A thousand thanks go to Dean Edwards for posting this Mercury Marquis to the Cohort. Having had a literal seven year itch to find a 1974 Mercury Marquis, seeing this was pretty exciting and the next best thing to an actual discovery.
After finding Dean’s pictures, the question of “what now?” immediately sprang to mind. As CC’s appointed Chief Mercury Fanboy and Apologist™, I’ve written up every full-sized Mercury that has crossed my path, with three dives into the 1963 models alone. There are only so many ways to write about a Mercury. To be transparent, I had written a fictitious tongue-in-cheek chain of correspondence essay but I’m not running that one.
Been there, done that, not doing it again. At least for a while.
Soon thereafter I watched some old movies and a realization of sorts occurred to me regarding my weird (and satirical?) infatuation with Mercury….
It all started with silent film star Buster Keaton. Having watched several Keaton films the last few months (The General is a particularly good one, filmed in Cottage Grove, Oregon, near Eugene), Keaton often played a variation of the same basic love-sick, caught in weird predicaments, character. He also performed phenomenal physical stunts. It was Keaton’s appearance on a 1950s television show that created my realization – or it at least drew a parallel.
That was when Keaton appeared on Ed Wynn’s television show. Wynn, known earlier in his career for his “Perfect Fool” character, was known only for comedy at that time, having started in vaudeville in the early 20th Century. While Wynn had realized respectable success in movies and the very early days of television, by the early to mid-1950s his career was pretty one-noted and in obvious decline.
At the urging of various persons, including his dramatic actor son Keenan, in 1956 Wynn portrayed Army in the Rod Serling penned production of Requiem for a Heavyweight on CBS’s Playhouse 90. This production was aired live, so any error was witnessed by millions. The senior Wynn, who had been a comedian for over fifty years, struggled during rehearsals by delivering lines in a grossly inappropriate fashion and was nearly terminated from the production. This was Wynn’s first dramatic role.
The night of the broadcast, Wynn’s performance was excellent. Nuanced, emotional, and raw, Wynn amazed everyone with his ability to so successfully perform a dramatic part. The tumult involved in that production was later captured and recreated in The Man In The Funny Hat which aired on CBS in 1961. Wynn played himself, chronicling the torment he had in changing his acting technique and the process he undertook to successfully mold himself into the role.
Both Requiem for a Heavyweight and The Man In The Funny Hat can be found on YouTube.
Incidentally, Wynn would also play in the 1959 cinematic adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank with his performance being nominated for an Academy Award. By the time Wynn died in 1966 he had compiled a generous number of dramatic roles in addition to his ongoing comedic roles. He discovered his profound adaptability late in life.
Believe it or not, this adaptability ties into our featured Marquis.
In one of my prior Mercury pieces I expressed my epiphany of Mercury being mercury, that ever so malleable metal that contorts itself to fulfill the role it is being called upon to perform. If Mercury had been anymore mercury-like, it would have had a model called Hg….perhaps if Mercury were sold in Australia there would have been.
Of course Mercury was simply a dressed up Ford for much of its tortured existence and such was the case in 1974. The side profiles are highly similar and the greenhouse along with many interior bits are identical. The wheelbase was longer on the Mercury and it came with larger displacement V8s as standard fare, with the legendary 460 being the standard engine in the Marquis Brougham. But how these are made up truly tells the story.
Our featured car is painted a color I’m speculating to be “saddle bronze”. Maybe it’s “ginger” as it has likely faded somewhat over the last forty-six years. Either way, the 1974 Marquis is a car in which its personality changes a lot depending upon color – think of it as the actor’s costume.
Naturally all of these Mercurys have the same physical attributes. The appearance of the front end, particularly the quasi-columns in the grille, put me in mind of the Parthenon. Strong, stout, and uncompromisingly durable, did the Parthenon not inspire Mercury’s designers to some degree?
Let’s not dwell on the Greek Parthenon inspiring a car named after a Roman god.
