[Upbeat string music] NARRATOR: By April of 1959, George Romney was on top of the world.

Time magazine praised the chief executive of American Motors Corporation, for taking on Detroit's gas guzzlers, with a little car called the Rambler.

[Chatter of crowd] PATRICK FOSTER: He took a company that was absolutely bound to go out of business, and he not only turned it around he made it so successful.

He shattered sales records, that had stood for decades.

He really became famous.

NARRATOR: Time even suggested he could run for public office.

But the praise came with a warning...

The Rambler's success had spurred GM, Ford, and Chrysler to launch compact cars of their own.

One rival executive quipped, "Give the Big Three a year in the economy market, and Romney will be flat against the wall."

[Bright roadtrip music] ANNOUNCER: Funding for The Last Independent Automaker was provided in part by... [Driving rhythmic music] WOMAN: We are Detroit.

And when we move, you move.

ANNOUNCER: Funding was also provided by...

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation... MotorCities National Heritage Area... And also... For a complete list of funders, visit APTonline.org [Jaunty easy listening music; pencil scratching paper] VINCE GERACI: 1959, I left Chrysler and went to American Motors.

My first day there was I think September the 5th, the same day that Dick Teague became assistant to Ed Anderson, who was the head of styling at the time.

NARRATOR: Since 1950, Edmund Anderson had been head of styling at Nash, and later, American Motors.

His new assistant, Richard Teague, had a great talent for clever designs on a budget.

MARIAN TEAGUE: He was a fantastic artist.

It was unreal, and to watch him draw, to watch the beautiful drawings that he did.

And he did many, many automobiles.

NARRATOR: Soon, AMC's small staff felt like a family.

GERACI: Dick Teague says, "you know, I walked by Ed Anderson, and he calls you the skinny kid with the large nose."

That was my- [laughs] That was not that flattering, but that's good.

That's fine.

[Scraping of pencil] NARRATOR: With new compact car competition from the Studebaker Lark, Plymouth Valiant, Ford Falcon, and Chevrolet Corvair, designers had to keep Rambler styling fresh.

FOSTER: When you restyle an automobile, it's a very expensive proposition, many millions of dollars.

So if you decide that "Ok the car looks nice with 2 headlights on it, but I think we'd better put 4 headlights, because that's what the public is looking for."

Well, that's going to cost you money, because you gotta change the fenders and you got to change the grill.

So you get this conundrum, if you don't change a car enough, it might not sell.

But if you change it too much, it's going to cost you, it might cost you too much money.

It's a very delicate balance.

MITT ROMNEY: My dad took my mom and me to American Motors, to the design studio, where this Rambler American was mocked up in clay and he was very proud of it, and I said, "It's awful!"

And he [laughs] he laughed.

I didn't realize he was still using the same unibody construction.

He was just putting a new skin on it.

He couldn't make it look like a Falcon or a Corvair or something more sleek.

TV COMMERCIAL: ♪ Rambler American!

♪ ♪ The beautiful, beautiful way it turns, ♪ ♪ and the way it parks, ♪ ♪ and the way it saves you money on gas!

♪ ♪ The beautiful, beautiful lowest price of all ♪ And that's not all!

NARRATOR: Fortunately, buyers liked the new 1961 Rambler American and Classic.

And although the unusual-looking Ambassador struggled, AMC remained profitable.

But, young Mitt wasn't the only one who didn't see eye-to-eye with the boss.

Anderson was annoyed with Romney's continued consulting with outside design firms.

AMC's board balked at the millions he was spending to improve product quality.

And when Vice President Roy Chapin Jr. suggested they buy the Jeep division of Kaiser Industries, Romney increased car production, instead.

FOSTER: They built more cars in one plant than any other company.

The Kenosha main plant became the most productive auto factory in North America.

[Factory noise] NARRATOR: The majority of Ramblers came from one plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

To boost output, AMC leased an old mattress factory across town, naming it the Lakefront Plant.

[Seagull cries] That year, when Romney negotiated a new labor contract with United Auto Workers Union president, Walter Ruether, the two surprisingly reached common ground.

ROMNEY: Walter Reuther said to him, "You know, George, us asking for more and more money to do less and less work is a dead end street."

And my dad said, "You're right.

We need to have the workers of the company committed to the success of the company."

He also felt that the workers in the automobile industry ought to share in the profits.

NARRATOR: Together, they drafted the first UAW contract with profit sharing for the workers.

