(train whistle blowing)
- when I was a boy, my father gave me some advice.
He said, "son, a machine is only as good as you build it.
"but if you really love what you're doing,
"then you can make something spectacular."
- well, isn't that something?
(rhythmic industrial music)
- [narrator] at the dawn of the 20th century,
a new generation of titan emerges.
- This is my father, henry ford.
- To pierre du pont! (all cheering)
- boeing is the future of aviation.
- Mr. Morgan, what's happening?
- [man] we're in the age of the machine.
- When people leave my bank after they get a loan,
they feel like they've got free money.
But in reality, they're gonna pay me every month
for the rest of their life, with interest.
- [narrator] they'll compete to conquer new industries.
- Well, you've dominated the car market,
so why are you building the tallest building in the world?
- 77 floors.
It's absolutely exceptional.
- So we can look down on gm.
- I'm gonna build.
- Top floor will be 800 feet up, same height as chrysler's.
- Make it taller and I'm in.
- [narrator] as they amass huge fortunes-
- can you account for the fact
that house of morgan has paid no taxes for years?
- [narrator] they'll become targets of the government.
- You are quite simply a war profiteer, a merchant of death.
- [narrator] until a new threat changes everything.
- If there was a war, no country in europe
would stand a chance against germany,
and neither would america.
- [man] what's going on?
- There's been an attack in hawaii.
- [narrator] now, the titans must put
their differences aside and unite-
- ford makes cars, not planes.
- Nobody else can produce the scale that we need
in the time we need it.
- [narrator] to defeat the greatest evil
the world has ever seen.
- You're asking me to start producing munitions again.
- The president is asking as well.
(bombs exploding)
- the same president who labeled me a merchant of death?
- All right, let's go.
- America is waiting.
(rising reverent orchestral music)
- this is gonna put us at the head of the table.
- Let's do this.
(explosion booming)
- I'll do it, but we're doing this to win.
(reverent orchestral music)
(cork popping)
(light big band music)
- [narrator] it's the end of the first world war.
The brutal fighting lasted four years
and claimed over 20 million lives.
It also created a new titan.
- Ladies and gentlemen, gather round!
If I could have a moment of your time, please,
a very brief moment,
for a man who really needs no introduction.
If we could all raise our glasses to pierre du pont!
(guests cheering)
- du pont! - Du pont!
(ominous orchestral music)
- [narrator] pierre du pont,
the largest supplier of explosives in world war I.
(soft upbeat music) (birds chirping)
pierre du pont's childhood is anything but normal.
In 1801, his family came to america with nothing
but soon built up a thriving business.
Gunpowder.
They made their first fortune in the civil war,
selling to the union army.
- No, no, the sulfuric acid.
That one.
Yes, yes.
- [narrator] his father is a brilliant chemist and inventor.
Now, he's working to refine a brand new product:
Dynamite.
(flames crackling)
- du pont idolizes his father.
His father is his hero.
He was, at an early age,
almost like his father's apprentice.
- Now, these elements are important to pay attention to.
Hold that.
Three drops in here.
On top of the sulfuric acid.
And from there...
From there, I'm going to need my watch.
(pounding percussion music)
(watch ticking)
(explosion booming)
(pierre panting) (somber piano music)
- [narrator] du pont is only 14
when his father dies in an explosion.
And to make matters worse,
du pont's uncles use the opportunity
to steal the company.
- After the death of his father,
pierre's uncles cut him out of his birthright.
It's a betrayal of the highest order,
and he will have his revenge.
So, pierre goes to mit, earns a degree,
and becomes a chemist just like his father.
And he waits patiently, biding his time.
He watches from the sidelines
as his uncles run the company into the ground.
He's then able to swoop in,
purchase the company for pennies on the dollar,
and wrest control, reestablishing his birthright.
This is an indication of just how shrewd
and ruthless pierre du pont had become.
- [narrator] over the next two decades,
du pont methodically buys out or forces out his competition
until he has a monopoly in the munitions industry
just as world war I breaks out.
(explosion booming)
- world war I was a war like no one had seen before.
It mobilized the most advanced societies in europe
and it mobilized their industrial capability.
(gun firing)
it was the first war to use mechanized machinery
on a wide scale. (gun firing)
(explosion booming)
- [narrator] fueling the bullets and shells
is du pont's gunpowder.
(glass clinking)
- du pont, during world war I,
it was a mutually beneficial relationship
at the end of the day.
He saw a need,
there was certainly a great deal of demand,
and he had the opportunity to supply it.
- Cheers.
- [narrator] during the war,
du pont's business grows more than 1,000%.
But now, the empire he's built is suddenly obsolete.
- Will you please excuse me?
I have to go.
Enjoy your-
no, it's a pleasure.
(somber orchestral music)
- so, du pont, at the end of world war I,
is astride this colossus
that has succeeded tremendously in the war,
and the war is over and the need for his product is gone.
He can shut his company down
and say, "we don't need any more munitions,"
or adapt and innovate.
- [narrator] du pont needs to rethink his entire empire.
- In every crisis, you wanna be able
to be agile and resilient to keep you fighting,
to keep on realizing that you're gonna have to make changes.
From change, there's opportunity.
- [narrator] du pont realizes he can capitalize
on a new mood in america
as the country emerges from two crises: A global war
and a devastating pandemic.
It will take over 50 million lives.
- The influenza pandemic was far more deadly
than anything we have seen in our lifetimes.
But at the end, many people would question,
"why shouldn't we live life now and enjoy it while we can?"
(people cheering)
- [narrator] for the first time in years,
americans can finally think about the future.
- [john] we've purchased about 25 barrels of stock.
- [narrator] du pont's right-hand man, john raskob,
reports on the one part of the company
that's actually growing:
A small division spun off from explosives
that produces paints and lacquers.
