1864-1947
Automotive Promoter

Twenties Symbol.

The flamboyant William Crapo Durant became a symbol of the Roaring Twenties. Rising to great wealth and fame, he died in poverty and near obscurity as the result of his stock-market speculations. In 1908 he founded the General Motors Corporation, which became in the 1920s the largest corporation in the world. He was ousted as president of the company in 1910, regained control of it in 1916, and suffered a second ouster from GM in 1920.

Promoter.

While Henry Ford and Walter P. Chrysler were production men, Durant was the epitome of the salesman and promoter, essentially a marketing specialist. But he also had a great eye for design and quality, putting together a line of cars that, under the GM banner, included Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, La Salle, and Cadillac.

Flamboyance.

By the beginning of the decade GM was a company that attracted...