Next in line behind this 1960 Villager is a 1960 Ford Galaxie, demonstrating one of the problems with the consistency of Edsel quality. Edsels and Fords were built on the same lines all three model years, and many times the differences would confuse and frustrate assembly workers. In some cases, Ford parts were applied to Edsels, either through mistake or part availability.
This Villager was the last Edsel ever assembled. Like all 1960 Edsels, it was produced in Louisville.
A note in passing. The passing of the Edsel, that is. On this date in 1959 FoMoCo stopped cranking them out at their Louisville, Kentucky plant, a mere two years & two months after the line's introduction, & two months & five days after production of the 1960 models had started.
We've no idea of Edsel Ford's politics, though the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, but let's give him (on the left) a break. However, Charles Lindbergh (center) & Henry Ford (right) were two of Hitler's biggest fans here in the United Snakes. We go to the local fishwrapper again:
When Ford introduced the Edsel -- on Sept. 4, 1957 -- it was hailed as a car of the future. Named for Henry Ford's son Edsel, it offered powerful engines (including a 345-horsepower V8) and advanced technology, including push-button gear-shifting and self-adjusting brakes.
[...]
Despite generally positive reviews and a splashy launch campaign that featured Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong and other icons of the era, the Edsel was a nonstarter with buyers.
SUN 21 JAN 1940
Auxiliary Bear (AG-29) follows leads in the ice spotted on the 19th; the ship's Barkley-Grow floatplane flies over the northern limits of the Edsel Ford Mountains.
Minesweeper Penguin (AM-33) transfers 24 survivors of Japanese fishing schooner No. 1 Seiho Maru, stranded off the southeast coast of Guam, M.I., on 15 January, to Japanese freighter Saipan Maru.
British light cruiser HMS Liverpool stops Japanese passenger liner Asama Maru 35 miles off Nozaki, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, and removes 21 Germans from the ship. All but nine are naval reservists, survivors of the scuttled passenger liner Columbus; the nine civilians are released. The incident further strains relations between Great Britain and Japan.
[The following information was submitted by Shirley Weiss, daughter of one of the German seamen stranded in America (mentioned below) -- HyperWar]:
"Unfortunately, there are a number of errors in the entry. I have documents from the German, English, and Japanese archives which dispute the information. The 21 Germans who were removed from the Asama Maru were all civilian seaman who shipped on oil tankers for the Panama Transit Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company. None were in the military rather they were just of military age. None of the men aboard the Asama Maru were from the scuttled Columbus. The men were initially interned in Hong Kong at LaSalle College. On 2/29/1940 nine of the men were transported via the Australian Cruiser Canibula to Japan and released. In May of 1940 a telegram was sent to the Hague informing the Dutch that the remaining civilian seamen were to be transferred from internment in Hong Kong to Ceylon. These same men were subsequently interned in Singapore and Alberta, Canada. According to a daughter of one of the seaman removed from the Asama Maru, her father was not returned to Germany until 1946.
What's important about this event is that hundreds of civilian seaman of Axis nations were stranded in American ports in 1939. The Asama Maru incident justified not repatriating any of the seaman. Basically, Standard Oil retained the men's passports starting in August of 1939 until they were interned in May of 1941 (7 months before Pearl Harbor). However, by confiscating the passports the seamen could not leave the country anyway. The government could not intern them legally in 1939 since the US was a neutral nation. (Britain and it's protectorates & colonies, Canada, and Australia did intern the men that were caught in ports across the western hemisphere).
The men always wondered why they were allowed freedom until May of 1941 and then rounded up for internment. After reviewing the archival documents, my conclusion is that the presidential election made it politically inconvenient to intern the men until 1941. Only 3% of the public favored involvement in the European war in 1939. Although Roosevelt received much pressure from England to enter the war in 1939 he had to influence public opinion first. If he had interned the men in 1939 it might have influenced his re-election bid. Almost immediately after the Asama Maru incident Standard Oil announced that they would scuttle all plans to repatriate the seaman. By stopping the Asama Maru and seizing the seaman the Allies removed all axis national seaman from oil tankers and stopped all repatriation on the basis that the "Atlantic was too dangerous to repatriate the Standard Oil seaman." Almost all of the seaman stranded in US ports were sent to Ft. Lincoln, North Dakota for internment.