- [john] we're seeing an increase in demand for
pyrroline.
- [pierre] how much are we selling?
- 10 tons last year, but this year it could be double, sir.
- [narrator] a synthetic compound,
pyrroline is tough and looks like ivory,
perfect for car dashboards.
- 20 tons.
For cars.
- Yes sir.
(pensive orchestral music)
- we should be able to show you
more products using a nitrous base.
They should be ready on your next visit.
10 tons last year, but this year it could be double.
(car engine cranking)
- [pierre] 20 tons.
For cars.
- One of the remarkable things that happened
during this period is du pont notices
that he's all of a sudden selling a lot of lacquer,
selling a lot of fabric.
You know who he's selling it to?
Car companies.
And so he says to himself, "I should own a car company."
- [narrator] du pont has spent his entire life
in the family business of munitions.
Now, he's gonna put all of that behind him
and go all-in on cars.
- [narrator] there's only one problem.
The auto industry is already dominated by another titan.
(soft orchestral music)
henry ford.
He's transformed the lives of millions
with his affordable automobile.
- Henry ford really wanted to be seen
as a man of the people.
After all, he made his fortune on the model t,
which he marketed as the "people's car."
the fact of the matter is henry ford was a revolutionary.
- [narrator] born on a farm in 1863,
ford grew up at a time when cars
were nothing more than motorized buggies,
expensive and impractical.
He thought he could do better.
- Ford always thought in the sense of consumerism,
how one could sell a vehicle at its cheapest.
You know, and sometimes populists in politics
talked about a chicken in every pot.
Henry ford wanted a car in every driveway.
- [narrator] so, ford rethought how cars were made.
- Ford had a gut feeling
that if he could drop the price of a model t low enough,
he could sell millions of them.
- So, how do you produce an automobile, thousands a day?
You have to dream the factory that can do it
with an integrated assembly line
that could spit one out one after the other, exactly alike.
Nothing like this had ever been done.
- [narrator] by 1918, half of all cars
in america are model ts
and ford is one of the richest people in the world.
- Thank you, clive.
- [narrator] now, just a few miles
from the farm where he grew up,
ford's building something revolutionary.
- [henry] morning, harry.
How's your wife?
- Much better, thank you, sir.
- [henry] good to hear.
(rising suspenseful music)
- [narrator] the biggest auto plant in the world,
river rouge.
It has its own blast furnaces to make his own steel,
the world's largest forge to mold metal parts.
- It used to be that if you were gonna build a car,
build an anything,
you would buy a piece from the widget-maker,
you might have to get some fuel from over here,
the glass is gonna come from here.
He decided, "I'm gonna do it all myself.
"I'm gonna have wood brought in,
"I'm gonna have metal brought in.
"I'm gonna put it on an assembly line.
"but I'm gonna own all of it from beginning to end."
- vertical integration is important
'cause you control the pricing,
you control when it's delivered,
and you actually make more money
because nobody else can get it your way
and you can maximize your time
and over-deliver on your promises.
- [narrator] ford isn't just reinventing his factories,
he's reimagining the workplace too.
- Henry ford paid people $5 a day,
which was considered a revolution at that time.
He gave equal rights to african-americans.
He gave them equal wages.
- How we doing?
- He was a very paternalistic figure.
- How's it doing?
- Here was a man who not just employed
a tremendous number of people,
but he made sure all these people had healthcare.
He built a hospital just for his workers.
These things had never been done.
- He had a philosophy of life that he created
that was at times inspirational and often troublesome.
- Henry ford was a great man, but not a good man,
and he was really a devout antisemite.
So, we can never mistake greatness in business
for being a great person.
- [narrator] when river rouge fully opens,
it will be the largest factory complex on earth.
Who could possibly take on henry ford now?
Only one man would dare.
- I think a lot of titans of industry
wanna create new mountains to climb,
'cause it's all about winning.
It's about, "I'm smarter than the next guy.
"I can do it better, and why not me?"
- [narrator] du pont risks his own fortune
to buy a car company,
a company he believes will one day rival ford.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] pierre du pont has just spent $50 million
to buy a large stake in general motors,
risking everything to try to take on henry ford.
- It's important to remember that really what drives du pont
is a need to control, a need to be in charge.
He sets his sights initially on general motors,
but one gets the impression
that he ultimately wanted to dominate
the entire automobile industry.
(work bell ringing)
- [narrator] in 1919,
general motors is a badly-run collection
of five car companies:
Chevrolet, oldsmobile, oakland, cadillac, and buick.
- General motors corporation
was sort of a conglomerate mess of various companies
that had been sort of put together.
There were divisions and operations
and plants and personalities competing with each other.
It was not making any money.
- [narrator] gm was founded by william durant,
a degenerate gambler addicted to the stock market.
(phone ringing)
- you said they were going up.
How much have I lost?
Buy 10,000.
I told you, I can pay you next week.
- [narrator] losing millions,
durant is forced to sell shares in gm to cover his losses.
(phone ringing)
- you're basically working
with some of the best craftsmen that we have in the states.
- General motors was struggling, but it had real potential.
Pierre du pont saw this as a real opportunity
to take on henry ford.
(rising orchestral music)
- du pont gambles on general motors
in the hopes that he can take what durant has mismanaged
and turn it into a model of efficiency,
similar to what dupont corporation was.
(wrench clicking)
- [walter] all right, try it.
(engine cranking)
- [narrator] out of gm's five companies,
the only one that's really successful is buick,
responsible for half the profit,
and it's because of one man.
(car backfiring) - no, no, turn it off!
It's not right.
- [narrator] walter chrysler.
(wrench clicking)
- I think it's the timing.
