Henry Ford: The Good, Bad and Ugly | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and this is stuff you should know. the biopic edition of Henry. for who plays. him well I feel like technolog is. getting close to a point where we could.

dig him up and reanimate him and he. could just play himself so maybe we wait. like five years and then do it yeah you. know I I didn't even see a lot of. pictures of this guy you have he's very. plain looking but if you know if you. know what you're looking at a like a. picture of him he's a Wy old. codger I thought you were going to say. cuss I could have it would have worked. just as well but you could just you can. just see it and the more you know about. him when you see one of his pictures you.

can just see all of it it's really. interesting but he's very plain looking. so I wouldn't be surprised if you'd seen. a picture of him just didn't recognize. him I'm looking at him now he doesn't. look super familiar but I mean I kind of. have a go-to that either either Michael. Shannon or Sam Rockwell should play. everybody right and I could see Sam. Rockwell gussied up here a little bit as. Henry Ford what about Danny McBride. [Laughter].

build a car with all the. fixs little Eastbound and Down joke for. the fans out there sure I was more a. vice principal fan H that was great too. Walton Goggins he should play him get. him in there there you go maybe they. could just trade off halfway through the. movie yeah and see who F bombs. better so uh let's get this started yeah. let's get this started in. here all right well we're going to talk. about Henry Ford who by the way uh I.

feel like we don't need some big. whopping intro but I think a lot of. people recognize Henry Ford as a as the. founder of the Ford Motor Company and. not the not the inventor of the. automobile but certainly the uh. gentleman who made the automobile. ubiquitous affordable uh kind of thing. for the the common person yeah he's also. strongly associated with the assembly. line yeah which he did not invent but he. just like the automobile he definitely. like made it a thing and and in doing.

these things like normalizing the uh the. assembly line and car ownership really. had a huge impact on History especially. the history of. America for sure shall we talk about. where he was born or you want to skip. that no I mean he was born in Dearborn. Michigan what's. next uh that was in 1863 July 30th to uh. William and Mary Ford and his pops was a. was an Irish immigrant farmer and his. mom was a homemaker mhm and had a bunch.

of siblings and this is something that. you can put a pin in it's kind of very. seems very key to his life or at least. his formative years is that he went to. one of those kind of old school one room. School houses until he was 17 years old. it was literally old school yeah very. old school but it seemed to be a big. deal to him as we'll see later yeah for. sure um so just kind of skipping ahead a. little bit he like Rudolph diesel was. fascinated by from a very early age and.

was like I want to build one of those um. along the way before he got to the point. of building things like cars and. everything he tried his own hand at. farming like his his old man uh he got. married to a woman named Clara who he. would stay married to for the rest of. his life um and he got a job um with. Thomas Edison at Thomas Edison's I. believe is Meno Park um complex and had. his own little shop and everything and. was um very interested in trying to.

create a a gasoline engine after reading. an article in American machinist which. is now known as. Hustler I'm not going to say is that. true can you imagine what a. transformation that would I think one of. the uh the interesting things about his. early life though is that and for some. reason this strikes me is hysterical uh. is that he had some um horse riding. accidents when he was was a kid and I.

kind of was like you know what I want to. I want to get rid of those things like. those are those are dangerous and we. shouldn't be riding them or using them. for work and uh that seemed to be one of. the the strange childhood drives to. start working with Machinery yeah it is. very strange um it's really not at all. uh surprising I guess really if you. think about it that his skills at. building cars his desire and drive to. build cars cars is what he built his.

career on like like very much so like he. built a few cars especially the first. one called the quadricycle it was so. named because it looked like two. bicycles parked next to each other yeah. and he built this thing like I think he. and his friends built the parts they. needed or else they stripped other. things like steam engines of parts and. really like built this thing from. scratch and then he would ride it around. town and caught the attention of some. very wealthy people in Detroit in.

particular the mayor named William. Mayberry who became his first real. investor and was like you need to build. more of these and we're going to sell a. bunch of them so together in 1899 was it. they formed the Detroit Motor Company. this was Henry Ford's first car company. his first. attempt yeah his first couple of. attempts at car car companies and. bringing a car that actually could be. mass-produced and sell on the market. were not successful this one folded. about a year later uh he got investor. for the Henry Ford company NeXT that.

also failed to bring about a car that he. could sell to people uh but kind of. interestingly that um that company went. on to become once Ford was uh kind of. shown the. exit the Cadillac automobile company. yeah I looked up I I was always like. what is Cadillac named after it's named. after the founder of Detroit Antoine de.

