Ford Mustang Magic - A legend is born

 

The Ford Motor Company introduced the Mustang on the world's largest stage at the time. Only the New York World's Fair in 1964 had enough scale and drama worth the Mustang. Held on the occasion of New York City's 300th anniversary, it contained 140 pavilions over 646 acres.

The Ford Company Pavilion was the show's biggest attraction, almost the size of three football fields. Guests entered while driving on a "Magic Skyway," specially designed by The Walt Disney Company.

It was here on Friday, April 17, 1964, that Lee Iacocca unveiled the Ford Mustang to an estimated crowd of 20,000 anxious buyers. When he Ford Mustang blue cover to introduce the first Mustang convertible to the world, electricity filled the air. The flash of bulbs was dazzling. The entire audience pushed closer in a wave for a closer look.

Revealing the Mustang was only a small part of the plan. That same day, hundreds of press members also took part in a giant Mustang rally of 70 cars that drove 750 miles from New York to Ford's headquarters in Dearborn, stopping only to send stories to their newspapers and magazines along the way.

On April 17, Ford dealers across the country were also bullied by customers. Ford had arranged to produce at least 8,160 Mustangs before the introduction, so every Ford dealer would have at least one in its showroom when the car was officially launched. People literally attacked their local Ford showrooms. Everyone was crazy about being one of the first to own a Mustang.

In his autobiography, Iacocca, the man himself tells of the excitement that the first Mustang created at Ford Dealerships across the country.

In Chicago, for example, a dealer had to lock his showroom doors because the crowd outside was so large. In Garland, Texas, a Ford dealer had fifteen potential customers bidding on a single Mustang. He sold it to the highest bidder, who insisted on staying overnight in the car until his check was cleared. At a Seattle dealership, the driver of a passing cement truck became so fascinated by the Mustang on display that he lost control of his vehicle and crashed through the shop window.

Ford's PR team kept the public's interest, awareness and enthusiasm for the Mustang boiling long after vehicles arrived at dealership showrooms.

On May 30, 1964, the Mustang was named the official tempo car for the 1964 Indy 500. A white Mustang convertible led the Indianapolis field around the track on Memorial Day. Ford also built an additional 35 convertibles and 195 hardtops with the same Indy Car color scheme. The convertible was later sold at premium prices, and hardtops were given away in dealer-sponsored competition.

The Mustang was such an ongoing success that it collected over 22,000 sales orders on its first day. Couper and convertible built between mid-April and mid-August 1964 are called 1964 models. 1965 brought only a few changes with the exception of a new Fastback model. An industry record of 680,989 first-year sales includes both the 1964 1965 and 1965 Mustangs sold from April 1964 to September 1965. The one millionth Mustang was built in March 1966.

Ford Motor Company designers and engineers gave Lee Iacocca's dream of a well-worded, fun-to-drive compact car that would appeal to America's growing number of Baby Boomers an undeniable shape and style, like all its own.

An army of journalists, journalists and buff book writers built the buyer's expectation and excitement to a fever.

An entire nation eagerly embraced it and welcomed it in their driveways across the American landscape.

And later, a soul singer and songwriter named Wilson Pickett would even give it a voice when he recorded a hit rock and roll anthem titled Mustang Sally.