The COMPLETE Life Story of Henry Ford | A Classic Car Documentary
If you’ve seen my 2-part series on the life of Henry Ford, then you will recognize this as the two parts merged into one complete video, with some minor tweaks. To those of you who asked that the two parts be joined into one complete video on the life of Henry Ford, here you go.
Discover the fascinating life story of Henry Ford, the man behind the iconic Ford cars. This classic car documentary explores the rise of one of the most influential entrepreneurs in history.
Get an in-depth look at Ford’s life and business journey, from his early struggles and failures to the founding of the Ford Motor Company and the creation of the Model T. Perfect for business enthusiasts and entrepreneurs in cars, this documentary will provide valuable insights and inspiration. Don’t miss out on this must-watch business story!
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00:00 The History of Henry Ford
01:08 Young Henry Ford
06:30 The Quadricycle
11:28 First Failed Company
14:11 Second Failed Company
17:15 Ford Motors
19:52 Model-T
24:10 Ford Workers
25:25 Ford Investors
29:40 WWI
31:50 The 1920s
33:30 Creating The Model-A
34:24 Fordism
36:28 Fordlandia
38:33 Antisemitism
41:03 The 1930s
42:25 Ford Massacre
43:05 The V8
44:21 UAW
45:35 Stiff Competition
46:53 Final Years
47:50 Death Of Son Edsel
48:53 WWII
49:50 Legacy of Henry Ford
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Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.”
Henry Ford lived two lives. the first half of his life was about building a company to become one of the most successful men in the country. the second half of his life was about maintaining that success. hope you enjoy this documentary I made on the life of Henry Ford. what do you
Do when you’re one of the richest and most powerful men in the country? when your name is on over 50% of all vehicles on the road? when you’ve revolutionized Mass manufacturing for the Industrial Age, building a gigantic business Empire from nothing and creating
Scores of enemies along the way? before Henry Ford was one of the world’s most powerful men he was a humble boy on a farm with no money no ideas and no future. throughout his life he grew to nearly autocratic proportion, becoming entangled with countless World
Figures from presidents to Thomas Edison and even German Chancellor Adolf H*tler. Ford’s journey to building the world’s most successful company is the single greatest Underdog Story and it all begins with a pocket watch. this is the amazing full story of Henry Ford.
It was soon after the end of the Civil War on a small farm in Detroit Michigan when a hardworking God-fearing couple William and Mary Ford gave birth to their eldest of six children a boy named Henry to Henry’s Father William an Irish immigrant he finally had a son to one day
Take over the back breaking work of running the Family Farm however as he grew it quickly became clear that young Henry Ford was Cut From a Different Cloth than his father he had no passion whatsoever for the tedious drudgery of Agriculture while Henry did his best to help out his parents
He hated the sheer idea of working at the farm many assumed he was just lazy as even when he dropped out of Springwell Middle School in the eighth grade a one room school he still wouldn’t put his hours in the field but they were wrong Henry had a passion in mechanics his innate
Curiosity for understanding how machines work led him to enthusiastically dismantle and reassemble every single piece of equipment he encountered when Henry’s father gifted him a pocket watch at the age of 12 he mastered taking it apart and rebuilding it in minutes before long he gained
Renown as an expert neighborhood watch repair man fixing time pieces for locals and this Talent would serve well in life at 13 Henry’s life was altered with a vision and a tragedy his vision was in nearby Detroit when Henry saw his first vehicle that wasn’t powered by a horse it was
A tractor powered by a Nichols and Shepard steam engine the engineer had fixed the chain from the axle of the machine to the wheels sort of a crude self-propelling motorc car it was a vehicle that filled his Mechanical Mind with dreams to one day built his own Horseless vehicle however around
The same time Henry saw tragedy when his mother died due to complications during childbirth being very close to his mother Henry was devastated beyond words and his grief aggravated his already considerable disdain for the farming lifestyle which now felt suffocating with memories of his
Mom around every corner to deal with his grief Henry immersed himself in consuming everything he could learn about engines even constructing his own crude steam engine model by age 15 but Henry felt steam engines were too heavy and not suitable for lightweight vehicles and the boiler
Was too dangerous nonetheless with his mother gone his father needed Henry more than ever on the farm and life at home between Henry and his father was getting contentious by 16 the Restless Henry had had enough yearning escape from a future he now hated he abandoned his home walking 9 miles
Into Detroit seeking both fortune and an escape from farming the ambitious Henry plunged into the burgeoning world of Industry taking shape in Detroit the city had become a beacon for young Engineers as steam power had rapidly mechanized production eager to reinvent himself Henry Dove
Head first into learning everything about machines he landed an entry-level job with the Michigan car company works but as inexperience led to dismissal just 6 days later undeterred Henry eventually secured an apprentice ship with the James flower and Brothers Machine shop toiling
For a meager $2.60 a week it wasn’t enough to even cover a room and board so leveraging his childhood watch repair Mastery Henry cleaned and fixed tickers 6 hours a night six nights a week for an extra $3 a week despite working two grueling jobs Henry’s passion for tinkering never ceased
