Chrysler History: 1920 - 1990

by the end of world war one the automobile was no longer a curiosity america's young automobile industry was booming and competition among car companies was just beginning during the teens henry ford had become the undisputed king of the american automobile industry his model t was so sturdy so affordable that by 1920 it represented more than half of all cars sold in america but once you owned a model t and and it got to be say seven or eight years old and you thought you might want a new car there was no reason for you to go and buy another model t because it was the same car it hadn't changed but the public's tastes had changed now there was an opportunity for someone who could take the industry to the next level of styling and engineering someone like walter p chrysler he was an individual who had the vision the foresight to take a company or companies and put them together under his own name and he was enough of a promoter to be able to pull this off and it would that was the beginnings of the chrysler corporation chrysler was a natural mechanic from his boyhood fascination with tools and machinery he fashioned a career as a railroad machinist but in 1908 he became fascinated with automobiles and in 1912 he accepted an offer to become plant manager for buick within four years chrysler had become president of buick a position he held until 1920 when he had a falling out with general winner's top man billy durant the story was that at some buick dinner in flint billy durant announced that buick was going to build a brand new frame plant right there in flint well chrysler had just spent six months negotiating with an out of town supplier and it just signed a deal and durant basically embarrassed him and said oh we're not going to do that so he quit he just walked out but chrysler wasn't unemployed long he soon earned a reputation as the savior of failing automobile companies first willie's overland then maxwell chalmers but for chrysler it was no longer enough to be just an executive of someone else's business now he wanted his own car his own car company a new car was on the way a car so revolutionary in its mechanical betterments that it was destined to be a sensation in 1924 chrysler realized his dream by transforming the maxwell organization into a new company called the chrysler corporation its first product was an immediate hit the chrysler 6 boasted a long list of automotive engineering firsts including a high compression engine aluminum pistons and a four-wheel hydraulic brake system and in 1928 chrysler became the final member of the big three when it purchased dodge brothers actually it was the as they said at the time the minnow swallowing the whale dodge brothers was a bigger company than than chrysler corporation and that sort of made chrysler john and horace dodge made their fortunes as part suppliers to henry ford by 1915 they were successfully producing their own cars and building a nationwide dealer network but both brothers died suddenly in 1920 and five years later their widows sold their prosperous company to a new york banking firm one of the things that attracted walter chrysler to dodge brothers was that those cars had from the very beginning had a reputation for dependability they were they weren't necessarily the swoopiest looking cars but they were they would get the job done they wouldn't break down on you maintaining the dodge reputation for dependability was important to the company's new owner so important that this memorable promotional film starred chief engineer fred zeder and walter chrysler himself you've gone beyond what i expected could be accomplished mr chrysler we put everything we had into this new dodge car it's got that good old dodge dependability plus everything that the public want today fred you're proud of this car you're damn right i am as the rowing 20s came to a close chrysler offered cars in every price range the new entry-level plymouth the mid-range dodge in desoto and the top-of-the-line chrysler and imperial models the national prosperity that had made the chrysler corporation possible dissolved in the stock market crash of 1929 but the company's strong product line would help it survive in the difficult days ahead chrysler in the 1930s coming soon on cem in the roaring 20s americans were looking for glamour they wanted it in their fashions in their music and in their automobiles style prevailed and everyone wanted a car there was a study done in the 1920s that people would rather have a car than a bathtub not they didn't want a bathtub but they could get along without a bathtub but they had to have a car in this capricious atmosphere walter chrysler was able to transform his upstart car company into the last of detroit's big three automakers in just four short years but in 1929 the stock market crash plunged the nation into the great depression for many americans new cars were no longer affordable it was a unique problem for the big three which had become accustomed to ever increasing sales each year they all struggled uh they their sales dropped um you know by uh amounts that we would find inconceivable uh you know they they between 1929 and 1933 which was the bottom uh most of the car companies saw their sales drop by 75 and so they uh they they were operating um right on the edge of of going out of business in 1928 chrysler had introduced the economical plymouth the first car in its price class to offer features like four-wheel hydraulic brakes and flooding power engine mounts customers could choose from among seven different plymouth models each with an average price of less than seven hundred dollars chrysler's timely entry into the low-priced automotive field would prove to be its salvation during the difficult depression years what a chrysler wanted to prove i think that he could do it the story is when they when they did the first floating power plymouth they