Joe Ligo shows the value of auto history films in a 10-minute piece about the 1954 Kaiser Special. He mixes historical footage and scenes from a test-drive of a restored Kaiser as the visual backdrop to a well-researched overview of the most flamboyant early-50s American independent automaker.
The video, “1954 Kaiser Special: A Beautiful Failure” (2019) is part of the Auto Moments series produced by Ligo and posted on YouTube.
Ligo approaches the 1954 Kaiser in a similar manner as his other films. He displays an impeccable mastery of historical facts — and a knack for weaving them into an accessible narrative. Although he goes beyond mere description to offer an analytical point of view as to why Kaiser failed, he doesn’t stray very far from the conventional wisdom of historians such as Richard Langworth (1975).
In addition to creating the Auto Moments series, Ligo has also been working toward producing a longer film about American Motors. He created a website in order to solicit “historical photos, brochures, advertisements, and films” on the automaker. His Facebook page is worth a regular visit because it includes constantly updated content.
Ligo is the same guy who produced a short film about the AMC Pacer (2013) as a communications student (go here for our story). After graduating from college he has gone on to do such good work that I’m surprised a major auto history media outlet such as Hemmings hasn’t hired him. Film would seem to be a particularly good medium to present automotive history. Yet so far the big players haven’t done a whole lot more than link to the works of videos produced by others.
I would assume that the life of an independent filmmaker isn’t easy because it can take considerably more time and money to produce a film than to write a story. If Ligo hasn’t yet been able to fully monetize his projects, I that hope he doesn’t give up. You’d think that eventually the auto history media would catch up with daily newspapers (and even Automotive News), which in recent years have added video components to their regular news coverage.
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RE:SOURCES
- Langworth, Richard M.; 1975. Kaiser-Frazer: The Last Onslaught on Detroit. Princeton Publishing, Princeton, NJ.
- Ligo, Joe; 2013. “The Unfortunate History of the AMC Pacer.” Ambassador Films. Posted December 7; accessed January 11, 2014.
- ——; 2019. “1954 Kaiser Special: A Beautiful Failure.” Auto Moments. Posted April 14; accessed January 30, 2020.
Found the Kaiser Special Q&A to be of interest. I do want to comment about Dragon Hide. My father had a HenryJ one of the later models as the trunk opened, and the interior was heavy vinyl headliner and Dragon Hide on the seats. The interior of the car wore like iron. Too bad the body rusted away.