Edsel received an honorary mention a couple of weeks ago, in our current Rare Rides Icons series on the Lincoln Mark cars. Then it was mentioned again the other day in Abandoned History’s coverage of the Cruise-O-Matic transmissions. It’s a sign. We need to talk about Edsel.
The Edsel brand itself was intrinsically linked with the likes of the Continental Division, and Ford’s IPO in January of 1956. The management ideas that lead to the launch of upscale Continental also generated the middle-but-upmarket brand that was Edsel.
Of course, that’s an oversimplification. The IPO meant Ford was no longer under the complete control of Henry Ford’s descendants, and the company’s product could have a bit more leeway to chase automotive segments. What management determined via research was that Ford did not have direct product competition with the likes of General Motors and its portfolio of brands, nor was it fully competitive with Chrysler. That led to the decision to create Continental to go against Cadillac and Imperial and another new brand for the middle market.
Lincoln’s offerings circa the mid-Fifties were seen as competition for the likes of DeSoto from Chrysler, and Oldsmobile and Buick at General Motors. The plan was to set up Continental as a halo vehicle and then move Lincoln into the luxury end of the market to compete against Chrysler and lower-level models at Cadillac.
Ford’s management determined the movement of Lincoln left a space in Ford’s product range for premium vehicles that were mid-size (or intermediate in Fifties terms). The cars were to be very different from Mercury models and differentiated by styling and their higher level of equipment. The new company would be direct competition for Oldsmobile, Buick, and DeSoto.
The new brand project got underway shortly before Ford’s IPO, during 1955. The secret work was initially called “E Car,” which stood for Experimental Car. In short order, the E became Edsel: The brand was named after Edsel Ford. Edsel was the son of company founder Henry Ford and the man who served as the president of Ford from 1919 until 1943. Upon Edsel’s death, Henry Ford ran the company for a short while, until the reigns were given to Henry Ford II (Edsel’s son). He managed the company from 1945 through 1960.
The brand’s name was a nice tribute to Edsel, a company leader continually overruled by a father who was stuck in the past, only wanted to produce the Model T, and continually humiliated his own son in public. Henry Ford II reportedly did not want the company named after his father but lost that battle.
Ford spent a lot of money on the research and development process for Edsel. They were determined to have a better product than Oldsmobile, Buick, and DeSoto, and they felt the new Edsels would be widely praised for their styling and desirable level of equipment. By the time the research and development were finished, it was the latter portion of 1956, and Ford had been publicly traded for around 10 months.
The big Edsel moment came in November of 1956 when the Edsel Division was formed as a new branch of Ford, separate from Lincoln-Mercury. By that time the Continental Division was already deceased. Ford did not start out small with Edsel but rather established 1,187 dealers immediately. That brought its total company representation across the United States to about 10,000 dealers.
And while that sounds like a large number of dealerships, Chrysler already had over 10,000 dealers in 1956, and GM had around 16,000 dealers and a total of six brands, versus three at Ford. Things have changed since, as Ford has just 3,000 total dealers across the nation in 2022. Edsel preparations continued after the company was founded through the remainder of 1956, and most of 1957. And then it was time for the big reveal.
Ford called it E Day, a triumphant event name. The debut received a generous amount of publicity and marketing effort and then was followed by a prime-time show on CBS in October. It’s hard to imagine such an event taking place on television today: A big-budget, hour-long special that featured a number of big Hollywood stars.
The Edsel Show aired on October 13th, 1957, and was intended to entertain and (mostly) promote the Edsel brand. It was 58 minutes and was notably broadcast live. Besides the considerable effort such a show required, it was also a first in television: The Edsel show was the very first CBS program that was recorded on tape so it could be broadcast to the Western portion of the nation. Though recorded in Los Angeles, the live show was presented on East Coast time. The videotape is presently the oldest known video in existence and is presented here from YouTube.
A musical, The Edsel Show was headlined by Bing Crosby, and also starred Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby’s son Lindsay, as well as special surprise guest Bob Hope, and the quartet called The Four Preps. The voiceover was provided by Warren Hall, one of the most popular action actors of his time.
The show was produced by Gonzaga University, which Bing Crosby arranged so his alma mater could net the profits of the show’s distribution. Not an inconsiderable sum, the show net the college around $250,000 ($2,647,608 adj.). Not some corny marketing presentation, The Edsel Show won an award for Best Musical Show from Look magazine and was nominated for an Emmy Award. It was simultaneously praised by magazines like Variety, which considered Crosby and Sinatra to be at the top of their game.
The show opened with “Now You Has Jazz” from the 1956 Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby movie High Society. Through the end of the 58-minute run, people were introduced to Edsel and the courageous styling of its cars. It wasn’t all about advertising though, as Edsels appeared only at 24 minutes in, 44 minutes in, and then at the closing credits. The show ended with the 1930 classic “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”
The show aired on a Sunday, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time where it replaced The Ed Sullivan Show. It was widely considered one of the most popular shows of the 1957-1958 television season. And The Edsel Show was later considered an important moment for Bing Crosby’s step from the movie screen into television. Though CBS didn’t bite, ABC was interested in recreating the success of The Edsel Show and used it as the template for Crosby’s television specials, which would air twice per year under his new ABC contract.
Less impressed with the Edsel’s performance was Rosemary Clooney. Decades later she recounted in her autobiography the excitement of the Edsel brand during the recording of the show. Ford promised the Edsel was “A new vista of motoring pleasure, unlike any other car you’ve ever seen.” But the reality was less than pleasurable.
Ford provided Clooney with an Edsel to use while she was rehearsing for the show. The first time she saw an Edsel in person was the purple example on loan to her, parked outside of the CBS studio. As she went to leave, Henry Ford II stood nearby, watching the star interact with the product. But when Clooney pulled the Edsel’s handle, it fell off in her hand. She turned to Ford and said, “About your car…”
That personal anecdote would turn out to encapsulate the American public’s experience and enjoyment of the Edsel cars; it was all downhill after the splashy television debut. And that’s where we’ll pick up next time.
[Images: Ford]
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“about your car” nice, classy response.
I cannot find the logic in Ford’s thinking in regards to launching Edsel. They had the Lincoln division. They had then folded the Continental division. They had the Mercury division. In Canada they had the Meteor division which were Mercury bodies/chrome/instrument panels on Ford chassis with Ford motors. And then they had their Ford division with multiple offerings.
So why did they believe there was a market/opportunity for the Edsel? And why the need to develop an entirely new product/line?
But the decades later Ford messed up their Premium Auto Group. One would think that a smart corporation could create a productive synergy among Aston-Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo by sharing some features and development costs, yet creating distinct vehicles for distinct market niches.
It was the wrong car at the wrong time. The first Edsel had a polarizing design and it was introduced during the start of the Recession of 1958. Ford was not to blame for the timing because car designs are started 4 to 5 years before production and introduction but the design itself should have gone thru a focus group first and then the question for the focus group should have been would you buy this car and how much would you be willing to pay for it. I was a child when these came out but I do remember in my child’s mind thinking Edsel’s were strange looking. The 1959 Edsel was less polarizing and the 1960 Edsel which was discontinued the end of 1959 shared much of the body and panels with the full size Fords. The 1960 was my favorite but the 1959 is ok. I think once the 1958 came out the damage was done and there were much better upscale cars such as Oldsmobile, Buick, and Chrysler on the market. I shouldn’t single out the Edsel for ugliness there were other ugly 1958s including Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Studebakers, Packards, Nashes, and a few other over chromed behemoths but the grill on the 58 Edsel has to be one of the all time ugliest. Good series Corey and looking forward to more installments on the short lived and almost forgotten Edsel.
They thought there was space at the top below Lincoln but above Mercury, roughly Buick/DeSoto territory. Multiple model levels for the consumer to climb, like GM pedaled for decades.
But besides the looks and build quality, consumers were thinking smaller, not larger, in the form of a second, economical and easy-to-car for the housewives now venturing out on their own. Hence, the Ford Falcon and Chevy Corvair that were released in the early 1960s, and popularly of the VW Bug. The Edsel didn’t stand a chance, any more than it’s namesake.
