Ford Motion Picture Laboratories

In 1913 Henry Ford started what was to become one of the largest in house corporate film production companies in Modern Times. He initially started out with one camera, but by April 1914 more cameras & related equipment were added.

The first film was "How Henry Ford Makes One Thousand Cars A Day".
Like any other Ford backed project, money was no object and top of the line equipment was procured & a staff over 2 dozen were hired to run said equipment. A short newsreel type film was produced until late 1916 called the "Ford Animated Weekly" which was mostly news of the day and sometimes travel points of interest. These films were offered at no cost to moviehouses and millions of people saw these short films, after all this was the days before TV and Radio was still in it's infancy. I'm sure these films are more entertaining than the junk that's on TV now!

Henry Ford later switched gears in film making, instead of continuing production of a newsreel type film, the production "Ford Educational Weekly" soon replaced the "Animated Weekly". Until 1919, these films were also distributed free to movie houses, after 1919 they were charged 25 cents to help with distribution cost.

Over the next few years, Ford film viewership continued to rise, however pressure from the Sales Department made the films more of a "silent advertisement" in hopes of putting the lasso to some new sales prospects.

The Ford films section of Ford Motor Company continued until 1933 when it was disbanded, perhaps due to the poor economic climate & lagging sales.

Title Screen for "Ford Animated Weekly" films.

Sources-
Public Image of Henry Ford- David L. Lewis
Beyond the Model T- Ford Bryan
Author's Research

Ford Rouge Plant 1927

Here is a nice aerial photo showing the Rouge Plant as it appeared in 1927.

Henry Ford Hospital Vintage Postcards

Here are a few random vintage postcards from my collection.

Homes of Ford Executives Part 1

This is the home formerly owned by Charles Sorensen, Henry Ford's number 1 production man for many years and author of "My Forty Years with Ford". The property was annexed by the City of Detroit for a Rouge Park expansion in the 1940s and the house was used for various functions, lastly being used by the Detroit Police Mounted Unit. The home was torn down in 1984, but if you look closely, there are still remnants of the home along the Rouge River.

Sorensen also owned a home in Algonac, Michigan an apartment in the Detroit Towers building on Jefferson Ave. in Detroit.

Charles Sorensen enjoyed sailing & boating and this led him to build a home in Miami on North Bay Road. This home is still standing and you can rent it for the princely sum of $29,500 a month. Yes per month! If you look at the following link, it shows some interior & exterior photos.

Charles Sorensen's Miami Home

Model A Fords Through The Years

A few of 1928's offerings-










Edsel Ford with an Early '28 Roadster.

New 1928 Model A Fords

1929 Model A Roadster (I uploaded the wrong photo, but am leaving it up!)

1928 Model A Pheaton. Note the one color paint job, no two color paint job on this car. Perhaps a pre-production model.


Interesting prototype body design. Too bad this was not produced, it would've been a few years ahead of the Chevrolet Suburban which was introduced in 1935

On This Day In 1927.......

The Model A Ford made it's debut. Thomas Edison had the honor of getting Model A No. 1, a Tudor sedan rebodied with a Phaeton body with black leather upholstery. This car still exists in the collection of the Henry Ford Museum, but I don't think it is on display currently.
Among the early receivers of a Model A were:
James Couzens - Former Ford Secretary/Treasurer and at the time of receiving Model A Serial No. 35 (also Couzens 1903 Model A was Serial No. 35) Couzens is the man wearing glasses & holding the door open on his very early Sport Coupe.

Mary Pickford also got a Sport Coupe by contacting Edsel Ford personally.


A fine display of early '28 Model A's in a Ford Dealer's showroom.
The next couple of days posts will be dedicated to Model A Fords in honor of one of the best cars Ford Motor Company has ever built.

Model A Ford Instrument Panel Design Variation

Here is a patent filed by Henry Ford in 1927 that shows a unique twist on a familiar design. It appears that Ford intended the Model A to have a magneto like the Model T. Note that the patent was not assigned until July 1928- several months after Model A production had begun.

On a personal note, I'm glad they didn't make the gas tanks that drawn down in production cars, I'm too long legged for that!


Model A Fuel Tank Patent - 1927/28

Henry Ford's First Jobs

Henry Ford left his father's Dearborn Farm as a teenager in 1879 and set out on foot to Detroit. His distaste for manual farming and increased curiosity in machinery helped make his case for leaving, much to his father's disapproval!

In Detroit, he moved in with his aunt, Rebecca Flaherty whose home was located on Franklin Street. He soon found work at the Michigan Car Company, and moved to a boarding house near Grand Junction. However after only 6 days on the job he got into trouble for "babbitting a box" but not much more is known as to what the box was or it's purpose.