Cadillac who established what would. become Detroit in 1701 so that's where. Cadillac's named after for anybody who. is wondering yeah maybe we should do a. show on caddies at some point okay I'm. not a big car guy but the the Caddy's. iconic oh yeah for sure yeah I mean at. the very least Outcast loves it. right uh and the thing he did next was. you know he was always trying to raise. money and always had kind of a LoveHate. relationship with investors uh because. he he was like you know I need their.

money but that's kind of all they're. good for otherwise they just meddle in. my creative genius right uh so he said. about racing cars to kind of drum up um. publicity and investor interest and. that's what happened when he started. winning races with uh two cars the arrow. and the $9.99 which is look these things. up they're super cool looking uh and. that led to some investors uh most. notably a guy named Alexander Malcomson. yeah so just like building the. quadricycle and riding around like. setting the the land speed record in one.

of the race cars he built that attracted. Malcomson too and Malcomson this time it. stuck Malcomson helped Ford launch the. Ford Motor Company which may ring a bell. because it was established in 1903 and. get this it's still around today over. 120 years later it sure is yeah so I. guess you could say this one was a. success uh starting with the the model A. which started selling you know I don't. know like hot cakes but selling well.

enough in 1905 to keep the company. afloat they were building about 25 of. them a day had about 300 people working. for them not bad and started over like a. fivey year-ish period releasing you know. different models uh indicated by a. different model letter did you look any. of these up the C the F the N the B and. the. K I did those B and the ks were the more. luxury models and they're just gorgeous. automobiles they I mean they're. absolutely amazing even still today and. then if you look at the the more like um.

reasonably priced cars like the model C. and the F and the N they're they're. basically just like open air buggies. with a motor in them uh which is I mean. that's what 1905 and 1907 and8 cars were. uh in a lot of ways but that that being. that K they're just something extra. special it's really I'm not a car guy at. all and I I find those alluring for sure. yeah I think we're kind of the same like. we're not big car dudes but if you see. something like that or the one that um. the guy did did the first cross country.

road trip in yeah like I'm able to be. knocked out by a car you just go vom. vroom so you said that his uh he had a. LoveHate relationship with investors I. would posit that he had a use haate uh. relationship with them uh good point he. to Henry Ford he was the Visionary. designing and building cars Malcomson. gave him some money and was getting. money in return he got his thing that. was their Arrangement Malcomson was. saying hey you're making all these like.

reasonably priced cars forget that we. need to be focusing on lug street cars. and Henry Ford bristled with his back. turned at his Workshop desk and resolved. right then and there that he would. either murder uh Alexander Malcomson or. force him out of the company and he. ended up going with the. ladder that's right um in 1906 he had. Malcomson successfully pushed out and. not. murdered um he launched the Model T in.

1908 and this was you know the Model T. is a is an iconic legendary automobile. because this was finally the one that. that had that perfect balance of um a. little bell and whistle action but. something that was easy to fix it was it. held up well uh it was and it was. affordable for the for the common person. which kind of cemented him as you know a. man of the people it was an enormous. like achievement the Model T was it sold.

for like 8850 bucks when it first came. out in 1908 that was the highest price. it was ever charged from what I can tell. that's about $30,000 today so it was. roughly equivalent to like a Honda Civic. or like a Subaru Legacy or something. like that right at the time all other. cars that were being built were luxury. cars and they were going for $2 to. $3,000 so anywhere from like 70 to. 100,000 plus dollars to buy a car now. all of a sudden this guy's selling them. for $3,000 the equivalent of $30,000 and. car ownership just boomed from there you.