Any spare moment found him studying machinist books or experimenting on scrap metal hen Henry then found a job working on Motors on iron boats at the dry do company and after 3 years as their
Apprentice Henry felt he had learned all he needed and he was also getting homesick so in 1882 at age 19 he went back to his father’s Farm in Spring Wells Michigan back home he did as little farm work as possible instead constantly fine-tuning a portable Westinghouse steam engine his dad had
Recently purchased to mechanize harvesting in fact before long Henry became so Adept at operating and maintaining the device that a neighbor farmer paid him $3 just to utilize it on his land for one season impressed Farmers spread the word quickly of a young wizard who could coax the
Temperamental steam Contraptions into optimal production and this soon captured the attention of Westinghouse company’s regional manager who hired Henry to service and install their steam tractors across rural Southern Michigan and Ohio the machines that had been Henry’s ticket out of
Detroit Detroit now tethered him back to the countryside he dreaded but they also connected him to his first love Clara Bryant whom he met at a New Year’s party in 1885 she was a friend of his sister Mary and though Clara at first resisted Henry’s advances eventually the two married and
Moved on to a 40 acre plot gifted by Henry’s father but it didn’t settle Henry’s ambition the Industrial Age was taking root in big cities and Henry wanted to be part of the excitement in 1891 at 28 years old Henry and Clara packed up their meager belongings in rural Michigan
And moved into a tiny apartment in bustling Detroit Henry was driven by Whispers he’ read in a British magazine about an exciting new invention taking place in Germany the gasoline engine unlike noisy belching steam engines needing half an hour to build pressure before
Use these gasoline fuel Motors generated power via small controlled explosions right inside the contraption itself Germany was scrambling to roll out production versions but in America in the early 1890s gas engines were virtually unheard of Henry felt positively electrified
Reading about this development he had to see one up close after months of fruitless searching Henry eventually located a soul gas engine specimen in a Detroit Warehouse owned by an eccentric polish inventor known for tinkering Henry peer the man with endless questions pleading to see
It run and once witnessed firsthand Henry was positively a struck by The Roaring power and throaty hum he returned nearly daily offering to labor unpaid if the inventor would explain its inner Mysteries try as he might the technical complexities of igniting fuel Vapors through
Perfectly timed electric Sparks eluded Henry’s understanding but he knew gasoline would be a much better way of powering Wheels than Steam faster and more lightweight and he grew determined to someday build one himself without knowing the first thing about shaping metal Electronics or Machining intricately fitted Parts craving proximity to Industrial technology
And electricity in 1892 Henry eagerly accepted a night shift job maintaining a giant steam engine and Dynamo at Detroit Edison’s illuminating company Plant in a short time he rose through the ranks promoted to Chief engineer his expertise mending Farm steam tractors qualified him for the
$40 monthly salary role ensuring uninterrupted electrical flow to Detroit’s 1,000 wired homes most nights as the engine hummed reliably Henry enjoyed ample time to hungrily pour through electrical manuals in the engineering room and in 1893 by age 30 he confidently felt he could
Wire anything that same year Henry proudly watched his family grow by won with the birth of his son ET O’Bryant Ford and just months later rewards of his diligent self-education and hard work showed in a promotion to chief engineer with double his previous salary now
Earning $100 a week Henry funneled every spare Penny towards his next Obsession building his first gasoline engine prototype using secondhand scraps fueled by months of frustration on a dim chilly night in early October Henry erupted in triumphant cheers that rattled his tiny garage
His crude handbuilt Contraption sputtered then steadied into the unmistakable throaty hum of success one explosion led to the next as Henry watched hypnotized feeding and tweaking his beautiful creation and in the wee hours of June 4th 1896 1:30 a.m. to be precise Henry achieved
His next Milestone under cloak of Darkness to avoid prying eyes Henry wheeled out an odd bicycle like Contraption from his lab and pedal furiously through the sui Detroit Dawn sandwiched between two rubber wheeled metal Cycles was a pulsating engine fueled by drops of gasoline
Clanking and bucking with each Power Stroke Henry’s experimental quadricycle represented four years of secret Relentless midnight trial and error though crude bulky and nearly uncontrollable the quadricycle indeed moved by engine power alone confirming Henry’s core theory that a
Portable gas motor could Propel a carriage lacking horses when Henry had a chance meeting with Thomas Edison at the illumination company he told the enterprising inventor about it Edison encouraged Henry to keep going Henry made several adjustments over the next year including cooling
The engine to prevent catastrophic overheating in 1898 when a curious British industrialist offered to buy his history making prototype for 200 dollars. Henry took the money to make a more improved version. Henry envisioned that perhaps one day there would be a way to create a simple
Reliable gas- powered car affordable to average workers trying to escape a life of only moving as fast as their feet or horses could carry them people call him a fanciful dreamer but Henry felt confident he could make this dream a reality what he needed was investors and failure was not an