- [narrator] du pont knows that chrysler
is the key to taking on henry ford.
- Walter chrysler was a mechanical genius.
At buick, chrysler reorganized
the entire layout of the factory
and the way work was organized.
- [man] cleaned all the lines last night.
- You sure; you double-checked 'em?
- I watched them do it.
- Chrysler never lacked confidence,
and sometimes he came across as a bit arrogant.
- And the coils and the cylinders?
- [man] everything got looked at.
(train whistle blowing)
- [narrator] the son of a locomotive engineer,
chrysler grew up in ellis, kansas,
a tough railroad boom-town.
The only way to survive was to be part of a gang.
(boys scuffling)
(groaning)
the chrysler family didn't have much money,
but young walter figured out a way to make what he wanted,
including his own tools.
- His father wanted him to go to college,
but walter wanted to become a railroad mechanic.
I think chrysler did really want to understand,
in a hands-on way, how things worked.
- Try it now.
(engine cranking)
(clock chiming)
- [narrator] du pont summons the five company heads
to plot his opening move against ford.
But really, there's only one man he cares about.
- Where is he?
- He's supposed to be here.
(water pouring)
I'll go and get him.
(rising suspenseful orchestral music)
is he in there?
He's supposed to be at the meeting.
- Yes sir. - Mr. Du pont is waiting.
- [man] okay.
It's du pont. - Same ol' story, huh?
- [man] sir, he's not gonna make it.
- [man] shouldn't be an issue
as long as we make sure we're prepared.
- He says he's busy.
(clock ticking)
- when the goals of the organization
and the goals of the people who work there are in sync,
that's when the magic happens.
That's when a company is just firing on all cylinders.
And if they're not, you're gonna be upset.
You're gonna be pissed off.
(work bell ringing)
- [narrator] if du pont can't control chrysler,
how can he hope to topple henry ford,
who continues to grow more powerful by the day,
now selling a million model ts in just one year.
- When you're at that level
and you've had all of that success
and you have all of this money,
there's a mindset that you're almost invincible.
You're almost your own nation-state.
- [narrator] henry ford's success
is built on his singular unyielding vision,
a vision that few at the company would ever dare challenge.
- Is he in? - Yes.
But he's busy.
(door opening)
- there he is.
Busy?
- I hear you haven't been at work all week.
- Come on, you know I'm working all the time.
Dad.
Get your coat.
- Why?
- I wanna take you somewhere.
Dad, please?
Great.
(rising soft orchestral music)
- edsel ford was the only child of henry ford.
One of the things that separated the two men,
henry and edsel, was the fact that henry
was a self-made man.
He came from nothing and created his fortune.
Edsel had everything given to him.
- Well, what is it?
- This? - Mm.
- It's a novel, "age of innocence."
I think you'd like it.
- So, for edsel, think of this:
On his 21st birthday,
he was a child who was given $1 million in gold.
- "age of innocence."
- when you have children, you hope and you pray
that they want to take on
and appreciate everything that you've given them,
but most of the children won't wanna take on the business
and they may want their own identity.
They say the first generation makes it,
the second enjoys it, and the third destroys it.
- What is this place?
- Trust me.
You'll see.
Just about here.
- Well, what are we doing here?
- Just wait.
- For what? - Wait.
(plane engine roaring)
well...
What do you think?
We should get into this!
- We don't know anything about it.
- [edsel] I do.
- No, you don't.
(reverent orchestral music)
- [narrator] for edsel, the pressure of being a ford
is immense.
He believes the only way to earn his father's respect
is to build something of his own.
- Like all kids his age,
edsel was obsessed with the wright brothers.
He was obsessed with the idea
that humans could take flight using machinery.
I think, from a very young age,
edsel had this idea that he could do for airplanes
what his father had done for motorcars,
and that was his destiny.
- [narrator] though it's been almost 20 years
since the wright brothers took flight at kitty hawk,
planes remain novelties.
- At that time, flying, for the public, it was a curiosity.
They would go out to fields
when an airplane came through town,
and what they were watching
was to see if the airplane would crash.
And this really emphasizes the state of flying at that time.
It wasn't safe.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] henry ford has no interest
in aviation as a business.
- Nothing supplanted the automobile for ford.
The car in the driveway's
where henry ford's eyeballs always were.
- [narrator] he agrees to give edsel money to build a plane,
but for one reason: To teach him the benefits of hard work.
- Henry ford was the quintessential self-made man
and he always saw his son as a creature of privilege,
that he didn't have grease on his hands,
that he was a white-collar man, not a blue-collar one,
and this annoyed henry ford about his son.
(suspenseful orchestral music)
- pass me a pencil.
- [narrator] but edsel sees aviation as an opportunity
to usher his father's company forward.
- That could actually work.
- I think edsel ford saw the promise of aviation
before most people did.
He thought this could be a real business.
- [narrator] now, after months of development,
edsel is ready to show the results to his father.
If he succeeds, he'll prove once and for all
he's worthy of the ford name.
- I think we're on it.
- We're ready. - Great.
So, in good conditions,
we're looking at a range of, what, 400 miles?
- Yeah, something like that. - Good.
Okay, let's give him a show.
- Ready.
- Thanks for coming.
- Well, we got a good day for it.
(plane engine cranking)
(plane engine sputtering)
(explosion booming)
(edsel sighing)
- we just dropped in a new engine.
It's got twice the horsepower,
but we haven't had a chance to fire her up yet.
I'm sure once we dig in there we can-
- it's okay.
Just keep at it.
First models, they always have a few kinks.
- You would know, right? (henry chuckling)
- that I do.
(sullen orchestral music)
what a disaster.
- [narrator] while edsel ford
struggles to impress his father,
pierre du pont has his own issues at general motors,
with one in particular: Walter chrysler.