said they were Building 25 cars a day in. 1905 uh by. 1913 they were selling or building. 189,000 of them a year which I I haven't. done the math but that's a lot more than. 25 a. day well yeah and um good job on not. doing math thank you first of all yeah. you you say I speak for myself and all. listeners.

uh and this is a direct result of his. innovation of the assembly line um like. I we said kind of at the beginning a lot. of people um think he invented the car. not true invented the assembly line also. not true there were assembly lines at. other um factories like bicycle. factories and stuff oh yeah there were. conveyor belts used in uh farming and. like cattle operations and stuff like. that candy factories candy factories um. well put a pen in that actually but he.

actually combined those two things in a. way that no one had before where he was. literally bringing the work to the. people they would stand in one spot that. conveyor belt would bring along the. thing they needed to uh to work on or or. finish or Tinker with or whatever or. inspect uh first it was a rope and then. it was like a chain assembly and then. um it led to definitely some I Love Lucy. type moments I mean that was first of. all the the workers didn't like it at.

all they thought it was really boring. but it also at times was like I I'm I'm. not done with the thing that's now left. me and that was a big problem when you. had to stop the assembly line yeah for. sure because before these people were. like part of an army assembling a car. they didn't just make this one Cog over. and over and over again and like you. said it got very boring was very. repetitive and the turnover rate for. employees at Ford uh by 1913 was at 370%. and that's just churning that's a really.

high turnover rate if that number. doesn't immediately present itself as. such to you well for sure um here's. another stat of 370% doesn't mean much. to you he was hiring 53,000 people every. year to fill 14,000 jobs oh my god wow. and which was no good you know that's. never good for a company but that also. that assembly line brought the price. down uh on that model T I think you said. it um it would be like 30 Grand in today.

dollars uh by. 1912 they brought that cost down to what. would be about. $99,000 plus change in today's money um. I think in 1912 it was uh 525 by 1916 it. was. $345 so car it went down from from 30. grand to6 grand to about nine grand in. today dollars yeah so wow that's that's. impressive um one of the things that was.

the result of that that um streamlining. of costs and the reduction in price was. Henry Ford came up with an idea to keep. workers around he said how about this. all you trade your boredom for more. money and worker said all right I I'll. hear you out and so Henry Ford came up. with the $5 work day if you worked at. Ford you made $5 a day at least um and. that at the time is equal to about.

$1,100 a week here um I think what is. that 50 $154 a day into day dollars okay. but times like seven days a week. basically eventually six so it was a it. was a pretty good wage um and people. were blown away by it so much so that. Ford was able to basically use it as a. PR um campaign too it basically be like. I I'm paying $ five dollar and I'm.

characterizing it as profit sharing. because I take care of my workers and. this really helped establish his um. reputation from the outset as like a man. of the people a populace who cared about. Factory workers which is not true true. uh to put that in perspective when I. first started working as a PA in the. film industry I made a 100 bucks a day. working at least 12-hour days wow uh. they were working he actually shortened.

their work day to eight hours a day at. $154 a day so that ain't bad at all no. it's not so um that really handled that. that um reduced that turnover rate it. got it under under control productivity. started to stabilize I mean it proved. that like if you treat employees at the. very least pay them what they're worth. people will work harder for you they'll. they'll it's just a really good way to. run a company rather than squeezing. every last dime that you can out of as.

few people as you can uh Henry Ford kind. of proved that that was not the way to. go that's right but it came with some. catches uh in. 19 uh 14 he he came up with the uh the. Sociological Department of his company. and that was a group who over the course. of about seven years would uh go around. and come to your house and do little. home visits and say like oh I see. alcohol in the house and it's kind of a. a pigy uh so you don't qualify to get.

that $5 a day um if you took in a border. like looks like you're renting a room to. someone sorry you don't qualify uh these. are all you know pretty vast overreaches. when you know when you think about like. today's standards yeah uh some of them. were pretty good though if you had a. domestic violence WP against you you. didn't qualify so you know good for him. for that I guess sure and today I mean. yes that would be crazy if somebody did. that because instead employers just spy.

