Drama reveals brutal flaws in Ford’s treatment of son
Henry Ford was famous for creating a company that brought the automobile to the masses.
What is undoubtedly lessknown is how he dominated the son to whom he handed control of the company.
Central Ohio playwright Herb Brown explores that famous father-son relationship in “Henry Ford’s Model E.”
In the dark family drama, Brown, a former Ohio Supreme Court justice known for his plays about powerful historical figures, writes about Ford and his son, Edsel.
“Henry Ford is iconic, a folk hero who gave birth to modern America, perfected the mass production of cars and made them available to people,” said Brown, 85.
“What we discover in the play is that he’s also a father and human being, and that side of him wasn’t so pretty.”
The CATCO performances are set to open Friday in the Riffe Center.
“When people hear we’re doing a play about Henry Ford, they just think of the cars,” actor Christopher Storer said.
“But this story brings out the human aspect behind Ford Motor Co. — the personal conflicts, family transitions, romantic complications and health crises.”
Set from 1907 to 1947, the year of Henry Ford’s death, the two-act, three-character play focuses on how the elder Ford tried to mold and control his son even after Edsel took over the company.
“Henry Ford really does want his son to succeed,” Brown said, “but he does horrible things to him to shape him up.”
As company president from 1919 until his death from stomach cancer at age 49 in 1943, Edsel Ford founded the Mercury
division and pushed to make Ford cars more stylish. His father, though, resisted moving beyond his own early winning formula with the Model T.
“What was he being taught?” Brown said. “That his father is in charge and that Edsel can’t do anything without clearing it with his father first.”
Storer, 35, portrays Edsel from age 16 to his late 40s