Rival executives seethed, calling Romney a socialist.

But, Rambler's market share continued to grow.

ROMNEY: We used to get Automotive News, we'd look to see how many cars had been sold by each company, and there were a number of times when Rambler was the number three selling car in America.

If Rambler could be up there with those big brands, that was extraordinary!

NARRATOR: Unfortunately, the year ended on a bitter note, when Anderson confronted Romney during a meeting with rival design firms.

FOSTER: Maybe it was just a bad day, but he blew up, and he said, "you know, George this is ridiculous.

We should not be bringing in these outside guys.

I'm the head designer!

Do you want me or do you want these guys?"

And George Romney was not somebody that you back up to a wall.

NARRATOR: Tempers flared, and Romney forced Anderson to resign, replacing him with Richard Teague.

FOSTER: Ed Anderson did not think that was going to happen.

It was tragic, because he really did a great job there.

NARRATOR: What nobody knew was that soon, Romney would be leaving, too.

NARRATOR: Outside of work, Republican leaders had encouraged the rising star to run for governor of Michigan.

GERACI: A lot of individuals, though they are very comfortable in the occupation they currently have, they want to do something for the country and for the state, and he did do that.

NARRATOR: In February of '62, he took an unpaid leave and threw his hat into the ring.

While Romney campaigned, work continued on an all-new Rambler design for '63.

ROMNEY: I know he loved the company.

But I think he came to the point where he felt that the state he lived in and loved was making terrible mistakes, and he felt that he needed to try and save the state.

So, you know, always a sense of purpose and mission.

[Crowd applauding] NARRATOR: Running as a maverick Republican, he flipped the deeply blue state, and after two decades, left cars for politics.

GEORGE ROMNEY: The final act of resignation is naturally an emotional hurdle when you've been as intimately connected with a company and its people as I have during the past 14 years with the people at American Motors.

Now I'm very gratified that the events have clearly indicated that the company is in capable hands.

NARRATOR: But those hands would lead in a very different direction.

TV ANNOUNCER: The Car of the Year is Rambler!

♪♪ ♪ Oh find yourself a Rambler, ♪ ♪ oh take the wheel!

♪ ♪ The car of the year is Rambler!

♪ ROMNEY: When the '63-'64 Rambler Classic came out, that I was impressed with.

That's really a great car.

♪ Rambler... ♪ ♪ You've got yourself a winner, ♪ ♪ Car of the Year!

♪ ♪ Beauty plus economy!

♪ ♪ Get ahead of the game, Hey!

♪ ♪ Rambler's the name... ♪ ♪ Rambler 1963!

♪ NARRATOR: The award-winning new Ramblers had Romney and Anderson's fingerprints all over them.

♪ Rambler 1963!

♪ NARRATOR: However, the new president and CEO, Roy Abernethy, was quite different from his predecessor.

GERALD MEYERS: I remember vividly the first time I met him.

He was chewing a cigar.

I mean, he didn't smoke it, he chewed it.

And every once in a while, he would disgustingly pull it out of his mouth and show us what he'd been chewing on.

That was Roy Abernethy, a real old school kind of guy.

NARRATOR: As Vice President of sales, Abernethy made economical Ramblers into best-sellers.

But now, buyers, especially young ones, wanted more power.

[Engine revs] NARRATOR: That April, he approved an ad saying, "the only race Rambler cares about is the human race."

In response, people joked that Ramblers were too slow to race anyways.

GEORGE KAUFFMAN: They were liked by older, more sensible people, which was a drawback.

Younger kids, all they want is a nice car, sporty car.

This that whatnot.

NARRATOR: Rather than focus on economy or performance, Abernethy wanted to move up-market, with bigger cars and hopefully, bigger profits.

JOSH GREENPLATE: Abernethy was a sales guy.

He had a sales background, and he wanted big flashy cars to sell because that's what the Big Three was selling.

NARRATOR: Pulling aside his PR manager, he said, "Help me get rid of this 'Romney' image."

[Birds chirping] WILLIAM CHAPIN: My closest friend growing up, and still a very close friend of mine, is Edsel Ford II.

His father brought home a Mustang prototype, and it was about the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

[Upbeat 60s rock music] NARRATOR: Along with the Plymouth Barracuda, the groundbreaking 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang instantly created a new market, aptly called, pony cars.

CHAPIN: It was a very sporty looking car at an absolutely incredible price.

And American Motors had nothing like that.

