WEBVTT - Death of a Nepo Baby 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:03.880 Live from Television City in Hollywood. 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:10.840 On the evening of October thirteenth, nineteen fifty seven, millions 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:14.360 of Americans sat down to watch a special event on 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:19.880 television featuring some of the country's most popular entertainers. 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:27.600 Ing Crosbie, Frank Sinatra, lorosbry Clony, Loie Armstrong. 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:46.000 But the real star of the show its yes, the Edsel, 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:50.200 the car that the Ford Motor Company, sponsors of this show, 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:55.400 was introducing to the public with unprecedented fanfare. Here's being 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.480 Crosbie with old blue eyes, Frank Sinatra. 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:00.000 This is an opening show. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:01.880 Oh you're know on TV for Edzel to go all 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:03.639 the way. It's a great card too, bing and they're 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:04.600 putting on a great square. 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.840 It was a big night when the Edzel first came out. 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:09.640 This was a big deal, right. 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.360 It was about as big a deal as you can imagine. 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:16.960 But not too big to fail. Just two years after 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.360 its launch, the ed Sell was out of gas. The 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:26.240 very name immortalized as a byword for failure. But Edzell 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:28.320 wasn't just the name of a car. 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.960 Edgell was the name of Henry Ford's only son. 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:38.640 And one of history's most famous NEPO babies. Yes, nepo baby. 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.039 The nepo is short for nepotism. You may have heard 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:46.399 the term nepo baby to describe celebrity children born to 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.920 celebrity parents and all the advantages that come with that. 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.720 But family connections affect every field of work and always 0:01:54.760 --> 0:02:00.760 have And when family is involved, so is drama. In 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.160 this episode, we'll tell you the story of Henry and 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:07.640 Ed sul Ford. Oh the pressure of being the son 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:09.480 of that guy. 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:12.440 It had to be tough, knowing that you would never 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.840 be able to top what your father had done because 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:16.359 it couldn't be done anymore. 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.520 You'll also hear about the first father and son to 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:24.519 make it to the White House. Service is the family business. 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.799 Service is the family business because the family business is America. 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.560 And speaking of the White House, we'll recount the tale 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:37.080 of the famous daughter who strolled into sixteen hundred Pennsylvania 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:41.880 Avenue on four legs. Was Pushinka a nepo baby? 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.240 I would have to say yes, I mean, look at 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:45.800 the lineage she came from. 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:51.480 Three stories, three families, three big names, well two if 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.959 you don't count the dog from CBS Sunday Morning and 0:02:55.000 --> 0:03:09.440 iHeart I'm Morocca. And this is mobituary this moment, NEPO, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:16.840 Babies of History, Edzel, Ford, John Quincy Adams, and Prushinka 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:30.840 the Dog. You say the word ed Sel and most 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:31.799 people think what. 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:36.080 A synonym for failure or commercial product failure in any event. 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:41.040 That's Matt Anderson. He's the curator of Transportation at the 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:46.200 amazing Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan. 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:51.320 For ten seasons, I've hosted the CBS television series Innovation 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.760 Nation at the Henry Ford, and Matt is my go 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.360 to guy for all things automotive. 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:02.840 I like to think that the ed Sel was overstyled, oversold, 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:04.240 and overpriced. 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.480 Would you say it was a bad car. 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.240 I don't think the Edzel was a bad car per se. 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.680 I mean it was a solid vehicle. The engineering did work, 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.320 but it just wasn't what the market wanted. Ford promised 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.719 something entirely new in automotive engineering and design, and in 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:24.120 the end, the Edgel just had things that are kind 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:24.720 of gimmicky. 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.960 The Edzel was meant to compete with mid priced cars 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:33.760 like Chrysler's Dodge and GM's Pontiac and Buick, and it 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:39.000 boasted several genuine innovations like system warning lights on the dashboard, 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.600 which every car made today has, But it also had 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:47.080 features no one seemed to need, like a rolling dome speedometer, 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.920 and debuting in the midst of a recession, it's low 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.560 miles per gallon was a non starter for most consumers. 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.360 As for the design of the car, it got attention 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:03.040 all right, the wrong to attention the oddly shaped vertical 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.800 grill at the front. Comedian Danny Thomas said it made 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:10.799 the car look like an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon. Others 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:14.240 likened the grill's shape to something more risque. 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.200 That was a comment made at the time. It made 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:21.000 ever since, yes, at the Edzel represented a certain anatomical part, 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:21.719 and we'll leave it at that. 