@jhefner–The Rambler American was introduced in 1958 and its success led to Ford, GM, and Chevy introducing in late 1959 the Falcon, Comet, Corvair, Valiant, and Lancer. The Falcon outsold all the other compacts and led GM to start development of a new lower priced compact car that cost less to develop and make, the Chevy II, which took 18 months after the designers got the green light, the first production Chevy II rolled off the Willow Run, Michigan, assembly line in August 1961, in time for its September 29 introduction which was one of the fastest new car developments of any car by GM.
The American went on sale late January 1958, with a minimum of marketing and promotion. It was available in two trims, a base Deluxe model at US$1,789 (equivalent to $16,803 in 2021) allowing AMC to claim it to be the lowest-priced car made in America as well as a Super trim version for $1,874, offering more “luxuries”. The car was advertised as being the only small car with an automatic transmission. All Americans were completely dipped in rust proofing.
The automotive press was positive to the reintroduced model. Tom McCahill wrote in Mechanix Illustrated, “There isn’t a better buy in the world today.” He continued, “The Rambler American … is an ideal-size small family car… It will give up to 30 miles on a gallon of gas (and more, with overdrive) and will outperform any imported sedan selling for under $2,000 except in the cornering department… It is by far the most rattle-and-squeak-free 1958 Detroit product I’ve driven-and I’ve driven them all!”
Reports by owners praised the car’s economy of operation, but ranked at the top its ease of handling. A “workhorse” priced at under $2,000, “it doesn’t look as though every penny was pinched out of it”, but retains a “chic look”. The American found 30,640 buyers during the abbreviated 1958 model year, and helped Rambler become the only domestic make to post an increase in sales that year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambler_American
“I cannot find the logic in Ford’s thinking” –> They were looking at General Motors?
GM was fantastically successful, and it had five divisions making cars, plus GMC. So Ford and Chrysler attempted to copy that: they, too, wanted a five-division ladder. And so we got Plymouth->Dodge->DeSoto->Chrysler->Imperial.
At least until Chrysler realized it didn’t have GM’s sales volume and so couldn’t really afford to support five divisions.
And yes, this seems very odd today, as many very large car manufacturers seem to get by just fine with just two divisions.
Even aside from Ford’s near-total failure to define the new brand in terms that might make sense to car shoppers.
Ha! Never heard about the door handle thing. Priceless!
A guy at work has one of these, and he drives it in occasionally. It’s so big it makes a modern Chevy Suburban look like a Cavalier wagon.
Y’all make some excellent points. Ford already had Mercury which it really didn’t know what to do with. Every so often Mercury has had some minor successes like the Cougar or Grand Marquis but mostly not so much, so why did it need Edsel, and then it had odd styling at a time people were looking to downsize. But I also feel that if Iacocca had been given the reins at some point, he would have been more committed to its success and come up with a way to market the car that would have been more successful. McNamara’s heart was in “rational” cars like the Falcon. I have a feeling this ended up a corporate orphan inside Ford and the minute it was apparent it wasn’t going to be a runaway success, everyone ran away from it.
Agree McNamara didn’t really like or want the Edsel and as you said it was not a rational car like his baby the Falcon. I think Iacocca could have done something with the Edsel because he was a master marketer and knew what it took to make a car a success. Besides the Continental Mark III and the Mustang look what Lee did with the K car and its platform. He could turn a sows ear into a silk purse.
The Cougar was roughly a decade later arriving in 1966. It was a huge success for Mercury. The Grand Marquis was peak malaise released in the mid-70’s. I like the pre and post war Mercury cars like the Eight coupe and sedan. One cannot talk about Mercury without mentioning Jack Lord’s cars in Hawaii Five-0.
Classic TV with those Mercuries and the great scenery of Hawaii. Adam on Rare Classic Car owns some mid 60s thru 70s original like new Mercuries and Lincolns . Absolutely pristine and beautiful cars.
