there's a definite
class difference

737
00:46:32,375 --> 00:46:33,860
between Edsel and Henry.

738
00:46:33,894 --> 00:46:39,003
Henry was, in many ways,
a farmer's son.

739
00:46:39,037 --> 00:46:40,832
He was very old-fashioned.

740
00:46:40,867 --> 00:46:42,454
He was barely educated.

741
00:46:42,489 --> 00:46:48,253
Edsel Ford is a very
kind-hearted, genteel,

742
00:46:48,288 --> 00:46:52,257
quiet young man.

743
00:46:52,292 --> 00:46:54,984
He hasn't come up
through the ranks

744
00:46:55,019 --> 00:46:58,850
in a kind of rough-and-tumble
fashion, as his father did.

745
00:46:58,885 --> 00:47:01,232
And Henry Ford wants
to make Edsel

746
00:47:01,266 --> 00:47:03,544
into a carbon copy of himself.

747
00:47:03,579 --> 00:47:07,272
NARRATOR:
Ford insisted
that self-discipline

748
00:47:07,307 --> 00:47:10,034
had been critical
to his success.

749
00:47:10,068 --> 00:47:13,313
He rose at dawn
and exercised every day;

750
00:47:13,347 --> 00:47:15,591
he didn't smoke, never drank

751
00:47:15,625 --> 00:47:17,869
and did not allow alcohol
in his house.

752
00:47:17,904 --> 00:47:22,253
And he expected the same
from everyone around him,

753
00:47:22,287 --> 00:47:24,082
starting with his son.

754
00:47:32,297 --> 00:47:35,404
[cows mooing]

755
00:47:35,438 --> 00:47:40,064
NARRATOR:
During the spring
and summer of 1915,

756
00:47:40,098 --> 00:47:44,654
Henry Ford began secretly buying
up hundreds of acres of farmland

757
00:47:44,689 --> 00:47:48,555
along the River Rouge
just a mile from his home.

758
00:47:48,589 --> 00:47:53,008
Though few knew of it, he had
another bold plan in mind.

759
00:47:53,042 --> 00:47:57,598
WATTS:
Ford foresaw a factory

760
00:47:57,633 --> 00:47:59,704
the scope of which,
the size of which,

761
00:47:59,738 --> 00:48:03,259
the extent of which had simply
never been done before.

762
00:48:03,294 --> 00:48:07,885
NARRATOR:
With tens of millions of dollars
in profits a year,

763
00:48:07,919 --> 00:48:11,992
Ford had plenty of cash
to fund his new endeavor.

764
00:48:12,027 --> 00:48:16,134
But once again, he ran into
trouble with his investors.

765
00:48:16,169 --> 00:48:21,933
On November 2, 1916,
Ford received an injunction

766
00:48:21,968 --> 00:48:24,384
forbidding him from using
company funds

767
00:48:24,418 --> 00:48:27,283
to build the new plant.

768
00:48:29,389 --> 00:48:32,047
Two of Ford's
original backers,

769
00:48:32,081 --> 00:48:35,740
Horace and John Dodge,
were behind the suit.

770
00:48:35,774 --> 00:48:39,917
The Dodges complained that Ford
was defrauding his investors

771
00:48:39,951 --> 00:48:45,232
by not paying out dividends
that reflected huge profits.

772
00:48:45,267 --> 00:48:47,027
WATTS:
The Dodge brothers had

773
00:48:47,062 --> 00:48:50,065
a very traditional understanding
of a corporation,

774
00:48:50,099 --> 00:48:53,896
and that is, it is to make
a profit for the investors.

775
00:48:53,931 --> 00:48:55,967
Ford thought differently.

776
00:48:56,002 --> 00:48:58,866
He often described investors
as parasites.

777
00:48:58,901 --> 00:49:00,489
They put some money in,

778
00:49:00,523 --> 00:49:01,800
but they didn't really
do anything

779
00:49:01,835 --> 00:49:02,905
to make the company grow.

780
00:49:05,149 --> 00:49:07,185
NARRATOR:
Henry was particularly galled

781
00:49:07,220 --> 00:49:09,187
by the fact that
the Dodge brothers

782
00:49:09,222 --> 00:49:11,741
were planning on using
their dividends

783
00:49:11,776 --> 00:49:14,744
to expand their own
rival car company.

784
00:49:16,988 --> 00:49:19,335
After two years
of legal wrangling,

785
00:49:19,370 --> 00:49:21,475
the judge ruled
in the Dodges' favor,

786
00:49:21,510 --> 00:49:25,376
forcing Ford to pay
$20 million plus interest

787
00:49:25,410 --> 00:49:27,757
to each of the seven
stockholders

788
00:49:27,792 --> 00:49:31,209
who retained minority control
in his company.

789
00:49:31,244 --> 00:49:34,833
STAUDENMAIER:
Henry Ford believes
everybody should worship

790
00:49:34,868 --> 00:49:37,250
at the shrine
that he has created.

791
00:49:37,284 --> 00:49:39,493
Anybody that's been part
of his operation

792
00:49:39,528 --> 00:49:42,393
is either a worshiper
or a traitor.

793
00:49:42,427 --> 00:49:44,705
They turned traitors.

794
00:49:44,740 --> 00:49:48,433
NARRATOR:
Early in his career
as a car maker,

795
00:49:48,468 --> 00:49:52,127
Ford had vowed to rid himself
of meddling investors.

796
00:49:52,161 --> 00:49:55,130
Now he would make good
on that promise.

797
00:50:05,347 --> 00:50:10,938
NARRATOR:
The announcement began with
characteristic grandiosity.

798
00:50:10,973 --> 00:50:14,459
"I am very much interested in
the future of the whole world,"

799
00:50:14,494 --> 00:50:19,637
Henry Ford declared
in late 1918.

800
00:50:19,671 --> 00:50:22,778
But then came the bombshell.

801
00:50:22,812 --> 00:50:25,677
The 55-year-old automaker was
quitting the Ford Motor Company

802
00:50:25,712 --> 00:50:28,680
to pursue other interests.

803
00:50:28,715 --> 00:50:31,925
His son Edsel
would take over the company.

804
00:50:33,789 --> 00:50:36,378
The thought of a 25-year-old

805
00:50:36,412 --> 00:50:42,073
heading up a $250 million
business with 45,000 employees

806
00:50:42,108 --> 00:50:45,835
rattled Ford's stockholders.

807
00:50:50,047 --> 00:50:53,222
Two months later,
the elder Ford

808
00:50:53,257 --> 00:50:55,845
delivered a stinging
second punch:

809
00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:58,745
he was starting a rival company.

810
00:50:58,779 --> 00:51:01,023
The new company, he declared,

811
00:51:01,058 --> 00:51:04,475
would produce a car
stripped down to its essentials

812
00:51:04,509 --> 00:51:09,963
and priced at $300,
less than the cost of a Model T.

813
00:51:09,997 --> 00:51:11,689
The automaker said

814
00:51:11,723 --> 00:51:14,692
he planned on building factories
across the country

815
00:51:14,726 --> 00:51:18,109
and hiring 200,000 employees.

816
00:51:20,146 --> 00:51:23,666
As rumors swirled
around Detroit,

817
00:51:23,701 --> 00:51:26,738
Ford Motor's investors
grew increasingly frantic.

818
00:51:26,773 --> 00:51:28,361
WATTS:
By this time,

819
00:51:28,395 --> 00:51:31,847
he's sort of the master
of manipulating the press,

820
00:51:31,881 --> 00:51:35,540
so of course this goes
all over the country.

821
00:51:40,821 --> 00:51:42,892
What he was doing here was

822
00:51:42,927 --> 00:51:45,240
trying to frighten
the stockholders

823
00:51:45,274 --> 00:51:47,552
of the Ford Motor Company.

824
00:51:47,587 --> 00:51:50,245
So this is all
a very elaborate ploy

825
00:51:50,279 --> 00:51:53,903
to gain control of the stock
in the original company.

826
00:51:53,938 --> 00:51:57,217
NARRATOR:
Acting on his father's orders,

827
00:51:57,252 --> 00:52:00,462
Edsel secretly hired
a Boston banking firm

828
00:52:00,496 --> 00:52:03,741
to approach investors.

829
00:52:03,775 --> 00:52:07,986
One by one, as speculation about
Ford Motor's future intensified,

830
00:52:08,021 --> 00:52:11,438
the investors sold their stock.

831
00:52:11,473 --> 00:52:17,134
The takeover cost Ford
$106 million.

832
00:52:20,206 --> 00:52:22,380
But for the first time
in 16 years,

833
00:52:22,415 --> 00:52:28,662
he, Edsel and Clara controlled
every last share in his company.

834
00:52:30,733 --> 00:52:33,184
When told his scheme had worked,

835
00:52:33,219 --> 00:52:36,567
Ford danced a jig
around the room.

836
00:52:43,988 --> 00:52:45,576
WATTS:
Edsel Ford,

837
00:52:45,610 --> 00:52:47,819
when he was appointed head
of Ford Motor Company

838
00:52:47,854 --> 00:52:50,167
by his father,
he was ecstatic.

839
00:52:50,201 --> 00:52:53,480
CASEY:
Edsel knew his father was
a pretty controlling guy.

840
00:52:53,515 --> 00:52:56,759
But Henry had enough money

841
00:52:56,794 --> 00:52:59,659
that he could do pretty much
anything he wanted to do.

842
00:52:59,693 --> 00:53:01,419
Edsel may well have thought,

843
00:53:01,454 --> 00:53:06,217
"Well, Father's going to go off
and let me run the company."

844
00:53:06,252 --> 00:53:10,083
NARRATOR:
By rights, Edsel should have
been at the center of the plans

845
00:53:10,117 --> 00:53:12,948
to develop the massive
River Rouge complex

846
00:53:12,982 --> 00:53:15,261
taking shape in Dearborn.

847
00:53:15,295 --> 00:53:20,956
In reality, his father directed
every major move.

848
00:53:20,990 --> 00:53:24,235
Henry oversaw the digging
of the foundation

849
00:53:24,270 --> 00:53:26,375
for the Rouge's massive
power plant

850
00:53:26,410 --> 00:53:27,859
and the dredging
of the river

851
00:53:27,894 --> 00:53:30,241
to allow ships
to load and unload.

852
00:53:30,276 --> 00:53:33,244
He reviewed plans
for every street

853
00:53:33,279 --> 00:53:35,660
and railroad line that was laid

854
00:53:35,695 --> 00:53:39,630
and directed the construction
of blast furnaces and a foundry.

855
00:53:39,664 --> 00:53:44,255
If any aspect of the project
did not meet his expectations,

856
00:53:44,290 --> 00:53:46,982
the elder Ford intervened.

857
00:53:47,016 --> 00:53:51,193
When an engineer admitted that
a 35-foot high coke oven wall

858
00:53:51,228 --> 00:53:54,265
was half an inch out of line
from the original plans,

859
00:53:54,300 --> 00:53:58,200
Ford demanded it be demolished.

860
00:53:58,235 --> 00:54:01,479
Edsel was left at Highland Park

861
00:54:01,514 --> 00:54:03,136
to shoulder
the day-to-day duties

862
00:54:03,170 --> 00:54:06,864
of Model T production
and sales.

863
00:54:06,898 --> 00:54:10,454
Soon after taking over
as president,

864
00:54:10,488 --> 00:54:12,870
Edsel decided to relieve
overcrowding

865
00:54:12,904 --> 00:54:16,874
in the administration building
by constructing a new wing.

866
00:54:16,908 --> 00:54:22,845
When Henry saw the hole for the
foundation, he confronted Edsel.

867
00:54:22,880 --> 00:54:26,366
He told his son the new building
was unnecessary.

868
00:54:26,401 --> 00:54:29,507
Edsel promised
to fill in the hole.

