And the most confusing. Those boomerang tail lights had people not sure if you were turning the way they are pointed or the side of the car they're on.
@@tomservo56954 I hear a lot of people commented it looked like an open vagina. Maybe the designer intentionally did this as a naughty joke. Maybe someone will design an EV with a penis-looking thing on the grill.
Unlike the Christian Dior design, the Edsel became the wrong car at the wrong time. And with respect to the target market for Edsel, the aim was perfect, but the target moved. I am certain that if Edsel had come out 2-3 years earlier, the result would have been markedly different.
People either liked the styling of the Edsel or hated it. But look at what people are driving today. Lol. The car manufacturers pitched the name styling out the window. Choice of interriors black or grey. Black wall tires. Cramped seating and they all look alike. That's why I went out and bought me a big beautiful 1977 Lincoln Continental Mark V and I just love it. The color is dust rose matching interrior with white wall tires. I'm not going to drive a funky looking look alike car which I dont feel safe in.
It was nice to hear Joey Harrison (sp?). It has been awhile to hear someone annunciate so her words so distinctly compared to highly paid ty personnel that don't. I have never heard such a fine explanation of design before as I have heard on this video. Thank you for sharing. It was a pleasure to listen to it.
She did a great job and was a woman in a high ranking position 59 years ago. What are women complaining about today? They've had equal rights for decades.
Stories like this never tell the whole truth since you can die from second- and even third-hand cancer (on clothes, etc.) She was clearly around a ton of smoking people in enclosed spaces her whole life, so it is not surprising she got cancer.
What a rare treat to see this film on the fashion side of the Edsel! So many people have condemned this vehicle, but the real truth is that the car was not so bad, and the styling was far more "tasteful" than many of the Edsel contemporaries of the day. The most notable, was the 1959 Cadillac, with the tail-fin that seemed to reach for the moon! Anyway, the car styling was rather attractive and the 1959 was simply beautiful. If the Edsel was introduced earlier or later, the car line would have survived. Today, people appreciate the car and feel the vehicle got a bum rap. I agree, it did, however, the competitive world is a difficult place, and when the man running the Ford Motor Company believes the car is going to be eliminated even before it is introduced to the public; the Edsel did not have much of a chance to begin with! The Edsel is getting even with those who doomed it to failure. It is being recognized for a beautiful classic car that was not appreciated in its own time, but has come around to be honored as a fine car that did not sell for so many reasons. When you are named for a great man, great things can happen even to those considered "losers."
Well said. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the Edsel. Interesting how once the public buys a particular narrative products and people are doomed.
michael cerza I have a '58 Citation 2 Dr., and love it! But Edsel had production quality issues that can't be denied, and Ford's overambitious marketing firm succeeded too well -- creating expectations no car could meet. Finally, Mercury failed to move "up market" enough to permit Edsel to enjoy an exclusive market niche within the Ford line, as had been planned. Therefore Edsel, Ford, and Mercury ended up stealing sales FROM EACH OTHER rather than from competitors like GM.
I was born in '61 and have never quite understood why the Edsel was held up as the poster-child of poor design. Was it more a mechanical design flaw rather than style? As someone else has commented, it seems to be a car you love or hate.
The Edsel was way ahead of its time..It actually sold very well the first year being a recession year. What killed the car was the idiotic press at the time.
I think it was more not having much of a niche in the market place plus smaller, more economical cars were popular that year. The recession didn't hit American Motors with it's Rambler. They had a great year in 1958.
In 1968 a friend of mine knew a guy with a black 58 Edsel convertible that needed an exhaust system. They abandoned the car at the local drive in just to get rid of it. He went along for the ride. Hard to believe, huh? He doesn't remember what model it was, but a convertible would have had to be a Citation or Pacer.