Besides a challenging design and goofy name, Ford played Russian Roulette with all their divisions when they brought out the ‘58 T-Bird. Why climb up their brand ladder when you can have an aspirational car labeled Ford? Besides, by 1958 the Sloan model was dead, it just didn’t know it yet. By the mid 60’s, every division begged for a version of every model, and Cadillac’s great chase of market share via lower cost and quality was the final nail. It just took 20 years to ferment their ruined legacies.
A neighbor has a mint ‘59. It’s beautiful and he babies that thing. But Lordy how did suburban moms navigate those beasts of the era?
I could be mistaken, but I seem to remember that Thunderbirds didn’t carry any Ford badging at all, just “Thunderbird”.
You would be surprised what people drove during that time. A base car came with manual transmission (3 on the tree), 1 driver visor (extra for 2), 1 driver’s side windshield wiper (extra for 2), no dome or interior light, plastic floor, painted metal bumpers, painted grill, painted hubcaps (no chrome on the base models), no heater (yes this was an option on many cars), no radio, only a driver’s side outside mirror, fixed rear side windows on 2 doors, no power steering, no power brakes, generator (no alternators), no air conditioning, crank windows, some still came with 6 volt systems, and lots of cardboard on the door cards and kick panels. You could get many of those previously mentioned features but they were options and many only came on the top trim models. One of the cheapest cars available was a Studebaker Champion which was the basest of the base and was about the size of a standard sized Chevy and Ford. Parallel parking with no power steering was onerous and would build arm muscles. People managed to drive these cars everyday and most counted themselves well off if they owned a 2nd car.
Actually you’re describing the 57-59 Studebaker Scotsman which was the entry level model priced below the Champion. You could call it decontented with only a drivers side sun visor, the passenger side one was an option, rubberized plastic floormats and not chrome but dull painted metal bumpers, grill, trim and hubcaps.
No word on whether tartan plaid upholstery or seat covers was a dealer option.
As far as the Edsel is concerned it’s failure has been a mainstay in business marketing classes for years, also displaced by the 1985 failure of the new Coke. The Alfred Sloan model of brand niches for economically mobile demographics and loyalty to the existing legacy brands.
My father’s 58 Studebaker Scotsman did not have that tartan plaid upholstery. Appliance white exterior and kind of tanish vinyl and cloth interior with the optional heater otherwise no options. Even Eleanor Roosevelt owned one so it goes to show you how thrifty she was. Not one of Studebaker’s better cars but Studebaker sold a lot of them based on price especially for those looking for a cheap 2nd car. The 62 Chevy II my father bought new to replace that Scotsman seemed like a luxury car in comparison.
My bad you are correct it was a Scotsman not a Champion. Might be the memory of that car was so bad I wished it was a Champion.
“power steering was onerous and would build arm muscles”
That’s why these vehicles had massive steering wheels. it gave the driver leverage to be able to turn.
Yes and my granddad’s 63 IH 1000 stepside pickup had the massive steering wheel and would build muscles. It as well had the standard driver’s only visor but it had 2 windshield wipers and the optional heater. My first car was a 73 Chevelle Deluxe and I felt in heaven with the 350 V-8, ice cold air, power assist brakes, power steering, and AM radio but it did have the rubber floors and the moon caps and that was not a base car. That Chevelle was lightning quick and would surprise many an unsuspecting Camaro, Corvette, and Mustang at the time. Today a base car has power windows and much more. When kids today complain about the cars their parents drive they don’t have any idea what a 58 Studebaker Scotsman was like it was the hairy shirt of cars during that time.
My dad owned two 62 Chevrolets, a four door Bel Aire in black with the 235 Stovebolt 6 and three on the tree and an Impala four door in blue with the 327 and Powerglide.
The Bel Aire had manual steering which could give your arms a good workout when parking. The Impala with you could steer with a couple of fingers.
They were also the last vehicles to have radios with vacuum tubes. Turn it on and wait a few minutes for it to warm up.