869
00:54:29,542 --> 00:54:33,925
"No," his father replied,
"don't do that.

870
00:54:33,960 --> 00:54:35,789
Just leave it that way."

871
00:54:35,824 --> 00:54:41,381
Every day on his way to work,
Edsel had to walk by the hole.

872
00:54:41,416 --> 00:54:44,764
A dejected Edsel confided
in a close friend,

873
00:54:44,798 --> 00:54:47,663
"I don't know
what kick Father gets

874
00:54:47,698 --> 00:54:50,977
out of humiliating me this way."

875
00:54:51,011 --> 00:54:54,463
WATTS:
This was a display
of Henry Ford's power.

876
00:54:54,498 --> 00:54:57,017
He was the guy that was
running the show,

877
00:54:57,052 --> 00:54:59,710
and there was
no doubt about it.

878
00:54:59,744 --> 00:55:01,298
If you didn't accept that,

879
00:55:01,332 --> 00:55:04,162
you looked at that big hole
out in the ground there

880
00:55:04,197 --> 00:55:06,717
and it became
abundantly clear to you.

881
00:55:06,751 --> 00:55:09,651
NARRATOR:
Since forcing out his investors,

882
00:55:09,685 --> 00:55:13,171
Ford had consolidated his power
at the company.

883
00:55:13,206 --> 00:55:15,933
Over the course
of 12 months,

884
00:55:15,967 --> 00:55:19,143
he fired several high-level,
loyal employees

885
00:55:19,177 --> 00:55:22,905
who had been critical
to the success of the Model T.

886
00:55:22,940 --> 00:55:24,562
BRINKLEY:
Many people thought,

887
00:55:24,597 --> 00:55:27,703
"I perfected this transmission,
and now that it's perfect,

888
00:55:27,738 --> 00:55:29,222
you're throwing me out
to the wolves?"

889
00:55:29,256 --> 00:55:31,258
And Henry Ford would say, "Yes.

890
00:55:31,293 --> 00:55:33,226
"Go make your way
somewhere else.

891
00:55:33,260 --> 00:55:35,918
Don't be a tick
sucking the blood out of me."

892
00:55:35,953 --> 00:55:41,096
LICHTENSTEIN:
Ford himself never directly
fired anyone.

893
00:55:41,130 --> 00:55:44,064
He let others do it,
and sometimes this was done

894
00:55:44,099 --> 00:55:46,135
in a particularly
brutal fashion.

895
00:55:46,170 --> 00:55:48,068
Someone would show up
at their office

896
00:55:48,103 --> 00:55:49,518
and their desk would be gone,

897
00:55:49,553 --> 00:55:52,003
or a whole department
in one case showed up,

898
00:55:52,038 --> 00:55:53,557
and the room was bare.

899
00:55:53,591 --> 00:55:56,249
Ford had a massive ego.

900
00:55:56,283 --> 00:56:00,633
And he begins to put
into practice

901
00:56:00,667 --> 00:56:03,808
this compulsion to grab
center stage,

902
00:56:03,843 --> 00:56:06,432
to be out there
in the limelight,

903
00:56:06,466 --> 00:56:10,367
to get publicity,
to give no one else credit.

904
00:56:12,334 --> 00:56:16,614
[gunshots]

905
00:56:16,649 --> 00:56:21,274
CASEY:
The power that he accumulated
really did change him.

906
00:56:21,308 --> 00:56:23,518
When he got the ability

907
00:56:23,552 --> 00:56:26,313
to exercise this absolute power
over people,

908
00:56:26,348 --> 00:56:28,868
he embraced it
and exercised it.

909
00:56:40,224 --> 00:56:43,089
NARRATOR:
In early summer, 1919,

910
00:56:43,123 --> 00:56:45,194
Henry Ford arrived
at the courthouse

911
00:56:45,229 --> 00:56:49,578
in Mt. Clemens, Michigan,
a small town north of Detroit.

912
00:56:49,613 --> 00:56:52,926
Ford had sued the Chicago 
Tribunefor libel

913
00:56:52,961 --> 00:56:56,758
after the paper called him
an "ignorant idealist

914
00:56:56,792 --> 00:56:59,208
and an anarchist enemy
of the nation."

915
00:56:59,243 --> 00:57:01,418
Now he would take the stand.

916
00:57:03,592 --> 00:57:06,008
To disprove
the allegation of libel,

917
00:57:06,043 --> 00:57:09,356
the Tribuneset out
to prove Ford's ignorance.

918
00:57:09,391 --> 00:57:14,431
"Do you know anything about
the Revolution, Mr. Ford?"

919
00:57:14,465 --> 00:57:17,192
the Tribune'slawyer asked.

920
00:57:17,226 --> 00:57:19,988
"Yes, sir," Ford replied.

921
00:57:20,022 --> 00:57:23,785
"What revolution did you have
in mind, Mr. Ford?"

922
00:57:23,819 --> 00:57:26,684
"In 1812," Ford answered

923
00:57:26,719 --> 00:57:29,411
to the amazement of the people
in the courtroom.

924
00:57:29,446 --> 00:57:31,620
STAUDENMAIER:
They basically asked him...

925
00:57:31,655 --> 00:57:33,070
you might say
high school questions.

926
00:57:33,104 --> 00:57:38,420
And he was revealed to be

927
00:57:38,455 --> 00:57:42,044
pathetically inarticulate
and ill informed.

928
00:57:42,079 --> 00:57:47,291
The stuff he didn't know
was amazing to people.

929
00:57:47,325 --> 00:57:50,743
NARRATOR:
"Don't you know there was not
any revolution in 1812?"

930
00:57:50,777 --> 00:57:53,090
the lawyer persisted.

931
00:57:53,124 --> 00:57:54,885
"Don't you know
that this country

932
00:57:54,919 --> 00:57:58,026
"was born out of a revolution
in 1776?

933
00:57:58,060 --> 00:58:00,407
Did you forget that?"

934
00:58:00,442 --> 00:58:03,997
"I guess I did,"
Ford answered.

935
00:58:04,032 --> 00:58:06,862
GRANDIN:
The defense attorneys
want to paint him

936
00:58:06,897 --> 00:58:09,520
as someone who is
semi-literate.

937
00:58:09,555 --> 00:58:13,420
They ask him to read passages,
and he refuses.

938
00:58:13,455 --> 00:58:15,284
The first day, he says
he forgot his glasses.

939
00:58:15,319 --> 00:58:17,148
The next day,
he said that he can't read

940
00:58:17,183 --> 00:58:18,356
because his eyes are watery.

941
00:58:18,391 --> 00:58:22,878
And he comes across as being
out of his depth.

942
00:58:22,913 --> 00:58:25,881
NARRATOR:
Newspapers from across
the country

943
00:58:25,916 --> 00:58:28,435
covered the trial
in breathless detail,

944
00:58:28,470 --> 00:58:33,095
as Ford was subjected
to eight days of questioning.

945
00:58:33,130 --> 00:58:36,616
STAUDENMAIER:
He hates lawyers,
just as he hates Wall Street.

946
00:58:36,651 --> 00:58:39,136
And he can't get off the stand.

947
00:58:39,170 --> 00:58:41,552
He can't just get up and say,

948
00:58:41,587 --> 00:58:43,796
"I don't have to take this,
I'm Henry Ford."

949
00:58:43,830 --> 00:58:46,177
"No, sir,
you are under oath."

950
00:58:48,041 --> 00:58:49,871
NARRATOR:
When the trial
finally concluded,

951
00:58:49,905 --> 00:58:52,252
the jury,
made up mostly of farmers,

952
00:58:52,287 --> 00:58:54,841
found that Ford had indeed
been libeled.

953
00:58:54,876 --> 00:58:58,051
He may have been ignorant,
but he was no anarchist.

954
00:59:01,883 --> 00:59:03,436
But despite the victory,

955
00:59:03,470 --> 00:59:06,750
Ford was deeply wounded
by the experience.

956
00:59:06,784 --> 00:59:10,581
The press in particular
heaped ridicule on the automaker

957
00:59:10,616 --> 00:59:12,583
for his embarrassing
performance.

958
00:59:12,618 --> 00:59:15,655
WATTS:
For everyone who was there,

959
00:59:15,690 --> 00:59:18,347
particularly newspaper
reporters,

960
00:59:18,382 --> 00:59:24,008
what this seemed to clinch was
their suspicion that Henry Ford

961
00:59:24,043 --> 00:59:29,704
was a rural rube who had
stumbled into his success,

962
00:59:29,738 --> 00:59:35,226
a stupid man representing
stupid ideas and stupid people.

963
00:59:37,781 --> 00:59:40,611
NARRATOR:
"Mr. Ford," wrote
the New York Times,

964
00:59:40,646 --> 00:59:43,027
"has been submitted
to a severe examination

965
00:59:43,062 --> 00:59:45,409
"of his intellectual
qualities.

966
00:59:45,443 --> 00:59:48,619
He has not received a pass."

967
00:59:48,654 --> 00:59:52,416
The New York Post
put it even more harshly:

968
00:59:52,450 --> 00:59:55,384
"The man is a joke."

969
01:00:18,580 --> 01:00:21,134
NARRATOR:
A few weeks after
the libel trial ended,

970
01:00:21,169 --> 01:00:24,448
Ford escaped to Upstate New York
to recover from his ordeal.

971
01:00:24,482 --> 01:00:28,417
His forays into
America's wilderness

972
01:00:28,452 --> 01:00:30,488
with friends Thomas Edison

973
01:00:30,523 --> 01:00:32,767
and Harvey Firestone,
the tire magnate,

974
01:00:32,801 --> 01:00:35,528
were an annual tradition.

975
01:00:35,562 --> 01:00:39,118
This year, the trip
was particularly healing

976
01:00:39,152 --> 01:00:41,948
as Ford learned
that letters to him

977
01:00:41,983 --> 01:00:45,296
were pouring in
from across the country.

978
01:00:49,266 --> 01:00:51,648
Upset by the coverage
of the trial,

979
01:00:51,682 --> 01:00:55,859
farmers, shopkeepers, village
leaders and small-town editors

980
01:00:55,893 --> 01:00:59,759
now rushed to Ford's defense.

981
01:00:59,794 --> 01:01:02,486
Ministers offered prayers

982
01:01:02,520 --> 01:01:05,903
to deliver Henry Ford
from his elitist persecutors.

983
01:01:05,938 --> 01:01:08,665
Tens of thousands
of ordinary people

984
01:01:08,699 --> 01:01:11,909
sent him heartfelt words
of support.

985
01:01:11,944 --> 01:01:15,499
"You are my ideal
of a self-made man,"

986
01:01:15,533 --> 01:01:16,949
wrote one admirer.

987
01:01:16,983 --> 01:01:20,884
"You are loved by thousands
of people all over the world,"

988
01:01:20,918 --> 01:01:22,782
gushed another.

989
01:01:22,817 --> 01:01:25,509
"You have done more good and
accomplished more for the people

990
01:01:25,543 --> 01:01:27,476
"than any man living.

991
01:01:27,511 --> 01:01:30,100
Do not let them discourage you."

992
01:01:32,550 --> 01:01:36,485
To the bewilderment of some,
the trial made Henry Ford

993
01:01:36,520 --> 01:01:40,627
even more of a folk hero
than he had been before.

994
01:01:40,662 --> 01:01:42,595
WATTS:
There was a kind of divide

995
01:01:42,629 --> 01:01:44,770
between common people
in the country

996
01:01:44,804 --> 01:01:47,186
and the intelligentsia
on the other hand,

997
01:01:47,220 --> 01:01:50,568
who really loathed Ford
in a lot of ways.

998
01:01:50,603 --> 01:01:52,674
And to his way of thinking,

999
01:01:52,709 --> 01:01:54,538
he stood exactly
where he wanted to stand.