I have been looking for this film for years, about 10:30 into it you'll see a "Boy and his Dad" unloading a small boat from a Edsel Wagon, I'm that Boy, it'll give my kids and grandkids a laugh. Still looking for another showing the boy and his Dad talking to a beautiful young woman who's on horseback on the other side of a fence.
+Joseph Solomon So glad you found this. Thanks for sharing your story. We've uploaded a number of Edsel commercials. We might have uploaded the other one. We do have one about a win a pony contest.
59 years later we have women marching all over the country bitching about being deprived of their rights and equality to men. Here's a professional woman more than half a century ago in a lofty position with a prominent magazine doing a very professional commercial. Mostly women are driving the car, too. I remember when 58 Edsels were new. I always liked them, but never got one. It's almost impossible to find a good one today. The troublesome Tele-Touch drive was optional on the Ranger and Pacer. A conventional column-mounted shifter came on those models, either automatic or stick. If I could time travel a red Pacer convertible with stick shift would be my choice. The bigger Corsair and Citation, built on the Mercury platform, came standard with Tele-Touch. I'd stay away from them, although they are nice, too. I highly doubt I'll ever find my dream Edsel this late in the game.
Thanks I've looked for these for years It was I believe 1957 had a great time did 3 or 4 for Edsel then a coupe of still shots for I think Skippy Peanut Butter
What a curious color palette this film has employed! It's as if the entire thing was done exclusively with the Edsel's interior and exterior available colors. And Mrs. So-and-so has a really curious accent.
Unbelievable how the Edsel could have been marketed as a styling success. Styling and quality control are what ended up being a $150 million flop for Ford.
I love this video! The lengths that marketers will go to, trying to convince people that crap is not crap. When someone has to try and explain why something that is clearly not attractive, really is (which is what she is being paid to do) it's a good time to walk away. Admittedly, from some angles and in certain color combinations the cars did look ok. But it is far from a timeless design.
It's all a matter of opinion. I remember when 58 Edsels wee new. I always liked them, but never got one. Obviously the bulk of the market place didn't agree with me. Today it's virtually impossible to find a good one. If you do, the price is on the moon.
I completely agree- it is a matter of opinion. I was just commenting on the advertising industry and the methods they use to influence our choices. BTW, have you ever seen the tail lights on the '58 Bermuda wagons !! Try to find a set of those today :)
A beautiful car and concept whose looks are unjustly maligned. A great book on the subject is “Disaster in Dearborn” by Thomas Bonsall. Ford needed a product to fill the Pontiac-Oldsmobile-Buick space better than just Mercury. It was just unfortunate that it had several insurmountable problems, including Robert McNamara’s loathing for the project, the ‘58 recession, some build-quality problems, and people hating on its vertical grille design with a lot of piling on over that fact alone. Ford has always been a brilliant marketer - the best of the Big Three IMO - but unfortunately they couldn’t get the Edsel to fly.
I arrived about 4 years after Edsel came and went. But I believe the dysfunctional management was all of Ford's worst enemy at that time. Management should have been on top of the quality, especially with Edsel being an upscale make, and they should have worked as a team instead of all that petty back-biting, back-stabbing, and sabotage. Bob McNamara was especially arrogant, or so the auto historians made out. If they had all put their egos aside, and concentrated on a good product, Edsel might have succeeded. If it were up to me, I would have named it Corsair. If I were Henry II, I would have fired McNamara long before the latter 50s. He was not good for Ford. Or the US Military, as we would find out.
This reminds me of when I had to write a paper for college.. It had to a minimum of 15 pages... It ended up with 1/2 a page of substance and 14.5 pages of fluff and big words
All things considered, she did a good job on the commercial. Today women bitch about equal rights. 59 years ago this lady had an executive position. What's the problem?
Not quite. Ranger, Pacer and the wagons were built on the Ford platform. Citation and Corsair wee built on the mercury platform with what turned out to be the troublesome Tele-Touch drive as standard equipment. You got a conventional column-mounted shifter in the smaller models unless you ordered the optional push buttons. Stick shift was also available in those.
