FORD Henry

Fifth in May 1876, Henry Ford, son of William Ford and Mary Litogot, he saw a locomotive. God's ways are inscrutable: a meeting with Ford turned the locomotive world.
. The locomotive was stunted even by the standards of the past century - the high red wheels, a bell that rang the driver to rasshugat cows wandered onto the rails, a heap of coal in the tender and streaks of dirt on the sides
. Locomotive dragging two logs loaded neoshkurennymi platform, panting and terribly smoked - and Henry looked at him and stood in awe.
. The time will come, and Henry Ford will be the idol of the nation - it will create a car century, thanks to him that Americans forever fall in love with cars
. But in 1876 until it was far away.
Family Ford - the perfect find for moralizing biographies! - Living and working life, enjoying a modest, hard to come by prosperity. Arriving in America, William Ford worked as a laborer, carpenter, and then podnakopili money, bought a land (an acre of forest was worth ten shillings - exactly as he received one day of work) and soon became a prosperous farmer, magistrate and churchwarden. At Henry Ford had six brothers and sisters: they all bustled about the house, cut firewood, tending pigs, digging up, milked, weeded, and Henry to the same all the time something screwing and unscrewed.
. When someone from the children were given a windup toy, the young Fords food in six voices: "Do not let Henry!" They knew that he will disassemble it to the screw, and after half of the assembly of parts will be redundant
. By the legend of the child prodigy, chinivshem whole neighborhood coffee grinders, threshing machines, and Swiss watches, a hand himself, Henry Ford, more than anything in the world who liked to give interviews. So in the light of God has appeared in love with the technique, misunderstood boy, family, dark nights secretly looking in the home workshop. This bright image arises from the memories of the Ford Foundation: in one hand, young Henry had raskurochenny alarm clock, in another - a screwdriver, a small flashlight, the only source of light, clutching her knees ... According to the sister of a future millionaire, Margaret Ford, it was all pure fiction: Henry carried away by her father mechanisms.
. Henry Ford never studied at university and school in the city Diaborne was such that he wrote before the end of life misspelled
. All classes of the parish school - from first to eighth - were engaged together in one room, in the summer, when the teacher walked harrow, a place at the board took his wife. Greater knowledge here to make it impossible, but that is good and what is bad, the young Puritans dealt well. Every year, they reread the book, in which case the good and bad kids: bad end their lives on the gallows, good becomes President of the United States. Henry Ford invented his unhappy youth, . turned into a tyrant, his amiable and respectable father, . but he, . he said, . was a model boy: his fate, he built the recipes moralizing books, . are crammed into schools of all American states.,
. Childhood, . held in a folded from rough logs father's house (in 1876 Farm Ford was recognized as the best in all Diaborne and entered into an illustrated atlas of Detroit), . proved to be a prologue - the first act of moralizing and entertaining play, . which transformed his biography of Henry Ford, . began running away from home,
. In 1879, he was sixteen years old, and one day he, without saying a word to anybody, put the bundle and went to Detroit. To walk nine miles, Henry took a room there, and established himself as an apprentice in the mechanical workshop. He paid two dollars a week, and the woman took the room with him for three and a half dollars for the shelter and the table, so Henry had to get a night's work. After the change, he hurried to the watchmaker and until the morning cleaning and repairing clocks - a night he was paid fifty cents. But after four years of this life bores him, and the young Ford returned to the family farm. There he will spend the next ten years - the skills acquired in the machine shop, it is very useful.
First time fate took the guise of the engine, the second time God appeared to him in the form of steam agricultural machinery. In any case, it is explained to himself, Henry I: Many years later, the head of Ford Motor ordered to find a treasured thresher - and her rusty and abandoned, found the same for all he remembered the number 345. The machine was dismantled on the screws, cleaned, oiled and taken to the mansion Ford. Henry I climbed on it and went to thresh - the so-multi-millionaire celebrated his sixtieth birthday.