- One of the qualities of pierre du pont,
in addition to being a leader himself,
was spotting talent in others.
He thought walter chrysler was a genius.
But walter chrysler did not fit in personally
to the mold of a general motors very well.
- [narrator] du pont wants everything done his way
and he expects chrysler to fall in line.
(rising suspenseful music)
(phone ringing)
- [mellody] walter chrysler is so fascinating
in so many ways.
- I understand that.
- His foundation was just doing the work.
- No, I understand.
- [mellody] and he wanted it to be his way.
- Yeah, okay, mr. Du pont.
- He was very clear that he didn't like to be managed.
- No, you have to listen to me.
You have to listen to me and listen clearly, all right?
- [narrator] chrysler detests all the paperwork
du pont requires and refuses to attend meetings.
(clock chiming)
- why do you have to be so difficult?
- Is this about du pont?
- Mr. Du pont is here to help us.
- Is that so? - We need his money.
(suspenseful orchestral music)
can you just do what he wants?
- [walter] all right, I'll fill out the forms
and I'll go to his damn meetings.
- Thank you, walter.
- So, there's this great passage in chrysler's autobiography
where he talks about walking into a room,
and there is his boss, durant.
And here's pierre du pont.
- I'm trying to run a business here.
Do you understand me, bill?
- And he realizes in that moment that what he's witnessing
is napoleon at the beginning of conquest.
And perhaps it's time to go.
- Chrysler finally figured out
that he could never work productively
with pierre du pont and billy durant.
Walter chrysler was highly paid at general motors,
not just in terms of salary,
but he was given stock, a lot of stock.
- Durant, hold up.
Bill.
- Walter, can't this wait until the morning?
- No.
It can't.
I'm quitting.
It's not you, it's du pont.
- Look, why don't you just take some time, think about this.
- No, no, I've thought about it plenty.
Listen, I'm sorry to have to say this to you,
but you're gonna have to buy all my shares.
- And why would I do that?
- Because if you don't, I'm gonna sell all my shares
on the stock market and bankrupt the company.
- Durant was afraid if chrysler
dumped all of his stock on the market,
if it was known that chrysler was the person selling it,
he's an insider, people would say,
"uh-oh, something is wrong at general motors.
"we better get rid of our stock."
- [narrator] afraid the company's stock will plummet,
durant purchases chrysler's shares
and chrysler walks away with a $10-million buyout,
the equivalent of $200 million today.
- Du pont must have seen chrysler's defection
from general motors as more than just a business move.
It's a personal affront.
(engine roars)
- [narrator] with chrysler's exit from gm,
dupont is forced to find a new strategy to take on ford.
He's devised a plan that's going to require money,
lots of money.
(classic orchestral music continues)
hundreds of millions even he can't bankroll that much.
- He asked me to bring you to see him right away.
This way, sir.
Good day for it, pull.
(gunshots fired)
hahaha, well nothing like it.
- Nice shooting, sir.
- [narrator] jp morgan junior is one of the richest men
in the world and one of the most powerful.
- Pull!
(gunshot fires)
- good shot sir.
- Takes practice, my father taught me when I was a child.
- [narrator] morgan's father was the notorious ruthless
banker j. Pierpont morgan sr.
After his father's financing ushered in the electric age
and helped create the world's first billion dollar company,
u.S. Steel, junior inherited a fortune like no other.
- His father pierpont was a legend.
The founder of jp morgan, big personality,
a big person obviously knew everyone around the world.
- Morgan lived with the incredible responsibility
of living up to his father's legacy.
This kind of all encompassing shadow that jp morgan senior
cast on jp morgan junior.
- [narrator] morgan has money,
- pull!
Power and enemies.
He once survived an assassination attempt
by wrestling the gunman to the ground.
- He was in some ways the most powerful capitalist
in the united states so if you wanted to bring down
capitalism, you would go after him.
And I think he was trying to live up to not only
the reputation of his father,
but trying to show that he could out do his father.
- [morgan] so general motors, you want to expand.
- With your will help, yes.
- I've had my team look at it, it's not going to be easy.
Why don't you wait a year, get the company in shape?
- I can't wait, ford is destroying us.
- I see.
- [narrator] to morgan, dupont and gm are minor players.
If he was to get into cars,
he would do it with ford, but he's already tried.
- 1916, jp morgan tries to convince henry ford to go public
and ford balks at this idea.
Jp morgan's interest in this is obvious.
He wants a piece of ford, he wants the rich profits
that can come as a result of the public offering.
Henry ford notoriously hated bankers.
He felt they didn't build anything.
And so at this point, jp morgan jr. Appears to just be
like a rich kid playing with his father's money.
- [narrator] henry ford told jp morgan,
you are not your father.
It's an insulted that morgan will never forget.
- And for a guy like morgan
where money is no object, to be scorned by henry ford
simply becomes a motivation to get revenge on henry ford
and he will have his revenge through the dupont.
- How much do you need?
- [narrator] dupont gets his financing.
Hundreds of millions in loans and investments
and he uses it to enact a brand new strategy.
Under pierre dupont's leadership
general motors was expanding quickly,
taking on new lines of credit
in order to expand production facilities,
also to buy other divisions
and bring all of these into the general motors fold.
- [narrator] dupont realizes that the car market is changing
and he is reinventing gm to capitalize on it.
- In the 1920s, people had money in their pockets
and there was sort of a deficit of consumer
items that they hadn't been able to buy during the war.
So they go on a spending spree.
- By the 1920s, the model t was old.
It wasn't exciting, it was reliable, it was cheap,
but people wanted more than just a utilitarian vehicle.
- [narrator] taking advantage of gm's many companies,
dupont offers customers
something ford has never given them.
Choice.