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.479 The company had spent ten years and two hundred and 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.640 fifty million dollars on the Edsol. After just three model 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:32.679 years and a loss of three hundred and fifty million, 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:37.640 the Edzel was discontinued over sixteen years after the man 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.680 for whom it was named, someone who had nothing to 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.839 do with the car, had died. The final insult to 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:48.160 a man who never got the credit he deserved from 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.800 the public or from his own father. 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.839 When folks generations into the future think back on the 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:56.800 twentieth century. There are just a few names that are 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.840 going to be remembered, and Henry Ford's is one of them. 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:05.680 Henry Ford revolutionized mass industrial production with the assembly line. 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.719 He introduced the five dollar workday, helping to create a 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:13.080 middle class, and he was the man behind the vehicle 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:14.800 that changed America. 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:18.120 The Model T which Henry Ford had designed and introduced, 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.920 changed the automobile from being a plaything for the wealthy 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:23.320 into a tool of everyday life. 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:27.000 It ended the isolation of the farmer and made the 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:29.200 Sunday ride at National Institution. 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.799 When Edsel Ford rolled off the assembly line on November sixteenth, 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:38.880 eighteen ninety three, courtesy of Henry and Clara Ford, the 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:43.040 family wasn't yet wealthy. Henry was still just getting started. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.200 Just about six weeks after Edsel was born, he built 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.760 his first internal combustion engine and it worked. He only 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:52.360 ran it for about thirty seconds or so, but that 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.159 moment kind of was a Eureka moment for Henry Ford 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:56.680 and knew that this was what he was going to do. 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:58.920 He was going to get into the automobile business. 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:04.800 An only child, Edseell grew up alongside that business. At 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.960 age two, he wrote in his father's first gas powered automobile, 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:13.200 the Quadricycle PSI, I've driven in a replica of the original, 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.000 four big bicycle wheels, a little buggy seat and no brakes. 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:19.240 You had to use your foot to stop at Fred 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:23.640 Flintstone style. As a young boy, Edsell spent hours drawing 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.760 imaginative designs for his own cars. As a teenager, he 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:30.320 spent as much time as he could after school at 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:34.200 his father's auto plant, helping with the mail, attaching brass 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:37.560 tags to new vehicles, and in nineteen oh eight, when 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.600 Edseell was sixteen years old, Henry unveiled the Model T. 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:44.960 I think it's a measure of the esteem in which 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.640 his father held him at that point that Edzell was 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:49.760 a part of a very small group who was involved 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:52.800 in designing the Ford Model T. Henry literally built a 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:54.520 kind of a secret room in the corner of the 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.960 factory where his top engineers would sit and work through 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.520 what this automobile should be, and Edzell was there for 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:01.680 all of those discussions. 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.120 As soon as he graduated from high school, Edzell went 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.200 to work for his father full time, a newspaper at 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.760 the time described him as quote a quiet, hard working 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:16.600 youngster with a desk in his father's office, as familiar 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.000 with every branch of the business as any of the 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:20.400 officers in the company. 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:24.000 He was elected to the board of directors in nineteen 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.440 fifteen when he was all of twenty two years old. 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:29.360 So he moves pretty quickly from the bottom up to 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.280 the upper reaches of Ford Motor Company. 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.120 Do you think that he worried that people thought he 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.600 was there only because he was the boss's son. 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:41.160 That had to nagg at the back of Edgell's conscious 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:44.080 that people somewhere up or down the line at Ford 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:46.320 Motor Company would have thought he was just there by 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:47.880 virtue of who his father was. 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.360 When Edzell asked for an exemption from military service during 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.800 World War One to keep working at Ford Motor Company, 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:58.760 he was accused of being a draft dodger. 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.040 I think that on him because he really did believe 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.040 that he was of more value working at Ford Motor 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:06.360 Company than overseas. 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.440 But Edseell, who was named president of the company at 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:13.960 age twenty five, would prove himself worthy of his position 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.280 and in many ways a stark contrast to his father. 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.680 They were very much different. In fact, about as polar 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.760 opposite as you could imagine. Henry grew up on a farm. 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:27.880 He never finished his grade school education and kind of 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.240 worked his way up to his ultimate career goals. 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:36.120 Here's Henry espousing his belief that success starts and ends 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:37.280 with hard work. 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:39.920 The young man makes his mind the work. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:44.360 There's no event of what he can do, makes up 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:44.800 his mind to. 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:47.760 That's the idea. 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.240 Where he has much an. 