In all fairness, the '58 Edsel was designed at the same time the auto industry was debating whether to stay with single headlights or go with duals, so their front fenders had to be tall enough to handle single lights and wide enough to accomodate duals (Some Chryslers and DeSotos offered both singles and duals for '57 where they were legal...)
What the hell is wrong with the audio!!?? The video of the car is supurb 😉 but I have no idea what the heck is she mumbling about, redo this video, without her.
Wow!
This is the best contemporary 50s automotive treatment I can remember.
I want one now.
1958 Edsel wagons had the best looking taillights of the decade.
thanks, I have them on my Ranchero Edsel conversion.
except they were ass backwards
And the most confusing. Those boomerang tail lights had people not sure if you were turning the way they are pointed or the side of the car they're on.
Thanks for posting this film. The "auxilliary bumper" explanation for Edsel's homeliest accoutrement, the horse collar grill, was a new one to me.
I wonder how she responded when told the grille exemplified "the vaginal look"
@@tomservo56954 I hear a lot of people commented it looked like an open vagina. Maybe the designer intentionally did this as a naughty joke. Maybe someone will design an EV with a penis-looking thing on the grill.
Unlike the Christian Dior design, the Edsel became the wrong car at the wrong time. And with respect to the target market for Edsel, the aim was perfect, but the target moved. I am certain that if Edsel had come out 2-3 years earlier, the result would have been markedly different.
People either liked the styling of the Edsel or hated it. But look at what people are driving today. Lol. The car manufacturers pitched the name styling out the window. Choice of interriors black or grey. Black wall tires. Cramped seating and they all look alike. That's why I went out and bought me a big beautiful 1977 Lincoln Continental Mark V and I just love it. The color is dust rose matching interrior with white wall tires. I'm not going to drive a funky looking look alike car which I dont feel safe in.
It was nice to hear Joey Harrison (sp?). It has been awhile to hear someone annunciate so her words so distinctly compared to highly paid ty personnel that don't. I have never heard such a fine explanation of design before as I have heard on this video. Thank you for sharing. It was a pleasure to listen to it.
She did a great job and was a woman in a high ranking position 59 years ago. What are women complaining about today? They've had equal rights for decades.
Poor Mrs Harrison passed in the late 70s of cancer and she never smoked.she wrote a book of her struggles.
Stories like this never tell the whole truth since you can die from second- and even third-hand cancer (on clothes, etc.) She was clearly around a ton of smoking people in enclosed spaces her whole life, so it is not surprising she got cancer.
What a rare treat to see this film on the fashion side of the Edsel! So many people have condemned this vehicle, but the real truth is that the car was not so bad, and the styling was far more "tasteful" than many of the Edsel contemporaries of the day. The most notable, was the 1959 Cadillac, with the tail-fin that seemed to reach for the moon!
Anyway, the car styling was rather attractive and the 1959 was simply beautiful. If the Edsel was introduced earlier or later, the car line would have survived. Today, people appreciate the car and feel the vehicle got a bum rap. I agree, it did, however, the competitive world is a difficult place, and when the man running the Ford Motor Company believes the car is going to be eliminated even before it is introduced to the public; the Edsel did not have much of a chance to begin with!
The Edsel is getting even with those who doomed it to failure. It is being recognized for a beautiful classic car that was not appreciated in its own time, but has come around to be honored as a fine car that did not sell for so many reasons. When you are named for a great man, great things can happen even to those considered "losers."
Well said. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the Edsel. Interesting how once the public buys a particular narrative products and people are doomed.
michael cerza I have a '58 Citation 2 Dr., and love it! But Edsel had production quality issues that can't be denied, and Ford's overambitious marketing firm succeeded too well -- creating expectations no car could meet. Finally, Mercury failed to move "up market" enough to permit Edsel to enjoy an exclusive market niche within the Ford line, as had been planned. Therefore Edsel, Ford, and Mercury ended up stealing sales FROM EACH OTHER rather than from competitors like GM.
