Mercury Marine: 50 Years of Leadership (Abridged for YouTube)

In 1989, Mercury Marine celebrated its 50th year. Mercury was a classic Wisconsin entrepreneurial story-- a bit of luck, a bit of genius, and a product that helped people have outdoors fun. My company was lucky enough to be selected to tell that story in video. Luckily, the founder of Mercury, Carl Kiekhaefer, was a film buff, and he made sure that many of Mercury's key milestones and events were captured on film. Visually, this is the most comprehensive visual history I've ever been involved with, because of the availability at that time of the archives at Mercury (after Kiekhaefer left the company, the filming dropped off.) Now, Mercury is at a crossroads... it may leave Wisconsin over a labor dispute, and perceptions of various costs of doing business in the State of Wisconsin. I don't have a dog in that fight. What I do have is access to this document of the founding of a company and the maintenance of that founder's vision; the impact one idea had on the culture and employment in the city of Fond du Lac, of and of a time when business and fun could be mixed into a heady brew of local booster-ism, industry leadership, and economic success.

Special Thanks to Ed Huck and Joe Slezak for selecting my company for corporate image and new product introductions over the years. Written and directed by Brien Lee, http://videostory.com; edited by Mark Augustine; narrated by Henry Strozier.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Mercury Marine
• Brunswick Corporation
• Fon du Lac
• Wisconsin
• Union workers
• outboard motors
• Carl Kiekhaefer
• Brien Lee & Company

[brienlee]

They were classics, and look great!

[MovieMakerKeith]

Is that the infamous burning of evinrude zephyrs that kiekhaefer used to do at 7:00 into the video?!

[SnipeShot314]

i like the late 60's to any thing thats not a fourstroke now.

[cpgixxer]

I love the 50's motors, I have 2 of them

[billthestinker]

the heavy tax state of Wisconsin destroyed another great company, a damn shame!

[pablom1313]

Awsome Motors, too bad the Greed of the Union ran the out of Wisconsin.