Option. with support from Detroit’s mayor Henry feverishly constructed his second larger experimental automobile prototype sturdier and heftier than his previous creation this model caught the eye of William Murphy a wealthy Lumber merchant after personally test driving Henry’s ungainly but roaring vehicle Murphy proposed a partnership on the spot Henry managed to
Acquire a total of 12 investors and a capital of $15,000 and on August 5th 18 1999 Detroit automobile company was birthed as America’s 17th Motorcar startup while Henry was the mechanical superintendent and could make a car run he wasn’t capable yet of manufacturing enough
Of those cars to make a company run there were many other brands of Horseless carriages at this point and all of them were handmade and extremely expensive and because of this cars only serve the function as a luxury item for the rich but Henry was thinking different while director pressed for
Sensible production of sailable motor carriages for the elite Henry sank company resources into radical personal pet projects unlikely to deliver near-term Revenue he built a delivery wagon model for hauling light Goods but unfortunately it wasn’t what his shareholders wanted they
Wanted a variety of different Vehicles all built as quickly as possible to sell for top dollar to Rich hobbyists but Henry was a perfectionist and worked slow also Henry relied on outside vendors to supply most components so delays and tentative Supply chains meant entire Factory shutdowns
While awaiting backordered Parts crippling any efficiency gains Henry was in constant conflict with shareholders who grew furious with constant production delays eventually Henry’s Venture capsized just a year later sinking under the weight of his lofty Ambitions colliding with
Boardroom pragmatism after 2 years of operation a mere 20 Vehicles had been con constructed an abysmal total with cash reserves evaporated Henry was unceremoniously dismissed from his own company but true to his irrepressible nature he remained unfazed taking it as a lesson learned not a legacy
Cemented failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again he said in truth Henry also felt reliefed to be unburdened from the executive duties and impatient investors who couldn’t see the trailblaze in Long View as he did he was now free to build purely as he wished
Without compromise and he decided to get into racing and this time he wouldn’t [Music] fail understanding that winning races carried publicity value far exceeding actually selling Motorcars to the ultra wealthy Henry pivoted his next venture to designing Speedy Nimble race cars to
Pit against rival car makes Henry felt strongly that race cars exuded visceral excitement many Americans craved and beating other backers cars would broadcast Henry’s engineering Wizardry for all to see attracting possible new investors for all his future endeavors Henry saw that other
Race cars at the time were too focused on power so Henry thought he would focus on weight he started on a lightweight 26 horow two-cylinder race car which he used to win his first race a 10-lap competition at the Detroit driving Club Henry’s newly constructed race car faced off against
The Fearsome machine of legendary Cleveland car builder Alexander Winton piloted by America’s top professional driver to the shock of all Henry’s 26 horsepower strip down Speedster triumphed and as word spread it vaulted Henry’s confidence and credibility to attempt forming a new automobile
Firm so much so in fact that some of Henry’s old investors from his first company including mayor Murphy and karon Alexander Malcomson reapo him to create a second company which they called The Henry Ford Company the goal of the newly formed Henry Ford company was to produce lightweight
City cars however Henry’s recent success in racing had his mind racing about building more race cars and so very quickly just like his first failed company Henry was at odds with the shareholders of his namesake company tension simmered with Henry continually dedicating the firm’s Capital
Towards further race car development rather than the sensible passenger models that his executive board expected would turn actual profit once again investors were extremely frustrated with Henry Ford and eventually replaced him as chief engineer thus Henry Ford left the Henry Ford Company his
Company was now headed up by Master engineer Henry Leeland who would have great success after the Henry Ford company was renamed to the founder of Detroit Cadillac Henry Ford had two failed businesses but he wasn’t going to give up that easily he continued to work on race cars and in
1901 he created the groundbreaking 80 horsepower Ford 999 and 2 years later his next car broke All American Driving records with a top speed of 56 mph and this success in the racing World helped Henry Forge reputation which once again attracted the attention of investors who wanted to work with
The determined mechanic and engineer this time Henry thought there must be some way to turn his Innovative mind into making a profitable car and if the third time is a charm in 1903 Henry put his efforts into his third business venture the Ford motor [Music] company two-time business
Failure Henry Ford now at the age of 40 was about to experience success beyond anything he dreamed possible colar and Alexander Malcomson still believed in Henry and he along with Henry gathered several new investors for Forge third attempt at building a car company investors included
John and Horus Dodge as well as malson’s Uncle his secretary and two of his lawyers in total they all put up the $28,000 needed to launch the newly formed Ford Motor Company and Henry told his Ford Motors stakeholders I will build a motor car for the great multitude it will be
Large enough for the the family but small enough for the individual it will be constructed of the best materials by the best men it will be Solo in price that no man making a good salary will
Be unable to own one Henry focus on creating an easy to operate No Frills car simple enough for ordinary citizens to purchase at the time most models cost upwards of $11,000 pricing them beyond all but the wealthiest 2% of America so Henry’s populace notion was Radical 1903
