Ford Motor Company

The history of American transportation from the horse and buggys of yesteryear to the progression of the motor car.

To popularize the idea of automobile travel, Ford Motor Company produced Ford Educational Weekly, a film magazine distributed free to theaters. One 1916 series featured "Visits to American Cities." In this episode, Los Angeles is featured at the very beginning of the boom created by oil, movies and aircraft. On the occasion of its centennial in 1953, Ford donated its film to the National Archives and Records Service; this copy derives from a fine grain master printed from the Archive's preservation negative. Music by Frederick Hodges.

Seminal piece of documentary filmmaking by New Wave director Karel Reisz following the daily activities of members of the Lambeth Youth club in late-1950s London.

Women shown helping the war effort by doing jobs that at the time were traditionally associated with men.

Cliche-ridden rural/urban improbable romance concocted to promote Ford tractors.

This documentary film from the 1950s explains how the citizens of a small midwestern town restore community spirit through a 4-H club.

An animated short made for Ford.

In this one-minute animated short done by Ford Motor's industrial film unit -- Ford was a major producer of films for many a decade -- Lady Liberty keeps opening the chest, revealing the name of various wartime Liberty Loan drives and good old Uncle Sam does a striptease and tossing clothes into the effort.

The animating of an early American political cartoon.

This is the 1952 launch film for the new E100A Ford Anglia and Prefect range. Shot in 35mm, this film has some lovely shots of Ford's design studios, the factory at Dagenham, the prototypes undergoing testing, and finishes with the new cars being used by delighted families.

This short 1919 cartoon, produced by Ford Motor Company, shows a farmer Uncle Sam braining a huge rat branded with "I.W.W." (Industrial Workers of the World) before it can eat the grain.

A documentary short on rehabilitating returning World War I veterans

This short was paid for by Ford Motors in an attempt to improve the lot of the working people through advocating social services.

History and exploration of Ford's plant in Michigan. Great historical footage of old time manufacturing of Ford cars.

Ford Educational Weekly No. 164, produced by the Ford Motor Company about prefabricated houses. A new idea in house building in which the parts of the house are made in the factory, all ready to be assembled on the lot. Inspired Buster Keaton's first solo film entitled One Week, a parody borrowing events from the plot and following the narrative structure that divides the action into days of the week marked by pages falling from a calendar.

This short film from the Ford Motor Company visits the islands of Hawaii in 1924. The trip covers subjects like Japanese businesses and the extensive plantations that came to dominate Hawaii. You can also see customs like the preparation of poi, canoeing, and surfing, as well as the continuous destructive and regenerative powers of volcanoes.