"Nobody can go find everything that was taken during the war, " Mr. Edsel said.
WSJ: He Drills for Answers | Robert M. Edsel | Cultural Conversation by Joanne Kaufman
Henry Ford was the car industry, until he named the Edsel after his grandson.
Killing Edsel was a shame because the dealer organization had been built and, in time, sales would have grown.
Among the sadder victims of Henry's malignancy is Edsel, who cannot quite assert himself with his father.
Mr. Brown's design became one of the scapegoats in a decadeslong debate over what killed the Edsel.
But it is the Edsel that became Mr. Brown's most famous legacy, despite or because of its epic downfall.
More than 6, 000 names were considered for the car before it was named after Henry Ford's son, Edsel.
The eldest of three children, Mr. Edsel was born in Oak Park, Ill.
WSJ: He Drills for Answers | Robert M. Edsel | Cultural Conversation by Joanne Kaufman
" Mr. Brown, who proudly drove an Edsel Pacer for decades, liked to call it "Ford's most successful failure.
"I believe everyone has a connection to this story, " said Mr. Edsel, who lectures frequently, customizing his talks for the occasion.
WSJ: He Drills for Answers | Robert M. Edsel | Cultural Conversation by Joanne Kaufman
The refusal of most museums to publicize their own link to the story is an endless source of frustration to Mr. Edsel.
WSJ: He Drills for Answers | Robert M. Edsel | Cultural Conversation by Joanne Kaufman
At one point in his tutorial, Mr. Edsel became immersed in "The Rape of Europa, " a chronicle of the Nazis' looting and theft.
WSJ: He Drills for Answers | Robert M. Edsel | Cultural Conversation by Joanne Kaufman
Everyone knows that our tax structure is broken-it is built on an Edsel frame and our legislators want to hang Ferrari parts on it.
Legions of Edsel collectors stayed loyal, and starting in the late 1960s formed clubs that now have members in 48 states, Canada and elsewhere.
But Ford's chief, Henry Ford II, was incensed at the initial failure of the car that bore his father's name, and the Edsel division was destroyed.
Here, Mr. Edsel works the phones, appealing to the better angels of veterans who are holding on to spoils of war, perhaps even trying to sell them.
WSJ: He Drills for Answers | Robert M. Edsel | Cultural Conversation by Joanne Kaufman
"The Edsel was oversold by Ford as the revolutionary car of the future, " said Matt Anderson, a curator at the Henry Ford, a museum in Dearborn, Mich.
It is also a book by Teresa Amabile, the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School.
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"It's been an embarrassment all my life, " says Keith, who lost the Edsel about as fast as it takes a Jag XK8 to go from 0 to 60.
Mr. Edsel almost went bankrupt twice in his previous career.
WSJ: He Drills for Answers | Robert M. Edsel | Cultural Conversation by Joanne Kaufman
Gone are such marques as the Speedwagon, the Bearcat, the Delta 88 and the Roadrunner, as well as more deserving-to-be-buried names like the Pinto, the Edsel and the Gremlin.
It seems certain that Apple will eventually offer up an iDog, or its very own Edsel, and momentum investors can be counted on to jump ship at that point.
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Curiously, a 1958 Edsel is displayed under the banner "Elements of Style, " even though the word Edsel is now synonymous with flop, in part because so few customers appreciated its special looks.
When Edsel, Ford's reasonable and likable son, commissioned an improved four-door version of the "T, " Henry paced around the new model and then grabbed hold of a door and ripped it off.
History is littered with examples of products created before their time, from Ford's Edsel to the Osborne PC years ahead of Apple, and Apple's own notorious flop with the Newton (the iPhone's ancestor).
Mercedes head Ernst Lieb, Automotive News publisher Keith Crain, racing legend Stirling Moss and Edsel and young Henry Ford all feasted on roast quail and filet mignon, as did about 200 other VIP owners, dealers and journalists who packed the dining room overlooking the beach.
FORBES: Edsel Ford, Stirling Moss at Mercedes Dinner at Pebble
In the mid 1930s, Henry Ford and his son, Edsel, set up the two-class structure as part of their estate planning: the charitable Ford Foundation received most of the shares, but they kept a small block of Class B shares that had voting rights, thus assuring family control.
FORBES: Ford Family's Stake Is Smaller, But They're Richer And Still Firmly In Control
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