Edsel Ford

The play-by-play descriptions of all the World Series games are brought to you with the compliments of the Ford Motor Company.

Mr. Henry Ford, Mr. Edsel Ford, and your local Ford dealer, producers and distributors of Ford and Lincoln cars and Ford trucks.

The sponsors will be amply repaid is you get enjoyment from these broadcasts.

25 years have passed since the Motor City has seen a World Series.

You know, a member of the Communist Party.

And so that was kind of interesting in and of itself that, you know, it was actually Edsel Ford who commissioned the murals, not Henry, it was his son Edsel.

And so it was kind of odd that he commissioned a known communist to paint these murals.

But then Rivera actually left the Communist Party, wasn't active in politics anymore, and really decided that he would fight his fight, if you will, through his art.

So all the way leading up to war, Henry Ford is the loudest anti-war activist and the loudest anti-FDR activist.

And he has his only son, Edsel Ford, who is pro-FDR and wants to support the war effort.

is this sort of Shakespearean saga.

Edsel Ford is very ill, dying of cancer.

And what the Fords concoct after Pearl Harbor, even Henry Ford, the loudest anti-war activist, the loudest anti-FDR activist in the country, after Pearl Harbor, he says, you know what? We're in this war.

There's nothing we can do about it.

Let's use our factories to win the war, which is what happens.

You can't make this up.

He's had amazing drama and tragedy there when he hit the rock in 1981, um, which, you know, to some, some people say that made, made his team.

You know, the, the whole appeal with Edsel Ford sitting there and saying, "We'll match dollar for dollar every dollar that's donated," that gave him an enormous bankroll to, to get off being just a, a Brisbane garage operator and become a, a, a touring car supercar, a supercar champion and, um, and superstar.

But, um, and he's won the...

His team has won the race five times.

But Ford never wanted to incorporate these changes.

His son, Edsel, who unfortunately we remember today largely for the failure of the Edsel Ford, which was a, a special car, a brand-new design they were experimenting with in the '50s, which is one of the most famous and catastrophic failures in American industrial and business history, had nothing to do with Edsel.

He was dead by that point.

Uh, Edsel was Henry Ford's son, and he was the antithesis of Ford in most respects.

Dealers, you're just gonna have to wait.

We'll come up with a new car and get back to you when we can." And they did a year later, and it was actually one of the most anticipated car launches in American history, but it cost them tens of millions of dollars in the interim because Ford had been so certain really up until the very end that the Model T could continue forever.

And it was under Edsel's guidance that the next Ford, which is the Model A, would be developed, and it was actually Edsel Ford who styled it.

And I think, uh, it's, he did a really commendable job.

The play-by-play descriptions of all the World Series games are brought to you with the compliments of the Ford Motor Company.

Mr. Henry Ford, Mr. Edsel Ford, and your local Ford dealer, producers

and distributors of Ford and Lincoln cars and Ford trucks.

The sponsors will be amply repaid is you get enjoyment from these broadcasts.

compliments of the Ford Motor Company, Mr.

Henry Ford, Mr. Edsel Ford, and their local Ford and Lincoln Zephyr dealers.

The National Broadcasting Company Network program this afternoon and assisting in the broadcast is Tom Manning of WTAM Cleveland, who will give the first four and a half in each play-by-play account.

Then I will follow with that description.