1000
01:01:59,577 --> 01:02:05,169
NARRATOR:
Over the years, Ford worked
to reinforce his everyman image.

1001
01:02:05,204 --> 01:02:08,655
This year was no different.

1002
01:02:08,690 --> 01:02:10,140
As he embraced outdoor living,

1003
01:02:10,174 --> 01:02:13,212
Ford made sure that
journalists, photographers

1004
01:02:13,246 --> 01:02:15,524
and his own camera crew
were on hand

1005
01:02:15,559 --> 01:02:18,113
to cover his every exploit.

1006
01:02:18,148 --> 01:02:21,496
"The well-equipped excursions,"
wrote a colleague,

1007
01:02:21,530 --> 01:02:24,464
"were as private and secluded
as a Hollywood opening."

1008
01:02:26,915 --> 01:02:28,606
Movies of the trips

1009
01:02:28,641 --> 01:02:32,162
would later be shown
in theaters across the country.

1010
01:02:32,196 --> 01:02:33,508
WATTS:
He loves to camp,

1011
01:02:33,542 --> 01:02:35,752
he loves to be out
in the wilderness,

1012
01:02:35,786 --> 01:02:37,719
he loves rural America,

1013
01:02:37,754 --> 01:02:39,548
but there's also
an opportunity there.

1014
01:02:39,583 --> 01:02:43,345
You have Henry Ford,
the manipulator of the media;

1015
01:02:43,380 --> 01:02:46,003
Henry Ford, the shrewd operator

1016
01:02:46,038 --> 01:02:49,351
who understands how
the modern world works.

1017
01:02:52,596 --> 01:02:54,978
GRANDIN:
Ford had a lot of ideas.

1018
01:02:55,012 --> 01:02:57,877
He had a lot of ideas about
how to organize society,

1019
01:02:57,912 --> 01:03:00,121
about the best way to live,

1020
01:03:00,155 --> 01:03:03,538
about proper roles
of men and women.

1021
01:03:03,572 --> 01:03:05,436
He had ideas about diet.

1022
01:03:05,471 --> 01:03:07,024
He had ideas about smoking.

1023
01:03:07,059 --> 01:03:09,993
He had ideas about exercise.

1024
01:03:10,027 --> 01:03:11,788
And he also had ideas
about Jews.

1025
01:03:16,447 --> 01:03:19,002
NARRATOR:
In May 1920,

1026
01:03:19,036 --> 01:03:21,832
Ford began publishing
a series of articles

1027
01:03:21,867 --> 01:03:24,973
in his hometown weekly,
the Dearborn Independent,

1028
01:03:25,008 --> 01:03:28,459
which he had purchased
a year and a half earlier.

1029
01:03:42,542 --> 01:03:45,718
"If there is one quality
that attracts Jews,

1030
01:03:45,752 --> 01:03:48,479
it is power," Ford wrote.

1031
01:03:48,514 --> 01:03:51,344
"It is not merely that
there are a few Jews

1032
01:03:51,379 --> 01:03:53,312
"among international
financial controllers;

1033
01:03:53,346 --> 01:03:55,693
"it is that these
world-controllers

1034
01:03:55,728 --> 01:03:57,764
are exclusively Jews."

1035
01:04:21,858 --> 01:04:24,274
GRANDIN:
He linked Jews to Wall Street,

1036
01:04:24,308 --> 01:04:28,519
he linked them to banks,
and he blamed them for war.

1037
01:04:28,554 --> 01:04:30,832
He basically began
to blame Jews

1038
01:04:30,867 --> 01:04:33,524
for all of the problems
of the modern world.

1039
01:04:33,559 --> 01:04:36,389
HASIA R. DINER:
He lived in a culture

1040
01:04:36,424 --> 01:04:38,460
in which all sorts
of attributions

1041
01:04:38,495 --> 01:04:40,359
were made to "the Jews."

1042
01:04:40,393 --> 01:04:42,292
"The Jews are profiteers.

1043
01:04:42,326 --> 01:04:45,364
The Jews cheat you
in business."

1044
01:04:45,398 --> 01:04:51,025
"The Jews" became the symbol
of a world

1045
01:04:51,059 --> 01:04:54,028
that was being manipulated
and controlled.

1046
01:04:58,101 --> 01:05:00,586
NARRATOR:
Ford ensured that
his anti-Semitic message

1047
01:05:00,620 --> 01:05:03,451
would be read in households
across the nation.

1048
01:05:05,694 --> 01:05:07,524
In addition to subscriptions,

1049
01:05:07,558 --> 01:05:10,941
he distributed
the Dearborn Independent

1050
01:05:10,976 --> 01:05:13,150
through his more than 7,000
car dealerships.

1051
01:05:13,185 --> 01:05:18,707
By 1926, circulation
had reached 900,000.

1052
01:05:18,742 --> 01:05:20,778
DINER:
There are lots
of small-town newspapers

1053
01:05:20,813 --> 01:05:25,093
that publish scurrilous
anti-Semitic materials,

1054
01:05:25,128 --> 01:05:27,958
so it wasn't unusual
in that way.

1055
01:05:27,993 --> 01:05:31,030
But what's notable about
the Dearborn Independent

1056
01:05:31,065 --> 01:05:32,998
is that there'd be
stacks of them

1057
01:05:33,032 --> 01:05:35,621
in a dealership in California,

1058
01:05:35,655 --> 01:05:38,037
a dealership
in Massachusetts,

1059
01:05:38,072 --> 01:05:41,282
a dealership in Iowa.

1060
01:05:41,316 --> 01:05:44,319
NARRATOR:
The American Jewish Committee,

1061
01:05:44,354 --> 01:05:46,218
the Federal Council
of Churches

1062
01:05:46,252 --> 01:05:48,565
and over 100 prominent leaders,

1063
01:05:48,599 --> 01:05:50,947
including President
Woodrow Wilson,

1064
01:05:50,981 --> 01:05:53,225
condemned Ford's attacks.

1065
01:05:53,259 --> 01:05:55,779
But he was undeterred.

1066
01:05:55,813 --> 01:05:59,956
"The Jews are the scavengers
of the world," Ford declared.

1067
01:05:59,990 --> 01:06:02,372
"Wherever there's anything wrong
with a country,

1068
01:06:02,406 --> 01:06:05,237
you'll find the Jews
on the job there."

1069
01:06:10,690 --> 01:06:12,554
Ford even reprinted

1070
01:06:12,589 --> 01:06:14,832
the notorious Protocols
of the Elders of Zion.

1071
01:06:14,867 --> 01:06:19,147
GRANDIN:
The czars in Russia created
this total fictional account

1072
01:06:19,182 --> 01:06:22,357
of Jews conspiring
to take over the world.

1073
01:06:22,392 --> 01:06:26,120
And it's Ford
that publishes it in America.

1074
01:06:26,154 --> 01:06:28,846
What really matters
about Henry Ford is that just

1075
01:06:28,881 --> 01:06:32,540
he had so much power
and so much cultural authority.

1076
01:06:32,574 --> 01:06:35,060
And when a figure
like Henry Ford

1077
01:06:35,094 --> 01:06:40,065
sanctions this kind of thing,
it legitimizes these ideas.

1078
01:06:40,099 --> 01:06:44,000
NARRATOR:
A defamation suit
by a Jewish lawyer

1079
01:06:44,034 --> 01:06:47,727
forced Henry Ford
to issue a public apology.

1080
01:06:47,762 --> 01:06:50,903
After eight years of publishing
the Dearborn Independent,

1081
01:06:50,937 --> 01:06:52,974
he shut the paper down.

1082
01:06:53,009 --> 01:06:55,528
Many Jewish organizations

1083
01:06:55,563 --> 01:06:58,359
accepted Ford's apology
as sincere,

1084
01:06:58,393 --> 01:07:02,363
but those who knew him best
did not.

1085
01:07:02,397 --> 01:07:05,918
Behind closed doors,
Ford remained convinced

1086
01:07:05,952 --> 01:07:08,817
that Jews were at the heart
of what he deemed

1087
01:07:08,852 --> 01:07:12,200
the degeneration
of American society.

1088
01:07:15,997 --> 01:07:17,481
[big band music playing]

1089
01:07:28,803 --> 01:07:32,669
NARRATOR:
In 1920s America,
change was everywhere:

1090
01:07:32,703 --> 01:07:37,018
new forms of music and dance,
new government prohibitions,

1091
01:07:37,053 --> 01:07:39,779
new expectations for women.

1092
01:07:41,712 --> 01:07:44,819
Nowhere was change
more evident, however,

1093
01:07:44,853 --> 01:07:46,614
than on the nation's roadways.

1094
01:07:50,135 --> 01:07:53,448
The automobile boom
had fueled the expansion

1095
01:07:53,483 --> 01:07:56,693
of the oil, rubber
and steel industries,

1096
01:07:56,727 --> 01:07:58,074
spurred road construction,

1097
01:07:58,108 --> 01:07:59,730
stimulated
real estate development

1098
01:07:59,765 --> 01:08:01,180
and created new businesses

1099
01:08:01,215 --> 01:08:06,461
like gas stations,
roadside motels and restaurants.

1100
01:08:06,496 --> 01:08:10,120
Streets were no longer littered
with horse manure,

1101
01:08:10,155 --> 01:08:12,916
but clogged with cars.

1102
01:08:12,950 --> 01:08:15,677
CASEY:
People who can buy cars, do.

1103
01:08:15,712 --> 01:08:18,059
People who can't buy cars
want to.

1104
01:08:19,957 --> 01:08:22,960
NARRATOR:
"The automobile,"
wrote one essayist,

1105
01:08:22,995 --> 01:08:26,412
"changed our dress, manners,
vacation habits,

1106
01:08:26,447 --> 01:08:30,865
the shape of our cities
and positions in intercourse."

1107
01:08:30,899 --> 01:08:33,074
The emphasis on leisure time,

1108
01:08:33,109 --> 01:08:36,767
the emphasis on just going out
for a drive in your car

1109
01:08:36,802 --> 01:08:38,907
to nowhere, to wherever.

1110
01:08:38,942 --> 01:08:41,427
I mean, these were new ideas,

1111
01:08:41,462 --> 01:08:44,706
and this was a really new
experience for Americans.

1112
01:08:50,091 --> 01:08:54,164
NARRATOR:
Many of the changes didn't
sit well with Henry Ford.

1113
01:08:54,199 --> 01:08:56,408
KOEHN:
Once people have bought one car

1114
01:08:56,442 --> 01:08:59,204
and have learned to use it
and learned to drive it,

1115
01:08:59,238 --> 01:09:03,173
a different set of related wants
would set in.

1116
01:09:03,208 --> 01:09:06,349
What if a car
had different kind of fenders

1117
01:09:06,383 --> 01:09:10,491
and different kind of upholstery
and different kind of headlamps?

1118
01:09:10,525 --> 01:09:12,700
Markets evolve

1119
01:09:12,734 --> 01:09:14,771
as more and more people
buy products.

1120
01:09:14,805 --> 01:09:16,945
This is true of clothes,
this is true of computers,

1121
01:09:16,980 --> 01:09:18,775
this is true of smartphones
today.

1122
01:09:18,809 --> 01:09:20,259
It was no less true of the car.

1123
01:09:21,605 --> 01:09:23,297
GRANDIN:
It's the roaring twenties.

1124
01:09:23,331 --> 01:09:25,506
People want style,
they want speed,

1125
01:09:25,540 --> 01:09:28,992
they want flash.

1126
01:09:29,026 --> 01:09:31,028
Ford looked around
and he saw people

1127
01:09:31,063 --> 01:09:34,411
buying these luxurious vehicles,
and he seemed to think,

1128
01:09:34,446 --> 01:09:36,655
"That's not the way
to spend your money."

1129
01:09:36,689 --> 01:09:41,867
Ford is uncomfortable
in this new consumer world

1130
01:09:41,901 --> 01:09:45,526
that he's had a huge part
in creating.