on you through your work computer right. rather than dropping by your house. actually because that'd be too obvious. you know yeah that's untour so I think. we talked about this in the um Ford. landia episode where like the. Sociological Department was really. keeping an eye on people um and in a lot. of ways you're like that's just insane. and it was there's another like kind of. facet to it that is worth pointing out. that most of these workers whose houses. were being visit visited lived in Ford.

housing that was built right near the. plant um and I believe they got. subsidized housing So based on what I. know about Ford if he paid for something. even a little bit he owned it so he felt. totally embolden to just send people. into your house to see if you were. drinking or not and then that would. affect your employment he owned you he. was paying you a really good wage he. owned you he owned your house he owned. your family that's just how he saw. things he could buy anything with money. and he just behaved that way as well.

yeah totally should we take a break yeah. all right so we're going to uh we've. talked about his career up into this. point we're going to take a little. slight turn to talk about his personal. life right after this. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music].

[Music]. all right as promised we're going to. talk a bit about the man's personal life. uh we mentioned that he married his wife. Clara Bryant um in 1988 and they they. stayed married and you know had a very. uh close partnership as as married. people go uh but all while that was.

going on all the while he was having an. affair I mean I don't think you'll see. this printed on any Ford Motor Company. Like official histories or anything but. uh he had a longstanding affair with a. woman named uh evangelene uh coat and. eventually would um get one of his. friends uh perhaps even his personal. driver um to his guy named Ray Dollinger. to marry her uh because he um it appears.

as though he had a son with her named. John and was like hey buddy you got to. marry this this lady and make it look. like that's your son and the whole time. we're going to be having this kind of. secret affair yeah that was the setup. and again like he paid for Evangeline's. house and evangelene and Ray's house um. apparently they had like at least two or. three Estates one of which was just like. a couple miles down the road from where. Ford lived with Clara um he even built a.

secret staircase that he could use that. was um away from prying eyes and went. directly up to Evangeline's bedroom. that's creepy and in the 70s um John. Ford who Henry Ford's been a inordinate. amount of time with if it wasn't his. actual son um he later in the 70s like. like I think he wrote A A Memoir and. said like yeah this guy's my he was my. father like that he was my father sorry. if you don't want to hear it that's how.

it was um and I think still it was never. it's still never no one ever took a. paternity test Evangeline never talked. to the Press about it like it's just not. officially confirmed but in every single. way besides officially it's. confirmed yeah for sure um during this. time he also had a son named edel uh he. he would famously name a very failed. automobile probably on purpose yeah he.

was born in. 1893 uh he was he was a good dad for. about a minute um but once edil got to. be a little bit older uh they did not. have a very good relationship um he. thought he was kind of a weakling he. thought it was soft uh he did give him a. job and he would humiliate him and. belittle him um he would even back him. to be the president his son to be the. president of the Ford Motor Company but. just in kind of like he didn't have any.

real uh teeth in that job because Dad. was still running the show yeah a really. widespread anecdote about how Henry Ford. treated edil um edil could not make a. step as president of Ford Motor Company. without his dad's approval and if he did. there was trouble and in one case uh the. administrative offices were starting to. get overcrowded so he uh had a new a new. Wing built for it new offices built and. he didn't pass it by his dad first so. when his dad found out his dad halted um.

work on it by this time they dug out the. foundation and edil said okay sorry. about that I'll just fill the ground. back in and Henry Ford said no you won't. you will leave that there and you'll. have to walk past it every day on your. way to work and it will remind you of. your humiliation essentially uh that's. how edzo was treated by his father it's. like it's like Henry Ford had a rich kid. just by definition but hated rich kids. like kids that were born rich right and. he treated his son that way and from.

what I can tell his son was not a bad. guy and didn't deserve this at. all no I mean he might as well have said. I'm going to leave that hole in the. ground as a reminder of what a jerk. father I've been to you yeah yeah it's. very sad yeah it's real sad like he I. mean it's also his son died young in 19. 1943 at age. 49 uh I think we talked about this in. the Ford landia episode 2 that he died. one of two weights from stomach cancer. or from a bad reaction to raw milk that.