List of the 21 men removed from the Asama Maru and their ages. (The last 9 on the list were released in Japan on 2/29/40):
Bohnsack, Rudolf -- 29
Gnirs, Karl -- 31
Grimm, Fritz -- 31
Gottke, Walter -- 29
Heino, Xaverius -- 30
Jachowski, Walter -- 30
Kempfer, Kurt -- 26
Hartmann, Oswald -- 34
Oesterle, Karl -- 33
Schleyer, Karl -- 19
Schroder, Hermann -- 39
Wesselhofft, Johnny -- 36
Herman Groth -- 40
Arthur Kruger -- 36
Willy Plucas -- 29
Hans Hartwig -- 19
Rudolf Kaselau -- 30
Paul Rupprecht -- 18
Otto Wantke -- 59
Eduard Lege -- 34
Albert Dankowski -- 36
For a fuller write-up, see: The Asama Maru Incident of January 21, 1940 by Chester G. Dunham
U.S. freighter Nishmaha is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities (see 22 January).
Ultimate villain in this mess? Standard Oil Company, natch.
Today is Thursday, Nov. 19, the 323rd day of 2009. There are 42 days left in the year. The Moonanac. Today's Highlight in History: On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.
Close Up
Above: President Abraham Lincoln (circled) at the dedication of Soldiers National Cemetery on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pa., on Nov. 19, 1863. Bottom: A longer view of the scene. The photo at top is an enlargement of the marked-off rectangular area. This is believed to be the only photograph of Lincoln at the dedication where he gave his famous Gettysburg Address. Taken by Civil War photographer Matthew Brady, it was discovered in 1953 in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., where it had gone unnoticed. It is believed to show Lincoln seated on the platform just after his arrival, some three hours before he gave his speech. (AP Photo) ADDED INFO: NotionsCapital has the PowerPoint Presentation. On this date: In 1600, King Charles I of England was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. In 1794, the United States and Britain signed Jay's Treaty, which resolved some issues left over from the Revolutionary War. In 1831, the 20th president of the United States, James Garfield, was born in Orange Township, Ohio. In 1917, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was born in Allahabad. In 1919, the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 55 in favor, 39 against, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification. In 1939, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the cornerstone for his presidential library at Hyde Park, N.Y. In 1942, Russian forces launched their winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front. In 1954, the first automatic toll collection machine went into service at the Union Toll Plaza on New Jersey's Garden State Parkway. Fifty years ago, in 1959, Ford Motor Co. announced it was halting production of the unpopular Edsel. Forty years ago, in 1969, Apollo XII astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made the second manned landing on the moon. In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel. Twenty-five years ago, in 1984, some 500 people died in a firestorm set off by a series of explosions at a petroleum storage plant on the edge of Mexico City. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.
In 1986, at the beginning of what became the Iran-Contra scandal, U.S. President Ronald Reagan said the United States would send no more arms to Iran. In 1990, NATO and the Warsaw Pact nations signed a massive conventional arms treaty in Paris to end the 40-year Cold War. In 1998, independent Counsel Kenneth Starr laid out his evidence against President Bill Clinton during a daylong appearance before the House Judiciary Committee. In 1999, hundreds of anti-American protesters battled riot police and set stores and banks ablaze as President Bill Clinton rode through Athens in a tight security cocoon and proclaimed a "profound and enduring friendship" with Greece. World leaders at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Turkey signed a treaty cutting the number of non-nuclear weapons systems across Europe. In 2001, President George W. Bush signed legislation to put airport baggage screeners on the federal payroll. Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants became the first baseball player to win four Most Valuable Player awards. In 2004, in one of the worst brawls in U.S. sports history, Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson of the Indiana Pacers charged into the stands and fought with Detroit Pistons fans, forcing officials to end the Pacers' 97-82 win with 45.9 seconds left. (Artest was suspended for the rest of the season and Jackson for 30 games. A fan was sentenced to 30 days in jail for assaulting Artest.) In 2005, Prince Albert II formally became ruler of Monaco when he assumed the throne of his late father Prince Rainier. In 2008, al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, slurred Barack Obama as a black American who does the bidding of whites in a new Web message intended to dent the president-elect's popularity among Arabs and Muslims. The Dow industrial average closed under 8,000 at 7,997.28 — the lowest close since March 2003. Today's Birthdays: Actor Alan Young is 90.
