Product DescriptionIn 1959, the Tractor Division of Ford Motor Company jumped into the foray of Industrial Musicals by producing "Ford-I-Fy You Future," a closed-circuit telecast that announced the new line of Select-O-Speed tractors and Implements to Ford Tractor dealers. A 4-song, single-sided LP written by Jerry Bock & Sheldon Harnick - a team that a few years later would write "Fiddler On the Roof."
The next year, 1960, saw Ford Tractor embarking on a most ambitious and creative endeavor. The Calvacade was a spectacular traveling show that toured 24 cities. Woven into this cacophony of sight and sound was the original music performed by a 7 member Broadway cast. The staging was overseen by the innovative Jam Handy Organization, which also produced numerous films for Ford Tractor.
The recorded LP from this event was titled "The Wide New World with Ford" - music and songs from The 1960 Cavalcade of Tractors and Equipment.
The 1964World Wide Dealer Conference of the Ford Tractor Division at Radio City Music Hall in NYC produced "The New Wide World of Ford," a 7-song double-sided LP. Also produced by Jam Handy, this Rockette fueled presentation was seen by over 5,300 Ford Tractor dealers from "over 120 countries of the free world."
The back cover quotes a dealer from Austria- "Today was the most beautiful day of my life." Was it the high leg kicking Rockettes? The prominent new blue Ford 6000 Commander on stage? The songs "Ford, Fibre, And Food" and "Tractor Wheels"? Possibly a combination of all of these, as well as being "part of it all" - of being a Ford Tractor Dealer!
In 1964, when Ford was introducing their new line of tractors with the new blue color, they probably had no idea as to the value that these, and other similar recordings from this era, would hold for collectors of vintage Ford Tractors, as well as collectors of Industry Musicals.