In the meantime, until it was far away - the thresher was at the barn, and fussed around her to death fearing hell gadget neighbor. Henry volunteered to help him - in the evening, he knew thresher one's fingertips, the next morning took her to the neighbor's field, and a week working on all those who could pay him three dollars. Soon the young Ford traveled across the state with a bag of tools, offering a something like the world's first customer service. He began to earn decent money, got an expensive suit, in every village behind him ran a crowd of boys. In addition to this, Henry Ford was a prominent guy - that he was not long remain a bachelor, it was clear as day.
Clara Jane Braent accustomed to compliments. Farmers who danced with her at rural festivals, often praised her beautiful black eyes and gorgeous hair. Henry Ford as the whole evening telling her about his watch: he made them, and they are - an unprecedented case in the state of Michigan! - Shows the usual one, and standard time. Clara Jane Braent was a serious girl, she knew that marriage is not a holiday, and the test. From the man who had the patience to build a clock, to get a good husband. Clara smiled, lowered her eyes (they really were very good), the village band played something gentle and lingering ... Neither he nor she had no idea that a few decades the place of their first meeting will show the tourists.
Letters for Valentine's Day, riding in the sleigh, which Henry Ford for the forest of romance painted in green ... They married and settled on the farm, which they identified Ford Sr. (80 hectares of arable land and a cozy home - Henry built it himself from first to last a log). Soon the windows appeared attractive chintz curtains in the living room reigned comfortable plush furniture, a bank account of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford began to be rounded - but then broke into their lives Silent Otto, and farming idyll came to an end.
. Silent Otto became the third incarnation of fate: he worked on a nearby packing plant, . set in motion by no steam, . and gasoline and threw Henry into a state of the sacred, . bordering on ecstasy ecstasy - a compact and lightweight mechanism it has not yet seen a,
. In the mind of Henry immediately equipped it with wheels and steering wheel - if over this thing a little pokoldovat, . Yes, and it will go! As a result, the adjusted, . comfortable life shattered: Henry Ford went to Detroit to study the properties of electricity and got a job in the lighting company Edison,
. Clara went with him - she knew that marriage is not a holiday, and the test.
Henry Ford never regretted that he proposed Clara. It was an excellent wife: when he brought home his first motor, . Clara, . leaving a six sons and a celebratory cake, . become a monster piece on vosmidesyatikilogrammovoe to the kitchen outlet (earning, . engine blew up into pieces and the plate, . and sink),
. When he assembled his first car and she could not go to the street through too narrow doorway, . Clara grabbed a pick and knocked the door frame: bricks and splinters rained down into the courtyard, . stunned neighbors saw, . as the barn had left some Ciconiiformes, . puffing, . ringing bicycle chains monster, . flushed crowned Mr. Ford,
. In 1908 he created the "Ford T" - the car of all time, with minor modifications, unreleased until 1928
. Lightweight, compact, cheap, simple: farmers went there for shopping, a couple made love, smuggled whiskey bootleggers, gangsters were running away from police - and they could not praise enough "Ford T".
. For fifty years Ford has become a multimillionaire, and his machine became a national symbol of America
. After that he always refused to invention: "Ford T" was to remain his masterpiece. Henry Ford bought the railways and airports, introduced in its factories conveyor system, was a book of aphorisms and struggled with Catholicism, he saved songbirds and tried to stop the First World War. Henry I behaved as if he were God the Father, and surrounding him in this help. Ordinary people were the creator of the "Ford T" as a wizard - on the street he was immediately surrounded by a crowd, the boldest attempted to touch it, and the most brazen immediately asked to have Mr. Ford's money.
. He was extremely active person, new ideas arose in him every day, and it seemed that he was slightly mad.
. The new house cost Ford a million dollars (today it would cost forty) - the most luxurious room mansion was shining marble and polished brass plant, where the host was closed for daily meditation
. In the park surrounding the house, lived a worker, which Ford took a long beard and rosy cheeks: winter, he depicted Santa Claus, but in the summer and worked as an elf stocking up for Christmas gifts. That was not the most bizarre (in the end, Ford had grandchildren). Helper Ford amazed that Henry will save the salaries of workers, with the beginning of the Great Depression increased the salary by half - other oligarchs seized the moment and cut it three times. And the home of Henry I had reasons for concern: the way he treated with his only son, Edsel, did not give any explanation.