his father made him drink yeah and even. as he was sick and dying Henry Ford was. like suck it up you wuss you know stop. stop making such a big deal out of this. and uh as as as it became clear that. edel was very very sick and actually. dying Henry 4 is like oh okay I'm going. to try to get some doctors out here and. get the best of the best and they. couldn't do anything and when edil died. he blamed edel's doctors and then I. guess eventually he blamed himself but I. don't know how he did that or how that's.

documented yeah agreed uh all right so. back to his career uh in. 199 again he's tired of the investor. sort of getting in his way in his mind. this is amazing actually he he lost a. lawsuit uh that basically said you have. to pay out dividends to the Dodge. Brothers uh two of his biggest investors. at the time and also his competitors who. own Dodge Motor Company the Dodge. Brothers own Dodge. yeah can you believe.

it uh and by by that time he was like I. really want to control everything I want. to be able to build a factory that. basically handles everything but the. tires because the firestones have that. under under wraps basically Andy was. friends with Harvey Firestone too so. yeah for sure so he said um all right. here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna. announce um that I'm leaving the company. I'm going to announce that I'm going to. build a better company that's going to. produce better cars and cheap cars and.

all the the stockholders freaked out. because they were like if Henry Ford's. not at the helm this company's going to. go under and so they started selling off. their shares uh what they did know is. they were uh mostly selling to an. investment company that was uh. controlled by Henry Ford so he ended up. I mean I don't I don't know if this is. illegal at the time at the very least it. was unethical yeah uh but he ended up. outright owning the Ford Motor Company. basically by himself with his son and. wife isn't that amazing. I mean say what you will about the man.

but that is one of the Wiest business. moves in the history of American. Business Wy is a good soft way to sell. that I read that when he was when he. told when he was told that like the. whole plan worked that it was done um he. danced a jig in his. office well he loved dancing he did yeah. I guess it's not that surprising yeah we. didn't mention that cuz that'll come up. later too he had a thing for square. dancing and like tried to get his. employees to learn square dancing I.

think we talked about that in the. fordlandia episode 2 it it seems like it. came up for sure I mean how can you. can't talk about Henry Ford not talk. about his weird love of square. dancing well yeah I mean he loved what. he loved uh one of the things he did not. love was war he was an avowed pacifist. um and he spoke out quite publicly one. of the things he used his um recognition. and fame for as a man of the people was. to to to use that to speak out against. World War I and that was really dicey.

because the Espionage Act of 1917 was. used about 2,000 times 2,000 people were. charged between 1917 and 1920 uh for. speaking out against World War I so that. was not something that you just did. casually like it was a big deal that he. did that uh he gave interviews about it. he chartered a boat to to ride to Europe. to try to advocate for peace uh it's. called the peace ship it was not very. well received by the Press he was made. fun of but like he was definitely a.

pacifist for sure but when when America. entered World War I he backed it. fully yeah he he did the same thing with. World War II he was um against it until. Pearl Harbor and once America was in. these wars he didn't just fold his hands. and say well you're on your own uh he. would you know of course at the. government's behest uh transform the. Ford Motor Company into building. everything from from airplane engines to. ambulances and military personnel.

vehicles and those ambulances would go. on to blow up when they were rear ended. in the 70s often with patience in. them were they Pinos they were close so. one of the things that Henry Ford was in. addition to speaking out about P. pacifism he spoke out about a lot of. stuff uh and he was interviewed once he. was very opinionated totally convinced. that his opinion was correct like. objectively correct from what I I can. narcissist a little.

bit he was uh interviewed in the Chicago. Tribune and he said among other things. that um he basically hates art and that. he quote history is bunk that there's. nothing to be learned from history we. always just need to be looking forward. and so the same year 1916 the Chicago. Tribune the paper he was interviewed in. also published an editorial calling him. an ignorant idealist and an anarchistic. enemy of the nation and so he said you. know what that that's liable and I'm. going to sue you and it went to trial in.