- General motors was brilliant in their branding.
Started with a chevrolet
which was the entry level car
and that was for a certain price point
then you grow up and you have a family
and you get your oldsmobile.
Now you're starting to get that first promotion
at work, what do you get?
You get a buick.
And the ultimate aspiration that they set up
was a cadillac.
I mean, even today, we use the term, the cadillac of,
and that's when you made it.
- [narrator] dupont's strategy is a perfect match
for this era of rising prosperity
and rising expectations.
It's really the birth of the modern consumer culture.
People started wanting choice, automobiles
and clothes and things started getting mass-produced
and all these companies started fulfilling fantasies
and needs, the roaring twenties, we'd call it, the jazz age.
- [narrator] by the end of 1921, gm is a major competitor
in the auto world.
Dupont is ready to take down the ford.
But what dupont doesn't know
is there's a target on his back too.
Walter chrysler has his own company now
and he's about the join the fight.
(dramatic music)
(engines roar)
- [narrator] car racing has become the most popular sport
in america.
And the public becomes fascinated with speed.
Three years after walking out on pierre dupont
and general motors,
chrysler is now running his own car company
and is searching for the next big thing.
- [announcer] coming up in the lead, the henry hudson
is closing the gap.
(crowd cheers)
what a race, top speed over 70 miles and hour.
(door slams)
- hey guys.
- [narrator] walter chrysler knows what america wants.
Chrysler intends to build the first mass-produced
automobile that drives like a race car.
- I think that chrysler thought
in his mind that there was a demand.
There was nothing on the market to appeal
to middle-class buyers who wanted something better
than a ford and wanted speed.
- We gotta get this to 70 miles per hour.
The problem is how to get that extra little bit.
- Then we'll need a bigger engine, that means a bigger car.
- No, I want the same size engine,
I just want it to go faster.
- The idea that walter chrysler would walk away
from gm to on his own against the might of ford
and general motors, it was both shocking and daring
and also very walter chrysler.
- Hand me the 3/8ths.
- [narrator] chrysler invests millions into his car
betting everything on a new type of engine.
One he hopes will give him the speed he desires.
- Last thing I want to do is burn out that clutch.
Come on.
Get that right.
- [narrator] up till now, powerful engines
were big and heavy.
- I got that diameter on that correct so, it's 44.
- [narrator] chrysler is trying something totally different.
He's designed a smaller engine.
- Okay, let's do this.
- [narrator] that squeezes more power out of each cylinder.
- Full throttle.
- [narrator] the first high compression motor.
(engine whirs)
made for one thing,
speed.
(car engine roars)
- cars like the model t ford could only do 35.
Even cars like the buick might get up to 50 miles an hour.
This car could do 70 miles an hour.
And probably the chrysler could actually do a little more
than 70 miles per hour.
And it blew the socks off most of the competition.
- [narrator] chrysler has gambled everything
on his new car but what he doesn't know
is whether people will buy it.
(glass dings)
- ladies and gentlemen,
if I could have your attention please.
- You know, to be a great entrepreneur,
you have to be a bit of a gambler.
You have to be a bit of a risk taker.
You have to be a professional optimist.
- The chrysler 70.
(crowd talks over each other)
- you have to believe in yourself and you have to believe
in the idea that you're going to change the world.
- [narrator] the car is soon known worldwide
as the chrysler 70 is hailed
as the most technologically advanced car of its time.
Even its name points to its groundbreaking speed.
70 miles an hour.
- Chrysler's first car did capture the spirit
of the roaring twenties in that it was flamboyant,
it was aggressive, people who owned it
could say, look at me.
When you were driving a model t,
you've never said, look at me.
- Every great entrepreneur can tell you multiple stories
about any number of people who called them crazy
and told them that their product would never work.
But the crazier the idea, the greater the upside.
- Initially dupont doesn't see chrysler as a threat.
He's rankled by the fact that chrysler's left the company
but he doesn't think that chrysler is going
to be able to compete.
When the chrysler 70 comes out, it becomes clear
that chrysler is in the game and in the game to win.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] three months after chrysler turned
the automotive world upside down, another young innovator
is looking to do the same in aviation.
Edsel ford wants the ford company to build planes
and after a failed demonstration,
he's more determined than ever
to show his dad he can succeed.
- Henry ford was a difficult father.
He was a stern taskmaster, he didn't suffer fools lightly.
And he put a lot of stress on edsel to be an achiever.
- [narrator] edsel keeps pushing his team.
- This is too big, you gotta make this...
You know what?
That could actually work.
- [narrator] and in April of 1924, the hard work pays off.
(airplane engine roars)
(triumphant music)
- [edsel] I think this is it.
- Well, it's a solid piece of work.
- There's a but.
- Where's the market?
- [narrator] while he's pleased with his son's effort,
in the end, henry ford is left feeling
he spent a fortune for nothing.
There's no way to make money with planes
but that's about to change.
The answer will come from an unlikely place,
the post office.
Since the days of the pony express,
the government has looked for ways to speed up
mail delivery, first with stagecoaches and then trains.
Now they look to the skies with airplanes.
- There was an immediacy of life in the 1920s
that hadn't existed before.
You could speak via telephone
to your friend who lives two states over.
If you wanted to hear something that was happening
in another part of the country,
now you could listen on the radio.
You can get used to this, expectations change with time,
- the whole notion of air mail,
it's about speed of communication.
I mean everything gets better
when you can communicate faster.
And I think air was perfectly suited to do it.
- [narrator] the post office sees airmail
as its future and they decide to outsource the job.
- In 1925, the airmail act comes out
and this is the government deciding, the post office
deciding to hand over flying airmail routes
to private individuals.
- If we get these contracts to go out.
Mark my words the airmail business will flourish.