Talk show host Larry King is 76. Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch is 74. Talk show host Dick Cavett is 73. Broadcasting and sports mogul Ted Turner is 71. Singer Pete Moore (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles) is 70. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is 70. TV journalist Garrick Utley is 70. Actor Dan Haggerty is 68. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson is 68. Fashion designer Calvin Klein is 67. Sportscaster Ahmad Rashad is 60. Actor Robert Beltran is 56. Actress Kathleen Quinlan is 55. Actress Glynnis O'Connor is 54. Newscaster Ann Curry is 53. Former NASA astronaut Eileen Collins is 53. Actress Allison Janney is 50. Rock musician Matt Sorum (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver) is 49. Actress Meg Ryan is 48. Actress-director Jodie Foster is 47. Actress Terry Farrell is 46. TV chef Rocco DiSpirito is 43. Actor Jason Scott Lee is 43. Olympic gold medal runner Gail Devers is 43. Actress Erika Alexander is 40. Rock musician Travis McNabb is 40. Singer Tony Rich is 38. Country singer Jason Albert (Heartland) is 36. Country singer Billy Currington is 36. Dancer-choreographer Savion Glover is 36. Country musician Chad Jeffers is 34. Rhythm-and-blues singer Tamika Scott (Xscape) is 34. Rhythm-and-blues singer Lil' Mo is 32. Olympic gold medal gymnast Kerri Strug is 32. Actor Reid Scott is 32. Today In Entertainment History November 19 In 1964, The Beefeaters changed their name to The Byrds. In 1968, Diana Ross interrupted a set by The Supremes at the Royal Command Variety Performance in London to make a plea for racial harmony. The audience applauded for two minutes. In 1970, James Brown married Dierdre Jenkins at her home in South Carolina. Thirty years ago, in 1979, Chuck Berry was released from a prison farm in California after serving two months for tax evasion in 1973. In 1990, pop duo Milli Vanilli were stripped of their Grammy because other singers had lent their voices to the "Girl You Know It's True" album. In 1993, Nirvana taped an all-acoustic show in New York for "MTV Unplugged." It aired a month later. In 2001, Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland was arrested in Las Vegas for domestic battery after getting into a fight with his wife. He later pleaded guilty and was ordered to undergo counseling. In 2002, Michael Jackson dangled his baby son over a fourth-floor balcony at a hotel in Berlin for fans waiting outside. In 2005, Gary Glitter was arrested while trying to board a flight from Vietnam to Thailand. He was later convicted of child molestation. Also in 2005, Christina Aguilera married music executive Jordan Bratman in California's Napa Valley, & KISS frontman Paul Stanley married Erin Sutton in Pasadena, California. In 2008, drama and dance critic Clive Barnes died in New York at age 81. Thought for Today:"You simply cannot hang a millionaire in America." — Bourke Cockran, American politician and orator (1854-1923).
Today is Friday, Sept. 4, the 247th day of 2009. There are 118 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Sept. 4, 1781, Los Angeles was founded by Spanish settlers led by Governor Felipe de Neve.
On this date:
In 1886, a group of Apache Indians led by Geronimosurrendered to Gen. Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon in Arizona. In 1888, George Eastman received a patent for his roll-film box camera, and registered his trademark: "Kodak." In 1893, English author Beatrix Potter first told the story of Peter Rabbit in the form of a "picture letter" to Noel Moore, the son of Potter's former governess. In 1917, the American Expeditionary Forces in France suffered their first fatalities during World War I when a German plane attacked a British-run base hospital. In 1948, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicated after nearly six decades of rule for health reasons. In 1951, President Harry S. Truman addressed the nation from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San Francisco in the first live, coast-to-coast television broadcast. In 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus used Arkansas National Guardsmen to prevent nine black students from entering all-white Central High School in Little Rock.Ford Motor Co. began selling its ill-fated Edsel. In 1967, Michigan Gov. George Romney said during a TV interview that he had undergone a "brainwashing" by U.S. officials during a 1965 visit to Vietnam. The comment is widely believed to have derailed his campaign for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination. Forty years ago, in 1969, the Food and Drug Administration issued a report calling birth control pills "safe," despite a slight risk of fatal blood-clotting disorders linked to the pills. In 1971, an Alaska Airlines jet crashed near Juneau, killing all 111 people on board. In 1984, Canada's Progressive Conservatives, led by Brian Mulroney, won a landslide victory in general elections over the Liberal Party of Prime Minister John N. Turner and the New Democrats headed by Ed Broadbent. Ten years ago: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed a breakthrough land-for-security agreement during a ceremony in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Martin Frankel, a Connecticut money manager accused of cheating insurance companies in five states out of more than $200 million, was arrested in Germany. (Frankel was later sentenced to nearly 17 years in a federal prison.) Anti-independence militias in East Timor went on a rampage, hours after the United Nations announced that residents had overwhelmingly voted for independence from Indonesia. Five years ago: Slow-moving Hurricane Frances snapped power lines and whipped the Atlantic coast with winds over 90 miles-an-hour as it neared Florida. A shaken President Vladimir Putin made a rare and candid admission of Russian weakness after more than 330 people were killed in a hostage-taking at a southern school. In 2007, toy maker Mattel Inc. recalled 800,000 lead-tainted, Chinese-made toys worldwide, a third major recall in just over a month. One year ago: With a pledge that "change is coming," Sen. John McCain accepted the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in St. Paul, Minn., vowing to vanquish what he called the "constant partisan rancor" gripping Washington. The Dow industrial average fell 344.65 points to 11,188.23 on gloomy economic data. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in a sex scandal, forcing the Democrat out of office after months of defiantly holding onto his job.