1131
01:09:45,560 --> 01:09:47,666
NARRATOR:
"I sometimes wonder

1132
01:09:47,700 --> 01:09:50,462
if we have fallen under
the spell of salesmanship,"

1133
01:09:50,496 --> 01:09:52,257
Ford complained.

1134
01:09:52,291 --> 01:09:55,432
"The American of a generation
ago was a shrewd buyer.

1135
01:09:55,467 --> 01:10:01,093
But nowadays the American people
seem to listen and be sold."

1136
01:10:01,127 --> 01:10:03,509
Where Ford saw decadence,

1137
01:10:03,544 --> 01:10:07,858
the president of rival
General Motors saw opportunity.

1138
01:10:07,893 --> 01:10:10,516
CASEY:
Alfred P. Sloan seemed to see

1139
01:10:10,551 --> 01:10:12,967
what the future
of the automobile industry was

1140
01:10:13,001 --> 01:10:15,245
beyond the Model T.

1141
01:10:15,280 --> 01:10:18,593
He realized that once the market
was fairly well saturated,

1142
01:10:18,628 --> 01:10:21,078
you're going to have
to give people an excuse

1143
01:10:21,113 --> 01:10:23,495
to keep buying new cars

1144
01:10:23,529 --> 01:10:25,980
and get rid of a perfectly good
two- or three-year-old car.

1145
01:10:26,014 --> 01:10:30,087
NARRATOR:
Sloan initiated
the yearly model change

1146
01:10:30,122 --> 01:10:32,642
and developed a wide range
of vehicles

1147
01:10:32,676 --> 01:10:35,783
from the modest
to the extravagant:

1148
01:10:35,817 --> 01:10:40,581
Chevrolets, Oldsmobiles,
Buicks and Cadillacs,

1149
01:10:40,615 --> 01:10:43,342
cars "for every purse
and purpose."

1150
01:10:45,206 --> 01:10:47,243
For the first time,

1151
01:10:47,277 --> 01:10:52,213
the Ford Motor Company
faced real competition.

1152
01:10:52,248 --> 01:10:55,423
Though the Model T had outsold
its nearest competitors

1153
01:10:55,458 --> 01:10:58,184
by six-to-one in 1924,

1154
01:10:58,219 --> 01:11:01,533
as the ten millionth
rolled off the assembly line,

1155
01:11:01,567 --> 01:11:04,052
sales were distinctly
beginning to slip.

1156
01:11:04,087 --> 01:11:07,021
Within the year,

1157
01:11:07,055 --> 01:11:10,127
Ford's market share
had dipped below 50%

1158
01:11:10,162 --> 01:11:13,269
and was continuing
in free fall.

1159
01:11:14,960 --> 01:11:19,482
Meanwhile, sales of General
Motors' jaunty Chevrolet--

1160
01:11:19,516 --> 01:11:22,795
available in practically
any color exceptblack--

1161
01:11:22,830 --> 01:11:26,178
had more than tripled.

1162
01:11:26,212 --> 01:11:29,181
Henry Ford refused
to even entertain the idea

1163
01:11:29,215 --> 01:11:31,217
of a new automobile.

1164
01:11:31,252 --> 01:11:33,806
"The Model T,"
he proclaimed,

1165
01:11:33,841 --> 01:11:37,776
"is the most perfect car
in the world."

1166
01:11:37,810 --> 01:11:41,124
KOEHN:
He was so maniacally committed
to his vision.

1167
01:11:41,158 --> 01:11:43,229
The same thing
that makes him successful

1168
01:11:43,264 --> 01:11:44,748
now begins to create great
vulnerability for him.

1169
01:11:46,371 --> 01:11:48,856
NARRATOR:
Ford dealers were exasperated.

1170
01:11:48,890 --> 01:11:51,721
Some jumped ship to Dodge
or General Motors.

1171
01:11:51,755 --> 01:11:55,483
"The Model T," one complained,
"has run its course."

1172
01:12:02,007 --> 01:12:04,803
On January 20, 1926,

1173
01:12:04,837 --> 01:12:08,807
a six-page memo landed
on Henry Ford's desk.

1174
01:12:08,841 --> 01:12:12,535
Its author, Ernest Kanzler,

1175
01:12:12,569 --> 01:12:16,366
a vice president at Ford Motor
and Edsel's brother-in-law,

1176
01:12:16,401 --> 01:12:18,713
had fretted over the document
for weeks,

1177
01:12:18,748 --> 01:12:21,267
worrying that
if he didn't send it,

1178
01:12:21,302 --> 01:12:23,373
the company might collapse,

1179
01:12:23,408 --> 01:12:27,619
anxious that if he did,
the note might end his career.

1180
01:12:31,243 --> 01:12:34,246
"Our Ford customers,"
Kanzler wrote,

1181
01:12:34,280 --> 01:12:36,869
"are going to other
manufacturers.

1182
01:12:36,904 --> 01:12:39,872
"With every additional car
our competitors sell,

1183
01:12:39,907 --> 01:12:44,256
"they get stronger
and we get weaker.

1184
01:12:44,290 --> 01:12:47,052
"A new product is necessary.

1185
01:12:47,086 --> 01:12:49,365
"Practically every man
in your organization

1186
01:12:49,399 --> 01:12:52,160
"to whom you have entrusted
the greatest responsibility

1187
01:12:52,195 --> 01:12:55,129
holds this same opinion."

1188
01:12:55,163 --> 01:12:56,889
Ford had surrounded himself
with "yes" men.

1189
01:12:56,924 --> 01:13:01,307
And so when he did
encounter opposition,

1190
01:13:01,342 --> 01:13:05,760
he reacted in a kind
of aggressive fashion.

1191
01:13:05,795 --> 01:13:10,386
NARRATOR:
Ford humiliated Kanzler
at every opportunity,

1192
01:13:10,420 --> 01:13:13,941
forcing him out of the company
within months.

1193
01:13:13,975 --> 01:13:18,048
"The only problem with the Ford
car," Henry insisted,

1194
01:13:18,083 --> 01:13:20,879
"is that we can't
produce it fast enough."

1195
01:13:23,951 --> 01:13:28,921
No one else in the company
agreed, least of all his son.

1196
01:13:28,956 --> 01:13:33,098
For once, Edsel refused
to back down.

1197
01:13:33,132 --> 01:13:37,033
WATTS:
Edsel Ford did not like
conflict.

1198
01:13:37,067 --> 01:13:39,173
He did not like tension
with his father.

1199
01:13:39,207 --> 01:13:40,623
He did not like butting heads.

1200
01:13:40,657 --> 01:13:45,041
But Edsel became convinced
that times had changed,

1201
01:13:45,075 --> 01:13:47,733
consumers had become
more sophisticated,

1202
01:13:47,768 --> 01:13:51,737
and you simply needed to put
a new model out there.

1203
01:13:54,326 --> 01:13:57,743
NARRATOR:
The fight went on
for more than a year.

1204
01:13:57,778 --> 01:13:59,435
Time and again,

1205
01:13:59,469 --> 01:14:01,644
Edsel would show up
in his father's office

1206
01:14:01,678 --> 01:14:04,819
with plans under his arm
for a new car;

1207
01:14:04,854 --> 01:14:07,995
each time, his father
would send him away.

1208
01:14:08,029 --> 01:14:10,929
After one exchange,

1209
01:14:10,963 --> 01:14:13,483
Henry demanded that a colleague
tell Edsel

1210
01:14:13,518 --> 01:14:15,968
to take a trip to California.

1211
01:14:16,003 --> 01:14:18,557
"Make it a long stay," he said.

1212
01:14:18,592 --> 01:14:22,458
"I'll send for him
when I want to see him again."

1213
01:14:22,492 --> 01:14:25,668
"It was the old man's belief

1214
01:14:25,702 --> 01:14:27,946
that he knew best
what was good for the public,"

1215
01:14:27,980 --> 01:14:29,879
a colleague recalled.

1216
01:14:29,913 --> 01:14:31,467
"Edsel, on the other hand,

1217
01:14:31,501 --> 01:14:35,091
would try to give the public
what they wanted."

1218
01:14:40,545 --> 01:14:45,998
On May 26, 1927, father and son
appeared in public together

1219
01:14:46,033 --> 01:14:49,070
to celebrate
the 15 millionth Model T

1220
01:14:49,105 --> 01:14:50,934
as it rolled off
the Ford assembly line.

1221
01:14:59,218 --> 01:15:01,013
As they posed for the cameras,

1222
01:15:01,048 --> 01:15:04,051
an announcement went out
to the press.

1223
01:15:04,085 --> 01:15:08,676
The Ford Motor Company
would discontinue the Model T

1224
01:15:08,711 --> 01:15:13,578
and introduce
an "entirely new Ford car."

1225
01:15:13,612 --> 01:15:18,893
WATTS:
It's impossible to pinpoint
a specific moment or a meeting

1226
01:15:18,928 --> 01:15:25,486
where Henry Ford decided to put
the Model T in mothballs.

1227
01:15:25,521 --> 01:15:28,144
Henry Ford
sort of throws in the towel.

1228
01:15:28,178 --> 01:15:31,630
And he reluctantly agreed
to put a team together

1229
01:15:31,665 --> 01:15:33,218
to start developing a new model.

1230
01:15:47,197 --> 01:15:50,338
NARRATOR:
After shutting down production
for six months to retool,

1231
01:15:50,373 --> 01:15:55,551
the new Ford car was finally
ready in December 1927.

1232
01:15:55,585 --> 01:15:59,762
Anticipation was intense.

1233
01:15:59,796 --> 01:16:02,661
The company counted
more than 100,000 orders

1234
01:16:02,696 --> 01:16:05,802
before anyone had even seen
a prototype.

1235
01:16:11,774 --> 01:16:17,469
When it was unveiled, the sleek
Model A received rave reviews.

1236
01:16:17,503 --> 01:16:19,022
Produced in a range of colors,

1237
01:16:19,057 --> 01:16:22,405
it had a powerful
four-cylinder engine,

1238
01:16:22,439 --> 01:16:24,510
an electrical system
with a self-starter

1239
01:16:24,545 --> 01:16:25,857
and a shatterproof windshield.

1240
01:16:27,617 --> 01:16:32,139
Fast, reliable, safe,
yet still affordable,

1241
01:16:32,173 --> 01:16:37,075
it was available
on an installment plan.

1242
01:16:37,109 --> 01:16:40,492
Everyone who worked at Ford
Motor knew that it was Edsel

1243
01:16:40,526 --> 01:16:43,668
who was responsible
for its style and design.

1244
01:16:43,702 --> 01:16:48,086
To Edsel's dismay,
his father took all the credit.

1245
01:16:49,846 --> 01:16:53,229
WATTS:
Henry Ford shamelessly
moves into the limelight

1246
01:16:53,263 --> 01:16:59,373
and manipulates the press,
as he had done for years,

1247
01:16:59,407 --> 01:17:03,204
and emerges as the great hero
in this story,

1248
01:17:03,239 --> 01:17:05,655
the man bringing a new car
to the people.

1249
01:17:05,690 --> 01:17:11,109
NARRATOR:
The Model A did revive the
Ford Motor Company's fortunes,

1250
01:17:11,143 --> 01:17:16,666
with sales of 700,000 cars
in the first year.

1251
01:17:16,701 --> 01:17:21,464
But despite the success,
Ford never forgave his son.

1252
01:17:28,402 --> 01:17:33,131
WATTS:
Henry Ford loved the Model T

1253
01:17:33,165 --> 01:17:37,549
more than anything
in his entire life.

1254
01:17:37,583 --> 01:17:40,379
It was central to his identity.

1255
01:17:44,729 --> 01:17:47,628
Getting rid of the Model T,
in essence,

1256
01:17:47,663 --> 01:17:50,735
was sort of cutting out
part of himself.