In this particular color, our featured Mercury comes across as what a socially upstanding and financially prudent southern gentleman might be driving in the late 1970s or early 1980s. It was in 1980 one such gentleman left his home in Hahira, Georgia and attended the forty-third annual convention of the Grand Mystic Royal Order of the Nobles of the Ali Baba Temple of the Shrine.
Can’t you just picture this delightful Mercury blasting south on I-75 from Hahira toward sunny Florida? The gentleman was no doubt quite happy and joyful to have all 460 cubic inches of Mercury V8 pulling him in tomb-quiet, ice cube dribbling air-conditioned comfort, with the interior air stream gently blowing the tassel of his fez, the swirl of smoke from his unfiltered Camel cigarette wafting throughout the interior.
A Mercury is how one goes to such a convention. Not too plain, not too fancy. A little bit of Lincoln and a little bit of Ford mixed into something ultra tasty and as satisfying as sweet tea.
But a mere change in paint pigments can totally change the persona of this Mercury, not unlike the costume can completely change an actor. This Mercury has so many wonderful facets.
As an aside, I included this on purpose as Ray Stevens could be considered the Ed Wynn of country / novelty music, able to easily shift between irreverent and serious. More to the point, I stumbled across this song about the time I found Dean’s Mercury. A connection between the song’s character and this Mercury simply happened and I cannot unsee it.
A red Marquis is nearly unmatched in being photogenic, as were all Marquis. There isn’t a bad angle on this girl, particularly with the 1974 models having unique front and rear treatments, with 1974 also being the last year for a four-door hardtop.
In this particular commercial a nice looking female model is applying eye makeup while riding in the rear of a Marquis undergoing a torture test. Ford missed the opportunity of her applying red lipstick to match the Mercury. I suppose the possibility of her shoving an eye-liner pencil into her cornea was more suspenseful.
Mercury’s commercials had evolved over time. For 1971 and 1972 they were using the backseat for cutting diamonds and shaving people. For 1973 it seems 122 out of 150 people preferred the ride of a Mercury over that of a Mercedes limousine.
Saturday Night Live performed a circumcision in the back of a Mercury, but they goofed and used a mid-size Montego, killing all credibility.
While the ’73 model was similar in the rear, it was more vertical while the ’74 was angled. Somewhere I read the tail lights, while similar, are not the same; perhaps somebody reading will know. The outboard segment has a slight curve from the interior segments whereas the ’73 tail light appears flat all the way across. The 1974 really demonstrated its inescapable photogenic talents when on film.
Now imagine this Mercury painted in black. It would present a completely no-nonsense, almost law-and-order vibe, would it not?
Just think about it….picture it in some exotic locale, with lots of ocean and palm trees, a place with a distinct international flavor, the Mercury being used to track down and capture all manner of nefarious criminals.
There is nothing like the beautiful cocktail of sand, surf, and Mercury.
Not just anybody could successfully manage the badassedness that is a black 1974 Mercury Marquis. It has to be the right person, the square-jawed all business type with good hair. The kind of guy who would revel in the thrill of pursuit, who would ultimately corner or outwit his foe, then having his flunkies book ’em. Roll all this together with a killer theme song and it would make for a fantastic television show.
Seeing a black Mercury being the major tool in all this swashbuckling action would be breathtakingly awesome.
Much like Mercury itself.
It’s no secret the full-sized Mercury (the smaller sedans seem sarcastic) has been a perpetual subject of my adoration. While I have concluded Mercury itself was molded in the form of liquid mercury, all this talk of actors, conventions, make-up, and tropical islands have prompted a lot of self-reflection.
Yes, I’ll admit it…these Marquis had a lot of gingerbread on them. While I’m not a devotee to such things, they are what they are. But it all comes down to Mercury, to me at least, never coming across as being pretentious. Other brands did; Mercury did not. That’s their true appeal to me.