Well, nobody else had anything like that.

[Whoosh of car driving by] FOSTER: It was the most successful new car introduction in history, and it affected every other company, because within two weeks, they realized, "We have got to come out with a competitor for this Mustang.

Ford is eating our lunch and our supper, too!"

NARRATOR: AMC already had a sporty compact in development, the Rambler Tarpon.

But Abernethy wanted it bigger, so it was enlarged and renamed the Marlin.

GERACI: We attempted all types of window designs of the side view of it.

And we finally came up with the loop.

But, I come back from vacation, go into the studio, and we had a clay model there.

And I see these wooden pegs sticking up from the back of the headroom area, and I said to Keith Goodnaugh, who was my clay supervisor, "What are these?"

He says, "I got um, I got orders that we have to raise the roofline.

I think it was an inch and a half."

I says, "What?!"

NARRATOR: While inspecting the Marlin, Abernethy had bumped his head, and angrily demanded they give it more room.

GERACI: You've got to raise the roofline?

An inch?

You know what that does to the side view of the sleekness of the roof?"

There are pictures of myself pointing out, my goodness gracious, you're going to have to raise the roofline that high!

So Keith went in and tried to move things around so that it did the best, but you can see, it's not as good.

NARRATOR: Under Abernethy, The Ramblers were growing.

1965 brought the new Marlin, Ambassador, and Classic, all with more room and more luxury.

GREENPLATE: I think '65 and '66 were AMC's absolute highest quality interiors.

There's a lot of chromed metal parts, high end fabrics, nice fit and finish.

They had really nice carpet that was comparable to what Cadillacs were using.

But all of that costs money.

NARRATOR: Now, AMC had to earn that money back.

[Motown style music] LISA HALES NEWMAN: We only had one car, and at 3:10pm everyday, my Mom and I got in the car, and came over to The Motors on 30th Avenue and picked up my dad.

The anticipation of waiting for that horn to go off.

[Factory whistle blows] LISA: It would just be a rush across 30th Avenue.

Traffic would stop.

You could see it in the tin lunch boxes swinging, you could see it in the camaraderie between people yelling about what happened during the day.

It was part of the life of Kenosha.

It was part of what Kenosha was.

NARRATOR: Employing tens of thousands, the former Nash Motors factory had built America's first all union-made car in 1934.

Three decades later, labor relations were still contentious, even when the lines were blurred.

ALBERT ACETO: They used to tell us, "You don't affiliate with the union, that's not your job!"

And they chewed me out to no end because I associated with these guys.

They're my friends!

I grew up with them.

Just because I got a tie on and they don't, that don't mean I'm different than they are.

But here again, when they were wondering what was going on with the union, what would they do?

Call me in and say, "What is the union thinking about?

Are they gonna go on strike?

Get us the information."

[Pen scratching on clipboard] NARRATOR: The latest grievance was with a Romney-era policy where industrial engineers or "IEs" tracked productivity.

BILLY AIELLO: It was very upsetting to the hourly people, to have this guy come down there with a stopwatch.

Every time they would add on to it.

"Well you got 10 seconds left here.

You know, you can do this."

You know, they would take this job and this job and put it all on this job.

DANNY LAMANTIA: They knew when you were not really running as hard as you could.

An industrial engineer would say, "Well he's only 75 percent efficient," So they'd add three more screws onto them.

BILLY: IEs were not liked!

NARRATOR: AMC had to control costs to stay competitive, and the business was only getting tougher.

[Dramatic, downcast Motown music] NARRATOR: In March of '66, the Studebaker Corporation ended all car production.

Years of mismanagement now served as a warning to others.

FOSTER: There's an old saying in the automobile industry that there's no problem that can't be solved by selling more cars.

If you don't have the volume, you're not going to be successful.

NARRATOR: Unfortunately, Rambler sales had fallen 20 percent in two years and continued to fall.

More and more baby boomers were flocking to the Big Three's new "muscle cars."

[Upbeat 60s rock music] [Tires screech, engines rev] FRANK PASCOE: It was all about muscle and horsepower and what could bring the babes.

Right?

You weren't going to bring the babes in with a 1952 Nash.

It just wasn't going to happen!

MICHAEL PORTER: The GTO, Cutlass maybe, the Malibu.

We couldn't afford most of them, but they were the cars that were targeted at younger single people.

[Tires squeal] [Engines revs] MITT ROMNEY: My friends had Mustangs and Camaros, and I had my mom's Rambler station wagon.