. Henry and Edsel were gentle pair: a father and son went fishing together, parted for a few days, and wrote long letters to each other, never quarreled, and consulted with each other throughout the
. Edsel has always been a good boy: he got only excellent marks, listen to the pope, was respectful to his staff and really wanted to lead Ford Motor - in short, doing what he was laid. Henry would not let her son in the First World - and the Edsel came to the recruiting station and demanded to give him a book as the organizer of military production, Henry was suspicious of higher education - and an A student Edsel immediately after school, went to the Ford Corporation, . at 21 he received a seat on the board of directors,
. He wore the same clothes as the Pope, - gray, slightly fitted, always impeccably ironed, such as patent leather shoes and silk ties. Edsel caught on the fly daddy's instructions and was lost for hours in the design office: his father has had the most reliable car in the world, he also wanted to make the most beautiful. Henry could not praise enough the son, but one day this whole bunch of qualities stood him across the throat.
. Henry I canceled the order Edsel, shpynyal him as a boy, fired his staff - the son took everything for granted, he thanked his father for the care and tried to find his people are as good places
. This is yet more factories of Henry Ford - will he tempered his son, arranging his trick, and the more Edsel resisted, the stronger his father was pressuring him. In the end, that Edsel generally stopped taking any decision was.
In the late thirties Edsel began to complain of abdominal pain. He prescribed a diet and barium enema, but he regarded himself as a sophisticated man and did not want to be treated in such a humiliating way. When doctors diagnosed cancer of the stomach to do anything it was too late. Ford Jr. cut out half of the stomach and asked the home to prepare for the worst, but Henry I decided that the doctors involved in this nonsense as usual. He was quite confident that with his son can handle the problems himself: his secretary handed Edsel lengthy memorandum in which Henry set out all their claims.
. His father told him to do more work, ordered to break off relations with the wimp of the richest families in Detroit, offered to make friends with good, reliable, proven people, the list of which Henry I attached to his letter
. It ended with the pathos appeal: "to restore health, in collaboration with Henry Ford!" - This phrase Edsel burst into tears in his resignation and went home.
. Henry I did not believe that his son with death during the funeral of a senior Ford did not look so much broken as confused
. Going beyond the grave, he insisted: "Nothing can be done, needs more work". But Harry Bennett, the new right-hand man, Henry I, executive director of Ford Motor, insisted that his boss is constantly talked about his son. Ford so tired Bennett questions about whether he was too cruel to the deceased, that one day he blurted out: "Yes, you have been unfair to him. In his place I would be terribly angry at you! "Hearing this, Henry Ford rejoiced:" That's what I expected from him! I so wanted him to be like once sent me! "To judge whether it is true, it is difficult: Bennet truthfully did not differ.
. He started a sailor, then became a professional boxer, and then came to Ford in bodyguards, liked him and was able to break out at the top
. The dense, muscular, Harry Bennett brought in horror Ford's household: his face was scarred in my office, he came under the protection of the two former criminals, paperweights he served as a huge Colt. Manager Bennett was no: together with the final survivor of the mind of Henry I, they brought the company to handle: the onslaught of competitors selling Ford Motor fell each year. At the same time Bennett intended to supplant the case of the sons of Edsel: all key positions in the company he set up the friends, former boxers and baseball players. In the corridors of Ford Motor flashed bull necks and broken noses - Harry was close to the Mafia and at the request of his friends took on the work of criminals who had served. Relations with the unions of its people are settling with brass knuckles and scraps of metal pipes. Henry I more or what did not interfere. After his death the heirs of the room revealed, . where he never let, . and found a pile of leaflets, . covered with his favorite aphorisms, . letters to his wife, . bills for meat and fish three decades ago, . pile of old screws and bolts, . fragments of garden benches - all it took the old man much more, . than the affairs of his company,
. Henry I lived out their days in silence and marasmus, but his eldest grandson, Henry II had his views on the future of the corporation
In school, Henry II teased lard - the eternal Grade retention, crawling move from class to class, was Polnovat and scattered. (In Yale University, Henry was unable to write a graduation essay, . text he ordered a tutoring agency is ready and, . handing it to the commission, . forgotten between the pages of a check payment.) He loved the sweet, . feel at home in the Ritz "and a daily was accustomed to, . before him in awe all - and the servants, . and teachers, . and classmates,
. Henry II grew up, feeling a little Prince, and Harry Bennett had every reason not to treat it seriously. He did so, especially since Henry Jr. was a cheerful, friendly and a good guy.
