It was funded originally by a US $ 25, 000 gift from Edsel Ford but by 1947 after the death of the two founders, the foundation owned 90 percent of the non-voting shares of the Ford Motor Company ( the Ford family kept the voting shares to themselves ).

The foundation was established on January 15, 1936, in Michigan by Edsel Ford ( president of the Ford Motor Company ) and two other executives " to receive and administer funds for scientific, educational and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare ".

The Edsel is an automobile that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company during the 1958, 1959, and 1960 model years.

The Edsel was introduced amid considerable publicity on " E Day "— September 4, 1957.

It was also promoted by a top-rated television special, The Edsel Show, on October 13, but the promotional effort was not enough to counter the adverse initial public reaction to the car's styling and conventional build.

The Edsel was to be sold through a newly formed division of the Ford Motor Company, as a companion to the Ford Division, Mercury Division, Lincoln Division and ( newly formed but also short-lived ) Continental Division.

Initially Edsel was sold through a new network of approximately 1, 187 dealers.

The Edsel offered several innovative features, among which were its " rolling dome " speedometer, warning lights for such conditions as low oil level, parking brake engaged, and engine overheating, as well as its Push-button Teletouch transmission shifting system in the center of the steering wheel ( a conventional column-shift automatic was also available at less cost ).

Replacing the Pacer as the top-line Ford-based Edsel, the new Corsair was offered as a two-door and four-door hardtop, four-door sedan, and two-door convertible.

The 1960 Edsel Ranger four-door hardtop model used the thin-pillar Ford Fairlane four-door sedan roofline, as opposed to the " square " roofline used on the corresponding Ford four-door hardtop, which was exclusive to the Galaxie line.

This gave the Edsel four-door hardtop a unique body style that was never offered on any 1960 Ford.

According to author and Edsel scholar Jan Deutsch, the Edsel was " the wrong car at the wrong time.

Since the Edsel program was such a debacle, it gave marketers a vivid illustration of how not to market a product.

The public also had difficulty understanding what the Edsel was, primarily because Ford made the mistake of pricing the Edsel within Mercury ’ s market price segment.

Theoretically, the Edsel was conceived to fit into Ford ’ s marketing plans as the brand slotted in between Ford and Mercury.

Henry Ford II ( September 4, 1917 — September 29, 1987 ), commonly known as " HF2 " and " Hank the Deuce ", was the oldest son of Edsel Ford and oldest grandson of Henry Ford.

Edsel Bryant Ford ( November 6, 1893 – May 26, 1943 ), son of Henry Ford, was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

As the only child of Clara and Henry Ford, Edsel was groomed to take over the family automobile business, and had grown up tinkering on cars with his father.

His affinity for sports cars was demonstrated in his personal vehicles: Edsel bought the first MG motorcar imported to the United States.

After becoming president of Ford, Edsel long advocated the introduction of a more modern automobile to replace the Model T, but was repeatedly overruled by his father.

As president, Edsel Ford often disagreed with his father on major decisions, and was occasionally humiliated in public by the older man.

According to tour guides at the Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, however, Edsel's father, Henry, was a domineering type who insisted that his son drink unpasteurized milk, which caused Edsel to contract and then succumb to undulant fever.

The storyline of a controversially styled car causing the company to fail both echoes that of the Edsel and the Tucker Torpedo.

Kahn's interest in historically styled buildings is also seen in his houses in Indian Village, Detroit, Cranbrook House, the Edsel Ford House and the Dearborn Inn, the world's first airport hotel.

This car had a resemblance to the 1958 Edsel.

The Edsel never gained popularity with contemporary American car buyers and sold poorly.

For months, Ford had been circulating rumors that led people to expect an entirely new kind of car, when in reality, the Edsel shared its engineering and bodywork with other Ford models.

Two years later Edsel had another car designed, this one a low-riding aluminum-bodied speedster.

In 1935, Edsel Ford designed a new, more luxurious version of his company's mainline car, intended to bridge the enormous price gap between the highest trimmed Ford and the base Lincoln.

After yet another race ends in a crash ( and Tennessee turns his Edsel into a sculpture ), Jim finds himself without a car and heads into town in search of some cheap wheels.

Developed concurrently with the Ford Falcon, early pre-production photographs of the sedan show a car remarkably close to the Comet that emerged, but with a split grille following the pattern established by Edsel models.

During the late 1950s, Ballard was recruited by the Ford Motor Company to become the first Edsel car dealer for Salt Lake City.

* Maniac Mansion: The number-plate of the Edison's Edsel car is THX 1138.

* Edsel Pacer, an American car produced by Ford

When it hits the transformer, it is again a 1959 model Edsel, with a turquoise scallop painted on the side to match the 1958 car ( only 1958 models have this feature ).

The factory was opened in 1957 as the site of production of Ford's MEL V8 for the Edsel car.

The car featured tailfins and a horse collar grille like Ford's failed Edsel.

" Ford Motor Company eventually decided on the name " Edsel ", in honor of Edsel B. Ford, son of the company's founder, Henry Ford ( despite objections from Henry Ford II ).

In some newspaper markets, dealers scrambled to renegotiate newspaper advertising contracts involving the 1960 Edsel models, while others dropped the name from their dealerships ' advertising " slugs.

Indeed, the name " Edsel " became synonymous with commercial failure, and similar ill-fated products have often been colloquially referred to as " Edsels ".

Two of the three high schools in Dearborn are named after Edsel Ford: Edsel Ford High School and Fordson High School ; Fordson was the brand name of a line of tractors and was originally started as a separate company, Henry Ford & Son, later absorbed into the Ford Motor Company.

Early Ford styling mules for the station wagon model carried the Edsel name as well.

( The Villager name had previously been used to denote the 4-door steel-sided station wagon in the Edsel Ranger series.

" Villager " first appeared at Ford as the name of the Edsel station wagon, the Edsel Villager, in 1958.

Additionally that year, the Ranger name made its first appearance on a Ford truck ; previously a base model of the Edsel, it was now used to denote a high-level styling package for F-Series pickups.

The Meteor name had been selected for Mercury's new intermediate model beginning in 1962, and Mercury itself had been dropped down in price due to slow sales and the discontinuation of the Edsel.