1257
01:17:52,702 --> 01:17:55,809
CASEY:
It's almost like
giving up a child.

1258
01:17:55,843 --> 01:17:59,571
He didn't want to admit
that this wonderful design

1259
01:17:59,605 --> 01:18:01,607
that was so much part of him,

1260
01:18:01,642 --> 01:18:04,265
that that design
was now obsolete.

1261
01:18:37,609 --> 01:18:40,716
NARRATOR:
By the winter of 1928,

1262
01:18:40,750 --> 01:18:43,132
after more than ten years
of construction,

1263
01:18:43,166 --> 01:18:45,824
Ford's massive factory complex
at the River Rouge

1264
01:18:45,859 --> 01:18:47,723
was fully operative.

1265
01:18:53,521 --> 01:18:58,181
Henry envisioned making
10,000 cars a day there.

1266
01:18:58,216 --> 01:19:02,738
KOEHN:
Ford's factories were
in many ways

1267
01:19:02,772 --> 01:19:06,638
like mirrors into his ambition
and his drive.

1268
01:19:06,672 --> 01:19:09,365
We see a little of this
at Highland Park,

1269
01:19:09,399 --> 01:19:12,402
but we see it much more clearly
at River Rouge.

1270
01:19:25,346 --> 01:19:30,351
This is an empire,
a large industrial empire

1271
01:19:30,386 --> 01:19:35,425
that uses millions of dollars'
worth of raw materials

1272
01:19:35,460 --> 01:19:36,806
and ends with cars

1273
01:19:36,841 --> 01:19:40,258
literally rolling off
a moving assembly line.

1274
01:19:45,953 --> 01:19:47,990
So Ford has created a factory

1275
01:19:48,024 --> 01:19:51,856
that is completely under his own
control and leadership.

1276
01:19:56,722 --> 01:19:59,622
NARRATOR:
The Rouge included
15 miles of roadways

1277
01:19:59,656 --> 01:20:02,763
and housed 120 miles
of conveyors

1278
01:20:02,798 --> 01:20:05,801
within 93 buildings.

1279
01:20:10,012 --> 01:20:12,566
Water pumped
from the Detroit River

1280
01:20:12,600 --> 01:20:15,880
supplied the complex
with 700 million gallons a day,

1281
01:20:15,914 --> 01:20:18,296
as much as consumed by Detroit,

1282
01:20:18,330 --> 01:20:20,850
Cincinnati and New Orleans
combined.

1283
01:20:36,762 --> 01:20:39,351
CASEY:
They had 100 miles
of railroad track

1284
01:20:39,386 --> 01:20:43,286
just to move things around
within the plant.

1285
01:20:43,321 --> 01:20:44,874
It had its own water system.

1286
01:20:44,909 --> 01:20:46,531
It had its own power system.

1287
01:20:46,565 --> 01:20:48,222
They had their own
security department.

1288
01:20:48,257 --> 01:20:51,122
They had their own
fire department.

1289
01:20:51,156 --> 01:20:55,643
It was, in essence, a city
where you made automobiles.

1290
01:20:58,198 --> 01:21:01,926
NARRATOR:
Operating around the clock
in eight-hour shifts,

1291
01:21:01,960 --> 01:21:06,413
Ford Motor employed more than
75,000 people at the Rouge.

1292
01:21:06,447 --> 01:21:08,725
LICHTENSTEIN:
Here was the real guts

1293
01:21:08,760 --> 01:21:12,246
and the heart
of industrial civilization.

1294
01:21:12,281 --> 01:21:16,630
This was the vanguard,
this was the most advanced,

1295
01:21:16,664 --> 01:21:18,908
the most sophisticated
manufacturing facility

1296
01:21:18,943 --> 01:21:20,806
in the country.

1297
01:21:20,841 --> 01:21:23,568
It really was a Mecca.

1298
01:21:43,415 --> 01:21:45,970
NARRATOR:
Any lingering notions that
the Ford Motor Company

1299
01:21:46,004 --> 01:21:47,937
was interested
in human development

1300
01:21:47,972 --> 01:21:50,388
and progressive reform
were a thing of the past.

1301
01:21:50,422 --> 01:21:53,667
There were competitors to beat

1302
01:21:53,701 --> 01:21:56,118
and ever-higher
production levels to reach.

1303
01:21:59,362 --> 01:22:01,951
"Time loves to be wasted,"
Ford wrote.

1304
01:22:01,986 --> 01:22:05,575
"From time wasted
there can be no salvage."

1305
01:22:05,610 --> 01:22:08,199
WATTS:
Any hint of camaraderie,

1306
01:22:08,233 --> 01:22:12,824
teamwork, cooperation,
common purpose,

1307
01:22:12,858 --> 01:22:15,447
even the Sociological
Department,

1308
01:22:15,482 --> 01:22:18,312
all of that's gone
from the Rouge.

1309
01:22:18,347 --> 01:22:22,006
Its sole function
was to have thousands of men

1310
01:22:22,040 --> 01:22:26,286
working to churn out,
as efficiently as possible,

1311
01:22:26,320 --> 01:22:29,945
as many automobiles
as they could.

1312
01:22:29,979 --> 01:22:34,535
NARRATOR:
Although Henry Ford
had carefully supervised

1313
01:22:34,570 --> 01:22:37,849
every aspect
of the Rouge's design,

1314
01:22:37,883 --> 01:22:40,748
no sooner was it complete
than he began to hate it.

1315
01:22:40,783 --> 01:22:46,202
WATTS:
Henry Ford created this monster.

1316
01:22:46,237 --> 01:22:51,552
The River Rouge plant
was so big, it was so heartless.

1317
01:22:51,587 --> 01:22:53,485
It was so removed

1318
01:22:53,520 --> 01:22:56,178
from everything that he had
experienced earlier.

1319
01:22:56,212 --> 01:23:00,458
What you find is that
as the Rouge is up and firing,

1320
01:23:00,492 --> 01:23:03,357
Henry Ford spends
very little time there.

1321
01:23:08,707 --> 01:23:11,055
NARRATOR:
By the late 1920s,

1322
01:23:11,089 --> 01:23:13,747
manufacturing was fast
surpassing agriculture

1323
01:23:13,781 --> 01:23:18,269
as the nation's
economic driver.

1324
01:23:18,303 --> 01:23:23,688
Dearborn itself, which had been
dotted with barns and pastures,

1325
01:23:23,722 --> 01:23:26,829
was now a sprawling
industrial center,

1326
01:23:26,863 --> 01:23:29,418
home to not just Ford Motor
but Michigan Bell Telephone,

1327
01:23:29,452 --> 01:23:33,836
the Pennsylvania Railroad
and Detroit Edison.

1328
01:23:33,870 --> 01:23:38,013
More Americans now lived
in cities than on farms.

1329
01:23:38,047 --> 01:23:42,948
The rural, small-town America
of Henry Ford's childhood

1330
01:23:42,983 --> 01:23:45,468
was rapidly disappearing.

1331
01:23:45,503 --> 01:23:48,713
He felt increasingly at sea.

1332
01:23:48,747 --> 01:23:51,819
GRANDIN:
He begins to condemn large,
sprawling, crime-ridden cities

1333
01:23:51,854 --> 01:23:54,443
and large concentrations
of people.

1334
01:23:54,477 --> 01:23:56,065
But he, more than anybody else,

1335
01:23:56,100 --> 01:23:59,586
has concentrated industrial
workers in large numbers

1336
01:23:59,620 --> 01:24:01,277
with his factory system.

1337
01:24:01,312 --> 01:24:05,592
He's realizing that he can't
control the forces in some ways

1338
01:24:05,626 --> 01:24:08,595
that he has helped unleash.

1339
01:24:19,123 --> 01:24:21,090
NARRATOR:
It was his tranquil antidote

1340
01:24:21,125 --> 01:24:25,922
to the never-ending clamor
and pollution of the Rouge.

1341
01:24:25,957 --> 01:24:30,341
One writer dubbed it "Henry
Ford's Village of Yesterday."

1342
01:24:30,375 --> 01:24:33,758
The automaker himself named it
Greenfield Village,

1343
01:24:33,792 --> 01:24:35,277
after his wife's hometown.

1344
01:24:38,625 --> 01:24:41,041
The project had begun
years earlier

1345
01:24:41,076 --> 01:24:46,115
with a loving restoration
of Ford's boyhood home.

1346
01:24:46,150 --> 01:24:49,636
When workmen recovered broken
bits of his mother's dishes,

1347
01:24:49,670 --> 01:24:52,984
Ford had her china reproduced
and placed on the shelves

1348
01:24:53,018 --> 01:24:57,126
just as it had been
when he was growing up.

1349
01:24:57,161 --> 01:25:00,129
He built a replica
of the workbench

1350
01:25:00,164 --> 01:25:02,200
where he had repaired watches
as a boy,

1351
01:25:02,235 --> 01:25:05,100
scoured antique shops
to find furniture

1352
01:25:05,134 --> 01:25:07,171
he remembered from his youth

1353
01:25:07,205 --> 01:25:09,345
and filled dresser drawers
with shawls

1354
01:25:09,380 --> 01:25:11,796
like those his mother had worn.

1355
01:25:11,830 --> 01:25:19,528
Then he bought 245 acres
a mile from the Rouge.

1356
01:25:19,562 --> 01:25:24,429
He purchased historic buildings,
had them dismantled

1357
01:25:24,464 --> 01:25:26,362
and sent to Dearborn
for reassembly:

1358
01:25:26,397 --> 01:25:29,503
the Wright Brothers'
bicycle shop,

1359
01:25:29,538 --> 01:25:32,023
Thomas Edison's
Menlo Park laboratory

1360
01:25:32,057 --> 01:25:36,752
and the garage where Ford
had built his quadricycle.

1361
01:25:38,926 --> 01:25:41,619
WATTS:
Greenfield Village,
in a certain way,

1362
01:25:41,653 --> 01:25:45,450
becomes a monument
not only to the American past,

1363
01:25:45,485 --> 01:25:47,142
but to his past as well.

1364
01:25:47,176 --> 01:25:48,764
He seemed to be yearning

1365
01:25:48,798 --> 01:25:52,595
to somehow recapture the kind
of society and culture

1366
01:25:52,630 --> 01:25:54,563
that the automobile
and the River Rouge

1367
01:25:54,597 --> 01:25:56,081
had essentially destroyed.

1368
01:25:56,116 --> 01:25:59,188
You have him raising
River Rouge,

1369
01:25:59,223 --> 01:26:02,605
which is this enormous
cathedral to industry,

1370
01:26:02,640 --> 01:26:05,056
and in the shadows
of the River Rouge,

1371
01:26:05,090 --> 01:26:09,129
he's building this 19th-century
testament to a receding America.

1372
01:26:09,164 --> 01:26:14,134
STAUDENMAIER:
He lives nostalgia
in excruciating detail.

1373
01:26:14,169 --> 01:26:16,792
Nobody else had a billion
dollars in the 1920s and said,

1374
01:26:16,826 --> 01:26:19,104
"I'm going to create
an alternative world.

1375
01:26:19,139 --> 01:26:20,658
"I can do it.

1376
01:26:20,692 --> 01:26:23,488
And it's all mine."

1377
01:26:23,523 --> 01:26:25,835
The whole thing is so
he didn't have to live

1378
01:26:25,870 --> 01:26:27,182
in the world that was
around him.

1379
01:26:32,842 --> 01:26:35,535
NARRATOR:
Ford's vision of the past

1380
01:26:35,569 --> 01:26:38,641
included a deep reverence
for technology.

1381
01:26:38,676 --> 01:26:42,714
He built a sawmill,
restored a 17th-century forge

1382
01:26:42,749 --> 01:26:45,890
and collected steam engines.