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:50.920 He must study. 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:56.599 And Henry was proudly unpolished. On the other hand, ed 0:09:56.679 --> 0:10:02.280 Sell was urbane and sophisticated. Henry did trust experts. Edseell 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.520 admired them. Henry had little interest in the arts. Edzell 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.480 was a great patron of music and art in Detroit. 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:14.840 He commissioned the monumental Detroit Industry Murals from Mexican artist 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:18.920 Diego Rivera for the Detroit Institute of Arts, and let 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.120 me tell you, if you are ever in the Motor City, 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:25.120 you must must go see them. Henry never drank and 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:29.439 kept a close circle of friends. Edsell loved to socialize. 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.839 You know, people talk about work life balance today. Did 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:35.240 they differ on that score? 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:39.679 Absolutely? Henry lived and breathed his work. Even when he 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:41.719 was at home, he was still thinking about what was 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:44.959 going on at the Ford Motor Company. Whereas Edsel he 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.680 would put in his forty hours of fifty hours, whatever 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:49.360 it took in the company. But when he went home, 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:51.960 that was his time to enjoy with his family, to 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:56.200 enjoy recreational pursuits, to enjoy education in Richmond, whatever it 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:56.800 might be. 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.800 Edseell married Eleanor Clay in nineteen sixteen. They wasted no 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.600 time in starting a family. Their first child, Henry Ford, 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.040 the second, was born in nineteen seventeen. They went on 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:11.840 to have three more. Now, in terms of whom you'd 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:12.400 rather have. 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.040 As a boss, Henry had a very gruff management style, 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:18.959 his way or the highway. Edzel preferred to let people 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.600 talk about different options and think it over and come 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:23.240 to a logical conclusion. 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.000 Edseel was just a lot friendlier. 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:28.200 And ed made a point of greeting everybody on the 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.840 way into work in the morning, from the people on 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.720 the ground level there right on up to the senior executives. 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.559 And Henry always had a kind of a holder look 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:38.800 about him, particularly as he got older, you know, almost 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:44.040 a scowl about him, which would make him a little scary. 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.200 And not to be rude, but from certain angles he 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.280 could look like mister Burns from the Simpsons. 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.920 That's an adequate embarrasson I think there. 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.360 I wonder if Henry was a jealous of his son 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:56.800 when he saw how much employees liked Edsel. 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:59.840 I would imagine to some extent too, Henry was probably 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.960 yellis just of Edzel's youth. It's inevitable as we get older, 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:06.800 and here's Edzel rising up and just hitting the peak 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:08.640 in the prime of his own life. And it's a 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:10.440 time that's passed for Henry. So that had to have 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:11.280 been a part of it too. 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:15.120 Did Henry ever try to undermine his son? 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:19.720 Unfortunately, Henry undermined his son at just about every turn. 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.720 Edseell may have been the company's president, but Henry never 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:29.600 actually gave up the wheel. He retained full authority. Case 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:33.160 in point, when the Highland Park plant was becoming overcrowded, 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.800 senior managers appealed to Edseell. 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.719 So after listening to this and seeing the evidence, Edgel said, 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.880 let's build an annex, a new building for administrative offices. 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.280 And they gotten to the point where they dug a 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:46.920 hole for the foundation. 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:49.800 But when Henry saw the hole, he didn't like it. 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:54.240 He put the kebash on Edsel's expansion plans. 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.280 And try to reason with his father pushed back against 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.800 this idea. Henry wouldn't hear it, and Edsel finally just 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.160 as okay, fine, we'll close everything down, We'll fill in 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.480 the hole. You'd think that would be the end of it, 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:07.560 but it wasn't. Henry said no, no, don't fill in 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.640 the hole. Leave it that way. And so for several 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.960 months afterwards, everyone who came into Ford Motor Company saw 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.720 this big, gaping hole in the ground. They were infect 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:21.000 reminded every morning of who had the final say at 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:23.600 Ford Motor Company. So absolutely humiliating. 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.320 And to do that to his own son, yeah, very 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:32.000 very cruel. Driving father and son farther apart where they're 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:36.080 differing views on the world. Henry was viciously and very 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:37.760 publicly anti semitic. 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.240 That is the darkest stain on Henry Ford's character and 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:43.640 one that has not gone away and won't and shouldn't. 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:45.599 He was a virulent antisemit. 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:51.560 In nineteen eighteen, Henry purchased the Dearborn Independent newspaper, which 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.640 a year and a half later under his direction, began 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:59.480 publishing a series of articles entitled The International jew The 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:04.199 World's Problem, which claimed there was a vast Jewish conspiracy 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.000 and blamed the Jewish people for everything from war to 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:13.720 jazz music. The newspaper was distributed at dealerships across the country, 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:18.120 reaching a circulation of nine hundred thousand, and. 