I’m a fairly unpretentious person; I enjoy drinking from Mason jars, I’ve used a chainsaw inside my house, and I periodically wash my hair in the kitchen sink. Yet I can also clean up well and conduct myself appropriately in social gatherings. So, in a sense, that is like a Mercury – it’s not bothered with plainer behavior and it isn’t a stranger to upscale events. Like Ed Wynn, a full-size Mercury can easily tackle some very diverse situations. That takes true talent.
I have no qualms in broadcasting my affinity for Mercury in the full quadrasonic sound of stereo. That’s no hot air. I cannot put the brakes on my Mercury passion, something I cannot clock out from having. While some may tune me out, those who mirror my passion know who they are. A big Mercury simply lights our fire.
Yet I also realize Mercury is now long gone. That’s too bad. But like old movies and television shows, Mercurys are still around and we would be negligent to not enjoy them.
More from the Mercury well of goodness:
1940 Mercury Eight convertible
1963 Mercury Marauder S-55 convertible
1969 Mercury Monterey Drive Report
So did you make an offer?. These were way a head of the British competition in the day. Only the XJ6 would beat it on handling, gas mileage would have been similar. Celebs went all the way and drove Mark4 Lincolns. If your going to do it, you don’t do things by half’s.
No, as implied I’ve never laid eyes on this car. Dean Edwards found it; I’m speculating somewhere near his home in Ontario. That’s a long ways from me. That said, this fascinate me endlessly. Please don’t ask why as I have no answer.
Ford did compare themselves to Jaguar in one of their 1970s era commercials, I believe in an ad for the LTD. In another piece I had joked about how using a Jaguar for a benchmark was apropos as anyone who has ever surveyed land knows benchmarks don’t move – much like a 1970s era Jaguar.
It’s a Grand Marquis Trim option, evidenced by the corduroy-type upholstery material, which was a coming thing, as opposed to the brocade panty-cloth, which was about at the end of it’s reign by 1974. In ’75, it became a full-fledged model, and eventually
the name of the whole line. Not too well optioned, actually. Other than the above mentioned trim option, AC and AM-FM, it’s a standard car. It’s even got the low-rent black seat belts and buckles. Still, not too shabby.
Too bad about the poor paint condition of the passenger door, a telltale of a poor
repair in it’s past. I guess there’s no way of fixing that without respraying the whole car.
That’s very good information about the GM option. Perhaps with this being a Canada car (the dealer sticker is from Winnipeg) there could have been some variations or had things equalized between US and Canada models by then?
At the top of the line, there were no differences between US and Canada.
As I implied before, there was at the cheaper end. From 1969-74, there was a
cheaper Canada-only Marquis that used a Monterey interior, but still a Mercury dash, which the Meteor was using by ’73, too.
In 71, there was a clumsily named “Marquis with Decor” which was the US base model. It became the Marquis Deluxe in 1972-73.
The US base model in 74 was our “Marquis with Custom Trim”, another clumsy name. Once again, our base model was quite spartan and had no US counterpart. This all changed in ’75, when the Monterey went away and
a cheaper Marquis came in to replace it. For the first time, Marquis was the same in both countries.
I forgot to mention that the “sameness” of US and Canada versions was short lived. From 1977-81 there was a REALLY low trim version for Canada called the Marquis Meteor.
This car epitomizes everything bad about full-size American cars in the seventies – and somehow I love it. The car has this attitude like “yeah, I’m big, bloated, inefficient and wasteful, and I don’t care”, as it proudly flaunts its fender skirts and winks it’s headlight covers. Mercury had many ups and downs (well, mostly downs) during its history, but this was a very good year.
Mercurys highs were within a very narrow frame of time – like, 1949 and 1950 and again from 1967 to 1978 with the original Cougar and these Marquis being the high points of the later era. After 1979 so much of it was background noise.