1383
01:26:45,924 --> 01:26:50,998
He banned one invention,
however: the telephone.

1384
01:26:51,033 --> 01:26:54,001
When his manager protested,
suggesting the boss might miss

1385
01:26:54,036 --> 01:26:56,521
important communications
from the factory,

1386
01:26:56,556 --> 01:26:59,766
Ford replied,
"Oh, forget that stuff.

1387
01:26:59,800 --> 01:27:03,010
I come down here to get away
from that gang."

1388
01:27:03,045 --> 01:27:06,773
STAUDENMAIER:
This is an immense investment
of Henry's interest

1389
01:27:06,807 --> 01:27:08,602
as well as his money.

1390
01:27:08,637 --> 01:27:12,779
It clearly is increasingly
where he wants to be

1391
01:27:12,813 --> 01:27:14,194
and what he wants to do.

1392
01:27:14,229 --> 01:27:15,368
He hates the Rouge.

1393
01:27:15,402 --> 01:27:16,576
He loves Greenfield Village.

1394
01:27:16,610 --> 01:27:19,061
That's where his heart is.

1395
01:27:19,095 --> 01:27:22,478
He begins to pull away, even
perhaps without realizing it,

1396
01:27:22,513 --> 01:27:24,825
from the world he created.

1397
01:27:42,843 --> 01:27:44,569
NARRATOR:
In Ford's hometown,

1398
01:27:44,604 --> 01:27:48,021
the Depression that followed
the stock market crash in 1929

1399
01:27:48,055 --> 01:27:51,749
hit harder than almost
anywhere else in the country.

1400
01:27:54,234 --> 01:27:56,547
The centerpiece
of Detroit's economy

1401
01:27:56,581 --> 01:27:59,826
was the manufacture
of automobiles.

1402
01:27:59,860 --> 01:28:02,449
During the booming 1920s,

1403
01:28:02,484 --> 01:28:07,040
the city's population had grown
by more than 50%.

1404
01:28:08,938 --> 01:28:12,977
Now, the financial crisis
devastated the industry.

1405
01:28:13,011 --> 01:28:15,151
GAGE:
In the course of four years,

1406
01:28:15,186 --> 01:28:19,052
the stock market loses
90% of its value.

1407
01:28:19,086 --> 01:28:22,676
And that in turn
comes hand-in-hand

1408
01:28:22,711 --> 01:28:25,058
with a real bottoming out

1409
01:28:25,092 --> 01:28:27,474
of this kind of frothy
consumer economy.

1410
01:28:30,270 --> 01:28:33,929
In a city like Detroit,
you've had this boom,

1411
01:28:33,963 --> 01:28:36,207
and then all of a sudden
your customers are gone.

1412
01:28:36,241 --> 01:28:38,727
And they're reallygone.

1413
01:28:42,247 --> 01:28:46,286
NARRATOR:
Ford defiantly protected jobs,

1414
01:28:46,321 --> 01:28:49,047
announcing instead
that he would raise wages

1415
01:28:49,082 --> 01:28:51,429
to seven dollars a day.

1416
01:28:51,464 --> 01:28:55,847
But within months of the crash,
Model A sales stalled

1417
01:28:55,882 --> 01:28:59,195
and Ford was forced
to lay off workers.

1418
01:28:59,230 --> 01:29:02,060
Men who had flocked to Detroit

1419
01:29:02,095 --> 01:29:03,959
when Ford announced
the pay raise

1420
01:29:03,993 --> 01:29:07,756
were suddenly out of work
and destitute.

1421
01:29:07,790 --> 01:29:10,483
The mayor estimated that

1422
01:29:10,517 --> 01:29:13,865
a third of the 200,000 people
standing in breadlines

1423
01:29:13,900 --> 01:29:18,076
had been laid off
from Ford's factories.

1424
01:29:18,111 --> 01:29:21,217
"Declining sales
have changed Mr. Ford,"

1425
01:29:21,252 --> 01:29:23,323
noted Fortunemagazine,

1426
01:29:23,358 --> 01:29:25,981
"from one of the greatest
U.S. money makers

1427
01:29:26,015 --> 01:29:29,053
to one of the greatest
money losers."

1428
01:29:29,087 --> 01:29:32,401
The Ford Motor Company
was staggering on its feet.

1429
01:29:32,436 --> 01:29:34,714
Among the Big Three,

1430
01:29:34,748 --> 01:29:37,993
it had moved into third place
behind Chrysler,

1431
01:29:38,027 --> 01:29:40,202
far behind General Motors.

1432
01:29:40,236 --> 01:29:42,618
NARRATOR:
Three years into
the Great Depression,

1433
01:29:42,653 --> 01:29:45,034
with profits down by 50%,

1434
01:29:45,069 --> 01:29:47,002
the Ford Motor Company
was in trouble.

1435
01:29:50,143 --> 01:29:52,248
Ford responded to the pressure

1436
01:29:52,283 --> 01:29:56,425
by coming to rely more and more
on one man at his company.

1437
01:29:56,460 --> 01:29:59,635
Harry Bennett was
a former amateur boxer

1438
01:29:59,670 --> 01:30:01,603
who had first joined
Ford's company

1439
01:30:01,637 --> 01:30:03,708
in the motion picture
department

1440
01:30:03,743 --> 01:30:07,194
before rising to become
security chief at the Rouge.

1441
01:30:07,229 --> 01:30:09,473
WATTS:
Harry Bennett had a background

1442
01:30:09,507 --> 01:30:12,510
very different from any
of the other Ford managers.

1443
01:30:12,545 --> 01:30:17,170
He was a kind of streetwise,
tough, roustabout,

1444
01:30:17,204 --> 01:30:19,414
uneducated basically,

1445
01:30:19,448 --> 01:30:21,933
a kind of tough guy,
packing a pistol literally.

1446
01:30:24,695 --> 01:30:28,043
NARRATOR:
Bennett surrounded himself
with a group of street fighters,

1447
01:30:28,077 --> 01:30:32,357
athletes, ex-convicts
and underworld figures.

1448
01:30:32,392 --> 01:30:35,671
With their weapons
often prominently displayed,

1449
01:30:35,706 --> 01:30:37,915
his men roamed the factory

1450
01:30:37,949 --> 01:30:40,538
enforcing strict
workplace rules.

1451
01:30:42,609 --> 01:30:45,716
Workers were not allowed to talk
or even sit down

1452
01:30:45,750 --> 01:30:48,339
while on the clock.

1453
01:30:48,373 --> 01:30:51,446
Workers described it
as an internal Gestapo,

1454
01:30:51,480 --> 01:30:56,623
a kind of police force
inside the factory.

1455
01:30:56,658 --> 01:31:00,972
Terror and fear was pervasive
in the organization.

1456
01:31:02,560 --> 01:31:06,495
GRANDIN:
Harry Bennett ruled
the River Rouge factory floor

1457
01:31:06,530 --> 01:31:08,497
with an iron grip.

1458
01:31:08,532 --> 01:31:10,292
He enforced discipline.

1459
01:31:10,326 --> 01:31:13,675
He controlled almost
every aspect of workers' lives.

1460
01:31:13,709 --> 01:31:16,367
The old vision of Ford
as the paternalist

1461
01:31:16,401 --> 01:31:19,508
by this point had given way

1462
01:31:19,543 --> 01:31:21,614
to a vision of extreme
conformity and discipline.

1463
01:31:21,648 --> 01:31:23,961
NARRATOR:
Bennett derived his power

1464
01:31:23,995 --> 01:31:26,860
from his close relationship
with his boss.

1465
01:31:26,895 --> 01:31:30,485
Ford often drove his security
chief to work in the mornings

1466
01:31:30,519 --> 01:31:32,417
and had a standing call
with Bennett

1467
01:31:32,452 --> 01:31:35,420
at 9:30 every night.

1468
01:31:35,455 --> 01:31:39,494
WATTS:
Ford always stayed behind
the curtain as the Wizard of Oz,

1469
01:31:39,528 --> 01:31:41,288
pulling the levers
and manipulating the wires,

1470
01:31:41,323 --> 01:31:44,429
making the big decisions.

1471
01:31:44,464 --> 01:31:46,362
He can't relinquish control

1472
01:31:46,397 --> 01:31:50,884
because that's what Henry Ford
is all about.

1473
01:31:50,919 --> 01:31:54,923
NARRATOR:
"If Mr. Ford told me to blacken
out the sun tomorrow,"

1474
01:31:54,957 --> 01:31:58,443
Bennett once said,
"I might have trouble fixing it,

1475
01:31:58,478 --> 01:32:00,963
"but you'd see 100,000
sons-of-bitches

1476
01:32:00,998 --> 01:32:03,172
"coming through the Rouge gates
in the morning

1477
01:32:03,207 --> 01:32:05,450
all wearing dark glasses."

1478
01:32:13,148 --> 01:32:15,564
NARRATOR:
As he drew closer to Bennett,

1479
01:32:15,599 --> 01:32:19,568
Ford's relationship with Edsel
grew increasingly strained.

1480
01:32:19,603 --> 01:32:22,606
Even newsreels couldn't hide
the growing tension

1481
01:32:22,640 --> 01:32:25,781
between father and son.

1482
01:32:25,816 --> 01:32:28,715
The United States, even when
it is running in low,

1483
01:32:28,750 --> 01:32:31,235
is a pretty big
business proposition.

1484
01:32:31,269 --> 01:32:33,133
But I believe the country
is getting ready

1485
01:32:33,168 --> 01:32:35,895
to make a very decided step
forward next year,

1486
01:32:35,929 --> 01:32:38,138
and we are doing all
that we can to help it along.

1487
01:32:38,173 --> 01:32:41,141
What do you think
of that, Father?

1488
01:32:41,176 --> 01:32:42,626
Well, I think everybody
has decided

1489
01:32:42,660 --> 01:32:45,042
that they've got to go to work,

1490
01:32:45,076 --> 01:32:47,009
and I think from now on,

1491
01:32:47,044 --> 01:32:49,425
there's no one can stop
this great country

1492
01:32:49,460 --> 01:32:51,807
from going ahead,
full blast.

1493
01:32:51,842 --> 01:32:55,570
NARRATOR:
Over the years,
Henry had grown frustrated

1494
01:32:55,604 --> 01:32:57,917
with Edsel's management
of the company.

1495
01:32:57,951 --> 01:33:00,091
Where others saw Edsel
as a progressive,

1496
01:33:00,126 --> 01:33:01,852
collaborative leader,

1497
01:33:01,886 --> 01:33:06,581
his father saw only restraint
and indecision.

1498
01:33:06,615 --> 01:33:09,584
"Mr. Ford,"
observed one employee,

1499
01:33:09,618 --> 01:33:13,380
"didn't think Edsel
was tough enough."

1500
01:33:13,415 --> 01:33:15,555
People who worked for Edsel
loved him

1501
01:33:15,590 --> 01:33:17,626
because he didn't
order people around,

1502
01:33:17,661 --> 01:33:21,734
he didn't throw temper tantrums,
he didn't act like a tyrant.

1503
01:33:21,768 --> 01:33:26,048
And it was very much a kind
of modern style of management,

1504
01:33:26,083 --> 01:33:28,050
but his father hated it,

1505
01:33:28,085 --> 01:33:33,262
and he thought it was another
sign of his son's softness.

1506
01:33:33,297 --> 01:33:36,956
NARRATOR:
Edsel's personal life was
a constant source of irritation

1507
01:33:36,990 --> 01:33:40,097
to his father as well.

1508
01:33:40,131 --> 01:33:44,135
Everything about the way
Edsel lived--

1509
01:33:44,170 --> 01:33:47,863
his 60-room mansion,
his art collection,

1510
01:33:47,898 --> 01:33:50,866
his extravagant parties,
his wealthy friends,

1511
01:33:50,901 --> 01:33:53,041
the fact that he
drank alcohol--

1512
01:33:53,075 --> 01:33:58,356
confirmed Henry's suspicions
that his son was weak.

