To Be The Best: The Men And Women Of Chrysler is a short film, from the late 1980s, that features employees from a variety of the company’s divisions talking about why they like working for the company and their positive outlook on the company’s future. The film appears to serve as a means of promoting the new robust attitude and health of the company following its struggles during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The film opens with a shot of a somewhat rocky coast, where a woman races past in a wheelchair. An elderly man jumps out of a plane and skydives (00:40). Two women inflate a hot air balloon. Hot air balloons fill the sky. An elderly Navajo sand painter performs the ceremony with a younger member of the tribe (01:55). The film then shows a man modeling a car on a computer, followed by shots of different areas in Chrysler’s automobile assembly plant (building the car body, painting, installing the motor). Several employees give their reasons for working for Chrysler. Two managers observe a station on the assembly line (04:10). At the Caruso Chrysler Plymouth dealership, a woman climbs into a convertible (04:57). An employee grinds metal in the production facility (05:08). A woman conducts a quality control review on the assembly line. Two men make markings on what appears to be the body of a car model (06:00). Robots put together cars at an automated section of the assembly floor (06:49). Two men stand next to a new car outside at some sort of car expo. An assembly worker drives a forklift through the assembly plant (08:16). The film shows more shots of cars being built on the assembly line. A manager looks at a Chrysler station wagon that is being serviced at a service department (09:20). Back at the assembly plant, a man installs a door on a car body (09:55). Several men build engines (10:32). A man works on a clay model of a car (11:03), while an artist sketches out a new car design (11:22). Another man uses a computer to work on a new design. A woman drives a Chrysler car on a track at the company’s proving grounds. More employees from various departments talk about the company and how they all work to be the best. The film ends with shots of a number of the employees smiling and giving a thumbs-up to the camera.

Chrysler is one of the “Big Three” automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The original Chrysler Corporation was founded by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company in 1925. It was acquired by Daimler-Benz, and the holding company was renamed DaimlerChrysler, in 1998. After Daimler divested of Chrysler in 2007, the company existed as Chrysler LLC (2007–2009) and Chrysler Group LLC (2009–2014) before merging with Fiat S.p.A. and becoming a subsidiary of its successor Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014.

Chrysler struggled to adapt to the changing environment of the 1970s. When consumer tastes shifted to smaller cars in the early 1970s, particularly after the 1973 oil crisis, Chrysler could not meet the demand. Additional burdens came from increased US import competition, and tougher government regulation of car safety, fuel economy, and emissions. As the smallest of the Big 3 US automakers, Chrysler lacked the financial resources to meet all of these challenges. In 1978, Lee Iacocca was brought in to turn the company around, and in 1979 Iacocca sought US government help. Congress later passed the Loan Guarantee Act providing $1.5 billion in loan guarantees.

The K-car platform was a key automotive design platform introduced by Chrysler Corporation in the early 1980s—featuring a transverse engine, front-wheel drive, independent front and semi-independent rear suspension configuration—a stark departure from the company’s previous reliance on solid axle, rear-drive configurations. Derived from Chrysler’s L-cars, the Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni, the platform was developed just as the company faltered in the market, at first underpinning a modest range of compact/mid-size sedans and wagons—and eventually underpinning nearly fifty different models, including all-wheel drive variants—and playing a vital role in the company’s subsequent resurgence.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com