. Henry I fought to save the songbirds, and his grandson's troubled women, collect fees for entrance to the French dressing rooms - it seemed to him that they should be embarrassed
. Once he stayed in a Paris dress, concerned friends decided to go and find out what was going on: Henry Ford settled on the steps and sang a serenade to the cashier, sip a "Dom Perignon" - Sparkling tycoon's grandson picked up a. In addition to all the young Henry married a Catholic, and he converted to Catholicism. Gary Bennett also was a Protestant, a man who changed the faith of the ancestors of the women in his eyes was not worth anything. He was sure that Henry will turn his neck with two fingers - but has suffered as a result of his own neck.
. Henry I actively dote - recently the old man often withdrew toward strangers and shared the secret with them: "You know, . I sure, . that the Edsel is not dead! "He became more manageable, . and power in the family went over to the women: aging, . but retained all his energy Clara Ford and Edsel's widow Eleanor, . hated her father and, . and Harry Bennett,
. Svekrov and daughter entered a temporary alliance: Henry II, was appointed vice-president of Ford Motor, and began methodically firing people Bennet. He came into a rage and demanded an explanation, and charming smile, Henry replied the same thing: "I just do not like how it looks."
. Soon turn came, and up to the executive director: the old Ford decided to make the president's grandson, and he demanded the head of Bennett
. Harry took off from Ford Motor for the next day: Before you clean the director's office, he dropped on the floor all that stood on the shelves, and pieces blew your desktop. Cringed at the reception secretary listened in horror could be heard from behind closed doors roar "Son of a bitch, . boy! Pity, . I did not turn his neck! .. "definitively renouncing worldly concerns Henry I directed the beloved assistant philosophical maxim:" Everything comes back to square one - Harry returned to the, . I began. ",
. The old man grew more and more strange
. He began collecting Titian - someone told him that the artist created a masterpiece in 99 years, and Henry I was inspired by this example: He very much wanted to celebrate the centenary, but fate did not want to give Ford the elder latest mercy. He died in 1947 at the age of 84, when the title of "Henry Ford" had belonged to Henry II.
This cheerful, sociable and friendly man with surprising ease, became the personification of the company. During his case Ford Motor were going well again. Henry was an amazing flair for hull people and new ideas. By the mid-fifties corporation left the competition far astern, and Ford - with Henry I of this was not a trace - have become a cohesive and friendly clan. Henry Ford and his wife Anna, nee McDonnell, considered exemplary billionaires - they faithfully multiplied inherited their wealth, they were able to enjoy and do not forget the disadvantaged. Anna Ford was eating at the table, which belonged to Marie Antoinette, walked on carpets of Louis XIV, champagne was served to her on the silver Catherine the Great. Anna Ford flatly forbade their daughters obscure beds themselves: they should not be burdened with work that could make the maid.
In small Fords brushes with the mother, but father they adored. Henry was the perfect family man: when Anna underwent surgery, he walked around the room three o'clock - that was one of the points of the contract, which worry about Ford's wife concluded with the Lord. When the girls came to his cavaliers, he descended into the living room in his pajamas and the guys offered to have a beer - Ford lady red, lowered his eyes and hissed in two voices: "Daddy, go to sleep". Henry adored guests, he was cooking for them his trademark steak and transported to their homes after the party, well-trained cook was grumbling from the fact that he and his daughter, played out, throwing each other chunks of cream cakes. Stiff and haughty, Anna Ford was happy with her husband. Once, when she looked to him before bedtime (this was before the holiday in honor of the majority of their youngest daughter) and heard Henry desperate cries into the telephone: "Yes, yes, I'll marry you!", Do not believe my ears.