When cars remained play things for the rich and Henry’s top-notch engineering team and Clarity of vision was put to use churning through over 20 experimental prototypes in 2 years before arriving at his minimalist Model A A 2C Runabout with 8 horsepower 12200 lb at a top speed of 28 mph in
1903 Henry sold his first Model A to a Chicago dentist in less than a year over 500 100 model A’s had been sold at the same time the Ford Motor Company was upgrading the line with the model B
It was bigger more powerful and considerably more expensive than the model A there was even a model C with 10 horsepower but Henry Ford just couldn’t get comfortable with the notion of a luxury car he wanted to keep it simple but even as demand outpaced production capacity affirming Henry’s
Belief and pent up desire in an affordable usable car the manufacturing still crept along in 19th century fashion one vehicle at a time each component was painstakingly handcrafted then combined to form a complete automobile skilled workers clustered around a slowly emerging
Chassis like surgeons hovering over a patient however everything changed during a visit to a Chicago [Music] slaughterhouse it was 1904 in a cold Chicago Meat Packing plant when Henry witness livestock effortlessly gliding past workers performing single disassembly tasks as the cow
Bodies moved along a conveyor belt each butcher performed one specific task it was unbelievably quick and efficient and Henry decided to adopt the innovation of this assembly line for his own car factories by splitting the production process into a series of small individual tasks he could
Assign workers to one task each which they could quickly complete over and over again with no skill and no experience required if aligned properly a car under construction could travel pausing only for each employee to efficiently add the respective elements to incubate this production
Line concept Henry constructed a massive factory in late 1904 and fine-tuned installation of the unprecedented mechanized approach ingenious machines stamped out identical chassis and body parts conveying them to workers strategically doing small repetitive installation steps as the unit tled through the plant immediately Factory efficiency increased by 500% and Henry was able
To quickly expand and hire 300 new employees since he could hire cheap low skilled labor to do these repetitive tasks as output climbed prices correspondingly dropped putting ownership Within Reach of America’s swelling middle class and Henry put his assembly line concept to use
With his next line of automobile in 1908 came Henry’s piece to resistance the defining Model T and apotheosis of Dependable uncomplicated Mobility priced initially around $850 the model T’s smart design targeted reliability over features and it attracted a fanatical
Following it had the steering wheel on the left which every other company soon copied the entire engine and transmission were enclosed the four cylinder ERS were cast in a solid block and the suspension used two semi-elliptic Springs 15,000 orders flooded forward within days and owning the
Entire manufacturing chain was Central to Henry’s vision for scaling affordability to that end he constructed a maze of maximally efficient factories supplying every conceivable part subassembly and raw material this unprecedented coordination of mass production enabled sweeping economies of scale by 1910 booming demand for model T’s forced Henry to construct an enormous
New Factory in Highland Park capable of producing over 700 cars daily rather than workers walking around to fix chassis the Model T frame now came to them snaking through the plant stations were strategically spaced allowing each employee to efficiently bolt on their two parts as the vehicle
Glided by this revolutionary workflow collapsed 12-hour build times down to just 90 minutes and every model te rolled out of the factory with the same color and same interchangeable parts it was an immediate best seller and it brought in huge profits for the company allowing them to
Ramp up production even further by 1914 Henry was selling more cars than all other car manufacturers in America combined generating over 300,000 cars annually in just 5 years output roared from a meager 20,000 units to over 1 milli ion and Henry continued chopping prices in lock step with
Their swelling manufacturing prowess as volumes doubled yearly Henry slashed Model T prices in fact by 1916 the Model T that once cost 850 was now selling for less than 400 his Blockbuster recipe seemed bulletproof optimized production cut cost pump savings into greater output and lower
Sticker prices further to exploit demand before long 50% of the cars on the road were Fords and Henry Ford was a household name on his way to becoming one of the richest and most powerful men in [Music] America when the Model T car chassi was put into motion along a human assembly line
Forever transforming how cars would be made it also created Problems by hiring cheap labor to do simple repetitive tasks it began to wear down the workers mental well-being being they would lay in bed at night dreaming they were still at the factory working and it was creating High turnover
Rates new enthusiastic employees would quickly realize that the job wasn’t so easy after all and turnover was getting so high that it would take 1,000 men just to fill 100 positions also Henry Ford had been known for slowly speeding up the assembly line each week just to squeeze a few more
Cars a day into the system and Henry also knew that he couldn’t have the assembly line stop or it would crash the entire operation so Henry Ford did the nearly Unthinkable he doubled the average
Worker’s wage from roughly $2 per day to $5 a day an unheard of salary for manual labor in the early 1900s $5 a day easily solved the workers turnover rate but higher wages only created yet another problem angry investors since Henry didn’t want to raise the price of the automobile for consumers he
