THE SECRET DOOR

Keyhole the Jack Douglas true television series that opens the doorways of the world we live in hello everyone this is Jack Douglas this doorway that we see is one of the most closely guarded doorways in America few doorways out outside of Washington are harder to crash it happens to be the entrance to The Styling Center of an automobile manufacturer the Ford Motor Company at Dearborn Michigan and here on my right is our special guest is the man in charge of that Division and who's made it possible for us to open wide this here to for Secret Door Our Guest Mr William Clay Ford our story The Secret Door ladies and gentlemen behind the secret doors of The Styling Center we are about to visit we're going to see plans and ideas that will surprise and I think even Amaze many of our viewers but before we go behind the Secret Door I'd like to ask our guest Mr Bill Ford who is the head of product planning and styling at Dearborn to answer a question that may be in your mind at this very moment Bill to my knowledge this is the first time that your company or any major automobile manufacturer has permitted the television cameras to go behind these uh inner sanctum doors of The Styling Center now why did you people consent to have us do so well Jack we feel that styling is perhaps one of the most important yet least understood aspect the automotive business and it's an aspect that has aroused great public interest and in view of this increasing interest we decided to let the bars down all right Bill and now with your assistance for the next half hour let's see what's been going on behind the Secret Door Greenfield Village in Dearborn was founded in the late 1920s by Henry Ford as a living Memorial to Automotive travel this is the first Ford factory moved from its original site in Detroit and this grand old car approaching us is the 1903 model manufactured the year that Ford motor company was founded some 60 years later it still runs like a fine Precision watch very few were made and sold as it was too elegant and too costly even in its own time within a few years Mr Ford put into practice an idea that revolutionized our way of life the moving assembly line this was one of the cars that helped bring about the revolution the 1910 Model [Music] T and here the classic 1929 Model [Music] A 30 years later William Clay Ford one of the grandsons of Henry Ford drives to work in a Thunderbird quite a contrast to the model [Music] A the camera follows Mr Ford as he drives along the Edsel Ford Expressway named in honor of his father Henry Ford's only [Music] son at the entrance of Ford Motor Company's Styling Center in Dearborn he stops to be recognized and the security guard waves him through and stop he must there are guards at every gate this is the Advanced Styling Studio which is devoted primarily to styling years ahead these are some of the men who spin Daydreams the kind of Daydreams that have a way of coming true they sketch plans and drawings by the thousands to get the few designs that show real promise for production here's what happens to the rejects they end up in locked Waste Paper baskets these are then emptied into disposable paper bags under the watchful eyes of security guards and then still under security supervision The Unwanted sketches and drawings are burned [Music] yes some Daydreams go up in smoke but those that show promise reach the attention of Mr Ford and Jean bordon vice president and director of styling next they call in the chief stylists from the four styling Studios at these sessions protocol goes out the window more likely than not they'll make important changes in the design approach to get the one theme which will capture the imagination of the buying public they finally agree on a car to which they have given the code name the ason now Mr Ford carries the ball to the styling committee consisting of other top Executives this includes Brothers Henry chairman of the [Music] board and Benson Ford who heads the company's dealer policy board yes the Aston will also be a far cry from the model A they like what they see and styling gets the green light to proceed with the design the first step in the building of a full-size clay model is a wooden skeleton or [Music] Armature after the Armature has been finished the next step is to cover it with Clay which obviously is easier to work with than metal pound after pound of warm Clay is applied spread and skillfully modeled before there through some 5,000 lb of clay and some 6,000 manh hours will have gone into the making of this one clay model and these clay SKS like Toby Malone are artists in a literal sense for at home Toby has a one room Studio decorated with numerous samples of recent sculptures many of the clay modelers as well as the stylists regularly exhibit their work in art [Music] shows working side by side with Toby on the clay model is another talented and respected artist Jack steel shown here adding the finishing touches to the fender Jack however isn't a sculptor but a painter and a good one this is a current work a painting that he has promised to the National Religious art exhibition in Detroit like Toby Malone Jack steel is a consistent Prize winner at art shows and [Music] Exhibits in the hands of artists such as these the astrion begins to take [Music] [Applause] [Music] shape for the most part accessories for the interior of the car are specially designed and made by hand in the metal shop also in the shop machinist Bob Miller is turning what will be the aston's tail light what appears to be a metal box in the hands of fabricator Lou Ellis is actually a new type of door handle a tab or bar that depresses to release the door catch once the lights are added the astrion really begins to look like a car the work of the clay modelers is almost finished All That Remains is to recheck the final measurements in styling terminology this is called taking points and even for this clay model measurements are accurate to 1 10,000 of an [Applause] inch meanwhile Mr bordon has the difficult task of approving fabrics and color for presentation to top [Music] Management in the Trim Shop upholsterers are at work on the Fabrics to be used for the interior of the astrion the next step is called die knocking over the clay window area a thin sheet of special plastic material is applied to simulate the appearance of [Music] Windows aluminum foil is used to simulate the grill and bumper properly applied it's difficult to tell from chrome the astrion is given a crest of its own and now the final step the paint job and for this clay model sheets of painted Dino are applied to the body surfaces once applied the excess material will be trimmed and in a very short time the astrion has has been painted right in the studio the astrion is wheeled out to The Styling Center Courtyard the first to see it are the chief stylists not until the astrion has passed their inspection will it be