I had ’76 that was identical to this one in high school. There were tons of these on the road back in the 80s but I never saw another one in this color scheme until now. I grew up with my dad driving a string of these, and if I had unlimited money my collection would have a 70s Marquis and a 68 Marquis convertible.
The Mercury leaves me cold, but thank you for introducing me to that Ray Stevens song!
Stevens has quite a library of songs. In a sense, smaller doses are like sugar – it’s more palatable as large doses aren’t.
Sometimes I feel like the only one who knows his music 🙂
For contrast Tatra should go listen to his rendition of “Everything is Beautiful” which he won a Grammy for.
I will now close my eyes and picture the parking lot of a Ray Stevens performance in, say, Springfield… and what I see is a parking lot full of full-size Mercurys. It’s an absolutely perfect match, and now that I think about it, I’m surprised Ray never made a song about Marquises.
I love Ray Stevens, and big Mercurys too. I’m fairly sure the two go hand-in-hand.
Here’s a secret: I’ve seen Stevens in concert – twice. It’s just about what you’d expect it to be – lively, energetic, and he’s got a lot of subtle and over the top humor injected into it, some of it full of innuendo.
I found the 73 Marquis weak in the details and this 74 fixed them all. The bolder grille design and the tweaks to the tail made this one of the few cars that looked better as a 74 than as a 73.
This was also one of the times when the Mercury was a styling home run while the twin-ish Ford was much less attractive. And while there was a lot of Ford in these, there was a lot of Lincoln in them too.
I should watch more Buster Keaton. I loved his cameo in It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World. The number of silent films on YouTube is amazing, and those comedy silents translate to today amazingly well.
And wow, Dean Edwards is ruling the Cohort these days! This would make a great daily driver, if only to reset the scales of those who go on and on about how huge the Panther-based Crown Victoria was.
Indeed it would make a great daily driver.
Eye calibration is so off. I always chuckle when anyone talks about how huge a Panther CV is; this is large (and in charge) with my eye calibration. That Panther CV was mid-sized.
Thanks JP, I’m glad that others can get some enjoyment out of them. BTW, I’ve already bumped up against my 1K limit on the Cohort, so everyone will get a break from my old stuff.
Speaking of the Panther being a huge car, the other day my son said a line from the classic song Once In A Lifetime “You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile” to which I replied “I wish”. His response “What about the Panthers?. To that I replied, yeah, no, those aren’t large, maybe extra medium. Now our 75 Buick Limited, that qualified as a large car.
Keaton is one of the silent film starts who made a reasonable transition to talkies. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Keaton had a very good speaking voice which undoubtedly aided in his transition.
So today after nearly 40 years I learned how to spell “Hahira”. Also that Hahira is a real place. 😄
Pretty much a tossup between “Shriners Convention” & “Mississippi Squirrel Revival”.
I can make my wife laugh if I refer to certain sanctimonious relatives attending the “First Self-Righteous Church”.
Great report Jason, on a terrific survivor find by Dean, as ’74 was a peak year of Ford’s rust epoch.
My mom used to take us shopping downtown in the spring and summer of ’74, and we had at least two late model Mercury Meteor cabs that summer. I distinctly remembered the capacious interior and trunk, and plusher carpets. Though Ray Stevens was huge that summer, I recall ‘Rock the Boat’ by The Hues Corporation was playing on the cab radio during one trip, on an especially hot day. ‘Streakers’ were quite a phenomena that summer. Some adults might have been offended. I think most kids thought it was hilarious.
The thing about the gingerbread on these, there are a bunch of little filligrees and coats of arms and other broughamy details on these, but from a distance, they all disappear, as they do on certain Oldsmobiles and full size Chryslers of the ’70s. Looking for them up close is a bit of an Easter Egg hunt. Another feature is that there is so much plain, slightly curved sheet metal there, yet it all works and doesn’t come off like a stripper. Finally, they are usually in good overall shape, because they are so big and heavy, other cars just bounce off. How many other cars wear their battering ram bumpers so elegantly? This is the perfect 1974 car. “At the sign of the cat, rowwr”–I had forgotten about the ad tag line.