Decided the money would come out of the profits he would pay as dividends and his investors were not happy they didn’t understand why he would choose to give his profits to his workers and given the high demand of the Model T why wouldn’t Henry raise his price instead he was lowering his
Price it went against the basic laws of supply and demand two of his biggest investors John and Horus Dodge felt demand was so high and so too should be the price PR John and horse Dodge were experts in car design and Manufacturing and were currently supplying thousands of parts to Ford as
Car experts they had also been suggesting to Henry ways to improve his Model T but it was falling on deaf ears after multiple failures success was going to Henry Ford’s head he thought his Model T
Was perfect he didn’t want to listen to any advice on changes or improvements the Model T came one way and only in one color and people bought it if it’s not broke don’t fix it this Clash would lead the Dodge Brothers into going into competition with Henry Ford creating their own car company
The Dodge Brothers Motor Company and in 1914 they created their own four-cylinder car the Dodge model 3035 touring car marketed as a slightly more upscale competitor to the Ford Model T it offered an all steel body unlike the wood frame of the Model T and it had 35 horsepower power compared
To the model T’s 20 horsepower the Dodgers sold their car for over $800 even while Henry was still lowering his Model T to half that price the Dodge logic was that if someone wanted a better quality
Car they’d be willing to pay more for it John Dodge was once quoted as saying someday people who own a Ford are going to want to buy an automobile and by 1916 Dodge cars were ranked second in Us
Sales behind only Ford Henry Ford’s response was severe the way Henry saw it his two other car companies had failed due to investor meddling and this time now a massive success Henry Ford felt he no longer needed to answer to his Board of investors especially the Dodge Brothers who
Were also now his competition so Henry Ford simply stopped paying his investors their dividends and instead spent his money on expansion creating the iconic gigant antic River Rouge Factory to further expand his car production soon after the Dodge Brothers sued Henry between not paying his
Dividends raising workers wages and lowering the price of the cars without the board’s consent they questioned Henry’s ability to responsibly lead the company during the trial the judge sided with the Dodge Brothers and Henry Ford was ordered to pay out millions of dollars in Lost dividends and
Penalties but Henry Ford now with the money to do what he wanted still shocked everybody with two unheard of moves first he resigned as president of the Ford Motor Company naming his only son etel aged 26 as president of Ford Motors it shocked the financial world that Henry Ford would resign as
Head of Ford motors and the stock prices crashed then Ford turned around and bought out nearly all of the investor company shares essentially putting the majority of the ownership of Ford motors Under the Umbrella of the Ford family name it cost him today’s equivalent of nearly $700 million
But from that point on Henry was the dictator of Ford Motors he didn’t have to answer to anyone else whatever Henry wanted Henry got ironically only one year later in 1920 both John and Horus Dodge would die due to the Spanish flu epidemic Henry Ford’s success was growing so quickly that
He was starting to believe in narrative about himself that as a man who revolutionized the Auto industry and modernized the workforce in America that he alone also knew how to solve the rest of the world’s [Music] problems during the same years as the Model T was taking off Henry Ford was now
Becoming worldly as a farm boy he was raised as a passivist who opposed war and he also supported causes that opposed military intervention but now now as rich and Powerful Henry Ford’s arrogance was starting to Cloud his judgment he thought I’m The Man Who revolutionized the world with
The Model T and the $5 work day why can’t I speak out about other worldly things and in 1915 with tensions breaking out in Europe Henry thought he had the power to single-handedly stop World War I from happening Henry Ford chartered an oceanliner the Oscar 2 and headed to Europe
As a peace ad on a diplomatic mission to broker peace in Europe before the war escalated Ford had reached out to President woodro Wilson for support but Wilson felt that Henry was doing a Fool’s errand and declined even Henry Ford’s Friend Thomas Edison declined joining the peace
Ship to Europe nonetheless Henry Ford thought he could create peace in Europe and set out November 15th his efforts were a disaster with reporters claiming of infighting on the cruise liner of amongst other pacifists dubbing the trip A Ship of Fools upon arriving in Norway 3 weeks later
Henry quickly realized the error of his ways and turned around and went home clearly he had built the PowerHouse company but that didn’t mean he had the power to stop World War but it wasn’t all bad
Upon his return to the United States people hailed Henry as a hero for trying and throughout the eventual War Ford would support the United States war effort supplying weapons including Liberty war plane engines and a submarine Chaser the eagle booat after World War I ended President Wilson
Urged Ford to run for US Senate Henry said that he would run but he wouldn’t invest any of his own money on a campaign he lost by a narrow margin of just 7,000 [Music] votes for Henry Ford his
Need for power and control were growing even his things were starting to loosen from his grasp even though Henry Ford was no longer president of his namesake Ford Motors Company he had no intention to move away from the day-to-day of running the company in fact just the opposite as the way Henry