shown to The Styling committee for each car line the same cycle is repeated sketches renderings and clay models in order to give management the best possible designs from which to make the final choice [Music] security demands that even rejected models be destroyed completely for nothing in the automotive business is more carefully guarded than the products of The Styling Studios some Advanced models are carried further and made fully operational this one is the Futura the roof is a clear plastic double bubble canopy hinged at the [Music] rear the aerodynamics of the design are tested in a huge wind tunnel which the engineers call Hurricane [Music] Road this giant fan 24 ft in diameter can generate winds up to 125 mph with gusts up to 140 it moves 3 million cubic of air through the tunnel every 60 [Music] seconds they freeze the Futura time and again to prove its operation at 40° below zero these men who conceive and supervise the testing of parts and procedures must certainly be rated Among The Unsung unseen Heroes of the automotive industry this test involves the brake dynamometer and tests the breake drums and all component [Music] parts at speeds of up to 200 M hour the engineers make sure that the brake systems in our cars can stand more punishment than they would ever absorb in everyday [Music] driving the anacore toic chamber is so completely soundproofed that a person alone in the room can actually hear his own heartbeat here the engineer is probing vibrations that might reach the passenger compartment as an unpleasant [Music] [Music] hum having survived its tests in Hurricane Road the futur is taken to the Dearborn Proving Ground test driver Johnny stappa flicks a switch to lower the plastic canopy and prepares to test the car on the high-speed [Music] track [Music] although the Futura is still a long way from the production line the stylists are looking far beyond to a car that might operate on exotic fuels and electrical power even the remotest possibilities give scope to the vivid imaginations of the advanced designers the delta-shaped model adapted from deltawing aircraft is another example of the stylist's creativity one feature is a radar scope that would warn the driver of road conditions ahead even though it hasn't been perfected The Stylist must anticipate it and he designs it into the car the search for a compact and practical radar scope or proximity warning device is already [Music] underway these tiny horns which would be mounted on the front of a car transmit a signal when the signal is bounced back in this instance from the on-rushing Train the circuit is broken and and the warning device is immediately activated here's another of the Intriguing features of the future in the delta-shaped model two of its four wheels would retract so that the car would ride on only a front and a rear wheel a gyroscopic stabilizer prevents the car from tipping sideways in itself a promising safety feature the other obvious features of the Gyros scopically stabilized car would be an extremely smooth drive firm control at high speeds and reduced friction through aerodynamic styling another dream of the future is the Volante shown here 38 scale the Volante conceivably would be powered by three sets of rotor blades arranged in a triangular [Music] pattern these rotor units would provide lift and thrust so that the car would literally ride on a cushion of air the basic principle of course is derived from the helicopter the stylists are not limited to pass Passenger cars they also apply their talents to trucks tractors or combination vehicles like this weekend camper here the designer combined a more or less conventional truck cab with a most unconventional body complete with three bunks telephone kitchen sink stove and an infrared oven this model of a dream tractor is called the typhoon its styling follows the pattern set by Passenger cars in transferring comfort features from the home into vehicles in which people spend much of their time The Stylist visualize air conditioning a radio telephone a coffee pot and refrigerator though not ready for production the typhoon has been applauded by Farmers wherever it has been shown this is a look into Dreamsville the land of just around the corner created as the byproduct of imagination wedded to design and Engineering in Dearborn they call this byproduct Advanced Styling the look of tomorrow on wheels at this point words are Superfluous Through the Keyhole of the Secret Door the camera tells the story [Music] Bill Ford is as long as I can remember and that uh is a little too long I'm afraid I've heard the rumor that many many years ago an inventor invented an air engine for automobiles that this engine has been perfected that it's been ready all these years but that under pressure from the oil companies uh you folks in Detroit and dearburn have not made use of it now is that true or false Well Jack it's very definitely false uh if we or any other company had such an engine that was ready uh that was operational that was sound economically to make and to sell I'm sure we have it on the road right now it's not the case we don't have it Bill let's talk about these future Styles uh we saw some luscious Styles today of new cars at your company and I'm sure the other companies and their styling divisions are also creating these wonderful things for the future but always it seems to be if I may say so in the future when does that future get here for us the C customers well the customer is the one who decides when the future gets here uh we have found that uh the customer does not take too readily to a radical design change he would much rather go through an evolutionary state so therefore we can't be too advanced in the car that we put on the road say next model year we have to build up to it gradually I see it's a gradual process of evolution in your business as well as in so many others Bill one final question we're in the Space Age we're talking of rockets and nuclear power we already have nuclear power in submarines in steamships what are the chances of nuclear powered automobiles or rocket driven automobiles for the near future uh that's a very difficult question to answer the uh automobile as you well know has many problems peculiar unto itself that say a submarine does not have I can assure you however that uh we are exploring most diligently every means of automotive power that we can think up our research is most active in this field and whenever we have it ready it'll be on the road but I can't tell you exactly when Bill Ford I do want to thank you very much not only for this chance to ask you some hot seat questions I hope they haven't been too hot but also I'd like to thank you and all of your people back in Dearborn at The Styling Center for your cooperation and for your kindness in permitting us to get behind the uh Secret Door of The Styling Center we do appreciate it thank you very very much a