Thanks ! PBS did one about 20 years ago on Henry...I've got it somewhere in my old VCR Tapes. Looking forward to this updated one ! Jonnie www.legends.thewwbc.net
I read about this, This morning when the smartest men in town had there Tuesday morning meeting at the local coffee shop..... Thank goodness I did a search before posting about it.
Our local PBS affliates (KQED, KTEH, KCSM, & KVIE) have all been promo-ing this episode to death ... and I guess their advertising worked, cause I set my DVR to record it!
Thanks for that heads-up, Tommy. That's a little past my bed time but I'll try to make an exception for Henry.
His autobiography is available to download on Project Guttenberg. Worth reading - he was, at the same time, a brilliant inventor, a complicated and a contradictory personality and a small town hick. He was a noted anti-semite but one of his closest friends was Andre Citroen. He was anti-union but paid the highest wages.
Yeah I was googling earlier and came accross a New York Times piece on the programme (click here) Seems it covers all the old Ant-Semetism that comes with any program about Henry, but also covers his relationship or lack of with his son. Would really like to see this but alas, I am in the UK. More than just the story I love all the old archive footage that comes with these programs and the article I pointed out above has this excert: "But there are surprises, too. A disturbing and telling sequence about a ceremony from Ford’s infamous sociological department, charged with Americanizing his workers. Workers dressed in the garb of their native lands are seen plunging into a literal melting pot, like a carnival prop, emerging a few minutes later, identically dressed and waving American flags."
Interesting,No doubt Ol' Henry was a uneducated hard nosed industrial giant and created a empire that he himself was uncomfortable with. He did create a lot of cars during his reign that to this day are still very much in demand,,and don't forget the important role Edsel played. HRP
Ford is an interesting story since it's it appears there was one guy making decisions. GM sold a lot more vehicles but seems as a faceless giant who's goal was to dominate at any cost. Did Mr Ford actually care about the cars his company built, or were they just like washing machines ?
Good intentioned man but stubborn as hell. The old "my way or the highway" at***ude. Created a beast he couldn't control and nearly did the company in. His relationship with his son was terrible. I really think he must have been suffering from some type of degenerative mental disorder. I had read many times that Edsel had died from some infection from drinking non-pasteurized milk from the dairy on greenfield Village. Last night they said he had cancer. Sad way to end his life at 49 years for such a creative and forward looking man.
Just read an excellent book called "Henry Ford. The Peoples Ty**** and the American Century" I would recomend it to everyone. Edsel did die from stomach cancer. Had health problems for a while and when he finally had it looked into it was too late. As Edsel grew older problems grew between he and his father. Even though Edsel was named the President of Ford Motor Co. he had no real power as Henrey used to veto most of Edsels ideas. I used to p*** by the Edsel Ford estate all the time. Still there and in the care of a Ford family trust along with Henrys estate in Dearborn. Both are open to the public. Henry himself was quite a contradiction in many ways and the book does a great job of putting all into perspective. Henry's reputation began to suffer when he started to believe his own press. He thought that he could control everything and everyone. A fascinating man none the less.
Me and Wifey watched it last night.... Ol' Henry was Wired Wrong!...He was pissed at Edsle for designing the Model "A"!?..(But he took the full credit for it!) He only liked the Model "T" + He hated the new factory he built. There's a thin line between Genious and Loony.
Wonder if they made another mistake also. The played up Henry winning all the races but i think ive read that Henry couldnt do it and hired Barney Oldfield. Seem to remember alos that FORD was just about ot go under but the races being won put his name out to where he could round up some capital. Think at the time Barney owned the car / 999?
I'm pretty sure the car Henry raced was called the "Sweapstakes Racer". It was his one and only time as a race driver. Oldfield did drive the 999 but it's not the same car that Henry drove.
Troublemaker is correct that the first racer was called Sweepstakes. That car was built and raced in 1901 with Ford at the helm. It was the only race he competed in but he did drive one his next racers on the frozen ice at St Clair Shores in January 1904 setting a speed record that they reported as 91+mph I believe. In 1902 Henry built two racers very different from Sweepstakes and called them 999 and Arrow. I do not believe he had any real intention of driving them. Oldfield was hired and that started his career as a auto racer. The cars crashed on occasion and were morphed together to the point it was hard to tell which car was which. The car that Ford drove on the frozen lake in 1904 was probably the rebuilt Arrow but was later rechristened the 999. The whole 999/Arrow saga is similar to who's on first. In the PBS special the racing footage I believe was the 1904 Vanderbilt cup race, which kind of threw me when the race that Ford drove in occurred three years prior (1901), but such is TV I suppose.-Jim
Just a thought ... Perhaps the Moderators can merge this thread with the other two "American Experience: The ***ans: Henry Ford" threads that popped up after tommy started this one on Jan 29th @ 09:21 AM PST: * Blue One's Henry Ford thread started @ 07:54 PM PST * slddnmatt's Henry Ford : American Experience on PBS thread started @ 10:36 PM PST There's a decent discussion going in all three threads.
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