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.680 Edzell and Clara too. To their credit, they were on 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:24.960 the board of directors quote unquote of the Dearborn Independent 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.000 because it was owned entirely by the Ford family. They resigned. 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:30.320 Edgell in particular, said no, I'm not going to have 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:32.480 anything to do with this newspaper. He knew he couldn't 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.200 stop his father from publishing it, but at least he 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:36.440 wasn't going to be a part of it. 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.640 And then in the mid nineteen twenties came a rift 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.520 over Henry's other child, his beloved Model T. 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.880 The car was absolutely cutting edge in nineteen oh eight 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:50.920 nineteen oh nine when it was built and introduced, but 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.200 by the mid twenties eight to ninosaur. 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:57.320 The Chevrolet was helping General Motors roar passed Ford. But 0:14:57.480 --> 0:14:58.680 Henry didn't want to hear it. 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.480 That slump in the Model Tea's sales which really fall 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.120 off a cliff. Starting about nineteen twenty five is where 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.760 the break between Henry and Edsel really begins, where they're 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:11.480 more or less friendly and familial relationship starts to fall apart. 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:16.800 After years of pleading, Edzell finally convinced Henry to trade 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.800 in the Model T for the bigger and better looking 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:20.720 Model A. 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.200 The Model A is no doubt the first Ford automobile 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.400 that had real style to real class. 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:29.520 Boy, it seems like the cars that each of them 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:34.320 championed were sort of a reflection of them temperamentally right. 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:38.920 The Model T so important, ultimately very practical, The Model 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:43.000 A nicer to look at, more comfortable to drive. 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:44.720 Yeah. 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:49.280 With its design supervised by Edseel, the Model A went 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.400 on to sell over four and a half million and 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:56.040 put Forward back on top. Henry took the credit, but 0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:00.120 it was Edsel's triumph and not his only one. Ed 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:04.360 Soul was the driving force behind Ford's first luxury vehicle, 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:08.920 the Lincoln Continental, which architect Frank Lloyd Wright called the 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:11.240 most beautiful car in the world. 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:15.280 To this day, critics enthusiasts alike will refer to it 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.960 as one of the most beautiful American production cars ever built. 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.440 The United States, even when it is running and low, 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:23.160 is a pretty big business proposition. 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.760 You are now hearing rare audio of the press shy 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:31.200 ed soel Ford appearing alongside his father in nineteen thirty five. 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:33.640 What I believe the country is getting ready to make 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.480 a very decided step forward next year, and we are 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.880 doing all we can to help it along. What do 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:42.480 you think of that, Brodoc? But I think everybody has 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:44.160 decided that they've. 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:44.760 Got to go to work. 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.120 By that point, Ford Motor Company, under ed Sel, was 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.480 playing a major role in aviation. 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.000 People might not realize Ford Motor Company was very busy 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.240 in the aviation business in the nineteen twenties into the 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.000 very early nineteen thirties. They built one hundred and ninety 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.320 nine four Trimotor airplanes, which were really the first successful 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.440 all metal commercial aircraft flown in the United States. 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:14.159 When America entered World War II, Edsel oversaw production of 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:17.840 one bomber per hour at the company's Willow Run plant. 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.639 It was Edseel that was there running the company, meeting 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.959 with the government, meeting with the military, making things happen. 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:27.159 I don't think it's too much of a stretch to 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:31.040 say that Edgell made his dying breadth toward for World 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.480 War II production of Ford Motor Company. He gave his 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.200 every last ounce to that effort. 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.480 It was during the war, in nineteen forty three that 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:43.880 Edseell began experiencing intense pain in his stomach. His physician 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:48.920 diagnosed him with ulcers. When the pain didn't subside, Edseell 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:53.880 visited specialists who discovered that he was suffering from stomach cancer. 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.640 Sadly, at that point it had spread to other organs, 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:00.000 and you have to wonder if they had not misdiagnosed 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:02.800 it as ulcers. You know, even in the early forty 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.480 stomach cancer wasn't necessarily fatal. 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:10.280 But even as he weakened, Edzell continued working at the office, 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:11.920 does he tell his father? 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:16.920 Edgell tells his father about his condition. Unfortunately, Henry sort 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.400 of dismissed the whole thing. He said, well, no, Edgell's 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:22.880 just feeling sick because he's partying too much, he's drinking 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:25.879 too much, he's not eating the right foods, and Henry 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:28.840 was a fanatic on diet. I think Henry refused to 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:31.440 accept that his son could be terminally ill because this 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.200 was the person who was going to keep for Boter 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:35.040 company going. 