I was born in '61 and have never quite understood why the Edsel was held up as the poster-child of poor design. Was it more a mechanical design flaw rather than style? As someone else has commented, it seems to be a car you love or hate.
The Edsel was way ahead of its time..It actually sold very well the first year being a recession year. What killed the car was the idiotic press at the time.
I think it was more not having much of a niche in the market place plus smaller, more economical cars were popular that year. The recession didn't hit American Motors with it's Rambler. They had a great year in 1958.
Edsels sold very well for the first 3 weeks. Then it went down hill from there.
Too much hype that was hard to live up to. Recession era buyers went for Ramblers and Studebaker Scotsman economy models and Volkswagens.
In 1968 a friend of mine knew a guy with a black 58 Edsel convertible that needed an exhaust system. They abandoned the car at the local drive in just to get rid of it. He went along for the ride. Hard to believe, huh? He doesn't remember what model it was, but a convertible would have had to be a Citation or Pacer.
Thats right if it was infact a 1958 model
I have been looking for this film for years, about 10:30 into it you'll see a "Boy and his Dad" unloading a small boat from a Edsel Wagon, I'm that Boy, it'll give my kids and grandkids a laugh. Still looking for another showing the boy and his Dad talking to a beautiful young woman who's on horseback on the other side of a fence.
+Joseph Solomon So glad you found this. Thanks for sharing your story. We've uploaded a number of Edsel commercials. We might have uploaded the other one. We do have one about a win a pony contest.
Where was that filmed?
Some at Fairlane, the one I haven't been able to locate north of the Detroit I don't remember where its been more than 60 years
I liked your sailor's hat!
this lady stylish af
59 years later we have women marching all over the country bitching about being deprived of their rights and equality to men. Here's a professional woman more than half a century ago in a lofty position with a prominent magazine doing a very professional commercial. Mostly women are driving the car, too.
I remember when 58 Edsels were new. I always liked them, but never got one. It's almost impossible to find a good one today. The troublesome Tele-Touch drive was optional on the Ranger and Pacer. A conventional column-mounted shifter came on those models, either automatic or stick. If I could time travel a red Pacer convertible with stick shift would be my choice. The bigger Corsair and Citation, built on the Mercury platform, came standard with Tele-Touch. I'd stay away from them, although they are nice, too. I highly doubt I'll ever find my dream Edsel this late in the game.
But a 58 Skyliner is much more attractive and a better car!
My favorite part is the drive-by snubbing at 5:13 - 5:25
Most Beautiful car ever built :O)
That might be a stretch, but they certainly were nice. I remember when they were new and I always liked them. But I never got one.
I have owned several 58's my Pacer 4dr hardtop rides better than my 1977 Lincoln continental Mark V.
Like it when she say you can recognize the Edsel a block away. More like five blocks. 😬
Awesome film, just wish it had audio...
Thanks I've looked for these for years It was I believe 1957 had a great time did 3 or 4 for Edsel then a coupe of still shots for I think Skippy Peanut Butter
+Joseph Solomon So glad you shared your story.
+Joseph Solomon That i so kool.. It would have been nice if they gave you the car for doing the commercial and you still had it.
I think ut not sure I got $10. an hour which was huge at that time
You could put a Toyota in the back of that station wagon 🤔
thanks for posting!
What a curious color palette this film has employed! It's as if the entire thing was done exclusively with the Edsel's interior and exterior available colors.
And Mrs. So-and-so has a really curious accent.
A patrician accent as they used to say.
IstvanN1961 Yes; if you listen closely you can hear some "Jackie O." in there. She was from the same class as this presenter.
This is a very badly faded Eastmancolor print.
Unbelievable how the Edsel could have been marketed as a styling success. Styling and quality control are what ended up being a $150 million flop for Ford.