Saw it his son etel was the perfect puppet to be president and Henry now got to run the company as its Chief investor and final decision maker Henry and his son etel were very different men
Etel was a soft gentler Family Man raising four small kids and had grown up in a life of luxury Henry was a farmer’s boy hardworking stubborn shy and tough as nails and Henry resented his son etel
For not being tougher Henry Ford never drank but etel was more social enjoying a night out dancing and drinking cocktails and as a man growing up in the Roaring 20s etel had a better sense of the mind of the Modern Man edel personally liked the newer flashier automobiles he was seeing on the
Road and he begged his father for updates to the model te but Henry refused to change Henry just couldn’t see what edel saw that car designs could change like styles of clothing and types of music
Henry Ford would shoot down any idea Edsel had for an update even as it became clear competition was starting to creep up on the Model T especially from General Motors the 1920s were known for its economic Prosperity Social and cultural change and though it would take years for that to fully
Become clear to Henry Ford eventually the slowing sales of the Model T along with edel’s insistence of a need for an updated car gave way for Henry to okay the development of Ford’s next major vehicle
The model A in 1927 around the time that the last Model T came off the assembly line the first Model A was released now available in four colors and not just black the 40 horsepower vehicle came in nine Styles including coups convertibles sedans and more selling 3 million in the first 3
Years Henry Ford had done it again with another Blockbuster car but deep down Henry was never comfortable in the modern world that he helped shape he liked an older America more than he liked change meanwhile in the factories times were also changing with disgruntled Factory workers
Becoming vocal talks of Union organizing within the factory Halls had a real chance of ending the Ford Motors machine Henry had been instrumental in making solid helpful changes for his workers and for the betterment of their lives even beyond the impressive $5 a day salary increase Ford
Offered classes to let immigrants learn English or as some called it americanizing immigrants and Ford also reduced the number of worked days in the week from 600 down to 5 an unheard of benefit at the time and something that we still use today additionally taking a suggestion from his wife
Clara he lowered the work day to just 8 hours a day another standard that still exists today while it benefited the workers it also benefited Henry who could now run three 8 hour shifts in the plant creating 24 hours of continuous assembly line production yet despite these benefits for
Employees Henry harbored no soft spot whatsoever for independent labor activism which he despised as a betting laziness and restricting output so all of these benefits came with a caveat that the workers would take his kindness and not complain he called this approach fordism
And to ensure his workers didn’t get out of hand Henry Ford created a service department a group of tough thugs whose job it was to intimidate and punish workers who got out of hand and didn’t follow fordism rules to discourage organizing Henry enlisted Harry Bennett a ruthless former
Navy boxer to head internal security squads to storm strike lines swinging clubs with impunity his men acted as Ford’s intimidating shock troops against early unionization efforts by United Auto Workers leaving workers bloodied and defeated and this violent battle would play out at Ford for
Decades [Music] one of the secrets to keeping the price of his cars low in addition to the assembly line was that Henry Ford knew that as long as he could make his own Parts he wasn’t at the
Mercy of outside vendors however there was one part that was out of his control the rubber to make tires so in the late 1920s Henry had another Grand Vision to build a rubber Plantation deep in the Brazilian jungle Henry set his sights on Brazil buying up millions of Acres of rugged
Wilderness with grand plans to farm rubber trees and it wasn’t just about securing rubber supplies Henry also wanted to create a Utopian community a slice of Rural America in the heart of the Amazon for all the plantation workers to call home he dubbed this ambitious colony fordlandia and it
Was truly astonishing single family homes shops a school golf of course even a modern hospital at its peak over 7,000 Souls called it home but there was a dark Underside to this wouldbe paradise you see Henry imposed Draconian set of rules on the town folk no drinking no smoking no sports
Or card playing even in the privacy of one’s home a police force was tasked with enforcing Ford’s Stern edict as you can imagine this didn’t exactly endear the workers to either the place or or Henry and this was just the beginning of Ford Landa’s troubles the merciless jungle climate
Wrecked Havoc floods and diseases crippled rubber production worker discontent festered finally boiling over into open revolt against the overbearing American managers despite the mounting fiascos Henry kept doubling down on his jungle Utopia pouring in millions more but eventually
A leaf blight ravaged the rubber Plantation sealing Fort Landa’s fate as a failure of Epic [Music] Proportions when Henry was growing up on the farms in the midwest anti-Semitism was actually very common it fell under a general mistrust of the banking systems and those in
Power but as Henry Ford entered his later years those deep held feelings began to surface with an increasing Obsession blaming Jews for pretty much everything thing he didn’t like in the world the Jew caused the War the Jew caused thievery in the country the Jew caused problems in our
Navy and while this anti-semitic rhetoric isn’t new what was new is that Henry Ford now had the money and the power to publish his ideas on paper and spread it around the world it was a mix of primitive bigotry alongside conspiracy theory jealousy over Jewish business success and