- [narrator] as word of the airmail act gets out
one man recognizes this could be a gold rush.
- We should get into this.
- Where's the money?
Mark my words, the airmail business will flourish.
- [narrator] ford knows he needs to act fast to scoop
up the air mail contracts before anyone else.
Ford spends millions to roll out a fleet of planes
and clears 240 acres near his river rouge plant
to build a whole new kind of transportation hub.
- The fords were the first to lay the first concrete runway
and they're creating the modern airport.
- [narrator] it's all to show the government
that ford aviation is ready to fly.
- You can't be an entrepreneur and build a business
without taking risk.
Taking risk is absolutely a critical part
of building a business, especially one that's
been untested beore.
- [narrator] henry's bet pays off.
Ford aviation wins a major airmail contract.
- Henry ford was one of the few people who saw potential
in airmail.
When airmail first began, the post office is paying
three dollars a pound and there were 800,000 pounds of mail
being shipped in the united states.
By 1929, that number had increased to 8 million pounds.
So you can see there's a tremendous
potential there for profit.
- [narrator] soon edsel's planes are flying mail across
the country and ford aviation is raking in the profits.
But what edsel and henry don't know
is that another would be titan is gunning for them.
A small airplane manufacturer out west, headed
by a man who's determined to claim aviation for himself.
William boeing.
(thunder cracks)
(rain patters)
- how's it looking?
- [narrator] a small airplane company is aiming to challenge
ford aviation and win control of the airmail business.
It was founded by a man who got his start
in the timber industry.
- We need this absolutely perfect. Okay?
William boeing.
- The big bang moment for bill boeing was in 1910.
He saw his first airplane and he fell in love.
He was a man who was fascinated with technology.
He loved cars, he loved boats
and when he saw the airplane, he had to fly.
- William boeing and edsel ford both
saw great potential in aviation.
But the difference between them was that william boeing
was a pilot so he had a natural feel
for aviation in a way that edsel ford did not.
(machine whirs)
- canvas might be too heavy.
- We could try silk.
- Yeah.
- When he started his company
he realized he needed an aerodynamicist.
This was a new field of science
and only one place was producing aerodynamicist
and that was mit.
Mit said, mr. Boeing, we have a young chinese national
whose name is wong tsu.
Boeing said send him, I want him.
- I think we're going to shift of these numbers.
- Yeah, let's try a 38 here.
- [narrator] boeing experimented with new materials
to build lighter and stronger airplanes.
- William boeing was not only a pilot, he was an innovator.
He was an inventor.
His goal was always to build
the best possible airplane in the world.
- [narrator] but despite all of boeing's big ideas,
his company is about to go bankrupt because at this time,
the only way to make money is with an airmail contract
and ford has them all locked up.
- [jeremy] in the 1920s, boeing as a small manufacturer
selling an airplane here or there.
Ford is a goliath in american industry
getting into the aviation business.
- No, I told you we needed those parts this Friday.
- Boeing is struggling.
- Just get them over here as fast as you can, thank you.
- [narrator] to survive, boeing's company must somehow
land and airmail contract.
He decides his only chance is to build
the best plane in the world.
He just needs to figure out how to do it.
(metal clangs)
- [jeremy] with boeing, one of his great attributes
is he's a man of vision.
- [man] we're gonna need some more water for it.
- [boy] how much you need?
- Four gallons if you could.
- One of the secrets he has
to making this a success is a new innovative engine.
He genuinely sees something
that is going to change the world.
- Gentlemen, I'm very glad I could be here
and I'm very excited to tell you about boeing's new plane.
The model 48 is the first plane
specially designed to carry airmail.
It has a welded steel frame and closed compartments
for the mail and a very special type of engine,
it's air-cooled.
- Up until now, the engines that are flying
on mail planes are water-cooled
so just like in your car,
it has a radiator with all of the water.
- You made those changes to the engine like I told you?
- Yes.
- That's 200 pounds on these airplanes.
So without that 200 pounds taking it away,
that's 200 pounds of mail, that's profit.
- Well, this air-cooled engine is more reliable.
It allows the plane to go faster and it doesn't need water.
Why carry water, when you can carry more mail?
- Do you have your fleet ready to go now?
- Of course.
- Boeing wins this contract in January and by July.
He's supposed to be flying the mail, 26 model 40s.
These airplanes haven't been built yet.
- What do you know about a radial engine?
- Knowing bill boeing and his character,
failure was not an option.
- Change this section.
- It's one of the hardest things to do,
increase rates of production.
- [boeing] I need this to be perfect, okay? Perfect.
- And so for bill boeing to go from zero to 26
in six months,
- yeah, it's boeing.
It's almost hard for us even today
to even comprehend.
- [narrator] boeing steals a page
from ford's assembly line idea.
- He quickly assembled a team of literally everyone he knew
and built all 26 model 40a's at once.
- He had the metal workers building the fuselage,
the woodworkers, putting the wings together
and the seamstresses putting on the fabric.
So it's a team effort.
- We've all pulled all nighters.
This was an all-nighter that lasted six months.
- That simple fact that he could mass produce that quickly,
really propelled the industry forward.
- [narrator] boeing's fleet is ready.
- Thank you for being here today.
- [narrator] he manages to build all 26 planes just in time.
- My wife shall do the honors.
- [narrator] it's a huge victory.
(glass shatters)
(crowd cheers)
boeing's routes are worth nearly $5 million a year
which is over 75 million today
and now ford has some real competition.
- [narrator] by 1926, automobile ownership in america
is at an all time high.
20 million cars are on the road
but dupont's gm with its multiple brands has been eating
away at ford's lead.
Gm now sells a quarter of the cars in the country.
Henry ford decides it's time to hit back.
- Ford really only has one arrow
in the quiver to stave off his competitors
and that is to lower his prices.
Whenever a competitor gets close, ford lowers the price.
And ultimately he sticks with this strategy
because it proves quite successful.
- [narrator] ford slashes prices of his model t
to under $300, the equivalent of about $6,000 today.
- Good to see you.
- Try the steak, I don't know what they season
it with but it's cooked to perfection.
- No, I'm not hungry for it.
- No?
- It's ford.
- No one believes they can beat ford on price
but that's the only way to win.
- We've tried every way possible
but he's just got economies of scale we can't have.
- No, no, you need to give away the cars.
No one can compete with free.
- I must be missing your point.
- You need to do what I do.
See when people leave my bank after I give them a loan,
they feel like they've got free money,
like they've somehow beaten the system.
But in reality, they're going to pay me every month
for the rest of their life with interest.
- For you, a free car, it's just the bait.
The loan is the hook.
- [narrator] for years, dupont's general motors
has been trying to beat ford.
Now they make a game-changing decision.
If americans want the car of their dreams,
general motors will lend them the money to buy it.
- General motors through the creation of gmac,
the general motors acceptance corporation offered financing.
- You could buy a ford and you could pay for that car today.
Or you can buy general motors and you could pay for it
over two years or three years or four years with credit.
Wow.
- [narrator] with backing from morgan,
gm goes all in on car loans
and it's a huge success.
- General motors is creating the modern corporation.
People could show up with whatever they had and buy a car
and pay it off in installments.
- It was so right for the roaring twenties, where
everything was ahead of us.
The new america was more about what was in front of you.
- [narrator] the age of easy money is born.
- Easy money means basically
that you can go to a bank and say, I want a lot of money
and instead of them saying, are you out of your mind?
You don't deserve any credit, they say sure.
- The 1920s, it was the really the first time
that joe on street was getting loans, literally loans
to buy all sorts of stuff.
- [narrator] radios, refrigerators and even new homes
are suddenly within reach.
- You know, you could go buy a house
with no money down, no documentation, no income.
A bank will give you a loan, so easy money.
It's not just about interest rates.
It's about very lax terms.
- By extending credit, general motors finds a way
to make the automobile attainable without necessarily
making it affordable.
It allows people not only to purchase one car
but perhaps even two.
That was a brilliant stroke on the part of dupont.
- [narrator] by 1927, just six years since dupont
and morgan joined forces, they've achieved
what many considered impossible.
They've dethroned the king of cars, henry ford.
General motors is the number one automaker in america.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] by 1927, ford faces challenges,
not just on the ground, but in the air.
- So when can you send them over?
- [narrator] to capture more contracts,
william boeing continues to grow his fleet
of superior mail planes.
- 24.9, that looks good.
- The success of the model 40a, indicates that emergence
of boeing as the company that we know it today.
- [narrator] soon, boeing achieves the unthinkable,
a near monopoly on airmail.
It's a massive win over ford.
(atmospheric music)
edsel ford knows if he doesn't do something fast,
his entire aviation business will go under.
(car honking)
(suspenseful music)
(engine revving)
(door thuds)
(drawer creaks)
(suspenseful music continues)
- edsel ford was thinking about,
what are the possibilities for aviation as a business?
How can the airplane make american life better?
(suspenseful music progresses)
- [narrator] edsel believes that the future
of aviation is not transporting mail,
it's transporting people.
- Today, we take it for granted that we can get
from new york city to los angeles
in a matter of hours by plane.
And in the 1920s,
it took five days by train, to make that same trip.
So, aviation really had the potential to
revolutionize passenger travel in the united states.
(intense violin crescendoing)
- hey, here's what I'm thinking for the new model.
First side of the plane...
- [narrator] over the next several months,
edsel and his team designed the first
modern passenger plane, the trimotor.
- Nothing like the ford trimotor had been seen before.
It was an all metal airplane carrying 12 passengers,
it had three air-cooled engines, it had one wing,
and the pilots flew inside a cabin, not outside.
This was futuristic when it came into being
in the mid 1920s.
- I think the trimotor was edsel's dream come true,
that proved that flight could occur safely.
And that by using three engines
on an airplane, it solved a lot of problems,
because if one of the engines failed,
the pilot could use the other two to land safely.
- [narrator] but building a passenger plane won't be enough.
Edsel needs to get people to fly in it.
- So even as air mail is becoming increasingly common
throughout the 1920s, there was still a huge reluctance
in the american public to fly,
because people were afraid of flying,
they believed it wasn't safe.
- [narrator] edsel's dream is doomed,
unless the public overcomes its fear of flying.
And it turns out, just 500 miles to the east,
one daring pilot is about to change people's minds, forever.
(bird cawing)
- in the mid 1920s, there was a great competition,
to be the first to make the first trans-atlantic flight
from new york to paris.
This young, unknown, penniless practically,
former airmail pilot from minnesota
was about the most unlikely person
to fly across the atlantic, that you can think of.
- [narrator] six pilots have already died trying,
and most think this new pilot will be the seventh.
His name is charles lindbergh.
(airplane engine sputtering)
- [narrator] 33 hours later, he achieves the unthinkable.
Touching down in paris, where he's mobbed by thousands.
(triumphant music)
- his flight, just captured the imagination of the world.
Not just americans, not just the french, everybody.
He was much more than a movie star today
or a sports figure today.
- [narrator] at the age of 25,
charles lindbergh becomes the most famous man in the world.
(crowds cheering)
- [reporter] lindy starts a tour across the nation.
He's acclaimed, adored in city after city.
And wherever he turns he hears his name.
(cheering)
the fame, the glory, all are his.
The world has found the perfect hero.
And at this moment, the future looms
ahead of him, bright and shiny.
(radio switching off)
- [narrator] edsel ford may have just found
the solution to his problem.
(dramatic music)
- I thought you said he was coming.
- He is.
Look.
- Three months after lucky lindy shocked the world
by completing this first solo transatlantic flight,
he comes flying in on the spirit of st. Louis,
to meet with henry and edsel.
- Charles, it's good to see you.
This is my father, henry.
- Mr. Lindbergh.
- This was extraordinary moment in american history.
Two of the most famous, most successful men in the world,
henry ford and lindbergh.
Both had rather complicated political views
that they shared.
But at the time, they were both modern heroes
and embodied this idea that mankind could harness power.
- How many seats are you planning on putting in a row?
- It's a good question.
So, originally we had four.
- [narrator] together, the fords and lindbergh
form a partnership that will transform
the aviation industry.
Using ford's planes, and lindbergh's name,
a new airline is formed.
Offering coast to coast travel,
la to new york, in just 48 hours.
Edsel knows that lindbergh is the key
to convincing the public to fly.
- They used lindbergh as a celebrity endorsement
and it was brilliant marketing by ford,
the american public trusted charles lindbergh,
it really helped them believe
that flying on ford trimotors across country
was something safe and something that they wanted to do.
- [narrator] lindbergh's influence on the airline
is so complete, that it becomes known as lindy's line.
Years later, it will get another name, twa.
By 1928, nearly 200,000 passengers will fly on planes.
Edsel's dream of an aviation business has finally come true.
And the future seems brighter than ever.
(car honking)
walter chrysler is planning for his future as well.
- If it's going to cost that,
we got to tell him it's too expensive, right?
- [narrator] since launching the chrysler 70,
sales have skyrocketed.
- Tell him I said, that's right.
- [narrator] and he needs to increase production.
So he buys a rival car company,
dodge.
- The dodge brothers company had an enormous factory complex
in detroit.
Foundries, machine shops, forges,
and chrysler bought all of it.
- [narrator] overnight,
chrysler's manufacturing capacity
grows five fold.
- Put it there.
- [narrator] and catapults his company into the top tier
of the auto industry.
- The automotive industries publication wrote,
"we now can talk about the big three car companies,
general motors, ford, and chrysler."
- cheers, all right!
- And that was the first time that expression had ever
been used.
- [narrator] chrysler is number three,
but he wants to be number one.
To outdo ford and du pont,
chrysler once again,
sets out to build something spectacular.
But this time, it's not a car.
It's an 800 foot monument to himself.
The chrysler building.
- See here, I redesigned the revolving doors in the lobby,
so they're under a huge archway.
- [narrator] and with it, walter chrysler intends
to put his mark on the new york city skyline.
- Now we're going to have to figure something out
about the roof.
- [narrator] a skyscraper boom is underway,
as the economy soars.
The demand for new office buildings is on the rise.
Thanks to innovations in steel frame construction,
new high rises are reshaping america's cities,
especially in new york.
- The skyscraper is an interesting phenomenon.
If we think about it this way,
robber barons built these beautiful mansions
to show off their wealth and opulence,
these skyscrapers were pyramids in the sky
to the captains of industry.
Titans of a new age, of industrial strength and might.
- All right, let's take a look.
- [narrator] chrysler aims to make his building
the tallest in the world.
- This is the roughest stainless steel.
It's german.
- Did the world need the tallest building?
No, that's ego.
But ego is a great thing in business.
Ego, you show me a titan of industry,
and I'll show you somebody with a big ego.
- Sorry to disturb you.
But I think you should see this.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] du pont learns about chrysler's plans,
and to add insult to injury,
chrysler has just been named,
time magazine's man of the year.
- So why you building the tallest building in the world?
- So I can look down on gm.
(group laughing)
- [[interviewer] what do you have against gm?
- Oh, I wouldn't say I have anything
in particular against them.
They just don't do it as good as I do, right?
(group laughing)
so I can look down on gm.
Look down on gm.
- Sorry, sir.
- It absolutely gets personal between these two,
always measuring themselves against one another.
When you're talking about people
at the top top, top, top, top,
their competitiveness is rooted in ego.
- As for office space, we're looking
at over two million square feet.
We'll be able to hold more tenants
than any other building in the world, and all at a premium.
Especially when you account for the sweeping views
of the city.
- How high?
- The top floor will be 800 feet up,
same height as chrysler's.
- Make it taller, and I'm in.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] just a few blocks from chrysler's building,
pierre du pont is planning a skyscraper of his own.
One that he hopes, will put chrysler's to shame.
- There is a competition, there's a rivalry happening,
as to who's going to build the biggest skyscraper,
and du pont wanted to be part of that.
And in that prosperity of the 1920s,
that meant buying the old waldorf astoria hotel,
tearing it down,
and creating what was to become
the largest, tallest skyscraper,
not only in new york, but in the world.
And that of course, was the empire state building.
- [narrator] next time on the titans that built america,
egos and rivalries, soar to new heights.
- So we will be four feet taller,
chrysler can stick an umbrella on top and say he's taller.
- Ladies and gentlemen, the future of aviation.
- [narrator] but america soon faces
the greatest financial crisis in history.
- Overall assets down by 400 million.
- Mr morgan, what's happening?
Has the stock market stopped falling?
- It's time to cut our losses.
I'm shutting ford aviation down.
- [narrator] and a bold new president,
franklin delano roosevelt,
is determined to tame the titan's power
or crush them.
- You're nothing short of a war profiteer,
a merchant of death.
- [narrator] but, as the country struggles to build its way
out of the depression,
a threat from abroad changes the rules of the game.
- No country in europe would stand a chance against germany,
and neither will america.
- [narrator] with war looming, they'll have to work with fdr
and each other to save the world.