took it off the line drove it over to dearborn and went and had lunch with henry and edsel henry ansel ford and then after lunch they said come on out here i want to show you something showed him the new car and left it with the fords and took a taxi home sort of like hey this is my calling card now now i can play with you guys by the mid-30s chrysler had surpassed ford as america's second largest producer of passenger cars it was an amazing achievement and the company's early success may have prompted it to move quickly to the next level of vehicle development the one-of-a-kind car called the chrysler airflow here it comes on its desktop leaping clear of the ledge and landing with crushing impact in the rocky shale beneath you can see the film footage in our exhibit of driving the airflow over a cliff uh having it go end over end and then the doors open and it gets driven away a lot of people have said well if they had introduced that same car three or four years later it might have been a home run we'll never know that the air flow was the first attempt to coordinate automotive engineering and design in a single package and the first car with unit body construction but in 1935 most people just didn't understand it the airflow was simply ahead of its time one person has described the air flows having the same anonymity as a person with a nylon stocking over his face in which all of the features are sort of pushed together and the public just didn't accept that the airflow's failure in the marketplace had long lasting effects chrysler executives vowed not to take chances on new product designs chrysler was uh was dominated by the engineers in the and the bodies were if not entirely an afterthought they the styling the look of the car was less important than what was underneath critics often say chrysler products became stodgy and dull in the late 1930s but the conservative look was exactly what walter chrysler's hand-picked successor wanted the man called kt keller keller was the same kind of man new plants he knew people there was a i think a symbiotic relationship between the two and he i think he always planned to have keller as his successor in 1938 walter chrysler suffered a severe stroke after his death two years later keller was firmly in command next on the chrysler chronicles the company enters a new era the automotive industry witnesses the birth of a union and the beginnings of another world war coming soon on cen in the 1930s america went through hard times the collapse of the stock market and the depression that followed left many people struggling in this insecure atmosphere workers in the automobile industry sought more job security the desire for a union representing the interests of the rank and file grew through the decade one of the early leaders of the united auto workers was walter ruther he was very much an idealist but i think also was a very practical judge of people and situations he was really very good at maneuvering his his own people and the opposition the uaw's first major maneuver took place in january 1937. the target was general motors the place was an engine plant in flint michigan that produced motors for nearly all gm models the tactics were unusual instead of organizing outside the plant the workers engineered the first sit-down strike at the end of a shift when the workers would normally leave they would just not leave and sometimes some of their other some of the other workers would then join them and they would basically live inside the plant within six weeks the flint's sit-down strike shut down general motors the company became the first to sign a contract with the uaw similar sit-downs were taking place at chrysler and within six months of the gm signing walter chrysler himself signed a contract with the union with two of the big three on board many thought ford would soon follow suit but in 1937 henry ford was in no mood to make a deal i think for henry ford it came down to an issue of control it was his company he by that time he had bought out all his stockholders and he and edsel owned the company lock stock and barrel and he didn't want anybody telling him how to run his company and he and then he felt the union was trying to to to do that confrontations became violent when water ruther and other union organizers were handing out leaflets to workers near a pedestrian overpass near detroit ford's security squad attacked unfortunately for ford the entire scene was captured by a news photographer images of the battle of the overpass appeared in newspapers across the country but it took another four years for henry ford to allow union elections the greatest pressure came from his own family ford's daughter-in-law eleanor and his wife clara threatened to sell their ford stock if henry didn't recognize the workers while one conflict was ending at home another was exploding overseas then on december 7th 1941 came the news flash that stunned our nation we were at war the onset of world war ii brought major changes to the automobile industry suddenly the federal government needed massive amounts of military hardware in a hurry and detroit was the natural place to go for manufacturing know-how the things that were made one at a time all during world war one and time after we're now being geared up to be produced like an automobile and who better to start that effort than the automobile companies by march 1942 the federal government ordered the big three to halt all production of civilian cars for chrysler the challenge was to build a tank arsenal in warren michigan before the building of that plant the united states had almost no tank building capabilities and this plant was built and put into operation i think in less than a year's time chrysler's manufacturing miracles got the attention of president franklin roosevelt who was given a tour of the tank plant by company president kt keller the company also produced tons of