Inside a 1950s Car Factory (Real Footage)

On the 23rd of November 1954, a car body painted gold was lowered onto its chassis on a Chevrolet line in Flint, Michigan: General Motors' 50 millionth car built in America, GM said, with more than 600 parts plated in gold. GM filmed that day, and it filmed its factories right through the 1950s. This video follows a car down the line in those films, from iron ore to the body drop, and checks what the narrators said against what car workers told researchers at the time. As for the gold car, nobody seems to know where it is. Every claim in this video was fact-checked, and the sources for the main ones are below. Spot a mistake? Tell me in the comments and I'll correct it. CHAPTERS 0:00 The gold car 1:05 Made to sell 2:26 Fire and steel 3:16 The engine 4:02 17,000 parts 4:44 The line 6:19 What the films don't show 7:55 Fifty million 9:00 Where is the gold car? SOURCES Automotive News, 29 November 1954 (the 50 millionth car, the golden train, the parade): https://archive.org/details/sim_autom... Wire report on GM's 50 millionth car, 23 November 1954 (East Liverpool Review; also in the Kingston Daily Freeman): https://archive.org/details/east-live... Products Finishing, February 1955 (the gold plating of the 50 millionth car's trim): https://archive.org/details/sim_produ... Hagerty, 12 February 2024 (the gold car and its replica): https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-pro... My City Magazine (Flint), 1 February 2024 (the golden tribute car project): https://mycitymag.com/flints-shining-... The Henry Ford, Jam Handy Filmstrip Collection finding aid (2019): https://findingaids.thehenryford.org/... Junior Scholastic, 6 January 1954 (the American Harvest coupon): https://archive.org/details/sim_junio... American Harvest, Part I (Chevrolet, 1955), the film's narration: https://archive.org/details/American1955 American Harvest, Part II (Chevrolet, 1955), the film's narration: https://archive.org/details/American1... Social Education (National Council for the Social Studies), October 1952, p. 294: https://archive.org/details/sim_socia... Merriam-Webster, "automation" (word history): https://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti... GM Heritage Center, 1955 NASCAR Chevy #92: https://www.gm.com/heritage/collectio... Steel, 19 October 1953: https://archive.org/details/steel_195... Automotive Industries, 1 July 1947 (Chevrolet's new Flint assembly plant): https://archive.org/details/sim_autom... K. A. Stonex, General Motors Engineering Journal, June-July 1953 (the Arizona proving ground): https://archive.org/details/gm-engine... Charles R. Walker and Robert H. Guest, The Man on the Assembly Line (Harvard University Press, 1952): https://archive.org/details/manonasse... Ely Chinoy, Automobile Workers and the American Dream (1955): https://archive.org/details/automobil... James S. Youtsler, Labor's Wage Policies in the Twentieth Century (1956): https://archive.org/details/laborswag... US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wage Chronology: General Motors Corp., 1939-66: https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/w... Fortune, July 1950, quoted in Frank Levy and Peter Temin, "Inequality and Institutions in 20th Century America" (2007): https://archive.org/details/inequalit... General Motors Annual Report, 1964 (statistics, 1955 net income): https://archive.org/details/Gene1800_... Detroit Historical Society, Encyclopedia of Detroit, "Curtice, Harlow Herbert": https://detroithistorical.org/learn/e... Old Cars Weekly, 16 May 2024 (GM's 100 millionth US-built car): https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/news/th... Mecum Auctions, Spring Classic results (Business Wire), 28 May 2024: https://www.businesswire.com/news/hom... Brian Charlton, Associated Press, July 2006, on GM jobs in Flint (as carried by NBC News): https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna... Credits: in the pinned comment, with a link to each film, photo and sound. Sound under CC BY 4.0: Typewriter keys (edited), Work With Sounds / Konrad Gutkowski: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Animations and graphics: made for this channel. #CarHistory #Chevrolet #GeneralMotors