. Henry Ford was not a happy man, his problems he inherited from his family - all Fords, except for Henry I, could relax only after a few glasses of alcohol
. Saw a mother of Henry II, his younger brother died of alcoholism. He himself in his youth could carouse all night - at a board meeting Ford often come directly from the parties - with the red from drink and sleep eyes.
By the end of dinner parties head of Ford Motor turned into a caricature of himself. One day, Ford was invited to Paris for a party that one of their relatives arranged in honor of Princess Grace de Monaco - where Anne had to free her husband from the clutches of Italian long-legged, sprawled on it during a slow dance. Anna silently dragged from his partner and took the hotel - she had no idea that Henry had to profiteer phone.
. Life went on: Henry was engaged by, . accompanied his wife to the gala evening, . and the novel has developed its own course - to marry a thirty-Christine Vittore Austin, he decided after, . as she made an offer to the owner of the cosmetic company's "Revlon".,
. Henry left his wife and children - and their lives derailed
. Anna, always proud of its moral standing, fell in love with a professional gambler. Daughter Charlotte, never allowed to dissolve the guys hands, talked about the advantages of premarital sex and was going to marry Stavros Niarhosa, pyatidesyatipyatiletnego Greek millionaire (and a half years young divorced). The second daughter chose your husband thirty years of Italian, a close friend of his mother's boyfriend, also earn extra confidence game (they divorced a few years).
. Anna Vila from the rope, Christine followed her example: Henry sat on a diet, began to run in the morning and drank only two bottles per day
. He never managed to graduate from Yale, and Christina knocked him an honorary degree of Doctor of Law. Soon the Italian went in taste and began rolling endless receptions, predstavitelstvovat at a charity dinner and give vouchers to the life of young talents. From the side they looked like the perfect couple - as long as Detroit policeman stopped the car in which sat a blind to the world, Henry Ford. Beside him perched blonde model Kathleen Robert Dyuross. At Henry Ford was handcuffed and taken to a police station - the judge gave him two years probation. House on Henry hit the scandal, which he threw a furious Christine, and he withstood it stoically.
Everything went on as usual, but Henry Ford started drinking again, and ceased to engage in the affairs of the company. All his forces took up a double life: Ford divorced six years ago, a second divorce would be a blow to the good name of the corporation, and he lied to his wife for five years - all these years with him was Kathleen. The turning point came after Henry fell on the street: doctors diagnosed angina, and he realized that with the previous life time to finish. At Christmas, he tenderly greeted his wife - and at night Christine looked into the hall and saw a man with a travel bag on tiptoe his way to the exit.
. Then there was a long and humiliating divorce: Christina called Henry an alcoholic, . He assured the public that, . that she was a lesbian - they say, . no accident that his ex-wife to her husband preferred to society rattle friends! She sued him sixteen million dollars, . and soon after the divorce, Henry married Katie Dyuross,
. Daughter of Henry, who did not have the slightest desire to communicate with a new stepmother (in addition to everything Kathleen was their same age), boycotted the event. A day after the wedding, blind to the world Henry called his darling Anna and swore at her last words. Since then, they did not communicate. Gradually, Henry Ford broke off relations with all his relatives.
In the late eighties, he left the company and has since lived as a hermit. I got carried away in astrology, he began to study the stars and calculate the magic date. He looks more like his grandfather: they say that he also expects to live to a hundred years.
Ford Motor is still owned by heirs of the founder. But Ford no longer manage the company - the case heard by hired managers. Edsel, the son of Henry II, not replaced him in the presidential chair, he is engaged in marketing and advertising and are very satisfied with his lot. Grandson of Henry II at the insistence of relatives named Henry III, but the parents prefer affectionate nickname of Little. He still can not read and did not know what his name is written on tens of millions of machines.