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.160 Eventually, Edzell was confined to his home in Gross Point. 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:43.879 Henry and Clara visited their son's bedside, but even in 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:49.280 Edzell's final weeks of life, Henry was ignoring reality, insisting 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.480 to associates that Edzell would be back at work in 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:58.280 just a few weeks. Edzell Bryant Ford died on May 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:02.280 twenty ninth, nineteen forty three. The obituary from the New 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:06.399 York Times read, in the untimely death of Edsel Ford 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:10.520 at age forty nine, the nation has suffered a serious loss. 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:15.560 Self effacing and instinctively avoiding the limelight. He had been 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.160 for more than two decades, in every sense, a full 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:20.639 partner of his father. 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:26.560 There's a great story about some of the Ford production 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:30.280 managers coming in to work the day after Edgel passed 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.440 away and seeing the flag and half deaf, and they 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:35.920 just upped the car and kind of burst into tears 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.640 because they all knew what that meant and who they 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:42.600 had lost. So, you know, people really did admire Edsel, 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.919 and in whole life, Henry had just been trying to 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:48.959 turn Edseel into something that he wasn't He wanted his 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.280 son to be more like himself, the same personality, the 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.800 same kind of throat instincts, and that just wasn't going 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:56.280 to happen. 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:02.440 After Edzell's death, had his own health went into rapid decline. 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.600 He suffered a series of small strokes and a brain hemorrhage, 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:10.119 and four years later died at his home in Dearborn 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:15.280 on April seventh, nineteen forty seven. A decade later, the 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:20.280 Ford Motor Company debuted its ed Cel line. How should 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:22.040 edsel Ford be remembered? 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.160 Edsel Ford should not be remembered for the Edseel automobile. 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:31.240 And that's one of the great ironies in American automotive history. 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:33.520 People hear that name, they think about that failed car, 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:35.919 and of course only did he have nothing to do 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:39.919 with it. It really is the antithesis of what he stood for. 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.200 And he should be remembered for his successes, certainly aviation 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:45.960 for the Lincoln Continental, and he should also be remembered 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:49.040 for his work during World War Two. So there's no 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:51.520 question that he served his country in the highest and 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:52.320 best sense. 0:20:55.960 --> 0:21:00.119 Coming up the Adams family, a NEPO baby seeks to 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.439 redeem his father at the ballot box. 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:07.600 I think he realized that he would have to carry 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:09.680 on the family's name but also make it his own. 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:19.560 Imagine a Mount Rushmore of Nepo babies. We would probably 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:22.720 include edsel Ford. We'd also have to save a spot 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:25.600 for Jesus, since after all, he's the son of God. 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.400 I'd give the third spot to e Liza Minelli. She's 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:33.119 the daughter of Judy Garland and director Vincent Manelli, so 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:35.840 she had a leg up in Hollywood from birth, but 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:41.800 she earned that Oscar for Cabaret. As for that fourth slot, well, 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.840 considering that the actual Mount Rushmore is for presidents, I'm 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.479 giving it to our sixth president, who was also the 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:54.520 son of our second president. I'm talking about John Quincy Adams. 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:59.200 And yes it's Quinsy, not Quincy. Now edsel Ford's father 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:03.600 helped invent the modern age, that's daunting. But John Quincy 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:08.480 Adams's dad helped invent a country, the United States. When 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:11.520 your father is not just your father, but is a 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:14.120 founding father, that's got to be a lot of pressure. 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:17.439 It's a tremendous amount of pressure. And it's not just 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:21.480 any of the founders. It's John and Abigail Adams. 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:26.840 Alexis co is a presidential historian. She calls John and 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:32.000 Abigail the original helicopter parents. And yes, I realized helicopters 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:35.080 didn't exist in the colonial era, but you get the picture. 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:38.160 They were involved in every aspect of their children's life. 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:40.080 They were all up in it, right. 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:42.760 There is a really long to do list. It's exhausting. 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:46.679 Just one item on that list translating the works of 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:51.520 Greek historian Thucydides. Mind you, Quincy was just ten years 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:52.639 old at the time. 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:55.600 And from a young age he showed promise. It wasn't 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:58.560 just that he was the eldest son, It's that he 0:22:58.680 --> 0:22:59.640 was exceptional. 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:05.720 The second of six, Quinsy was born July eleventh, seventeen 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:08.880 sixty seven in Braintree, Massachusetts. 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:12.240 He is funny, he is pithy, but he's so serious 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.600 and like his parents, and more like his father, he's 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:16.840 always stressed out. 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:20.520