Henry Ford Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Anti-Bolshevik Collaborators? Reilly, Ford, Savinkov, Churchill

16 June 2022 Comments 0 Comments

Reilly considered Churchill the only useful British politician in the anti-Bolshevik cause. Shortly before his death he told a friend: “Only one man is really important, and that is the irrepressible Marlborough [WSC]. I have always remained on good terms with him…. His ear would always be open to something sound.”

Jordan, Part 4: “Somewhere West of Laramie”

2 September 2011 Comments 6 Comments

Jordan died in 1958, the original romancer of the automobile. His “Golden Girl from Somewhere” never aged. Through Ned's words, she’s still there in our collective memory: "When the Spring is on the mountain and the day is at the door…leave the hot pavements of the town. Then heigh-ho!…for the open road. Five roads to the right, five roads to the left…and you’ll greet the rising sun in El Dorado."

Jordan, Part 3: “What Price Tiffany?”

1 September 2011 Comments 2 Comments

Continued from Part 2…

The Jordan Motor Car Company began without a factory. In Detroit, chief engineer Russell Begg developed a body to wrap around a six-cylinder Continental engine. Finally Ned paid $50,000 for a five-acre site in Cleveland, and by early July 1915 Jordans were coming off the line.

Jordan quickly recognized the closed car market and added a sedan and coupe in 1917. By 1918 he was building 5000 cars a year, heady business for a small independent in those days. Plant space was expanded, bonuses paid. Then in April 1919 came the first Jordan Playboy. Hardly anybody noticed at first—but Ned was inspired:

Dancing one night at the Mayfield Country Club, Cleveland, with a real outdoor girl, Eleanor Borton.…