My father’s 62 Chevy II had the same vacuum tube radio and it never seemed to take that long sure it was instant but it didn’t bother me. It seemed to me it took 15 to 30 seconds to come on. It was an AM Delco with the Chevy emblem on the center with push buttons and the special emblems on the radio for emergency broadcasts. The steering on the Chevy II was not that bad but it was a compact and not full size car so it wasn’t as heavy.
The newest vehicle I owned that had crank windows and no AC was a ’93 Toyota pickup. I don’t remember if it had power steering, but my ’81 Dodge van had one option: long wheelbase. It didn’t even come with a radio.
Speaking of vacuum tubes, my ’65 Cadillac Calais had Auto Dimmer for the headlights; it didn’t really work as advertised, maybe because the car was 26 years old when I bought it, so I turned the sensitivity all the way down & used the foot switch. One time I dropped it off for state inspection. When I came back, they said it failed because the high beams didn’t work. I knew what was wrong. I started the car, waited ten seconds for the vacuum tubes in the Auto Dimmer to warm up, and turned on the highs. I got my sticker.
Referred to as ‘armstrong steering’.
JeffS is correct. This applies not just to the Scotchman but to a significant number of personal cars sold/manufactured during that period. Many did not have ‘flow through ventilation’. Instead you pulled a ‘cable’ located under the instrument panel which opened a vent in the in the area under the panel. High beams were operated by a foot pedal. There was no rear window defrost. Auto supply shops sold pieces of plastic that you ‘stuck’ to the inside of your side and back windows to prevent them from fogging/freezing. Of course there were no arm rests or cigarette lighter. No tinted windows. Vinyl upholstery. The instrument panel was primarily metal. Often there was no interior roof liner. No floor carpet.
Younger generations take for granted just how basic the standard family wagon/sedan was right up until the late 1960s.
If you bought an original Mini, it did not have a glove box. And the windows slid sideways rather than cranking down into the door.
Of course air cooled VWs were very basic. And you had to keep a small ice scraper in the car to continually scrape the inside of your windshield as the optional ‘furnace’ style heater only was available as an option.
@Arthur–I forgot a few of those additional things and thanks for bringing them up. The Chevy II had the kick vents which I opened up during warm weather since it did not have air conditioning but in the hot humid Houston summers the air that was blowing out of them felt more like a blast furnace and was far from refreshing. The little vent windows were better since you could aim the driver’s side on your face. I do have fond memories of that bright red 4 door 62 Chevy II 300 with the 194 cu in I6.
Interesting trivia: The Edsel Show is the world’s oldest surviving videotape of a televised broadcast. (Bing Crosby was a major shareholder of Ampex which built the first commercially available videotape recorder along with the 2″ wide reel-to-reel tape it used).
No Edsel story is complete without mention of the 1,000 Pony Giveaway.
Everybody thought in 1958 that to beat General Motors, you had to emulate their sales structure with at least five automotive divisions. Time has shown you can cover the vast majority of the market with just two brands (like Toyota/Lexus, Chevy/Cadillac, VW/Audi, or Ford/Lincoln. GM themselves axed Olds and Pontiac, along with those like Saturn and Saab it picked up along the way. Buick (in North America anyway) is teetering. Ford did NOT need Edsel.
I just learned there was an Edsel dealership building erected two blocks from the Hartwood Rd. address where I used to live that still exists, Bowman Edsel at 7215 Baltimore Avenue, College Park MD, now a Zips dry cleaner. An auto parts store a block away just closed recently. Fields Buick and Lustine Chevrolet were several blocks down the street.
Yes the show Wagon Train advertised the pony give away (actor Ward Bond who starred in Wagon Train).
I well remember the big Edsel reveal. Those were the days when the next year’s models were wrapped up on the showroom floors under tarps or sheets or whatever – all of we kids were excited that something “new” was coming. The only things that was talked about was the push-button transmission in the center of the steering wheel (we thought that it was way cooler than on the dash like Chryslers) and the looks (it was, even in times of homely vehicles, truly considered ugly by we juvenile experts). My dad bought me an AMT 1/25 scale model of an Edsel Corsair (or maybe Citation) convertible. I meticulously painted it royal blue with a white interior and, after a few days, got out the Testor’s body filler and began modifying the body shell to make it look more appealing to me. Didn’t work…
@bullnuke–I use to assemble those AMT 3 in 1 car kits when I was a boy and used Testor’s glue and paint to assemble and paint those cars.