After his trouble at Michigan Car, he found work at the James Flower & Brothers Machine Shop. It's widely understood the William Ford- Henry's father had put it in a good word for Henry as the elder Ford knew one of the Flower brothers. This facility was located at Bush & Woodbridge Streets in downtown Detroit.

At this job he earned $2.50 a week in wages, but his lodgings at 452 Baker Street cost $3.50 a week so he found evening work at the McGill Jewelry Store just a few doors down from his boarding house. Here at 444 Baker St. he repaired & oiled watches, a skill he taught himself back on the Dearborn Farm. This job paid $2.00 a week so he not only covered his living expenses, but had a few coins left over to buy engineering magazines & other trade publications.

In 1880 he left the Flower Brothers shop and went over to the Detroit Dry Dock Company, one of Detroit's largest shipbuilding firms. Even though he took a cut in wages, Ford felt it would be more beneficial to work in a larger shop for the experience. Years later in his first book "My Life & Work" he pontificated on his days the Detroit Dry Dock company, stating ti was at this shop that he got his first serious education on being a machinist.

Here Henry Ford ran into one of the most influential people of his early days- Frank Kirby. Ford admired Kirby not only for his skill & intellect, but the fact that Kirby being a big wig with the company took time to show young Henry how to do certain tasks, and make the job easier. Ford was enamored with Kirby so much so, in the 1920s when the Engineering Laboratory was built, amongst the names chiseled in on the limestone, aside from Edison, Burbank, etc were 5 letters "KIRBY".

Now that we know some of Henry's early working career, let's take a look at how these facilities have fared.

Flower Brothers Machine Shop- This site is now the location of the Renaissance Center in Downtown Detroit.

McGill Jewelry & Watch Shop-Reported to be demolished years ago. There is a building in Greenfield Village that was thought to be the McGill shop, but turns out it is not. Historical Ken has  a nice entry on his Greenfield Village Blog- Historical Ken's Blog Here.

Detroit Dry Dock- Some of the buildings are still in existence albeit in bad shape. There are tentative plans to re-use this building, but only time will tell!
Detroit 1701's Detroit Dry Dock Page

Wikipedia Entry on Detroit Dry Dock


Sources-
Ford The Times, The Man , The Company by Allen Nevins
Young Henry Ford by Sidney Olson
Author's Research

Open Model A Ford Engine

Youtube member Unclebarn1 has built a rather unique Model A display engine. Here's the video from his Youtube channel.  Excellent craftsmanship and certainly a great conversation piece!

Ford Building 1935 California Pacific Internation Exposition

Author's Collection

I ran across this nice website by the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Not only does this building still exist, but it has been restored, it's currently used by the museum.

There's no need for me to go into detail as the Museum website does a quite nice job of it. They are to be commended for saving a very rare piece of Ford Motor Company history!

San Diego Air & Space Museum Ford Building History

Ford Tri-Motor Aerobatics.

Henry Ford & William Stout got together in the early 1920s to go into the aircraft business. The most successful of all the various designs was the Ford Tri-Motor.

Not only was it a pioneer in the airline & air freight businesses, it also was one of the first to use aluminum sheeting as a flight surface covering instead of the more traditional fabric & dope method.

Here a few Ford Tri-Motor films from the era. The aerobatic videos are most striking as the Tri-Motor isn't widely known as an aerobatic craft.  Enjoy!

Fordlandia - Dual Book Review

Author's Collection

Here are 2 books based on Henry Ford's rubber plantation experiment in Brazil.

We will start with the one on the left- Fordlandia, a novel.  Written by Eduardo Sguiglia in 1997 and translated from Spanish by Patricia Duncan in 2000. This is a novel in the purest sense of the word, however it is based on Ford history and Fordlandia. As you read this book, you can tell Sguiglia did his homework and collected facts, but used the facts in different time frames. It works well and makes the book a pleasant read. 245 pages long, I finished this in an evening and have since read it a couple more times.

The story starts out with the plight of an Argentine who was hired by Ford to help solve labor problems at the plantation. He describes the interview process, the voyage to Fordlandia, interactions with the various folks during the journey. 

Once at the plantation he goes on to describe the living & working conditions and the day to day activities. I won't spoil the rest of the book for you, but I highly recommend this volume. Even non Ford junkies will enjoy reading it.  Just keep in mind that it is a work of fiction and you will see as you read it. This book has been recently reprinted, but I have not had the chance to see a reprinted copy to know if it differs from the editions I have in my collection.

The second book is a recent output by Greg Grandin. This edition was published in 2009 and you should be able to find paperback copies in your local bookstore if you desire that sort of thing. 

I found this book to be well researched and shed some new light on areas previously left in the dark. Like any book of this nature there are a few errors but they are small and do not detract from the book in general. this book is 372 pages long with well documented sources & notes. This book also goes into detail Ford's second Brazilian rubber project known as Belterra.

All in all I recommend both books for your Ford book shelf.