Henry Ford's Herbert Hoover Speech.

Henry Ford was known for not giving many speeches. Among the first speeches was to a group of prisoners at Sing Sing Prison where his first remarks were "I'm glad to see you all here". 

In this short speech you can hear Ford's shortcomings as a reader & speech giver. This clip dates from 1931-32. Hoover lost the election, but I'm sure it wasn't because Henry Ford wasn't a fast reader.
 

Edsel Ford Honeymoon House Recently Sold

This is the home that Edsel Ford bought shortly after his marriage to Eleanor Clay. Henry Ford II was born in this house in 1917. Here's a chance to see some interior photos of this great house and as a bonus the webpage linked above has a similar feature on John Dodge's Grand daughters former home in Indian Village.

http://curbed.com/archives/2010/10/01/the-great-american-auto-mansion-bargainoff-dodge-vs-ford.php

The Doctor's Torpedo Runabout.

As I'm wont to do at times, I read obscure publications to broaden my horizons. Every so often I come across something that's familiar to me- in this case a Model T advertisement. I always figured a doctor back in the period would drive around a sporty Torpedo. I would if I was a doctor.
 This comes from the "Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland"  printed in 1911.

Don't Experiment...... Buy A Ford.

This is an ad for the Model F Ford produced in 1905, a relatively low production model. These cars were built at the Mack Ave. plant in Detroit- Ford's first factory, which was really more of an assembly place than anything. John & Horace Dodge produced most of the mechanical parts & engines for these cars and the bodies were made by outside concerns such as the Wilson Body Co. also in Detroit.

The Old Girl is a Glutton For Work!!!!

What a fine machine, automatic windshield, full complement of tools, gas lamps, and lots of brass to polish.
From a 1912 edition of Power Wagon magazine.

Sales Calls in Style.............

Here's a 1930 Model A Tudor with what appears to be a company logo on the door. Model A Coupes & Tudors were frequently used by traveling salesmen back in the period. This car helps prove that to be true. Of course it could just be a company car that the managers use for runs to the Greasy Spoon for lunch, either way they got where they were going in style!

Photo of the Day.....

Here is a rare color photo of the Ford Soybean Processing plant at the Rouge plant, circa 1943. Ford was a big advocate of the soybean and it's said that a bushel of soybeans went into each Ford car. Soybean plastic shift knobs & window risers, soybean oil in the paint and soybean fibers in the upholstery fabrics.

This doesn't even count Ford's fascination with soybeans as a food. This will be covered in a separate post, as it's worthy of it's own entry.

1932 Ford Promotional Film

I like the '32s esp the seldom seen ones like that Sport Coupe.  But I like what's in the garage even better. Look at all the Model A's! I'll take that '30-31 Standard Coupe, any of the Roadsters. I'm not picky- any of those will work.

Vintage Ad of the Week.

Here's a 1924 Model T advertisement with an artist's conception of brand new Model T Fords leaving the Highland Park plant.

Henry Ford Selling Stock in 1921?

This little nugget was found in a 1921 issue of Motor Age magazine.

As we know now, it was false, but Ford was needing money at the time to help fund the buyout of all remaining stockholders.

Henry Ford was in a financial bind at this point in time as he intended to buy out the Dodge Borthers', James Couzens, Horace Rackham, the John Gray estate and a couple minority stockholders in order to gain complete control of Ford Motor Co. 

What prompted this? The brothers John & Horace Dodge once they found out that there would be no stock dividend that year due to Henry Ford's decision to invest that money in Rouge Plant expansion, decided to sue Henry Ford in court over the matter.

He ultimately lost and was forced to pay huge dividends to all the stockholders. He also intended to give his employees their annual bonus, and he had a rather large tax payment coming due to the government.

All of these factors coupled with the fact that Ford did not have enough cash on hand to cover all these liabilities, posed a problem. Frank Klingensmith, a banker before joining Ford Motor Co, suggested Ford borrow the money from a bank or a consortium of Wall Street folks. Not happy with this suggestion he did however secure a line of credit in the event his Plan A didn't work.

Just what was "Plan A"? He closed the plant at the end of the year and did a comprehensive inventory. From the trivial items like pencil sharpeners(you had to use your own pocketknife to sharpen a pencil afterwards), desks, phones, and various things of similar nature were sold. It was discovered that there were enough parts on hand to build quite a few cars, so these cars were assembled and shipped to dealers along with stocks of parts. The dealers had not ordered these cars or parts, but if you refused a shipment, you stood a very good chance of losing your Ford franchise. Most dealers borrowed money to complete the deal.