1513
01:34:00,427 --> 01:34:05,432
STAUDENMAIER:
Edsel says, "I am one
of the wealthy and powerful."

1514
01:34:05,467 --> 01:34:09,367
And that's just intolerable
for Henry.

1515
01:34:09,402 --> 01:34:11,784
He couldn't imagine
living like that himself.

1516
01:34:11,818 --> 01:34:13,268
He just can't imagine it.

1517
01:34:15,235 --> 01:34:17,686
NARRATOR:
Henry finally had enough

1518
01:34:17,721 --> 01:34:19,999
and ordered Bennett
to spy on his son.

1519
01:34:20,033 --> 01:34:24,279
BRINKLEY:
He was a compulsive person,
Henry Ford,

1520
01:34:24,313 --> 01:34:27,627
and he wanted his son
not to have any vices.

1521
01:34:27,662 --> 01:34:29,594
When Edsel left town,

1522
01:34:29,629 --> 01:34:31,804
Henry Ford would break
into Edsel's house

1523
01:34:31,838 --> 01:34:34,461
and smash with a cane
all of the liquor bottles.

1524
01:34:34,496 --> 01:34:37,292
Putting spies on his son

1525
01:34:37,326 --> 01:34:39,639
and accusing him of being
an alcoholic

1526
01:34:39,674 --> 01:34:42,677
and all of these crazy things,
it was all in Henry Ford's mind.

1527
01:34:48,613 --> 01:34:50,719
NARRATOR:
As his family life deteriorated

1528
01:34:50,754 --> 01:34:53,170
and his company's fortunes
declined,

1529
01:34:53,204 --> 01:34:56,449
Ford turned his attention
to a new threat.

1530
01:34:58,589 --> 01:35:03,559
Union organizers had set their
sights on the auto industry.

1531
01:35:03,594 --> 01:35:08,668
The passage of the 1935 Wagner
Act, which guaranteed workers

1532
01:35:08,703 --> 01:35:11,740
the right to organize
and bargain collectively,

1533
01:35:11,775 --> 01:35:15,537
emboldened the United
Auto Workers.

1534
01:35:15,571 --> 01:35:18,851
Following a six-week strike,

1535
01:35:18,885 --> 01:35:20,749
General Motors
recognized the union.

1536
01:35:24,615 --> 01:35:28,067
Chrysler capitulated
three months later.

1537
01:35:28,101 --> 01:35:32,485
Henry Ford resolved to fight.

1538
01:35:32,519 --> 01:35:34,142
GRANDIN:
Ford imagined himself

1539
01:35:34,176 --> 01:35:37,386
as elevating the living
conditions of the working class.

1540
01:35:37,421 --> 01:35:41,183
But he hated unions
with a passion, viscerally.

1541
01:35:41,218 --> 01:35:45,049
He disliked them in principle.

1542
01:35:45,084 --> 01:35:47,293
They were a challenge
to his power,

1543
01:35:47,327 --> 01:35:50,745
a challenge to the notion
that the River Rouge was his.

1544
01:35:52,816 --> 01:35:55,542
NARRATOR:
Ford decreed that no one
at Ford Motor

1545
01:35:55,577 --> 01:35:57,648
was to meet with union officials

1546
01:35:57,682 --> 01:36:00,133
or discuss labor matters
with anyone.

1547
01:36:00,168 --> 01:36:03,896
Except Harry Bennett.

1548
01:36:03,930 --> 01:36:06,174
In April of 1937,

1549
01:36:06,208 --> 01:36:08,624
Ford authorized
his head of security

1550
01:36:08,659 --> 01:36:12,214
to "handle"
the United Auto Workers.

1551
01:36:12,249 --> 01:36:15,079
Bennett promptly declared
that the UAW

1552
01:36:15,114 --> 01:36:19,290
"was irresponsible, un-American,
and no goddamn good."

1553
01:36:23,605 --> 01:36:28,817
On May 26, 1937, union
organizers arrived at the Rouge

1554
01:36:28,852 --> 01:36:34,374
and began handing out leaflets
entitled "Unionism not Fordism."

1555
01:36:34,409 --> 01:36:37,343
LICHTENSTEIN:
They knew that in order
for the union

1556
01:36:37,377 --> 01:36:41,174
to be secure in the industry,
they had to organize Ford.

1557
01:36:41,209 --> 01:36:43,728
And they had invited
photographers.

1558
01:36:43,763 --> 01:36:45,696
They wanted photographers
to come.

1559
01:36:45,730 --> 01:36:47,560
They wanted to show the country

1560
01:36:47,594 --> 01:36:49,838
that leaflets
were being distributed

1561
01:36:49,873 --> 01:36:51,667
and workers
were being recruited

1562
01:36:51,702 --> 01:36:53,290
at the Ford Motor Company

1563
01:36:53,324 --> 01:36:54,981
to join the United
Automobile Workers.

1564
01:36:57,397 --> 01:37:02,161
NARRATOR:
Bennett's thugs were ready.

1565
01:37:12,999 --> 01:37:16,209
The Ford security force grabbed
most of the cameras,

1566
01:37:16,244 --> 01:37:18,280
but a few photographers
got away.

1567
01:37:21,180 --> 01:37:23,803
Pictures of the company's
brutality

1568
01:37:23,838 --> 01:37:27,255
were published in newspapers
across the country.

1569
01:37:27,289 --> 01:37:31,431
Through it all, the aging
carmaker remained resolute,

1570
01:37:31,466 --> 01:37:35,435
determined to keep the union
out of his company.

1571
01:37:35,470 --> 01:37:37,782
While his emotions
are pulling him into the past,

1572
01:37:37,817 --> 01:37:41,959
there's this almost primal urge
in his character

1573
01:37:41,994 --> 01:37:45,307
to keep control
of what he created.

1574
01:37:45,342 --> 01:37:48,517
The Ford Motor Company
is his baby.

1575
01:37:48,552 --> 01:37:53,108
He built it, and he's going
to hold on to it.

1576
01:37:53,143 --> 01:37:57,388
STAUDENMAIER:
Why would he create
such a violent world

1577
01:37:57,423 --> 01:37:59,943
of spies and thugs?

1578
01:37:59,977 --> 01:38:02,186
Why do that?

1579
01:38:02,221 --> 01:38:06,259
Well, because he was lashing out
against a world

1580
01:38:06,294 --> 01:38:08,813
that had spun out of control,
as far as he was concerned.

1581
01:38:13,853 --> 01:38:15,820
NARRATOR:
As the years went by,

1582
01:38:15,855 --> 01:38:17,926
Henry Ford began spending
more and more time

1583
01:38:17,961 --> 01:38:19,963
at Greenfield Village.

1584
01:38:19,997 --> 01:38:22,068
He checked in on the children

1585
01:38:22,103 --> 01:38:24,484
who attended
his one-room schoolhouse,

1586
01:38:24,519 --> 01:38:28,592
dropped by the farm where he was
experimenting with soybeans,

1587
01:38:28,626 --> 01:38:30,939
and enjoyed old-time dancing
at Lovett Hall,

1588
01:38:30,974 --> 01:38:34,805
where he had a full-time
instructor on staff.

1589
01:38:34,839 --> 01:38:37,912
[choral music
playing over speakers]

1590
01:38:37,946 --> 01:38:41,950
When he turned 75 in July 1938,

1591
01:38:41,985 --> 01:38:46,610
Henry watched as performers
reenacted scenes from his life.

1592
01:38:46,644 --> 01:38:50,062
But he kept slipping away
from his party

1593
01:38:50,096 --> 01:38:52,788
to check on his projects
at the Village,

1594
01:38:52,823 --> 01:38:57,034
preferring to be there than with
the thousands of well-wishers.

1595
01:38:57,069 --> 01:39:01,694
It was clear to everyone
he had slowed down.

1596
01:39:01,728 --> 01:39:06,492
Few knew, however, that he'd
also suffered a mild stroke.

1597
01:39:09,115 --> 01:39:13,464
His father's mental state
was what troubled Edsel.

1598
01:39:13,499 --> 01:39:16,157
Instead of mellowing with age,

1599
01:39:16,191 --> 01:39:19,643
Henry was growing more
controlling and paranoid.

1600
01:39:19,677 --> 01:39:22,715
He lashed out at employees,

1601
01:39:22,749 --> 01:39:25,614
accused longtime associates
of disloyalty,

1602
01:39:25,649 --> 01:39:27,858
or worse,
didn't recognize them,

1603
01:39:27,892 --> 01:39:30,895
and insisted that Jews
were persecuting him.

1604
01:39:30,930 --> 01:39:33,381
He became convinced

1605
01:39:33,415 --> 01:39:36,901
there was only one man
in the company he could trust:

1606
01:39:36,936 --> 01:39:38,351
"my Harry."

1607
01:39:38,386 --> 01:39:43,943
WATTS:
Harry Bennett represented
all of the qualities

1608
01:39:43,978 --> 01:39:49,811
that Henry had been trying
to push Edsel toward for years.

1609
01:39:49,845 --> 01:39:53,884
Bennett became a kind of
surrogate son for Henry Ford,

1610
01:39:53,918 --> 01:39:59,372
a kind of idealized son that
he always wanted Edsel to be

1611
01:39:59,407 --> 01:40:01,926
and Edsel could never become.

1612
01:40:07,518 --> 01:40:10,521
[giving impassioned speech]

1613
01:40:19,703 --> 01:40:25,053
NARRATOR:
In the spring of 1941,
with war raging in Europe,

1614
01:40:25,088 --> 01:40:28,125
Ford Motor secured several
government contracts,

1615
01:40:28,160 --> 01:40:33,268
including a $480 million order
for B-24 bombers.

1616
01:40:33,303 --> 01:40:39,136
The infusion of cash
put the company back on track.

1617
01:40:41,759 --> 01:40:45,280
But for the 90,000 workers
inside the Rouge plant,

1618
01:40:45,315 --> 01:40:48,697
the threats, violence,
intimidation and terror

1619
01:40:48,732 --> 01:40:51,286
continued unabated.

1620
01:40:51,321 --> 01:40:53,047
Men discovered talking in groups

1621
01:40:53,081 --> 01:40:57,085
were suspected of union
activities and promptly fired,

1622
01:40:57,120 --> 01:41:00,916
often after a severe beating.

1623
01:41:00,951 --> 01:41:04,679
With large defense contracts
at stake,

1624
01:41:04,713 --> 01:41:07,268
union officials
were in a stronger position

1625
01:41:07,302 --> 01:41:09,925
to push for fair treatment.

1626
01:41:09,960 --> 01:41:14,723
They called for higher wages,
overtime pay and job security.

1627
01:41:14,758 --> 01:41:18,693
WATTS:
Edsel counsels his father,
"Let's work this out.

1628
01:41:18,727 --> 01:41:20,419
"Let's talk to the unions.

1629
01:41:20,453 --> 01:41:22,593
Let's do what we need to do."

1630
01:41:22,628 --> 01:41:25,079
Henry will have none of it.

1631
01:41:27,909 --> 01:41:30,843
NARRATOR:
When Ford refused to meet
his workers' demands,

1632
01:41:30,877 --> 01:41:34,502
thousands walked out
and went on strike.

1633
01:41:49,827 --> 01:41:51,622
[yelling]

1634
01:42:09,192 --> 01:42:12,781
Edsel stepped in
without his father's permission,

1635
01:42:12,816 --> 01:42:15,991
meeting with union officials
and hammering out an agreement.

1636
01:42:18,615 --> 01:42:20,272
When the formal contract

1637
01:42:20,306 --> 01:42:22,791
between the union
and Ford Motor was completed,

1638
01:42:22,826 --> 01:42:26,243
Henry Ford refused to sign it.

