Otto,
Yes, Kaiser-Frazer, Kaiser Motors, Kaiser Willys, and Kaiser IKA were owned by the famouse Henry J Kaiser and family.
He built battleships, owned concrete companies (which also laid the first concrete roads in Cuba long before we broke ties with them), built planes, offered aluminum siding and many other aluminum products and created the first HMO when he couldn't find decent medical support for one of his children.
Then Henry J car was also built by the Kaiser corporation and was given his name after a contest to name the car.
The prototype Kaiser Darrin, designed by Howard "Dutch" Darrin was based and built on a modified Henry J chassis, by Darrin in his own home. Henry J was furious with Darrin for designing and building the car without "consent" and said that Kaiser wasn't in the business to build sports cars. Darrin said that he had done this on his own time and with his own funds (BTW: Bill Tritt of Glasspar provided a G2 body and input to Darrin when he started the design and build.. Tritt also tried to talk Darrin out of the sliding door design but Darrin would hear nothing of it.) and that if Kaiser had no interest in the car, he would sell it somwhere else. About this time Kaisers wife (2nd, as his first wife died a year or so before and Henry J married her nurse) spoke up and said that she loved it and wanted one and didn't think that any company wouldn't be offering sports cars in the near future. Henry J gave in, despite the company already being in financial trouble and agreed to move forward with the car.
In an very interesting turn of events, when the board was trying to decide what to call the car, (Kaiser 161 was the proposed) and is on some promotional material) Henry eventually put the arguments to an end by stating "We will call it the Kaiser Darrin" - giving credit to Darrin (and himself) for the car.
As a little added history, Henry and Darrin had an interesting relationship. Darrin was very vocal and brash when he felt strongly about something, and Henry J liked to surround him with "Yes men" who never argued. As such, these two clashed a fair amount, but managed to find areas that they both agreed upon to get the job done. One story is that Henry J walked into the design area one day and before he could say anything, Darrin said "The answer is NO"... Kaiser asked why, because he hadn't said anything, to which Darrin said "Everyone else tells you Yes, no matter what. I'm not going to today."