I still have a dozen or so of the models I built in the mid to late sixties. I think the competing brand to AMT was MPC? A few of the models are damaged, but most are in “as-built” condition. The one full custom I did was to turn a ’68 Corvette into a panel truck, based on a sketch in Car Model magazine, and it turned out quite well. I also built a ’70 Olds Toronado to duplicate the one my parents owned, accurate down to the stickers on the engine and the license plate.
My ability in modeling eventually led to my career in Architecture. Nowadays, our firm builds its Architectural models via 3D modeling, a different set of skills entirely.
I won 2nd and 3rd place in a Junior Model Contest from a local Ford Dealership for a metallic green with pink fenders rumble seat 36 Ford and a customized silver with bucket seats 50 Ford convertible both AMT models. I was really into cars and WW II airplanes when I was a kid.
You can only dream what the annual auto reveal was to a kid back in the 50’s if your father was the local car dealer. My dad had the Chevrolet dealership in Johnstown, PA, and I’d normally get to see the new cars about three weeks before they taped over the showroom windows to move the new models in for opening night.
That was a real position of power in the local grade school for a few weeks, being able to put out hints of what next year’s Chevies were like.
I have a dealer promotional model of a 58 Edsel in my almost totally Chevrolet collection. A Corsair two door hardtop in teal blue and white. Which, sometime in my mid childhood I decided to take some parts from an AMT model kit and turn it into a very legitimate looking NASCAR stock car. Still have it built that way.
We used to wait for the Chevrolet ‘reveal’ which was an annual part of the new season of Bonanza on Sunday nights. Approximately the 2nd week of September during Bonanza, Chevrolet would reveal their new model line-up.
In particular I remember the first Caprice and the first Camaro.
The also later did something similar on Bewitched as Darren Stevens for a season or two drove a Camaro.
Good memories and I remember the first Monte Carlo, Corvair, Chevy II, Vega, and a few others besides Chevrolets. The New Model Year reveal was a big thing growing up and so was the neighbors getting a new car and showing it to everyone. I loved watching Route 66 with Todd and Link traveling the USA in the newest open top Corvette.
Forgot it was Todd and Buzz then Todd and Linc since George Maharis (Buzz Murdock) left the show after a couple of seasons and was replaced by Glenn Colbett (Linc Case). Martin Milner was Todd Stiles and he was later Pete Malloy on Adam 12.
Had a good friend, Brian, in high school whose dad had been a Pontiac dealer in their very small town. Archie (the father) also continued on with an auto repair shop after the ‘dealership’ thing ended. Anyway, Brian always had interesting cars. When many were driving Road Runners, Chargers, Mustangs, GTOs and Chevelles; Brian had an older 40’s Pontiac and – eventually – an Edsel station wagon (59?? I think). It was a very cool car mostly due to the fact you did not see hardly any on the road in the late 60s. Remember making a drive to a larger town to the north to find a used Hammond organ to be used in the band we were both in. Too bad Edsel was such a failure. I know I’m in the minority, but I very much like the styling shown here in the article – I’m drawn to somewhat odd ball stuff as if you didn’t figure that out. Looking forward to the rest of this series. Thanks Corey!
Glad you enjoyed. This is one where I’m educating myself while writing. I knew the basics that Edsel didn’t last long, but that was about all.
I’d still love an Edsel Bermuda wagon.
BMW stylists are scribbling furiously right now, I expect to see the Edsel nose grafted onto the next 5-series soon.
Agree BMW designers have been really into 58 Edsels. Possibly they are on hallucinatory drugs while staring at a picture of the front of a 58 Edsel.
We have to look at an Edsel and a current BMW 4 series on the same day?
TTAC is not being kind!
Looking at the first picture of the guy in the hat and suit with his arm on the Edsel reminds me of Don Draper except even Don Draper who was an ad man didn’t fall for the Edsel.