The LTDs and Lincolns of this era had weird filigrees on the taillight panel and on the headlight covers.
The ’74 Cadillac Eldorados had 20 rosettes on the dashboard and pull handles, made of fake wood.
Olds 98 and Buick Electra–same weirdness with wood patterns.
The ’76 Aspen/Volare had VERY unusual filigree patterns on their real taillights as well. Very baroque. You’re one of the first to mention these in detail.
My neighbors across the street had one of these when I was a young teen. Their was a metallic medium blue. Not unattractive in shade, but the car was positively gargantuan for early ’80’s Los Angeles suburbia by that time. It didn’t move every day, but when it did it was akin to a cruise ship leaving port, softly wallowing out of the driveway into the street, slowing, then stopping, then shifting into drive, then smoothly moving off and gathering speed toward the stop sign at the corner…Just no confetti cannons.
What a grand essay about a terrific car. Thanks.
Great article, Jason. I’ve never really had much of a thing for Mercuries, as they were pretty thin on the ground here in the late 70s/early 80s, and the first one that really made a splash to me was the original Sable (and I thought the light bar was, like, the coolest thing ever.) This one, though, I really like it… the rounded corners of the back seat is a nice touch.
I think the reasons you like Mercury is the same reasons I’ve always liked Buicks, as well.
One of these days I’m going to leave the house again and actually find something to post on the Cohort…
A most eloquent exposition on the subject of perhaps the definitive Mercury. I am impressed that you’re able to keep going back to the well of Mercury and finding fresh water to feed your creativity on the subject.
I am a big fan of Buster Keaton, and not to long ago indulged in several nights of his genius. Ed Wynn’s transition to a new role is not something i’m familiar with, but may have to check that out.
Thanks again for deepening my insight into the mysteries of the Mercury cult.
Frankly, I’m surprised I keep finding fresh water. Perhaps Mercury is simply an artesian (the spelling is wrong) well of goodness.
Last night on youtube I found the 1959 Ed Wynn version of “The Diary of Anne Frank”, so all three of these mentioned Ed Wynn pieces can be viewed for free.
One of our Roku channels consists of primarily Keaton movies; I’ve also spent some evenings watching him.
Ed would be unknown to me if it weren’t for Mary Poppins.
But I married into a family of Disney Fanatics.
Speaking of the “Cult of Mercury” – maybe we should have a “Near Luxury Week” at CC?
Mercury, Oldsmobile… Trim packages like trying to have “VIP” Plymouths, AMCs with Diplomat trim… the original LTD. Essentially car makers tripping over their own ambition.
If you have a smart TV, like a Roku or whichever, download the CBS app. They have the entire original Twilight Zone catalog on there. That alone is worth the $6.00 per month.
That’s great information. Thank you!
If you’re dipping your toe into Ed Wynn in drama, check out The Twilight Zone episode “A Pitch for the Angels”.
I didn’t know that was Ed Wynn. That is hands down one of the best Twilight Zone episodes ever.
Wynn also did a second Twilight Zone episode….something about 90 Years of Slumber. I forget the exact name.
While I haven’t seen either I’ve been looking to find them. So far no dice.
Ed Wynn also had a dramatic turn in the Twilight Zone, as a street vendor who has to do the “ultimate pitch” to save a little girl.I was very impressed by this performance and looked up, “Requiem for a heavy weight.”
Very good article. I have always enjoyed the ‘upper middle class’ cars of the past, a class that is not near as common as it once was.
In 1974 I was fresh out of high school and working as a used car salesman at a small, independent lot. One of my coworker’s girlfriend’s mother bought a new Grand Marquis that had nearly if not all the options available at that time. It had a sticker price of over $11,000. We had a pretty good laugh at that, as it was in Lincoln territory at that price, and a Lincoln seemed like so much more car. For some unknown reason, at least to me, Mercury’s did not sell very well on the used car market. The GM family, and even Chrysler did much better. So to spend that much on one really made no sense to us in the business.
