One hundred and sixteen years ago this week, William Crapo (yes, really) Durant founded General Motors hoping to create a large conglomerate that I could pick up all the smaller ones. automotive Business flourished at the turn of the last century in Detroit. While GM would eventually become a huge success, indeed one of the largest companies in the world, its founder died a penniless bowling alley operator who relied on friends to cover his debts.
Banker J.P. Morgan would call Durant an “unstable visionary”; many referred to him simply as The Man. Durant dreamed of a world covered in highways at a time when he was still building carriages. He dreamed of fast food before anyone else and saw the promise of early technology we now take for granted, like refrigerators. Despite all this vision, he died penniless in New York, with the Chrysler family and GM CEO Alfred P. Sloan footing his bills.
Around here, I focus a lot on the history of the Ford Motor Company, especially since I grew up in Detroit, where Ford is both lionized and denigrated in equal measure. I’ve overlooked the oddities of the other two big companies for far too long. We’ll start at the top, the man who created Flint, Michigan and had more fingers in more transportation pies than a hundred grandmothers could bake.
Born in Boston, Durant came onto the scene in 1861 as the son of wealthy parents with French roots. He dropped out of high school at 17 and came to Flint after his father abandoned the family. He became a salesman, selling cigars and lumber before partnering with a guy named Josiah Dallas Dort to start building carriages in Flint. By age 40 he was a millionaire and owned the largest carriage manufacturer in the U.S. He then turned his attention to a new kind of carriage: the horseless kind.
When Durant took over Buick in 1904, the automaker was ready to close for good. Four years later, the brand was outselling Ford and Cadillac combined. J.P. Morgan (yes, that J.P. Morgan) was the first to suggest a consolidated automaker. He invited Durant, Henry Ford, Ransom Olds (founder of Oldsmobile), and Ben Briscoe of Maxwell-Briscoe to talk about forming a conglomerate. It didn’t work, but Durant was obsessed with the idea. He took a train to Lansing, Michigan, and lured Ransom out of bed to agree to a merger. And so, on September 16, 1908, General Motors was formed with just the two automakers. Just a year later, Durant came close to buying the Ford Motor Company for $8 million. Had the bank been willing, Ford would have been part of GM.
Just over a year after founding GM, Durant brought 22 more companies into the GM fold. Not all of them panned out, but those that did are largely with us today: Cadillac, AC Spark Plug, Delco Oakland (Pontiac), Oldsmobile, McLaughlin (GM Canada) and GMC.
Bankers took over GM beginning in 1910, when sales slumped because of a cheap little car known as the Ford Model T. Durant, who was out of work (though still a billionaire), founded Chevrolet with Buick race car driver Louis Chevrolet in 1911. It wasn’t until 1916 that Durant regained control of GM. He then incorporated Chevrolet into the GM family.
This is how General Motors itself describes Durant’s final downfall:
In 1920, the post-World War I boom was over, stocks lost 25% of their value, and 100,000 companies went bankrupt. Durant began secretly buying stock on margin. He felt personally responsible for the thousands of shareholders who had entrusted him with the fate of their funds. Six months later, his $90 million was gone. He was bailed out again, but on the condition that he resign completely from GM. For the second time, he had lost control of the company he had founded. Durant was 59 years old and unemployed.
Durant briefly attempted to found another automobile company, Durant Motors, but it dissolved in 1933. Durant himself declared bankruptcy in 1937. Undeterred, Durant opened a bowling alley called the North Flint Recreation Center in 1940. In the shadow of Buick City, a huge GM plant that produced Buicks on the north side of town. Everyone told him it couldn’t be done, as the old truck depot he had chosen for the site was ill-equipped to be repurposed, not to mention it was across the street from a church (which would make drinking and bowling unseemly in that era). Durant said, “This will be bowling without beer and it’s going to be done.” He believes bowling is a family activity, not just for men. On this bowling alley, Durant built the Horseshoe Inn, one of the first drive-thru “fast food” restaurants in the country.
Although he had a plan to build a national chain, a stroke in 1942 put an end to those dreams. Still, bowling remains a strong tradition in Michigan, which to this day still has more bowling alleys than any other state. Ford did it for the square danceDurant did it for the bowling.
William Durant died in 1947 at the age of 85 in his New York City apartment, having twice gained and lost control of the world’s largest corporation. At the time, other major figures in American business history were footing the bill.
