Customer Reviews

Ford: We Never Called Him Henry

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Harry Bennett's story of his life as Henry Ford's right hand man. Bennett served as Henry Ford's assistant for many years - almost running Ford Motor Company at times. Hated by the majority of the Ford family and even by many Ford employees; nevertheless, Bennett seemed to have unequalled power within the organization. This is his account of his role in the automobile manufacturer's interesting history and struggle's with the Ford family. Written years after his retirement from Ford Motor Company. Interesting reading but keep in mind that this is Bennett's story and could be considered one-sided.

I read this book in the mid '50s. I agree that a Henry Ford buff will find this interesting reading. But this book is interesting to me for another reason. My grandfather worked for Ford Motor for years, and then for the Henry Ford Museum until he retired about 1952. From time to time he would see Mr. Ford. He told us that the Ford family had been offended by this book and had bought up as many copies as it could lay it's hands on.

If true, that could explain why it is so difficult to get copies of the original 1951 Gold Medal Book publication today.

After the pages of his original copy fell out of their binding , he stacked the leaves, drilled holes thru the margin cover-to-cover, and bound them all together with two pieces of string. When he died (1958), his copy passed into my mother's hands. About four years ago, it came into mine.

I was fortunate to stumble on another copy at a garage sale in the early '90s (for $.25). Also fortunately, it's binding is still pretty-much in tact. It's the only other copy that I've ever seen.

A very good book based on the thirty years or so Mr. Harry Bennett had immediate contact with the Great Henry Ford. Harry knew Mr. Ford like no other. When he says Mr. Ford was a supersticious man and would scarcely move on a Friday the 13th one has to believe it.

Footnote: Superstition is the irrational belief that future events are influenced by specific behaviors, without having a causal relationship. Thanks Wikipedia...he apparently had a great belief in re-incarnation also.

Harry's office was in the basement, but this was really Mr. Ford's Office also, as there was a secret door that they would both use. Henry Ford had a plush office on Mahagony Row but he was never there, he would be doing something like walking down the railroad tracks finding iron still in the railroad iron ore slag and ordering 700 men to pick it up by hand and re-cycle it because it still had iron in it.

The greatest shock in the book, to me, was the fact that Henry Ford's Father was an orphan and never knew his Mother and Father. Henry spent a great deal of time and money trying to determine who they were. With the DNA studies available, maybe the family can now determine who they really are.....

Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company in 1927, at the end of the Model T were rolling a finished Model T out of the Factory at a rate of 1.6 Fords a minute, made over 15 million of them at a gross of 7 Billion dollars, not including the sales of the Fordson Tractor.....

The book is one of those rare ones you can scarcely set aside, when you are away from it you wish you were there reading it.

Mr. Harry Bennett, you did a wonderful job writing this book and letting the world see some of the idiosyncracies of one of the greatest men in History........what Henry's Company acomplished is amazing by any standard. The iron ore could be in the ground on Monday and someone be driving a new car, made from it, on Thursday.

I received great pleasure from Mr. Bennetts efforts. EYE-OPENING

James Dixon Graves Jr.

Lone Star, Texas

Great book. My aunt was a personal friend of Mr. Bennett and my mother's family lived in his famous "castle" for a short time. She told the same story about Ford buying up all the copies of this book that could be found. I obtained a reprint through UMI books on demand. It was a great read.

He perfected the Model T, the assembly line, put millions of Americans on the road and basically was the automobile industry through the 1920s.

Also, he actually published the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was prejudiced against not only Jews but Catholics as well, gave Adolph Hitler an annual birthday present of $50,000.00 and was awarded the Iron Cross in 1938.

Henry Ford was a billionaire and like many of the super rich, he could be mad as a hatter, assuming that just because he was qualified to build a billion dollar business that he was also qualified to hold court on issues unrelated to that business.

With certain exceptions like Edward Gibbon (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) aside, my favorite history writing has always come from the intimates of those they wrote about. One good example is Herndon's Lincoln written by Abraham Lincoln's long term law partner in Illinois.

Another great example is this book written by Henry Ford confident Harry Bennett. Unabashedly honest, Bennett is easily forthcoming about his own limitations as he takes you inside the last two decades of Henry Ford's life. Aside from everything revealed in the first two paragraphs of this review you also see Ford interferring in the lives of his family, saying that sugar is harmful to your health because the crystals can cut your stomach and periodically espousing wierd opinions like those mentioned about Jews and Catholics.

In the end, the attention afforded to the super rich like Ford when they discussed matters other than those for which they possessed genuine expertise (like in Ford's case, auto manufacture) says ultimately more about an American psyche which sees the ability to acquire wealth as almost super human. If they can produce that kind of wealth, the reasoning almost goes, then everything in their character must be of interest.

More realistically, the eccentricities follow and don't precede the extreme wealth.

But for fans of eccentricity and those interested in a better understanding of this interesting character this book is highly recommended.

This is a relatively rare out of print book by a hoodlum who was Henry Ford's right hand man. I don't recommend the book, but I'm extremely pleased that Amazon could obtain a clean copy as a resource for a book I am writing.

Why hasn't anyone found me this book?