Students of American automobile history won’t want to miss this little four-minute film from fall of 1957. Here, Henry Ford II personally makes the case for the 1958 Edsel.

This 1957 film short, produced by the Ford Motor Company for the brand-new Edsel dealer organization, is valuable on at least two counts. First, it speaks directly to that time-honored question about the car that is often cited as the most disastrous new product introduction in history: What were they thinking?

Clearly and plainly, here Henry Ford II lays out the company’s projections for the American automobile market in the coming decades and just where the Edsel slotted into this carefully crafted vision. At around the 1:40 mark, Ford delivers what we can consider the company’s thesis statement: “The purpose of the Edsel can be stated very simply. It is to give Ford Motor Company a larger share of the market, and particularly of the medium-price market.”  

While the Edsel involved years of elaborate product planning and books have since been written about the debacle, in many ways that was the long and the short of it:  Ford simply wanted a larger percentage of the American new-car market. (See MCG’s in-depth, illustrated feature on the Edsel product line here.)

But equally valuable in this film is the insight on Ford the man. By this time, Ford II had more than a decade under his belt as the chief executive officer of the company his grandfather founded. He was now 40 years old, and his famed confidence and self-conviction are already in full display. Since Ford died in 1987, many today have never had the opportunity to see and hear him in the flesh to witness his unique persona and manner. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Henry Ford II.