My friends used to call it "Mrs. Romney's grocery getter."

And I'm proud of the car today, I think I probably wasn't terribly proud of it back then.

[Rock music ends] NARRATOR: To rebrand, Abernethy dropped the "Rambler" name from certain models, but it didn't help much.

Increased sales of the glitzy new Ambassador were overshadowed by the decline of AMC's other cars.

GREENPLATE: There's a lot of competition in the market, especially then.

You look at the mid-60s, and every one of the Big Three had three or four or five brands, each with multiple models.

It was a crowded market.

[Car drives past] NARRATOR: Even with a high-power V8, the oddly-styled Marlin was a flop, selling just forty-five hundred copies that year, compared to the over half a million Mustangs sold by Ford.

NARRATOR: By now, AMC had a true pony car in development, but it wouldn't be ready until 1968.

To build excitement, AMC showed off a concept car called the American Motors eXperimental.

Styled by Chuck Mashigan, the wild AMX was unlikely to reach mass production.

FOSTER: A concept car is a vision of what a future car could be or might be.

They're generally not running automobiles.

They're just mockups.

NARRATOR: But as Abernethy burned through capital, AMC's board was losing confidence.

FOSTER: Roy Abernethy was a good sales executive.

But he was not inspiring.

And he didn't have that touch.

NARRATOR: In June of '66, investor Robert Evans became chairman, and the two immediately clashed.

Thankfully, the new sporty car, now called Javelin, was finally taking shape.

Overseen by designer Bob Nixon, it shared many cues with the high performance AMX.

Convinced that Javelin wasn't enough to remake AMC's image, Evans wanted to build both cars, but management hesitated.

In a stroke of money-saving genius, Teague's team adapted the AMX to a shortened Javelin body, creating a four-seat pony car and a two seat performance car off the same platform.

FOSTER: The beauty of it is, that you were able to come up with two different vehicles, at two very different price levels aimed at two or three entirely different markets, using basically one set of tools.

NARRATOR: Having learned his lesson, Abernethy didn't meddle with the styling.

[Dramatic trumpet music] TV COMMERCIAL: The now cars!

From the 1967 American Motors.

The now cars are built for today's driving; today's driver, from the company on top of today!

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, American Motors launched bigger, bolder cars for 1967.

Overseen by Teague and styled by Geraci, the cars were gorgeous, but sales were disappointing.

GERACI: As far as the aesthetics go, they're clean, they're neat, they're contemporary.

If those were in truth, were Chevrolets or Fords, they would've sold by the carload.

NARRATOR: The aging Rambler American was now AMC's only compact car, and it faced increased competition from foreign imports.

Abernethy's expensive gamble to move upmarket wasn't paying off.

GREENPLATE: They weren't connecting with the old customer.

They weren't connecting with the baby boomers who could have been new customers.

All around, the market wasn't there for the cars that Abernathy was trying to sell.

NARRATOR: As a result, American Motors had its first yearly loss in a decade.

In January of '67, Robert Evans convinced the board to force Roy Abernethy into "early retirement," and the Marlin soon followed.

[Birds chirping] NARRATOR: To right the sinking ship, the board appointed William Luneburg, President and Roy Chapin Jr., Chairman and CEO.

The upcoming Javelin and AMX became top priority.

CHAPIN: He knew that it would have a huge impact on the image of American Motors.

[Car drives by] NARRATOR: Marketing VP Bill McNealy suggested AMC hire Wells Rich Greene: a groundbreaking ad agency, and the first major firm run by a woman: Mary Wells.

CHAPIN: She really invented being a hard ass for women.

Because, first of all, there weren't any women around.

Second of all, a woman who was just a typical woman and wasn't a hard ass would never have made it!

NARRATOR: Wells wanted to pit each American Motors car against its best-known competitor.

But in conservative Detroit, this was heresy.

FOSTER: You know, they like to consider themselves all gentlemen, and gentlemen don't talk down a competitor's product.

That was the unwritten rule.

NARRATOR: Wells told Chapin that American Motors was too desperate to play nice, and he reluctantly gave in.

[Engine noises] NARRATOR: When the 1968 American Motors Javelin debuted in the fall of '67, it took direct aim at the Mustang.

CHAPIN: One of the print campaigns was a two page spread called "An Unfair Comparison."

"This Javelin has this, this, this and... the Mustang does not!"

And let you draw your own comparison.