ammunition anti-aircraft cannons bomber planes gyroscopes and a long line of military trucks with all this production one vehicle would emerge from the war with a reputation like no other a four-wheel drive vehicle originally produced by the willis overland company of toledo they called it the jeep in fact the the gi is coming back after experiencing what a jeep could do what that type of vehicle could do wanted wanted to have something like that but the jeep was really a rarity one of the few wartime products to find a home in post-war america in 1945 with victory at hand the automakers were eager to get back to what they knew best building cars next on the chrysler chronicles a new revolution as america enters the 1950s its love affair with the automobile starts all over again coming soon on cem once again the end of world war ii brought the beginning of a new era of optimism and prosperity americans were in the mood to spend there was a boom in suburban housing and an unprecedented demand for personal transportation the war was it was a terrific terrific period for workers there was full employment people earned tremendous pay during the war but couldn't spend it on anything they had enormous savings in their pockets or in their bank accounts when the war ended after four years of producing war machinery the big three automakers were eager to get back to the business of building cars but with no time to design and engineer new models the automakers simply produced more of the models they had built before the war and they couldn't build them fast enough people had orders at different car dealerships they would take anything so it was really a seller's market after the war in fact my dad bought a 49 plymouth and he uh he had a hard time getting that at chrysler company president kt keller was firmly in command veteran employees remember him not only as a man who knew the inner workings of automobiles but also the machines that built the automobiles and i remember this he rolled up his sleeves got into the machine in about 20 minutes he told the superintendent go ahead you do this and that fix the machine get the people to work he saved a whole day's shutdown but that's the kind of a person kt keller was keller was also rather conservative in his opinions of automotive design and his opinions dictated the course of chrysler's post-war styling his classic comment when someone showed him a lower slung longer vehicle was that chrysler's customers would never buy that car because there wasn't enough headroom inside for a gentleman to sit in the car with his top hat on uh and be able to drive it comfortably if you're a big family man like me better get a dodge but while chrysler products remain tall and traditional the competition was making changes ford and general motors developed new vehicles new models that looked very different from the ones they produced during the war they were built lower to the ground they were longer they were more streamlined in the in the look that they had in much of its post-war advertising chrysler emphasized its reputation for engineering excellence but in the early 1950s the company began placing more emphasis on styling and now the whole family of the stars in styling the high and wide cars kt keller loved were falling out of favor with americans in 1954 ford overtook chrysler as the nation's second largest producer of passenger cars in 1954 was really a very bad year for the corporation all the styling chickens came home to roost and we ended up 1954 with about 13 of the market versus our usual 20 and people in detroit began to joke about the big two and a half instead of the big three but the slump didn't last long in 1955 chrysler completely revamped its product line the man behind the bold new styling was designer virgil extra he called it the forward luck as the forward-look cars began appearing chrysler's image was reversed instead of being known as detroit's stodgy automaker the company now enjoyed a reputation as an innovator in engineering and design america's love affair with the automobile had never been stronger and for millions in the late 50s autumn was one of the most exciting times of year the time when the new cars were unveiled i can remember them being covered and i can remember the the dealership windows being papered over and people there looking through to see if they could get a glimpse of new models so there was a lot of excitement this was rolling sculpture and it was very much a part of the time especially for those of us who grew up in the automotive community by the early 1960s the boys and girls of the post-war baby boom were growing up the automobile was about to assume another role as a means of expression and freedom for a new generation chrysler in the 1960s coming soon on cem by the early 1960s thousands of teenage baby boomers driver's licenses in hand were eager to cruise america's streets and highways it was just a real neat time to be in i participated in the cruise scene as a lot of young people did i wasn't necessarily driving the kinds of cars that i admired so much in those years but we always were down there looking for them and enjoying them and always wanted to hear what those big engines sounded like but the family car just wouldn't do something new was needed to meet young america's passion for power eager to capitalize on this phenomenon american automakers began turning out the legendary muscle cars of the 60s stylish new coupes and convertibles packed with horsepower chrysler already had an edge with its famous 300. chrysler started at a little higher plane in the in the early mid 50s with a 300 but that was sort of a rich man's toy the average young person couldn't afford that the highest production of 300s was 1957 with about 2200 plus cars and the lowest production was in 1963 around 400 to 600 cars so it was a rich man's toy and the car behind me that was a huge looking car