I did take it on a short drive one time. It definitely was a nice car, but I was not overly impressed. But at that time the malaise era had started, and the new cars in general did not impress me. Looking backwards, overall they were not bad cars.
I had a 74 Gran Torino in this (or a very similar color) it was call Medium Copper Metallic. A very nice color too.
Come on Dennis, and you know who you are, you have got to show a picture of your black Marquis that I and others have seen in person. Besides, Jason, has called himself the Mercury fanboy and you have had how many Mercurys from Bobcat, to Cougars, to the Marquis. I don’t believe Jason owns a Mercury.
In the summer of 1974, my Dad bought a black Marquis Brougham sedan (pillared hardtop) with a biscuit-colored vinyl interior. The first time he drove it to his Friday night poker game, one of his friends asked: “Whose new Lincoln is parked outside?”
I think I’ve posted more about this car than any other on CC, Jason…
In ’73, Dad ordered a brand new Mercury Monterey. Pale green exterior, dark green interior. No vinyl top. He insisted on hub caps rather than wheel covers (the dealer told him it was the only full-sized Mercury with those he’d sold that year). 429 at no additional cost because the engine he wanted was temporarily out. The family kept it until the late 80’s when it wouldn’t pass PA vehicle inspection any more.
A Monterey has to be even more plain-spoken and unassuming than a Marquis. Decidedly harder to find, too.
That is a Mercury I would have loved to have seen in person. It sounds like it was definitely walking the line between somewhat upscale and decidedly downscale – and it no doubt pulled it off quite successfully.
I share Jason’s enthusiasm for these mid-70s Mercuries, as they always struck me as dignified, upscale transportation that were neither excessively corpulent, like the ’71-76 GM B and C bodies, nor a left-field choice, like contemporary Chryslers. I like this corduroy interior (so much more understated than the loose-pillow look), but would prefer a darker exterior color, maybe navy blue or black or even that deep brown so popular in the earth-tone era. For that brief decade from 1967-78, Mercury struck a happy medium between its lower priced cousins and the overdone decadence of what passed for luxury back then.
I would absolutely love to own one in Colony Park form
At the time I considered these to be “too big” and “too boxy,” but they have aged well. Even the Monterey from ’74 and ’75 was nice looking.
Over a period of years there was a whole series of Mercury commercials emphasizing their smooth ride. I remember actor Dabney Coleman and his wife having a tea party in a ’71 Marquis. Some the commercials featured the mid-sized Mercury Montego, as well as the full-sized Mercury models. There was one with schoolgirl penmanship champion writing a letter in the 3rd row seat of a Montego Villager and another with a record player that never skipped while sitting on the front seat of Montego coupe.
Lastly, since no one else has mentioned it, I have to include the Saturday Night Live parody commercial titled “Royal Deluxe II” which featured a ’77 or ’78 Mercury Cougar sedan. I wish I could have found it on Youtube, but here’s a link to it on another site:
https://www.aish.com/j/jt/Jtube-Saturday-Night-Live-A-Bris-in-the-Royal-Deluxe-II.html
Didn’t John Candy drive one of these, a 2-door, in “Uncle Buck”?
»googlety-google«
Close, it was a ’77.
Glad to see an article about the ’74 (as I have a ’73, below.) I have to say that I prefer the rear end treatment of the ’73 over that of the ’74 — it’s just a bit sassy for a big car. I especially like to see the Grand Marquis interior — I don’t think it was very popular that year, especially since I think it came only in that one color. I do like the ’74 grille better though — it says “Mercury” better than the ice cube tray version on my car.
This 74 is a local daily. I talked to the owner back in 2016. Been in the family since new.
2nd photo
how much for the car because when i’m 18 i will but it
how much for the car