Progressive Era social control all all aimed at cultural assimilation to propagate these paranoid anti-semitic delusions Henry Ford bankroll a newspaper the Dearborn independent filled with jew-hating propaganda and Henry Ford required every Ford dealership Nationwide to purchase newspaper subscription for free customer distribution to boost circulation
At its peak it had over 700,000 weekly readers lapping up its bigoted B he even published his own toxic series entitled The International Jew the world’s foremost problem consisting of over 60 hate-filled diet tribes Jewish advocacy groups boycotted Ford Motor Company purchases
Over Henry’s refusal to Halt publication or recant views meanwhile in Europe the Dearborn independent hate found eager promotion by Rising fascists like Hitler who revered Henry Ford as an inspiration German translation of his anti-semitic pamphlets and book series continued stoking ominous anti-jewish sentiment across Central Europe in 1938 Henry Ford accepted
The Nazi officials German Grand Cross the highest honor the third right could bestow on a foreigner in tacd endorsement of their racial ideologies despite International outcry over newsreels exposing fascist atrocities and oppression though it is said that when Henry Ford learned
About the the atrocities that happened during the second world war he was horrified for what [Music] transpired in October 1929 the stock market crashed millions of people were out of work and though Ford would certainly have enough money not to personally feel the financial pinch
His sales slowed due to consumer spending Henry Ford felt he needed to be part of the solution a terribly shy person and frightened public speaker Henry Bo nonetheless joined forces With Friends Thomas Edison and tire magnet Harvey Firestone in a radio broadcast offering advice during the
Depression saying if a young man makes up his mind to work there’s no limit to what he can do but if he makes up his mind to go at it without the idea of work why he hasn’t much changed his words of
Encouragement however would not stop the eventual slowdown of car sales and after only 3 years on the market Model A sales fell dramatically also Chevrolet had a six-cylinder engine and it was cutting into Ford’s market share Ford was forced to shut down production and send workers home and
Those who stayed found their wages cut frustration boiled over and during those years a young labor organizer named Walter Ruther had been part of forming a union called the United Auto Workers and they had recently folded GM and Chrysler under their umbrella and they were setting their sites
On Ford on a bitterly cold day a crowd gathered to march on the Rouge Plant and confront Henry Ford with a demand for more jobs at the Dearborne City Limits local police had amassed but the Marchers ignored their orders to disperse Ford’s service department showed up and things got out of
Hand police attacked and a fullscale riot broke out machine gun fire dispersed the crowd it was dubbed the Ford Massacre in the aftermath of the fighting four young Marchers lay dead a fifth died several days later and there were no new jobs but during the Slowdown it did make Henry go
Back to the drawing board coming up with his last great Triumph the V8 engine Chevrolet had brought out a six-cylinder engine which was more powerful than Ford’s 4 and Henry didn’t like six cylinder
Engines so he went on ahead to the V8 and a Ford V8 could probably 70 to 80 mph tributes from all over celebrated forge’s return to genius fan mail from notorious gangsters like John Dillinger and Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde Fame wrote to Henry Ford thanking him for making a car
That at the time was faster than a police vehicle and the engine helped bring workers back to the factory with the success of the V8 Ford found time to turn his attention to Herbert Hoover’s 1932 reelection campaign Ford was still painfully shy about public speaking but he offered these
Words I support the best man for the job Herbert Hoover should be allowed to carry out his program and I think he will however Americans in record numbers disagreed with Henry Ford’s politics in 1932 and President Franklin Roosevelt was elected in a Landslide by now due to the layoffs and the
Violent service department working at Ford in the 19 1930s was a living nightmare Ford was the long holdout company that did everything in his power to keep the union away it was Henry Ford’s ability to wield incredible power and fear and it worked it wasn’t until April 1st 1941 when Andy derer one
Of the workers in the steel Rolling Mill changed labor history at Ford Andy got into an argument with the foreman and then finally decided he had enough he started chanting strike strike strike and all along the assembly line the chant kept picking up and that was it the workers just
Stopped Henry Ford Was preparing for a long fight when something unexpected happened his wife Clara joined the battle siding with the workers clar for demanded that he settle with the Union it was totally out of character for her to interfere but Clara was afraid the situation would
Explode into real violence and she threatened to leave leave her husband if he didn’t put an end to the hostilities Henry Ford finally caved [Music] in Henry’s ears stiffened Against The Winds of Change blowing through the automobile industry as Sleek stylish Challengers like Chevy
Surged Henry dismissed it as fads he remained adamantly convinced working folks still prized function over flash he wrote off appeals from executives and his own son edil to develop an updated automobile that could compete with General Motors increasingly ritzy Diversified offerings
Catering to shifting consumers tastes GM sold variety and affordability Ford sold status quo moreover Alfred Sloan’s management structure at GM encouraged Innovation and accountability through decentralized divisions unlike Ford’s dictatorship under the stubborn ill-willed Henry who still person controlled every aspect from design to manufacturing by 1936 Ford had slipped to third