he only said four people has buckets eats in the front has bucket seats in the back so it was more of a toy but the engines they developed the 300's are the ones that it ended up in the light body furies and plymouth and so forth the 60s saw the birth or recreation of many high-powered engines including the much acclaimed chrysler hemi to meet the growing demand for speed for chrysler during that period of time the the 426 engine which originally was a wedgehead engine was uh the biggest engine um and then later on that grew to a 440 cubic inch engine by 6667 in there but in the meantime the 426 was redesigned into a hemi configuration and brought out for race purposes only in 1964. styling also took its cue from the new emphasis on high performance at chrysler a crisp clean new look emerged under the guidance of chief designer elwood engel he was the styling whiz and he liked to make things go and he liked you know a slick image to go with all the power and all the responsiveness that we were putting in vehicles and he was primarily the the individual that gave us a good styling theme that we followed and and it was all kind of performance related cars had to look fast because they were fast anxious to further enhance the image of their high performance cards ford gm and chrysler flexed their muscle cars on race tracks across the nation we were king of the road during the 60s the chrysler hemi engine just dominated both drag racing and grand national racing in fact it was so good that some of the sanctioning bodies put restrictions to kind of tune it down but we still wound up winning our share of events muscle cars continued to increase in popularity throughout the 60s gas was still cheap life was good in the fast lane chrysler continued turning out popular new models like the dodge charger the dodge super b and a restyled plymouth barracuda to go head to head with the chevy camaro the ford mustang and the pontiac firebird but one of the best remembered symbols of chrysler's muscle car era almost didn't make it off the drawing board the 68 road runner started as a as sort of a whimsical kind of thing it started with about a projection of 5 000 units and the most controversial issue was the little bird uh and the design office says we don't want any little birds sitting in our car they'll be the last thing of my dead body so the first initial cars we shipped we put the bird inside the glove box and if you want to put the bird on you could well you know it was history after that is we sold probably 30 35 000 the first year and about 45 000 the second year baby boomers continued their love affair with muscle cars until the oil crisis of the early 1970s and the industry appealed to the passion of the age rebellion wants you but then the freedom of the 60s was tempered by a series of events that pulled the plug on the era of high horsepower and high performance chrysler in the 1970s coming soon on cen america roared into the 1970s with the promise of technological progress and social change but it would prove to be a bumpy flight for the american automobile industry and for chrysler the 70s would begin with high expectations but end in near disaster big luxurious beautiful unfortunately we had the experience in the 1970s of picking exactly the wrong year in retrospect to introduce our new large cars we had a new line of very attractive large cars in 1974 that debuted the same year as the oil embargo and then we had another line of new cars in 1979 that debuted during another gas crunch the middle east oil embargo instantly changed the dynamics of the american car market long fuel lines and higher gas prices pushed consumers to smaller more fuel-efficient cars but few expected the japanese manufacturers long derided for poor manufacturing quality would soon become a major force in the american automobile market but what happened in the late 60s is that the quality of all the japanese models improved greatly and they began putting larger engines in them and and really begin to design the cars with the american market in mind as the federal government began demanding greater fuel economy and lower emissions in detroit's new products chrysler struggled for a new identity in an ever-changing market unlike general motors and ford chrysler didn't have the cash reserves to pay for massive shifts in production strategies with increased government regulation and foreign competition the smallest of the big three automakers couldn't keep up with the pace of change we could feel it when it was happening back then and there wasn't anybody that did anything wrong politically there wasn't anybody that did anything wrong in the best interests of the country but you almost took away something that was the livelihood of thousands and thousands of people in this country what a shame that would have been as the corporation continued to fall behind the possibility of bankruptcy became more and more real the problems at chrysler became symbolic of perceived american failure throughout the nation and the entire nation was talking about chrysler corporation good evening the carter administration has agreed to help the chrysler corporation the country cannot afford to let the chrysler corporation go under it is imperative that the congress bail out chrysler with federal loan guarantees both houses are debating that issue and i don't think i met a single person who won didn't know that chrysler was in trouble and have an opinion about whether or not we should be saved or whether or not we made good product we were clearly the topic of every cocktail party in every school debate and on every college campus chrysler looked for new leadership and turned to lee iacocca a former president of ford to polish the company's tarnished image he was not a car guy he was not an engineer he's not a finance man particularly he's just a very effective convincing salesman and iacocca had a lot of convincing