BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:NingEventWidget-v1 VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:5167423:Event:29304 DTSTAMP:20260428T222419Z SUMMARY:John North Willys born 1873 DESCRIPTION:John North Willys began selling bicycles in upstate New Yo rk.Within a few years started manufacturing his own line of bicycles.B y 1900, at age 27, Willys had built the business up to $500,000 in sal es. Willys saw his first automobile on a visit to Cleveland and realiz ed that the automobile would replace the bicycle.So, with the growth o f the fledgling automobile industry, he opened a car dealership in Elm ira, New York, the American Motor Car Sales Company, selling the very popular Overland brand.\nAs he became a better salesman and advocate o f automobiles, Willys encountered a problem: he could sell cars faster than his distributors could make. To overcome these supply problems w ith the Indianapolis-based Overland factory in 1907, Willys simply bou ght the company. He proved to be a very good manager & quickly turned the company's fortunes around. In 1909 he acquired the Marion Motor Ca r Co. of Ohio & a few years later shifted operations to a production f acility he bought from the bankrupt Pope Motor Car Co.,Toledo, Ohio. H e promptly changed the name to the Willys-Overland Motor Company in 19 12, and, not unlike the charismatic William Durant, who was quickly bu ying companies to form General Motors, Willys was building his own aut omotive empire.\nHe acquired the Edwards Motor Co. of New York in 1913 , which gave him a license to manufacture the patented Knight \"sleeve valve\" engine. Although other manufacturers also used the Knight eng ine, none were as successful as Willys-Overland in keeping the manufac turing costs low enough on an engine which demanded high quality and c lose tolerances. For a brief time Willys-Overland was the second large st carmaker in the US behind Ford. Before the end of the decade, one-t hird of the city of Toledo's workforce was employed either at Willys-O verland or at one of the numerous small businesses providing parts and supplies. And, like GM, Willys wanted to offer automobiles at differe nt prices ranges. His company offered the consumer the choice of an Ov erland, Willys or Willys-Knight vehicle, each relative to a specific t ype of engine or price range.\nThrough his holding company, in 1918 Jo hn Willys acquired the Moline Plow Co. of Moline, Illinois that manufa ctured the \"Universal\" brand of farm tractors and a line of Stephens cars. In 1919, he acquired control of the Duesenberg company primaril y to take control of the Duesenberg factory in Elizabeth, New Jersey w here he planned to produce a new six cylinder car. Labor troubles emer ged at the Willys-Overland Toledo plant that resulted in a violent str ike in 1919, shutting down the plant for several months. Willys hired General Motors vice-president Walter P. Chrysler to run the Willys-Ove rland operation at the then-astonishing salary of $1 million a year.\n However, Chrysler tried to oust Willys with an attempted takeover bid that backfired. Chrysler left in 1921, money in hand, to go into busin ess for himself. Willys once again began expanding and in 1925 bought the F.J. Stearns Co. of Cleveland, Ohio that made a line of luxury veh icles. In 1926 Willys introduced the \"Whippet\" model line that sold in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Following the election of Herbert Hoover to the Presidency of the United States, in March of 1930 Willys was appointed the first U.S. Ambassador to Poland, serving until May of 1932, when he returned to Toledo to run the troubled company. The G reat Depression of the 1930s saw numerous carmakers go out of business and the Willys enterprises went into bankruptcy reorganization in 193 3. After having to cut production of the expensive Knight-powered vehi cles, Willys kept the company going with the bare bones Willys 77. He was heavily involved with the reorganization plan when he died suddenl y of a heart attack in 1935.\n- See more at: http://www.automotivehall offame.org/inductee/john-willys/769/#sthash.kv7jfbz9.dpuf\n\nFor more information visit https://northeastwheelsevents.com/events/john-north- willys-born-1873 DTSTART:20131025T040000Z DTEND:20131026T035900Z CATEGORIES:historic, milestone LOCATION:National and regional WEBSITE: URL: CONTACT: ORGANIZER;CN="Pamela Hirschhorn":https://northeastwheelsevents.com/pro file/PamelaHirschhorn ATTACH;FMTTYPE="image/jpeg":http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/ file/get/2284053776?profile=original ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=ACCEPTED;RSVP=TRUE;CN="Pamela H irschhorn":https://northeastwheelsevents.com/profile/PamelaHirschhorn END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR