(first posted 11/18/2014. Posted by request of Lennon L., who asked for a ’59 Imperial CC on his birthday)
The wild 1957-60 Imperials and their slightly toned down 1961-63 successors have received their fair share of criticism here for their wacky collection of styling features – tailfins, rocket pod taillights, free-standing headlights, “toilet seat” trunk lids – assembled in varying combinations over the years under Virgil Exner. The criticism is justified, since Imperials had some of the most far-out, excessive styling of a far-out, excessive era. A lot is necessary to surpass the famously over-the-top excess of a 1959 Cadillac, and the contemporary Imperial had more than enough, although in relatively obscurity since Imperial sales were so low. Seeing a well preserved example in the metal for the first time prompted some different thoughts about these over half century old luxury cars, though, thoughts that were far more favorable.
“Classic” or “dignified” are not thoughts that will occur to anyone looking at a 1959 Imperial’s baroque face. Its quad podded headlights, huge horizontal grille bar with five wide teeth, bifurcated bumper, twin fender crowns-in-V’s, and domed hood topped by an Imperial eagle hood ornament make the aforementioned 1959 Cadillac’s nose look almost restrained in comparison. Fussy and overwrought come to mind as ways to describe it.
The tail inspires similar thoughts. Fins tipped with rocket tail cones, each then ringed with multiple annular fins like a new-for-the-1950s guided missile; the “toilet seat” fake spare tire holder introduced in 1958; a bifurcated bumper reminiscent of the mouth of a bottom feeding fish – details, details, details, all of them weird and rather unattractive.
I really cannot bring myself to hate this car, though. Part of it may be that I spotted it outside a Sears Auto Center that is the very same building in which I spent many afternoons as a small child in the 1970s, waiting for my father to shop for car care items, back when DieHard batteries and RoadHandler tires were top aftermarket brands and Sears was a go-to place for auto maintenance and repair. It is easy to be nostalgic in such as situation, even for a car that you have never seen before, from over a decade before you were born. It prompted me to take a look back at that long-ago time when this car was new.
With flamboyant finned cars of the late 1950s long since entrenched in popular memory as symbols of kitsch – the prime example being the 1959 Cadillac, associated by many with Elvis, even though he never owned one since in 1959 he was a draftee serving in the Army in Germany, where he owned German cars (a VW, a BMW 507, and then another BMW 507) – it is easy to forget that the target market of a Cadillac, Lincoln or Imperial was affluent and rather conservative. It is noteworthy that Imperial advertising used camera angles to minimize the 1959’s flamboyant details at its front and rear ends and tried to sell the car as “classic” in design. False advertising, most of us would say, but indicative of the beholder who was supposed to find these Imperials beautiful.
As strange as it seems now, these cars were supposed to appeal to the wealthiest Americans, such as this couple being chauffeured past the statue of General William Tecumseh Sherman at 59th Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan. This location, then and now, is one of America’s most affluent and expensive areas, and today anything less than a Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7 Series, Maserati, or Tesla would look out of place there, aside from a taxi or a car service Lincoln Town Car – a Chrysler Fifth Avenue would be painfully out of place on this part of Fifth Avenue.
This advertisement, which once again features the 1959 Imperial at 59th Street and 5th Avenue, hints well at what Chrysler’s Mad Men thought of the work of Exner and his stylists. The profile view minimizes its Exner exuberances even further, giving very little idea of the elaborate front end or the many details of the rear, and completely hiding the toilet seat on the trunk lid. “… heads will turn” it declares, out of “admiration” supposedly, but perhaps equally or more often out of bemusement. Heads would turn, and then buyers would appreciate the car’s engineering substance beneath the surface flash, as described breathlessly in most of the advertising copy. Chrysler’s advertising department appeared to be saying about the styling of the 1959 Imperial, “We are not amused,” to borrow the words of Victoria, Queen of England and Empress of India.
With Imperial advertising apparently ashamed to show these details, it is unsurprising that few potential buyers seeing them in the showroom were willing to pay their money to display them on their driveways. Only 17,710 Imperials were sold in 1959 – 7,798 Custom sedans and four and two door hardtops, 7,777 Crown sedans and four and two door hardtops, 555 Crown convertibles, 1,132 LeBaron sedans and four door hardtops, and 7 Crown Imperial Limousines with the lofty price of $16,000 ($129,000 in 2014). Cadillac thoroughly dominated the luxury class with sales of 142,272, and even distant second place Lincoln managed 26,906.
A different perspective on these Imperials is that their strange styling and lack of popularity did not stop many of the wealthiest people in the United States and the world from buying them. The Crown Imperial Limousine, built by Ghia in small numbers (only 132 from 1957 to 1965), had owners such as Nelson Rockefeller and the King of Saudi Arabia. The actually imperial Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the ruler of Iran from 1941 to 1979, bought this 1957 sedan and – perhaps finding the standard styling too restrained for his taste – added to it what appear to be front fender portholes and Dagmar bumpers from a 1955-56 Cadillac. These Imperials lived up to, or exceeded, the image created in their advertising artwork.
The Crown Imperial Limousine also made a cinematic appearance as the car of royalty of another sort. In The Godfather: Part II, a 1958 Imperial Crown Limousine was the chauffeured car used by Michael Corleone at his house on Lake Tahoe.
Playing with camera angles, just as Imperial advertising did in 1959, introduces another perspective on these cars. Viewed directly from the side, the excessive details mostly disappear and the car’s fundamental shape comes forward, and it is actually graceful. In 1959, these Imperials retained the basic proportions, roofline, and tailfin sweep of the 1957 “Forward Look” Chryslers that are widely regarded as beautifully styled. Ensuing years would depart from this styling foundation, starting with the fins becoming truncated and lumpy in 1960, then with the roofline and other shapes changing, until only the wraparound windshield remained unchanged at the end in 1966, like the equally curved smile of the Cheshire Cat.
The partial contrasting color roof of this Custom four door hardtop (one of 3,984 produced in 1959, at a base price of $4,910, $39,594 in 2014 dollars) is the only major disruption of the harmony of the design from this angle. It was one of several roof options in 1959, which included a new “Silvercrest” roof with a stainless steel panel and a “Landau” roof with a black leather-like rear canopy – comparable to the roof treatments of contemporary Cadillacs (e.g. the stainless steel roof of the 1957-58 Eldorado Brougham) and precursors to Brougham-era half vinyl roofs and the stainless steel roof panel of the 1980-85 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. Whether this association with styling trends two decades later is positive or negative is debatable.
Another perspective comes from viewing the interior, which is as restrained as the exterior is garish. The simple and symmetrical instrument and control panel, conventional round steering wheel (not the idiosyncratic squared-off wheel of later model years), and clean but well detailed dashboard are a well-executed rendition of 1950s American luxury car interior style.
Symmetry rules the view from the driver’s seat, with Torqueflite transmission pushbuttons on the left, ventilation pushbuttons on the right, and full instrumentation (speedometer, temperature, ammeter, oil pressure, fuel, clock) and six control knobs symmetrically laid out in between. Symmetry was such a styling concern that the usual turn signal stalk disappeared in favor of a dashboard lever below the transmission pushbuttons, to clean up the view around the steering column.
The transmission pushbuttons were part of a drivetrain package that, along with the suspension design, would last into the 1970s. A decade into the postwar era of overhead valve V-8s, in 1959 Imperials dropped the first generation Hemi and adopted the RB series wedge head big block V-8, in 413 cubic inch form, which would later expand into the 440 and last until 1978. The Torqueflite transmission adopted in 1956 set the standard for automatics and would last though the end of the century. Along with the torsion bar front suspension introduced in 1957, these fundamental mechanical elements were substantial strengths beneath the questionable exterior.
If the owner had a chauffeur to do the driving and sat in the rear seat, he or she had all of the room that one could need. Here as well, the interior design was simple and unfussy. The fedora-wearing man and his wife in the pillbox hat shown being chauffeured down 5th Avenue would find nothing to complain about here.
Outside the car, the heads that turned toward the 1959 Imperial would have a distinct sense of awkwardness running through them as they checked out the car’s bizarre back end, however, and Mr. Fedora and Mrs. Pillbox Hat would probably have felt uneasy about the attention of the people peering at them through the fishbowl rear window being mockery. I can easily imagine the “face” created by this car’s rear styling inspiring street kids to put doughnuts on their noses and pull the sides of their mouths outward with their fingers, in imitation. “Hey mister, what am I? Your car!”
It is unfortunate, because the car’s problems were skin deep. It had one of Detroit’s best proportioned bodies of the late 1950s and a well-executed interior, wrapped around a modern drivetrain that was fundamentally sound enough for last for two more decades. On the other hand, coming from a time when around the industry fins were soaring, chrome was metastasizing, and airplane and rocket decorations were proliferating like the real bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles that the United States and the Soviet Union were acquiring in the late 1950s, its stylists gave it tacked-on details at each end that overwhelm everything else. Combined with Chrysler’s 1957 quality problems and the 1958 recession, they have ensured that few bought these cars and few remember them now.
Over half a century later, what is one to think of a car like this 1959 Imperial, which is one of what must be no more than a few hundred survivors from its year? These and other Chrysler Forward Look cars had quality problems when new, but one that has survived for this many years would have been a well-built example or else would have had its problems addressed over the years. If you can ignore its overdone details at its front and rear ends – and I doubt that Nelson Rockefeller, the Shah of Iran, or Michael Corleone would have cared, or cared what anyone else thought – and appreciate its other aspects, then you would have a generally well designed 1950s luxury cruiser that is highly distinctive, unlikely to be mistaken for anything else even though few people will know what an Imperial is. It is not only a relic of a different time; it is different from its contemporaries and definitely striking in appearance. Heads will turn, as stated in the ad.
A possibly enlightening comparison is to an Imperial that I have experience with: a 1967 Imperial Crown convertible, with styling penned by Lincoln Continental stylist Elwood Engel. Owned by the family of a friend, it is one of only 577 convertibles produced that year (out of a total of 17,614 1967 Imperials), and it has clean lines derived from the Continental’s and a high quality wood-trimmed interior, almost identical to the 1968 Imperial Crown convertible described by Tom Klockau. It is a classy and elegantly styled vehicle, but it has a major flaw: it is really quite boring. On the street, no one takes note of it as anything other than an old and large car, because it has no other obvious noteworthy qualities. A 1959 Imperial, like a 1959 Cadillac, does not have this problem. Flawed they are, but their styling excesses make them interesting. No one will ever consider a 1959 Imperial to be timelessly beautiful like a 1961 Lincoln Continental, but it is far more fun to look at if you do not take it too seriously, and isn’t the car hobby supposed to be fun? Even though I doubt that I would have purchased a 1959 Imperial as a new car, since its styling is a bit too weird for a car that I would drive every day, in 2014 I would gladly own and occasionally drive one if I had the funds and the extra garage space, and laugh along with anyone who mocks its details.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1960 Imperial Crown Southampton – The Frankenstein Of Cars
Curbside Classic: 1957 Chrysler New Yorker–Clara And The New Yorker That Never Was
Car Show Classic: 1967 Imperial Crown Coupe – For The Last Time, It’s Not A Chrysler!
Curbside Classic: 1968 Imperial Crown convertible – Fall Back, Men, Fall Back!
Isn’t is amazing that Virgil Exner & Alec Issigonis were contemporaries.
Gotta love ‘m both.
My Grandmother’s second [of four, the final one stuck] husband had a 57 or 58 in gunmetal grey metallic.
Perfect car for him, as he was brash, a real estate sharpie, smoked Tareytons and liked his liquor.
He had this when my grandmother bought the 60 Ambassador wagon which became one of her signatures [as did the 70 Maverick Grabber in bright yellow]. Had a big dent in the passenger door.
These cars, along with my parent’s 50 Studebaker with the wrap around rear window, were my first automotive memories.
Apparently, shortly after purchasing the Ambassador, my grandmother was going to take us out in her husband’s Imperial, it’s claimed I responded with “That old thing ?”.
I was four at the time. And that Imperial would have been three.
It did have that great arm rest in the back seat which I thought was for kids.
Papa Byrd. Great guy, but shady.
Once I asked him why he didn’t have a moustache and he replied: “Why should I have something growing right under my nose that grows wild around my a** ? ”
I was 6 about that time and never forgot that statement or the cars that populated my first years on Earth.
About the turn signal lever on the left side of the dash. Looking through the comments, no one mentions it. I can’t imagine it not being self-canceling like a normal turn signal stalk on the column but wonder how Chrysler would engineer something like that to operate back in the late fifties.
As to the ’59 Imperial itself, I’m not particularly partial to it. For me, it has to be ‘really’ outrageous, i.e., 1961 Plymouth. The Imperial seems like it has too many extraneous doo-dads glued onto it. The ’61 Plymouth is plenty goofy in even the most basic trim levels.
I recently test drove a ’59 Imperial that was for sale locally. The turn signal lever DOES automatically cancel, though there is a push-button below to manually cancel it. I found it awkward to use in normal driving–I was groping for it and it takes your eyes off the road. I suppose I could have gotten used to it over time, but I wonder how many people walked out of Chrysler dealerships and wouldn’t buy because it’s so inconvenient, and you have to use it all the time! Not the way to sell cars!
’59 Cadillacs and Lincolns would have regular turn signal and transmission selection levers (and a PARK position) which is much more convenient. However, I do not critique history– what was, was– and that’s what makes cars like this so intriguing.
I wonder how the turn signal worked. Could it have had a timer that simply returned it to the neutral position after a preset amount of time? Or was it somehow wired into the hub of the steering wheel which would send a signal to a relay when the steering wheel was returning to the ‘home’ position, the way it works with a normal self-canceling column stalk?