1913 and he won he won six cents Which. is less than $5. today that's how much he won from the. Chicago Tribune that's how much he was. awarded but even worse he was just. really exposed as an ignorant person um. on the stand he was like quizzed about. things like history and stuff and just. completely got stuff wrong and all of. the papers including including the. Tribune published all this stuff so it.

didn't really make him look good yeah it. was kind of like I'll take your test and. then he afterward he's like I shouldn't. have taken those tests especially in. front of everybody yeah under oath there. was also a rumor that he might have been. uh illiterate I I don't think that was. probably true and it stems from uh the. fact that he refused to read aloud um. but who knows he may have had some form. of Dyslexia or learning disorder like we. just don't know so speculating uh in. 2024 is a little I don't know I'm not a. big fan of that it makes it pretty.

ironic that one of the things he. collected were McGuffy readers which. were uh 19th century textbooks like he. collected them that's a strange thing. for a person who's not literate to do. yeah like Elementary School textbooks. they were for kids sure so maybe that. made more sense I don't know maybe he's. like yeah I collect these I'm definitely. not teaching myself from. them uh so he he didn't like the Press. not just because of this but he was he. was just the lightning rod for good. press and bad press but um he got fed up.

with it eventually was like you know. what I'm going to start my own newspaper. so he uh he bought one uh the Dearborn. independent in. 1919 and he you know basically. controlled it and was like here's what. I'm going to do uh I'm not sure if. everyone knows um about my anti-semitic. views um so I'm going to start making. this newspaper write lots and lots of. articles about how Jewish people are uh.

in control of the world and the finances. of the world and are responsible for. everything bad uh including these wars. that are happening and jazz music that. is leading to you know drug use um so in. all they ran about 91 stories uh in the. paper that he would eventually collect. into a four volume book called The. International Jew which he distributed. like a half a million copies to people. for free purposely never copyrighted it.

so that it could be re republished and. it still is it's a huge it's like a. bookshelf must for white supremacists. still today yeah the fact that none of. the stuff he ever said in it was ever. proved or shown to be true or correct um. has no bearing on that whatsoever and I. don't know if this is the origin of it. but he certainly perpetuated if he. didn't create it the idea that Jewish. Bankers secretly ran the world yeah. uh which is still a Trope today among.

white supremacists and racists of all. Stripes uh one of these uh articles I. think it was about Jews taking over the. American farming industry mentioned one. guy in particular a Jewish activist who. was a um Union activist trying to. organize Farm Workers named Aaron. sepiro and uh he was named personally in. this article so he's like oh you like. liable suits here's one for you too and. he sued him for liable yeah he did and.

uh I think he ended up settling out of. court right he did uh and part of the. settlement was that he was required to. make a public apology to Jewish people. which he took the opportunity to make it. what seemed like a sincere apology like. he he'd seen the error of his ways um. but apparently privately he had all the. same views and if you want to know. anything about Henry Ford and his. anti-Semitism he accepted an award from. Hitler in 1938 and this is the.

culmination of a longtime Mutual. admiration between the two Hitler cited. Henry Ford as a a inspiration in mine. compm and I think in 1931 in in a. reporter from the Detroit News. interviewed Hitler in his office and. noted that there was a huge portrait of. Henry Ford behind Hitler at his desk and. uh Hitler said I regard him as my. inspiration. so they definitely admired one another's.

views and. work yeah I think that's enough said on. that right sure it speaks for itself oh. yeah for sure uh all right should we. take a break and come back with a little. more career yeah all right we'll be. right back. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music].

[Music]. you all right Chuck so you talked about. him wanting to build like a plant what's. called a vertically integrated plant. where ore and raw materials are brought. in and everything but the the car's. tires are built and assembled there. right like if you have something like.

this you are extraordinarily powerful in. whatever industry you're in and he built. it it was a 2,000 acre plant called The. River Rouge Plant and uh I think it. opened in. 1918 and I mean it was extraordinarily. successful and just launched the company. into like essentially a monopoly even. though there were other car companies. nobody could compete with Ford to the. point where it was like you know um. he might as well have had a monopoly on.

it he was just so far ahead of everybody. else by this time yeah for sure and part. of the success of that plant was due to. the fact that he kind of caved a little. bit on um releasing cars that had some. bells and whistles he like you know I. mentioned earlier he wasn't the biggest. fan of those and kind of like you know. the car for the people but uh sales were. declining in the mid 1920s so he said. all right um the Model T is has done its. work but I think we need something a. little uh more luxurious so the model A. was released in.

