SIX times a day a Broadway cast of 50 went through their singing, dancing paces last week as a musical skit called The Magic Man opened General Motors' 1961 Motorama of 36 new cars at Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria. Not in the show were some cheery lines spoken by short (5 ft. 8 in.), grey-haired Frederic Garrett Donner, 58, General Motors' board chairman and its chief executive since 1958. The world's largest industrial corporation, announced Donner, plans to spend $1.25 billion next year to expand and develop its worldwide (21 countries) auto empire, testifying to its faith in "continued economic progress." If consumer incomes continue to rise and consumer confidence is sustained, said Donner, the auto industry may sell 7,000,000 cars in the U.S. in 1961, including imports. By 1970, based on a projected rise in population and gross national product, he expects that total to hit 8,000,000.
The auto industry may play the deciding role in what happens to the U.S. economy in the months ahead. Nearly 12 million people—one of every seven U.S. workers—are directly or indirectly employed in the automotive industry. The industry consumes 18% of all U.S. steel shipments (10-15 million tons annually), 43% of all lead, 64% of all natural rubber. With 47% of U.S. auto production, G.M. is the auto industry's biggest force —and Fred Donner is its most powerful, though in some ways its most retiring spokesman.
Little known when he took over G.M., little inclined to be as visible as his predecessors, "Engine Charlie" Wilson and Harlow Curtice, Donner shuns speechmaking, keeps a careful cowl over his personal life and, says one colleague, "has an idea that General Motors' chairman is expected to be one of the most dignified men in the world." He rose through the financial side of the business, has never worked at making or selling a car. Donner does not consider this unusual. "People seem to think of accounting as a rigid little box," he says. "At General Motors the financial staff gets into all areas of the business more than any other staff."
What Donner learned in such areas, he has never forgotten. He has an encyclopedic knowledge about G.M., a prodigious memory and a fetish for facts. If someone is vague about a fact, even in casual conversation, Donner whips from his pocket a tiny notebook prepared by his office, crammed with industry charts and tables.
A cool, efficient manager of the modern stripe, Donner is a strong believer in team talk. He rarely makes a decision without extensive consultation with G.M.'s experts, shares responsibility to a unique degree with President John F. Gordon, a crack production man. By staying in the background and avoiding public controversy, Donner has also toned down G.M.'s earlier reputation for corporate arrogance.