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“A Car Is Born” is a 1972 Ford Motor Company promotional film that shows how the modern automotive assembly line produces a precision machine. It contains shots of 1972 Mach 1 Mustangs and Torinos as well as designs (shown in clay model form) for the 1974 Mustang II.

The film begins with a literal bang — a massive explosion of earth followed by scenes from construction sites and factories. Molten metal drips from containers while the scenes are interspersed with clips of car owners explaining what they look for in an automobile. “Where does a customer’s new car begin?,” asks the narrator at mark 02:26. “It begins in the minds of people — our first resource.” It also begins in auto manufacturer’s scientific research laboratories — with a montage of scenes flashing on the screen as the narrator explains how those settings serve as “gateway to the unknown” — as well as in factories and through the use of machines. We learn of the electrocoat paint process as a car is shown being dipped into a solution at mark 04:32, as well as an experimental “powered paint process.” A discussion of safety protocols soon follows with scenes of a salvage yard mixed with cars in factories being smashed in the interest of safety. Yet is is “people who make the system work,” says the narrator at mark 06:18, and we see a variety of scenes of factory workers going about their daily routines. Performance and design are always key areas of improvement in Ford automobiles, the narrator explains come mark 07:55, with engineers always taking customer concerns into consideration when designing and redesigning their product. The film takes its viewer into the design center at mark 08:28 to see the idea in action, from seats to AM radios to electric windows. Design and engineering draw closer together by mark 12:52 as a new vehicle is shown being constructed using both machinemade and manmade parts. There are scenes from test tracks and a series of manufacturing images. We watch as the vehicles rolls down an assembly line until at mark 24:52 as “the car has come to life.”

Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we've worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies including home movies, industrial films, and other nonfiction. If you have endangered films you'd like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com