Edward S. Jordan

Edward Stanley Jordan, known as Ned Jordan (1882 to 1958), was an American entrepreneur and automotive industrialist who founded the Jordan Motor Car Company of Cleveland, Ohio. Born in Merrill, Wisconsin, he worked his way through the University of Wisconsin and then spent about nine years with the Thomas B. Jeffery Company of Kenosha, maker of the Rambler and Jeffery cars, rising to general manager. When the firm became Nash Motors he left to build his own cars. The Jordan was an assembled car, built from the best standard components with bought-in parts designed by his engineers, and it was known for a supple but stable suspension. Jordan is best remembered as a pioneer of evocative advertising copy, especially his June 1923 Playboy advertisement, Somewhere West of Laramie. The compact 1927 Little Custom hurt the company, which collapsed in 1931. He later wrote a column for Automotive News and died in New York City in December 1958.