In sales behind GM and Chrysler and the dazzling V8 engine just wasn’t enough mounting setbacks finally confronted Henry with the painful Legacy of his refusal to relinquish control for all his gifts of engineering and vision he lacked the flexibility to adapt to new realities and Henry
Wasn’t getting any younger by by the early 1940s Henry Ford approaching 80 years old had endured cardiovascular incidents leaving him mentally inconsistent and suspicious while he should have felt confident in his son zel’s ability to run the Ford motor company instead Henry Ford
Spent more and more time relying on his henchmen and head of service department Harry Bennett a man who started spending time with Henry Daly even in his home Henry Ford felt that there was nobody else in this world world that he could truly trust to do whatever he said and wanted
And it started to put a strain on Henry and the Ford family there was even a rumor that Harry and Henry had begun to conspire on how to have Harry Bennett claim control of the Ford company and all
Of this took in an emotional and physical toll on the Ford family a story that would play out over Henry Ford’s final years in 1943 Henry’s son edil Ford tragically died of cancer a number of illnesses actually stomach cancer liver cancer and ironically undulant fever as a result of drinking
Unpasteurized milk from his father’s Dairy Henry Ford was never the same after his son’s death and trusting no one in the company the frail Henry impulsively decided to resume leadership of Ford Motors at 80 years old and in failing Health once again Henry Ford became president of his namesake
Company most board directors grimaced at the prospect of the elderly Founder retaking The Wheel but for 20 years prior Henry had always asserted a defacto control irregardless of official executive title so the board reluctantly elected Henry out of a long ingrained habit of cow toeing
To his imposing will the move quickly proved disastrous however accelerating the company’s decline as Henry’s grasp of modern realities faded additionally with World War II plaguing the world World Ford Motors had been enlisted by President FDR to help with wartime efforts Ford was asked
To produce Jeeps troop carriers trucks tanks and the B24 Liberator bomber it was a strained relationship between Henry and President Roosevelt with FDR at one point considering folding Ford Motors into the government to make things smoother Ford was hemorrhaging over 10 million monthly in
Today’s terms in September 1945 as losses mounted with bankruptcy becoming a serious risk Henry’s wife Clara andel’s Widow Eleanor confronted Henry and demanded he seed control of the company to his grandson Henry Ford II they threatened to sell off their stock which amounted to nearly 3/4 of
The company’s total shares if he refused Henry was infuriated but had no choice but to give in Henry Ford immediately retired from operations after a half century fight firmly at the helm of his industry in failing Health from successive Strokes Henry became increasingly reclusive at
Feran his palacial Dearborn estate he passed away there on April 7th 1947 at age 83 from a cerebral hemorrhage less than 2 years after his storied career quietly concluded at his funeral attended by dignitaries over 5,000 admirers per hour filed past Henry’s casket during public
Viewing at the icon a Greenfield Village Museum he built to enshrine American Ingenuity he was laid to rest near the factory where his revolutionary vision for putting the world on Wheels first took shape although controversial for past prejudicial revews Henry Ford’s broader Legacy still stands
Tall as epitomizing American industrial might at its apex he fulfilled his Solem words etched near his final resting place a man can Triumph if he says he can today Ford Motor Company remains an iconic American institution with a value of nearly 100 billion he fulfilled his own motto life is a
Series of experiences each one of which makes us bigger Henry Ford certainly made the world he inherited dramatically bigger and if you’re interested in going even deeper into the world of Henry Ford you’re in luck here’s a video on what happened next with Henry Ford II as
Well as the entire Ford family and Henry Ford’s goon Harry Bennett all that you can watch right here right now if you like what you saw be sure to subscribe to the channel and give this video a like thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you in the next one
12 Comments
The thumb nail is misleading and childish the background music isn’t junked another video 👎👎👎👎💩😬💩😬
1926 4 colors 1927 6 colors for the model T so model A didn't add colors to the Ford line.
Good friends to conseill Henry …
Interesting information, but your wrong about Henry being"anti semetic". He was right on point! The so called "Jews" are of no blood line of the tribe of Judah or of the linage of Abraham. These Zionist Jews are from what is now the Ukraine. They of the Kazakhs and are responsible for much of the problems societies around the face. Do your homework and you will find how right he was.
Great video brother interesting. You use a lot of videos from the movie Tucker man in his dreams movie.
My Dad , Grand Dad loved FORD cars , and we had many. 🇺🇸
Die automatische Übersetzung hat doch erhebliche Schwächen…
Henry Ford even helped Adolf Hitler.
His picture reminds me of Joe Biden
The picture on the front shows Henry Ford as like the Devil. Remember he started the 5 day work week and made cars affordable for everyone. Nowadays CEOs are evil and gouge people anyway they can in order to make a buck. They are the ones that are evil not Henry Ford.
Henry Ford was NOT born in Detroit, as this video interpreter mentioned at the start of this show. Henry Ford was born on the family farm in Springwells Township which later renamed Dearborn Mi.
Nor was Henry Ford born after the Civil war but later in the same month as the battle of Gettysburg (july) 1863.