FEMALE VOICE: An unfair comparison between the Mustang and the Javelin, between the Fairlane and the Rebel, between the VW and the Rambler American.

Javelin has a richer, more polished look and more horsepower in its standard 6 cylinder engine.

The American gives you a bigger battery, bigger brakes, and a bigger fuel tank than the Volkswagen.

The Rebel gives you more headroom up front, more legroom, shoulder room, and hiproom.

CHAPIN: I mean, some of the comparisons were ridiculous.

But it delivered the point that our car had more value.

FEMALE VOICE: Our Javelin is endowed with yards of costly glass.

Unfair, because Mustang isn't nearly so generous.

The American outweighs the VW by 800 pounds.

The Rebel offers you individually adjustable reclining seats.

The Fairlane doesn't.

And, unfairest of all, our Javelin lists for no more than the Mustang.

FOSTER: And Henry Ford was livid!

But, Roy D. Chapin was his best friend, so he took it out on the advertising company.

NARRATOR: Furious at Mary Wells, Ford's wife threatened to not attend a dinner party if "that woman" would be there.

But, a decade later when Ford wanted to reinvigorate his company's image, he would hire Wells, Rich, Greene.

[Motorcycle engine idles] MOTORCYCLIST: Hey!

Wanna drag?

[Engine revs] NARRATOR: Along with AMC's print ads came clever new TV commercials.

[Big engine revs] MAN: I've got a bowl of goldfish on the seat.

TV ANNOUNCER: We at American Motors never had the reputation for building hot, sporty cars.

Then we built the Javelin.

EUROPEAN MAN: Hello Mon Ami.

You wish to race with me?

MAN: No.

Merci.

TV ANNOUNCER: It can go from 0 to 60 in 7.86 seconds.

[Snare drum] Now, we have the reputation for building hot, sporty cars.

[Tires squeal] CHAPIN: I convinced my dad that I needed to go work at Wells Rich Greene one summer, and it was phenomenal.

[Engines revs] TV ANNOUNCER: It could make you think twice about buying an import.

[Crowd cheers] [Dogs barking] TV ANNOUNCER: So even if you can't use air conditioning, you're still getting something.

CHAPIN: They were always funny, because that makes them memorable.

But even if it was funny, there was still a sales pitch in there.

And the AMC dealers loved it!

NARRATOR: The excitement continued in March of '68 with the AMX, and American Motors found itself doing something it hadn't done since the Hudson Hornet, racing!

DRIVER: Look out!

I'm coming through!

[Engine revs] NARRATOR: Drivers Craig and Lee Breedlove set 106 speed and endurance records in two AMXs.

[Loud race cars pass] NARRATOR: And other AMC cars were now showing up on racetracks around the country.

GREENPLATE: The old slogan, you know, is "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday."

Motorsports were exploding.

They were starting to get regular television coverage, and customers were glued to it.

[Loud race car passes] NARRATOR: The Javelin sold 55,000 copies in its first year, more than the Marlin had in three.

PATRICK: It changed the image.

All the sudden, youth was showing up in American Motors showrooms.

NARRATOR: American Motors was changing.

The Kelvinator Appliance division was sold for extra cash, and AMC gave a hot pink AMX to Playboy Magazine's playmate of the year, something George Romney would have never done.

[Loud car races past] NARRATOR: But the governor was now running for president, and his influence at American Motors had all but disappeared.

1969 would be the last year for the last Rambler model.

To send it out in style, American Motors and Hurst Performance built a limited run of high-power drag cars.

[Engine starts, revs loudly] NARRATOR: With AMC's biggest engine crammed into its smallest car, the tiny terror was a far-cry from the frugal Ramblers of old.

[Engine revs] [Military-style drum music starts] NARRATOR: But American Motors needed more than fast cars to be profitable.

The rest of the market was as competitive as ever.

And now that Roy Chapin was in charge, he had ambitions of his own.

ANNOUNCER: The Complete Book of AMC Cars features a fully-illustrated history of American Motors vehicles, and is available online at MPT.org/Shop.

Or call the phone number on the screen.

To learn more about the cars and the people of American Motors, connect with The Last Independent Automaker online.

ANNOUNCER: Funding for The Last Independent Automaker was provided in part by... [Driving rhythmic music] WOMAN: We are Detroit.

And when we move, you move.

ANNOUNCER: Funding was also provided by...

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation... MotorCities National Heritage Area... And also... For a complete list of funders, visit APTonline.org