Government bonds were cashed in to help finance this plan. All told Ford ended up with more than enough money to pay the dividend and bonus!  Here's the kicker- this was in 1919 & 1920.

Henry Ford did buy out all the stockholders and how he did that will comprise a future post.

So why would Ford sell stock in 1921 when he had finally gained complete 100% control of the company? He never did. This is just crap journalism reporting it as fact when it was really a rumor. See it even happened back then too!

1910 Ford Advertising.

As we continue on our Motor Age magazine jag, this is a sample of the various ads posted in that magazine. Makes you want to head on down to Piquette Avenue and pickup your shiny new Model T. I'd like to!

Garages..... 1910 Style.

I ran across these pages from a 1910 issue of Motor Age Magazine. I don't know about you, but I know my old Fords would look good in there.


   

Zenith Updraft Set-up For Model T Ford

From Motor Record Magazine 1921.

Henry Ford Gives His Pocket Watch Away....

In Lapeer, Michigan in 1929 Henry Ford was overseeing the removal of a sawmill he bought for Greenfield Viallge. As he was standing there, three young boys walked into the building and Ford engaged conversation with the kids.

Finding out their ages, Ford at random took out his gold pocket watch and gave it to one of the kids. The boy named "Billy Bob Kahler" was quite pleased but his friends were not since they didn't get a watch.

Henry Ford explained, "I only carry one watch at a time, but I have lots more in Dearborn." He then took down their names & addresses.

This is a fairly typical event with Ford. He liked kids and always tried to help them whether it be free medical care at Henry Ford Hospital or in this case a gold pocket watch. 

Photo of the Day

Here's a nice example of a '28 AA Ford Truck at work. Note the rear fenders- they appear be 1930-31 pieces. Also worthy of note is the high mounted rear view mirror. I wonder what's in the bags?

The Broken Watch

Henry Ford was a known prankster. This was a lifelong passion of Ford.

Among the earliest accounts are Ford nailing down a pair of shoes to the floor left by a messy co-worker, blowing sulfur fumes into a sealed room through a knothole in the paneling, and perhaps the most painful- hotwiring a urinal!

One yarn that is seldom told is the broken pocket watch gag. While he repeated this often over the years, perhaps the best account is the one given by Charles Sorensen-

Seems as if Henry Ford showed up at Sorensen's stateroom on the Henry Ford II while on a trip to examine a potential site for a branch assembly plant.  During this late night meeting Ford told Sorensen about the plan and instructed him to find a cheap knock off watch similar to the Howard watch that was a prized possession of Frank Klingensmith, at the time one of Ford's top executives. During a stop at port the next day Sorensen went and found a similar watch in a jewelry store and rushed back to the 'yacht' (actually an iron ore carrier, but Ford always referred to it as his yacht) and gave the watch to Ford.

Henry Ford turned the mainspring in the cheap watch to where it would run slow and exchanged watches in Klingensmith's vest while the vest was hanging on a lavatory door. Ford slipped the Howard in his pocket and walked away.

On deck, Ford set the itinerary and instructed everyone to check their watches so they could meet up at a specified time. Klingensmith made the comment that his watch was running slow. Sorensen grabs the watch from Klingensmith and said "well no sense keeping a watch that won't work" and threw it against a wall on the dock, promptly shattering it into pieces. Ford & Sorensen keeping a straight face, while Sorensen said "that was a fool thing for me to do Kling."

Klingensmith was seen scavenging all the pieces he could find while complaining to Sorensen & Ford that the watch was keepsake from his grandfather and could not be replaced.

3 weeks later the Howard watch was found in one of Klingensmith's other vests, having been delivered to Klingensmith's house by Henry Ford personally. He gave the watch to his wife who put it in the vest pocket.

Henry Ford had actually started tinkering with watches before cars & even in his later years would carry an eyepiece and watchmaker's tools in his pocket just on the in case someone had a watch that needed attention.

Model A Ford Assembly Line 1931

2 photos of the day here!

The first shows a new Deluxe Roadster reaching the end of the line with a couple of S/W Cabriolets in the rear.

The second photo is of a Briggs 4dr body being dropped onto a completed running gear.