1927 and they also sold a lot of those. they did that's another pretty car too. it's like the official car of like. gangsters with Tommy Guns who rob banks. and like run along and jump on the. running boards on the side yeah yeah. that's that kind of car it's a pretty. car yeah you you can hang off the side. of that thing with a Tommy Gun like no. other car right so um I said earlier. that Henry Ford had an enormous impact. on American culture American history. um one of the ironic things or funny.

things it's a little ticklish uh is that. he despised the consumer culture that he. helped create yeah um he felt that as. people got more money in their pocket. they um look to spend it in increasingly. immoral uh ways and that the country was. turning away from the ideals of his. childhood his what he considered true. America what he considered the point of.

life family square dancing anti-Semitism. these three pillars right he saw people. turning away from this right um and so I. think he railed against it for sure but. him personally he took that as an. opportunity to kind of like fade into. this childhood fantasy this idealized. version of the way life was in his in. his childhood and he did this by. building something called Greenfield. Village I thought you going to say.

Celebration Florida I know it's it Bears. a striking resemblance I even wrote It's. like Celebration Florida yeah it's also. a little bit like his version of Colonia. Williamsburg uh he started developing. this in 1919 when he restored his. original house uh and about 10 years. later it would open to the public as um. sort of like a Williamsburg of his time. it was like a living history Village. there was a museum there still is uh he. would. um he would basically like like Colonial.

Williamsburg would do he would say like. hey this is when things were the best. like when I was a kid totally definitely. a narcissist have I mentioned right this. is when things were were most awesome. and here's what it was like back then. here's what the buildings look like you. can come and walk around the village you. can uh it's even got like it functioned. as a real place where people live they. was that school in that one room. Schoolhouse modeled after the one that. he loved growing up mm. uh they had a full-time dance instructor.

who was teaching square dancing among. other things and he was told a CEO is. like you need to get down there to. Greenfield Village I've sign you up for. Tuesdays at 7 right can you. imagine no um so yeah it's still there. today right it's still living Museum. open today I've never been it does sound. interesting um in addition to the look. back at history which is ironic again. because he said history's bunk um it was. also a way to preserve the great. technological innovations of Thomas.

Edison he took buildings from Meno Park. and moved them to Greenfield Village so. he he assembled his idealized version of. what a town would have been like in his. childhood and he just spent more and. more time there and just kind of moving. further and further away from the the. company and as he spent less time with. the company he had to somebody had to. run the company so he grudgingly had. edil running things he had another guy. named Charles son who ran the plant that. huge River Rouge Plant and then he had.

another guy a real scumbag named Harry. Bennett who we've talked about multiple. times who ran the Ford service. department which was the Ford goon squad. essentially yeah and goon squad meeting. they uh he wasn't a big fan of. unionization and workers organizing so. Bennett uh would go in and do the heavy. work um a lot of paranoia created uh a. lot of literal punishment for just dumb. little infractions um saying they.

couldn't have bathroom breaks uh you get. 15 minutes for lunch I'm going to spy on. the. CEOs and if you come around here uh like. maybe from the UAW the United Auto. Workers and you start talking about. organizing um we're going to literally. physically like beat you down and run. you out of here yeah if you read about. what's called the battle of the overpass. in. 1937 um it's we again I think we talked. about that before too but the the the.

