Last November, Vince C. profiled “The Cars Of John Hughes’ Movies” (which was / is a must-read). Having been a kid who spent the biggest chunk of my childhood in the ’80s, the late, great John Hughes has long been one of my favorite filmmakers, and I could watch any combination of his pictures in an all-day Saturday marathon on most any given weekend. I love that many of Mr. Hughes’ movies were set in and around Chicagoland, which I have called home for what has now been over a third of my life.
Just a few weeks ago, while I was in southwest Florida, this fine specimen of a ’75 (or so) Mercury Marquis made its presence known in traffic. I immediately thought of the titular character of “Uncle Buck” portrayed by John Candy, and his similar-era, smoke-belching Marquis – which was also brown. It didn’t really matter that Buck Russell’s example looked like it could barely (if at all) pass safety inspection, in comparison to this glistening creampuff. Every time I see a Mercury Marquis / Marquis Brougham / Grand Marquis of this generation, it will probably always remind me of John Candy’s portrayal of Buck.
Our featured Marquis appeared to be in pristine condition, and even the tires were shiny with what might have been Armor All or Tire Wet. I could manage only one photo of it from the front passenger’s side of the car I was riding in. I had initially thought about making this piece a “Wordless Outtake”… but then I noticed something. You know those “Hocus Focus” dual images in the funnies section of the Sunday morning newspaper? My mind’s eye did a double-take, as something seemed slightly unique about this example. When I was able to get to a proper computer, my suspicions were justified.
I could find no examples on-line of this era of Marquis two-door that came from the factory with opera windows. The Mercury Cougar XR-7 of the same vintage had them. Various Lincolns (Continental Town Car, Town Coupe, and Mark IV and V) for sale at the same Lincoln-Mercury franchises had them. But the Marquis? Not that I could confirm. Of our featured car, I’d like to think that Uncle Buck finally won big at the horse track, married his long-time girlfriend Chanice Kobolowski, had his Marquis restored, and (heck with it!) had those opera windows installed! Thank you, John Hughes and John Candy, for often making me laugh until it hurt.
Ft. Myers, Florida.
Friday, December 29, 2017.
Ever hear of a ritual killing? 😛
Does it have Radial Trail T/A light truck tires on it? Probably a way to get close to stock size these days.
Yeah, those look like Long Trail T/A’s. Many of these old 70’s land yachts used P235/75R-15 tires (when converted to P metric). It’s probably hard to find them in a car tire these days, but that was a very common truck tire for many years. I actually ran P235/75R-15 Long Trails on my old Suburban when I owned it. They weren’t far off a car all-season tire, nothing aggressive like their All Terrain T/As.
Yeah. Thanks. I’ve got “Wild Thing” by Tone Loc in my head now! That being said, it’s an awesome land barge from an awesome movie.
Aftermarket opera windows were a “thing” back in the day, especially on cars that were a notch below Mark IVs and Eldorados.
Yes, the carriage roofs of the mid 70s.
From a Pasadena paper, 1976:
This is awesome – thank you.
Well Joe, I’m a fair amount older than you are yet I would have made this exact same association had I seen this car on the street. Was there ever a better job of casting a car for a role in a movie?
And didn’t Charlene run a body shop? Those opera windows that Buck insisted on would have been a cake walk for her to install. 🙂
Chanice’s tire shop! That’s right. I’m sure she had a guy that could take care of those opera windows, for sure!
Whenever I see one of these vintage Mercurys I do associate it with Uncle Buck, but even without the movie association all I can think of is how big these cars were….and yet they had only 2 doors?
I can somewhat rationalise a big car when its a 4 door sedan or wagon, but a 2 door? But that brown doesn’t help, a lighter color would make this car seem sporty.
BTW, I must confess my daily is a late model Crown Victoria.
I wonder sometimes what it must have been like to try to get in or out of these cars in a tight row of parking spaces… cracking the door open just so much, then doing a bit of contorting..
Until I saw the pictures above, especially the one which was taken in the dark, I never realized how much the 2-door Marquis looked like the Mark V.
1978 Mercury Grand Marquis:
In my opinion, this was peak Mercury.
Mine too. Mercury pretty much just became a flossier Ford after 1980, while the 70s mercurys actually had longer wheelbases and such
Makes me think of the scene where John Candy uses a snow shovel to flip a giant pancake (“This is where you separate the men from the boys”). Or where he’s meeting with the school principal (“Hi. I’m Moley Russel’s wart.”). Or countless other scenes from one of my favourite movies. Now I’m waiting to hear the backfire.
What a beast. Just fix the shocks.
Awesome find Joe. I had to do a double take when I first glanced at the picture, thinking it was actually another screenshot from the movie. On closer inspection, this Merc seems to be very pristine though. I think these big Merc’s look so much better sans wheel skirts. Most of the survivors around here (there are very few) seem to have the skirts.
Thanks, Vince – and I am 100% with you on the absence of fender skirts. If this car did originally have them, I hope they’re in the owners garage somewhere, tucked away for safekeeping.
Having driven some full size two door mopars from that generation and the old man’s 78 eldorado tight parking spaces were a challenge Joe.
The real fun though was parking on an angle. I think the reason I have bad ankles nowadays is from years of throwing those doors open, spinning around and bracing for the downward impact with my feet! If you put your feet on the ground and missed the rebound those heavy old things would turn the bones in your lower legs into kindling!
Ouch! I can picture it.
I can also imagine opening the doors on one of these cars parked on an incline as part of some sort of exercise involving the isolation of pectoral muscles. LOL
Lived in Chicago back in the late ’70’s and early ’80’s. Remember having to pay both an Illinois and a Chicago registration. No safety or emissions inspections at all! Quite a relief after living in New Jersey where at the time the state ran the picky inspection stations even though at least some of the registration offices were privately run. I think I last paid about 50 bucks for my last yearly Chicago sticker which lived in the bottom right of the windshield. The one in my Opel Manta Rallye had a crack in it more than a foot long that I don’t think would have ever passed in New Jersey. Yeah, seems they would check for stickers and not for certain other things. Uncle Buck didn’t have to worry too much even when he parked on the street like I always did.
Great points. Automotive safety inspections sometimes intersect with what I do for a living, and I’m always interested to know how safety requirements vary from state to state, and which states are more stringent than others.
To your point, you’re probably right – Buck would have been in the clear.
Great comments. Funny thing is, my mom had a ’70 Marquis, and held onto it much longer than her norm (gas crunch made these cars worthless in ’73-74). Big, comfy, heavy boat with a trunk the size of a U-Haul and every creature comfort known to western civilization. What really stands out in my memory about that car is how absolutely reliable it was, even when the miles ran well into the six digits. It was the twin of this one.
My (long ago) ex told me that she and some friends dropped acid before seeing Uncle Buck at the theatre. Apparently in their altered state the movie read as a tragedy and they had a horrible time…
Oh, my gosh… I wonder how they liked the scene with the power drill.
How many people have you heard – probably 40 years ago at this point – say that they drive or know someone who drives a “Lincoln-Mercury”? LOL I remember hearing that misnomer a lot in the ’70s.
We have a 1976 with the opera windows.