Its in the trim that we are in the area of good taste.. That depends on the woman
'Edsel - The Car With a Vulva in Front'...'Now THAT'S Style! 😮😅
I love this video! The lengths that marketers will go to, trying to convince people that crap is not crap. When someone has to try and explain why something that is clearly not attractive, really is (which is what she is being paid to do) it's a good time to walk away. Admittedly, from some angles and in certain color combinations the cars did look ok. But it is far from a timeless design.
It's all a matter of opinion. I remember when 58 Edsels wee new. I always liked them, but never got one. Obviously the bulk of the market place didn't agree with me. Today it's virtually impossible to find a good one. If you do, the price is on the moon.
I completely agree- it is a matter of opinion. I was just commenting on the advertising industry and the methods they use to influence our choices. BTW, have you ever seen the tail lights on the '58 Bermuda wagons !! Try to find a set of those today :)
That's Madison Ave marketing for you.
"The Emperor's New Car"
A beautiful car and concept whose looks are unjustly maligned. A great book on the subject is “Disaster in Dearborn” by Thomas Bonsall. Ford needed a product to fill the Pontiac-Oldsmobile-Buick space better than just Mercury. It was just unfortunate that it had several insurmountable problems, including Robert McNamara’s loathing for the project, the ‘58 recession, some build-quality problems, and people hating on its vertical grille design with a lot of piling on over that fact alone. Ford has always been a brilliant marketer - the best of the Big Three IMO - but unfortunately they couldn’t get the Edsel to fly.
It’s also my impression that Ford far better understood the importance of marketing to women than GM or Chrysler did.
LMAO😂😂😂😂 This is too funny!
Back when Ford partnered with Disney to create animatronic presenters.
10:33 I gotta get me some of those pants!
Volver a los finales de los ´50 ¡ que lindo sería ! ¡ y poder comprar un NUEVO EDSEL !
I arrived about 4 years after Edsel came and went. But I believe the dysfunctional management was all of Ford's worst enemy at that time. Management should have been on top of the quality, especially with Edsel being an upscale make, and they should have worked as a team instead of all that petty back-biting, back-stabbing, and sabotage. Bob McNamara was especially arrogant, or so the auto historians made out. If they had all put their egos aside, and concentrated on a good product, Edsel might have succeeded. If it were up to me, I would have named it Corsair. If I were Henry II, I would have fired McNamara long before the latter 50s. He was not good for Ford. Or the US Military, as we would find out.
what happened to the sound? Cant hear it.
This reminds me of when I had to write a paper for college.. It had to a minimum of 15 pages... It ended up with 1/2 a page of substance and 14.5 pages of fluff and big words
All things considered, she did a good job on the commercial. Today women bitch about equal rights. 59 years ago this lady had an executive position. What's the problem?
Mercury with a different front clip and some extra gimmicks.
Not quite. Ranger, Pacer and the wagons were built on the Ford platform. Citation and Corsair wee built on the mercury platform with what turned out to be the troublesome Tele-Touch drive as standard equipment. You got a conventional column-mounted shifter in the smaller models unless you ordered the optional push buttons. Stick shift was also available in those.
the lady's eyebrows were painted on with a #4 sharpie permanent magic marker
Can't hear!
That gap of the side trim just looks disjointed to my eye. The head lights protrude to much. If the rear was 2 inches higher it would look better.
In all fairness, the '58 Edsel was designed at the same time the auto industry was debating whether to stay with single headlights or go with duals, so their front fenders had to be tall enough to handle single lights and wide enough to accomodate duals (Some Chryslers and DeSotos offered both singles and duals for '57 where they were legal...)
What the hell is wrong with the audio!!?? The video of the car is supurb 😉 but I have no idea what the heck is she mumbling about, redo this video, without her.
Bet Joy Harrison was soon in the unemployment line.
Why?
No she started her own business.
What a horror.