Ford service department led by Harry. Bennett who was in the mix um like beat. these people so badly they were thrown. down flights of concrete stairs when. they were knocked down they would be. picked up again so they could be beaten. further some of the women that were. there were roughed up um it was a bad. jam and then they chased the reporters. down to try to get their notebooks try. to get the film out of their cameras and. only because a couple of reporters one. of them ran 5 miles to a police station. to keep his negatives uh intact or his. plates intact and another one managed to.

hide it hide his plates just in time and. gave him uh fake plates or fake film. essentially um to go and break uh and. this stuff got published and it was. totally contrary to Ford's version of. what had happened and it really gave a. huge black eye to the Ford Motor Company. um because you just didn't that was just. beyond the pale even for the 1930s like. Union Busters right so it actually. helped uh pave the way for the UAW to.

make inroads and start organizing Ford. and the Ford employees finally I think. uh five years after the battle of. overpass were given the opportunity to. vote whether to unionize and they said. yes Union Yes C Pua all right so uh. we're at the end uh he had not been you. know some people say he was still. calling the shots kind of close to the. end uh he was in his 70s by the time. Bennett was doing his strong arm work so.

there are people that say he wasn't. super aware of that other people like. you know one of the top folks senson. said no he was he was doing exactly what. Ford wanted um but as he got older and. older uh he obviously started. experiencing Health uh issues um. throughout that last decade he was just. sort of you know declining like we all. eventually will and that means at work. as well like not working as much um had. a lot of health issues um especially his.

memory and but he still wouldn't like. officially give up control um or just. say I'm just going to go hide away from. the public right um we talked about. World War II um and you know he activism. there in the in the 1930s and 40s um. also was uh not a big fan of FDR in the. New Deal in the 1930s so he was not. shutting up about that either he would. have loved social media if he were. around today he would be huge on social. media. yeah absolutely uh we mentioned Edsel.

died in 1943 and for a very brief time. after Ford uh took over the company. again as president but it was you know. he he shouldn't have been running a. company at that point no one anecdote is. that he would fire employees and then. you know a day or two later ask why they. weren't at the meeting because he'd. forgotten and so as more and more of the. stuff mounted the executives were like. you you have to retire please just let. us handle this we can do this and he fin. finally caved in. 1945 um 2 years later he would be dead.

April 7th. 1947 and I think his last day on Earth. really kind of illustrates him he spent. the morning with his mistress evangelene. and he died at night when he uh had an. aneurism while he was fluffing his wife. Claire's pillow at. bedtime that's not funny but the way you. put it was funny I mean there's no other. way to put it I could have said it in. like Italian or something but then no. one would have understood what I said. except for our Italian listeners I don't.

think we have Italian listeners cuz. you've alienated them all oh man you got. anything else uh no I'm looking for the. compliment sandwich in that one but I. don't think it's uh the compliment the. the last part is that you do a really. great Italian impression regardless and. everyone loves. it uh you said you had nothing else. right so that means it's time for. listener. mail yeah this is about the uh just. released episode that uh part of which.

was about this mystery song mhm from the. 19 it was ' 80s right yeah ' 80s yeah uh. Hey guys my name is Nicole and I was. just listening to this episode about the. most mysterious song on the internet. I've been listening to it now for about. 45 minutes and a couple of things stood. out uh disclaimer I am German born and. raised during the 80s and have been. living here almost 18 years now uh given. the fact that I grew up during the time. this song was discovered some things. have become rather apparent to me uh I. am sure I'm not the first one to say.

this nor will I be the one cracking the. code but I find it very interesting I'm. still working on deciphering the lyrics. and I have about half of it down and. here are my humble observations number. one the song is most likely written and. recorded by East Germans given the fact. of how dark and depressing the lyrics. are okay uh two it is somewhat difficult. to make some of the lyrics out and some. words have been used in the wrong form. also very. interesting uh number three I find this. utterly FAS inting and it's definitely a. rabbit hole guys uh and number four I.

wonder if this song was accidentally. played smuggled in by someone. unbeknownst to the radio station since. it isn't uh professionally recorded uh I. found this to be very likely to be the. case uh at any rate thank you for making. great shows that keep me on my toes and. inspire me to think outside the box this. one in particular will be a great one. especially because I had never heard of. it before today and that is from Nicole. awesome thanks a lot Nicole thanks for. listening to us over there in Germany. that's awesome uh and if you want to be. like Nicole and send us your thoughts.

and observations on an episode that. we've done we love that kind of thing. you can wrap it up spank it on the. bottom and send it off to stuff podcast. at iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts iHeart. Radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows. [Music].