Today's Birthdays September 4
Actress Mitzi Gaynor is 78. Singer Merald "Bubba" Knight (Gladys Knight & The Pips) is 67. World Golf Hall of Famer Raymond Floyd is 67. Actress Jennifer Salt is 65. World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Watson is 60. Rhythm-and-blues musician Ronald LaPread is 59. Actress Judith Ivey is 58. Rock musician Martin Chambers (The Pretenders) is 58. Actress Khandi Alexander is 52.
Actor-comedian Damon Wayans is 49. Rock musician Kim Thayil is 49. Retired Baseball All-Star Mike Piazza is 41. Actor Noah Taylor is 40. Actress Ione Skye is 39. Rhythm-and-blues singer Richard Wingo (Jagged Edge) is 34. Actor Wes Bentley is 31. NFL player Terence Newman is 31. Singer Dan Miller ("Making the Band") is 29. Singer Beyonce Knowles is 28.
Today In Entertainment History September 4
In 1959, a New York radio station banned the song "Mack The Knife" in response to a wave of stabbings. In 1964, The Animals made their American debut in Brooklyn, New York. "Gilligan's Island" premiered on CBS. In 1965, The Who had their equipment van stolen in England while they were inside an animal shelter buying a guard dog. In 1968, radio stations in several US cities banned the Rolling Stones song "Street Fighting Man" because of fears it might incite violence. In 1977, the rock musical "Godspell" closed on Broadway. In 1986, musician Gregg Allman was arrested for drunken driving in Florida. He had just gotten his driver's license back after a five-year suspension. [Why'd the sucky Allman Bro. live & the less-sucky one die? Answer me that, Gawd! — Ed.] In 1991, singer Dottie West died during surgery in Nashville. She had been injured in a car accident a few days earlier. West was 58. In 1993, actor Herve Villechaize died at the age of 50. He's probably best known for playing Tattoo on "Fantasy Island." [Yeah, "probably." Will the real writers be back after Labor Day? We hope so. — Ed.] In 1996, Yusaf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, emerged from retirement in London to sign copies of his first album in 18 years. Music fans were disappointed, because the album "Life of the Last Prophet" was 80 percent talk. In 2002, Kelly Clarkson was named the winner on "American Idol," beating out Justin Guarini and winning a recording contract. Nearly 22.5 million people tuned in to watch. In 2006, Steve Irwin of the TV show "Crocodile Hunter" was killed when a stingray's barb hit him in the heart while Irwin was filming an underwater documentary. Irwin was 44.
We've noted the fabulous Edsel before, now here is another look at the famous for failing shitmobile, from a "design & promotion" angle, & packed w/ so much marketing & promotional crap
that those who look & read will be either bored so limp they'll be unable to move or will be inspired to finish the job of slitting their wrists while plunging from the highest available bldg.
One other anniversary to note today; thanks to both Franklin Avenue & The Militant Angeleno for reminding us. Though Just Another Blog (From L. A.)™ is located in West Hollywood, we're right on the border. We can see Los Angeles (Hollywood, really) all around us & do much of our consumption there. So Happy 226th B-Day, neighbor. The Militant has a video. It's too hot to go through the bother of embedding it here, give him a click.