1639
01:42:26,278 --> 01:42:30,696
He raged at Edsel, saying he'd
rather shut down his factories

1640
01:42:30,730 --> 01:42:33,008
than give in to the union.

1641
01:42:33,043 --> 01:42:36,115
It was an empty threat.

1642
01:42:36,150 --> 01:42:40,602
The elder Ford knew he'd lost.

1643
01:42:40,637 --> 01:42:44,537
LICHTENSTEIN:
Henry Ford gives in to the union
because he had no choice.

1644
01:42:44,572 --> 01:42:45,987
If the strike had continued,

1645
01:42:46,021 --> 01:42:48,886
if chaos had reigned
on the factory floor,

1646
01:42:48,921 --> 01:42:51,406
the government would have
unquestionably come in.

1647
01:42:51,441 --> 01:42:57,861
And he was told this,
even by Harry Bennett.

1648
01:42:57,895 --> 01:42:59,621
NARRATOR:
The following day,

1649
01:42:59,656 --> 01:43:03,763
Ford Motor gave the UAW
everything it wanted and more:

1650
01:43:03,798 --> 01:43:08,527
a union shop, wages equal
to the highest in the industry

1651
01:43:08,561 --> 01:43:13,325
and union dues deducted
from workers' paychecks.

1652
01:43:13,359 --> 01:43:17,225
When asked later why he
had suddenly changed course,

1653
01:43:17,260 --> 01:43:20,055
Henry would say that Clara
had threatened to leave him

1654
01:43:20,090 --> 01:43:21,954
if he didn't.

1655
01:43:29,203 --> 01:43:34,173
Soon after the strike, Edsel
checked into the hospital.

1656
01:43:34,208 --> 01:43:36,796
Like many of the executives
at Ford,

1657
01:43:36,831 --> 01:43:39,005
he had suffered for years
from ulcers,

1658
01:43:39,040 --> 01:43:43,734
which doctors believed
were brought on by stress.

1659
01:43:43,769 --> 01:43:46,150
They recommended that Ford's son

1660
01:43:46,185 --> 01:43:49,119
have part of his stomach
removed.

1661
01:43:49,153 --> 01:43:52,295
But surgery didn't help.

1662
01:43:52,329 --> 01:43:55,712
"If there is anything the matter
with Edsel's health,"

1663
01:43:55,746 --> 01:44:00,579
his father told associates,
"he can correct it himself.

1664
01:44:00,613 --> 01:44:04,203
Edsel must mend his ways."

1665
01:44:04,238 --> 01:44:05,894
What Henry didn't know

1666
01:44:05,929 --> 01:44:09,760
was that his son had
terminal stomach cancer.

1667
01:44:09,795 --> 01:44:14,144
Edsel returned to work, telling
no one but his wife Eleanor.

1668
01:44:16,319 --> 01:44:19,977
CASEY:
When Edsel's physical condition
began to deteriorate,

1669
01:44:20,012 --> 01:44:23,705
Henry just took it
as another sign of weakness.

1670
01:44:23,740 --> 01:44:29,884
"If he'd just eat right,
if he wouldn't drink any wine,

1671
01:44:29,918 --> 01:44:31,679
"if he'd stop hanging out

1672
01:44:31,713 --> 01:44:34,095
"with those good-for-nothing
rich friends of his,

1673
01:44:34,129 --> 01:44:35,648
he'd fix himself."

1674
01:44:39,549 --> 01:44:43,449
NARRATOR:
Matters came to a head
in the spring of 1943,

1675
01:44:43,484 --> 01:44:47,108
when Henry ordered a close
associate to demand

1676
01:44:47,142 --> 01:44:50,732
that Edsel reform his attitude
and behavior or else.

1677
01:44:53,459 --> 01:44:57,291
When he heard his father's long
list of grievances against him,

1678
01:44:57,325 --> 01:44:59,638
Edsel broke down in tears.

1679
01:45:02,261 --> 01:45:07,611
A few weeks later, he collapsed.

1680
01:45:07,646 --> 01:45:11,339
Eleanor revealed to Henry
what she had known for months:

1681
01:45:11,374 --> 01:45:14,963
Edsel was dying.

1682
01:45:14,998 --> 01:45:19,209
As his son lay bedridden
at home in Grosse Point,

1683
01:45:19,243 --> 01:45:23,662
Henry refused to believe it.

1684
01:45:23,696 --> 01:45:26,423
He frantically contacted
Edsel's doctors,

1685
01:45:26,458 --> 01:45:29,944
demanding that they restore
his son's health.

1686
01:45:34,638 --> 01:45:40,230
On May 26, 1943, Edsel Ford died
at the age of 49.

1687
01:45:43,475 --> 01:45:46,547
Henry Ford was shattered.

1688
01:45:48,583 --> 01:45:52,000
For months afterwards,
he wandered the grounds

1689
01:45:52,035 --> 01:45:55,349
of Greenfield Village
at night by himself.

1690
01:45:55,383 --> 01:45:58,248
WATTS:
Ford knew in his heart

1691
01:45:58,282 --> 01:46:02,183
that his actions and his
unfair treatment of Edsel

1692
01:46:02,217 --> 01:46:06,290
in some way had been
responsible for his death.

1693
01:46:06,325 --> 01:46:10,778
And emotionally,
mentally, physically,

1694
01:46:10,812 --> 01:46:12,642
he was just never the same.

1695
01:46:16,059 --> 01:46:18,786
NARRATOR:
"Harry," he asked one day,

1696
01:46:18,820 --> 01:46:22,790
"do you think I was
ever cruel to Edsel?"

1697
01:46:22,824 --> 01:46:26,345
"Not cruel, but unfair,"
Bennett replied.

1698
01:46:26,380 --> 01:46:31,315
"If it had been me,
I would have got mad."

1699
01:46:31,350 --> 01:46:36,182
"That's what I wanted him
to do," said Ford, "get mad."

1700
01:46:49,333 --> 01:46:51,405
NARRATOR:
After Edsel's death,

1701
01:46:51,439 --> 01:46:55,201
Henry Ford once again took over
the presidency of Ford Motor.

1702
01:46:55,236 --> 01:46:57,997
But after multiple strokes,

1703
01:46:58,032 --> 01:47:01,242
he was in no shape
to run the company.

1704
01:47:01,276 --> 01:47:03,969
WATTS:
It was a period
of absolute chaos.

1705
01:47:04,003 --> 01:47:08,594
One observer described it as
"the years of the Mad Hatter"

1706
01:47:08,629 --> 01:47:11,079
because Ford
would give directives

1707
01:47:11,114 --> 01:47:14,117
and then contradict them
the next day.

1708
01:47:14,151 --> 01:47:15,912
He would call people back in

1709
01:47:15,946 --> 01:47:18,708
who hadn't worked at the company
for 30 years.

1710
01:47:18,742 --> 01:47:22,505
NARRATOR:
"We have to go back to the old
days, the Model T days,"

1711
01:47:22,539 --> 01:47:24,472
Ford would say.

1712
01:47:24,507 --> 01:47:28,856
"We've got to build only
one car, just the one Ford."

1713
01:47:28,890 --> 01:47:31,272
Officials in the government

1714
01:47:31,306 --> 01:47:33,136
worried that
with Henry at the helm,

1715
01:47:33,170 --> 01:47:37,140
Ford Motor could not fulfill
its war contracts.

1716
01:47:37,174 --> 01:47:42,559
In 1945, Ford suffered
another major stroke.

1717
01:47:42,594 --> 01:47:46,287
Increasingly, he failed
to recognize friends,

1718
01:47:46,321 --> 01:47:48,220
avoided going out in public

1719
01:47:48,254 --> 01:47:51,672
and was afraid to let Clara
out of his sight.

1720
01:47:54,675 --> 01:48:00,025
On April 7, 1947, Henry Ford
died in the middle of the night,

1721
01:48:00,059 --> 01:48:03,787
his head rested
on his wife's shoulder.

1722
01:48:03,822 --> 01:48:05,720
He was 83.

1723
01:48:15,972 --> 01:48:20,839
Two days later,
100,000 people waited patiently

1724
01:48:20,873 --> 01:48:26,707
in a line a mile long
to view his body.

1725
01:48:26,741 --> 01:48:28,812
They came to pay their respects,

1726
01:48:28,847 --> 01:48:31,125
not to the author
of The International Jew,

1727
01:48:31,159 --> 01:48:34,542
the initiator of oppressive
labor practices,

1728
01:48:34,577 --> 01:48:38,235
or the father who bullied
his only son...

1729
01:48:39,927 --> 01:48:43,275
but to the most influential
industrialist of his time,

1730
01:48:43,309 --> 01:48:46,485
the man who,
more than any other,

1731
01:48:46,520 --> 01:48:48,487
had ushered in the 20th century.

1732
01:48:53,734 --> 01:48:55,874
WATTS:
Henry Ford,

1733
01:48:55,908 --> 01:49:00,603
despite all of his great success
and his great wealth,

1734
01:49:00,637 --> 01:49:05,711
had the soul of a common person,
the soul of a common man.

1735
01:49:05,746 --> 01:49:10,336
And I think people understood
that instinctively.

1736
01:49:10,371 --> 01:49:12,615
Somehow, Ford was one of them.

1737
01:49:19,276 --> 01:49:22,659
His automobile represented
this modern notion

1738
01:49:22,694 --> 01:49:25,904
that happiness lay
not in self-denial,

1739
01:49:25,938 --> 01:49:29,597
not in self-restraint,
not in scarcity,

1740
01:49:29,632 --> 01:49:32,911
but it lay in self-fulfillment.

1741
01:49:38,951 --> 01:49:42,852
KOEHN:
What Henry Ford saw
and what he committed himself to

1742
01:49:42,886 --> 01:49:48,961
in terms of producing a durable,
affordable, effective automobile

1743
01:49:48,996 --> 01:49:53,241
changed American life,
changed American business

1744
01:49:53,276 --> 01:49:56,348
and changed Americans
one by one,

1745
01:49:56,382 --> 01:50:00,524
as it continues
to affect us today.

1746
01:50:04,149 --> 01:50:08,429
NARRATOR:
For the rest of the century,
the Ford Motor Company remained

1747
01:50:08,463 --> 01:50:12,053
one of the three dominant
American car companies,

1748
01:50:12,088 --> 01:50:14,987
though it never again
controlled the market

1749
01:50:15,022 --> 01:50:18,715
as it had
in Henry Ford's heyday.

1750
01:50:18,750 --> 01:50:21,028
Shortly after Ford's death,

1751
01:50:21,062 --> 01:50:24,272
the company's new president,
Edsel's oldest son, Henry,

1752
01:50:24,307 --> 01:50:27,413
oversaw the first public
offering of company shares

1753
01:50:27,448 --> 01:50:31,659
on the New York Stock Exchange.

1754
01:50:31,694 --> 01:50:36,043
In addition to ending the Ford
family's control of Ford Motor,

1755
01:50:36,077 --> 01:50:40,634
Henry Ford II also put an end
to his grandfather's experiments

1756
01:50:40,668 --> 01:50:43,188
in social engineering.

1757
01:50:46,467 --> 01:50:50,367
By then, Ford's planned utopia
in the rainforest

1758
01:50:50,402 --> 01:50:52,404
had become a lawless outpost

1759
01:50:52,438 --> 01:50:56,857
where rubber had never been
successfully produced.

1760
01:50:56,891 --> 01:50:59,653
In one of his first acts
as president,

1761
01:50:59,687 --> 01:51:03,657
Henry Ford II sold the land
back to the Brazilian government

1762
01:51:03,691 --> 01:51:07,212
for a fraction of its value.

1763
01:51:10,318 --> 01:51:15,530
All too soon, Fordlandia
was reclaimed by the jungle.

1764
01:51:17,705 --> 01:51:20,812
[birds chirping]