to do by late 1979 his primary objective was to persuade the federal government to guarantee a loan agreement worth more than one and a half billion dollars chrysler needed the cash to modernize plants to create new products and to save six hundred thousand jobs throughout the company its dealerships and its suppliers we do not want anything for free we are asking for the guarantee of a loan every last dollar of which will be repaid it was to say the least a very hard sell the chrysler bailout is a rip-off of the american worker it was a complex undertaking and it was painful there were plant closings layoffs and ultimately a three billion dollar concession package from union workers and suppliers many made enormous sacrifices to keep chrysler alive there were a lot of people who really wanted to make this place work and i never saw a company like chrysler where there were so many people whose father had worked here or whose brother worked here there were a lot of family ties to the corporation and it meant more to them than just a job the carter administration asked congress today to bail out the ailing chrysler corporation by 1980 the government had agreed to the loan guarantee now the burden fell on chrysler to prove it could not only survive but prosper again too few people could predict that chrysler's turnaround in the 80s and 90s would be so strong and so dramatic the story of the new chrysler corporation coming soon on cent flake coming back to a whole new plant whole new company the american car company reborn in the early 1980s surprised the world just a few years earlier chrysler corporation had been on the brink of collapse but by the middle of the decade chrysler would make one of the most dramatic comebacks in business history i also think chrysler had the advantage maybe a perverse advantage of having no choice in the the early uh 80s it really had to change drastically or simply not survive but even after a one and a half billion dollar loan guarantee with the federal government there was still no guarantee the company would survive a concern shared at the time by many of chrysler's suppliers that we got through that period by basically talking to people talking every day to those people that had a concern with us and personally relating to them that we were behind this we felt comfortable about the company and that we were going to give it a try and that we were going to do something uh not only good for the supplier purchasing relationship but good for the industry as well while the loan guarantee gave the company a chance to restructure it still needed to produce a new car that would be an instant hit in 1981 that car appeared in compact form with front-wheel drive the new chrysler corporation introduces the k-cars the american way to beat the pump the k-car was really a breakthrough for its time it was perceived as a good investment in a way because it was good value you could buy this it was going to be around tomorrow it was a new generation so that was significant and it hit a sweet spot in the market or it hit a spot in the market where there was a need in just two years chrysler's k cars the dodge aries and the plymouth reliant captured a stunning 39 percent of the domestic compact market many called the k car the vehicle that saved chrysler but it was to be followed by another vehicle that would bring even greater prosperity to the corporation and radically changed the image of what americans called the family car iacocca had tried to convince henry ford ii to produce minivans at ford henry ford ii vetoed the the notion uh he thought the minivan uh was too risky it would not sell the new plymouth voyager and dodge caravan minivans were an immediate hit and they gave chrysler a dominating lead in a new product segment that expanded faster than anyone could have predicted i don't think they knew what the minivan was going to become it's bought as a lifestyle vehicle people say oh i need one of these things i don't want these huge rear wheel drive vans i can't put them in my garage my wife doesn't like to drive them and so it's bought as a lifestyle because they need a box on wheels and then after they have one then it becomes a lifetime vehicle because it's like well we've got to have a minivan but one smash product alone couldn't sustain chrysler through the next economic downturn as the 90s began chrysler created the lh sedans standout products whose cab forward design would redefine the proportions of american mid-size sedans and signal the beginning of a new era of distinctive design at chrysler we don't want to do things like other people we don't want to do things that aren't remarkable we don't want to do things that aren't a little bit outrageous and that's been very successful for us that new attitude has been reflected in bold new products like the dodge viper the jeep grand cherokee the dodge ram pickup the ns minivans and the one of a kind plymouth crawler chrysler's remarkable comeback has sparked a renaissance of design and engineering excellence personally it's been the greatest success of my life to be part of a company that's turned itself around like that and in fact i think helped change the way business is done in the united states today and for all chrysler employees the 90s may be remembered as a time when the american automobile industry not only celebrated its 100th birthday but again seemed to have a future as bright as its colorful past as i say to my colleagues in the design office enjoy these times savor them because these are the good old days these this is an area you're going to look back on and say what a great time it was to be in the car business and to be working for chrysler corporation

Channel: Mopar Legends TV

Views: 177,506

Keywords: Chrysler Corporation, Chrysler, History Of Chrysler

Id: dAmtGt605hE

Length: 33min 34sec (2014 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 20 2014