Frankly, it seems unnecessarily complicated and, as pointed out, rather inconvenient. I suppose once the driver got used to it, it wouldn’t be so bad, though.
For me, Exner’s work is generally love it or hate it. This is one I love. Had an AMT kit of a 1960 back in the day that was one of my childhood treasures. Once on a trip to Willoby-Peerless Photo in Midtown, I spotted a Limousine version and my father pointed out a certain celebrity riding in the back. I forgot who the celebrity was. I haven’t forgotten that Imperial though after all these years.
The very first comment way back when said this car was “beautifully wacky,” and I really can’t do better than that. There’s just so much going on here stylistically that I have to admire the effort. Beautiful to everyone, no, but it certainly is a striking automobile.
On a trivial note: when did the “ventilation controls to the left of the driver” layout become a thing, and why? I remember that setup during the 70s but never understood when or why it became a fixture, at least on some American cars. Just wondering, since I expected to see the featured car’s dashboard laid out that way and was surprised when it was the more modern design.
I have no childhood memory of these all, as opposed to the Cadillacs I saw now and then, and the Lincolns once in a special while. eBay has one ad that shows the trunk, I see (is that supposed to be a particular bridge in NY or SF?):
Happy dealer photo, also eBay. Is that a dealer with customers to our right, or one customer surrounded by attentive sales staff?
Could be courtesy cars for town notables. Like they mentioned in some Imperial ads in National Geographic. Special invitations to Dr.s
and lawyers and such.
Marketing having your best car driven around town by the “best” people.
Back when this ran before, I have no idea why I wasn’t remembering the 59 Imperial that my Mom’s cousin was driving in the late 60s. Her kids were the same ages as my sister and I and we would go to their house sometimes. It was an odd old car for the time and I forget how they got it, I believe from an elderly relative.
Her husband was an engineer and had no patience for car trouble. The battery was getting weak and on cold mornings she would go out and put a trouble light over the battery for 15 minutes to warm it up so it would start. Because she knew if she told her husband it needed a battery, he was going to insist on dumping it for a new car. But she loved that old Imp even though the family jokingly considered it something of a ghetto cruiser.
I kind of like it, and especially like the space-age tail light treatment.
It definitely looks best in the lighter colors – I don’t like the black one at all (and that’s odd for me, owner of a series of black cars).
The cranberry/maroon one pictured in the comments is just light enough to work well – any darker would be too dark.
Here is the ’59 Imperial, shown in a 1959 “Forward Look” Russian – language brochure (also in English) that was prepared for and distributed at the 1959 US National Exhibition, a cultural exchange event held that summer in Moscow (the scene of the famous Nixon – Khrushchev “Kitchen Debate”). Chrysler, GM and Ford sent over about 20 of their snazziest new models for the three million Soviet visitors to ogle, and an Imperial was among them. The cars were one of the hits of the show, which showcased US consumer abundance. At that time, private car ownership amongst Russians was virtually unknown, and to those visiting this shiny US capitalist showcase, the cars must have seemed like something from outer space. This brochure is via Imperial Club, and it is a fascinating Cold War artifact, as it explains the role of cars in modern US life as the ultimate exemplar of “peoples’ capitalism”:
http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1959/59Russian/index.htm
My apologies for the above low – res scan, here is a much better one. The text reads: “1959 Imperial. In the past ten years, more and more Americans have been spending their leisure time boating. Today almost every city situated near water has at least one harbor built especially for private small craft. Here an Imperial, one of our finest lines of cars, is shown at such a harbor. Total number of Imperials now in use: 130,000. For 1959 specifications, see inside back cover…”
Sales don’t necessarily indicate public opinion of the 59 Imperial styling. The 1957 Chrysler Corporation cars were very well received by the public, and left a very sour memory with their owners. GM caught up with Chrysler’s flamboyant style in 59, and had brand new cars instead of a refresh. GM initiated a crash redesign of all of their cars to catch up with Chrysler.
Wonder where , In MD, this was??Never knew about the “no turn signal stalk” thing till now.
H’mm.
The side view is quite impressive, even elegant, but the front and rear are a combination of garish and just odd. 🙂
Possibly the perfect subject for an alternate design exercise, leaving the overall lines of the car unchanged – it could have been stunning.
Yes. As I stated, regarding the 1960 Plymouth Valiant, the other day. Some very modern elements that make it appear competitive with newer, more cleanly-styled cars. But the dated, garish elements, defeat that advantage. Creating an off-putting garbled design contradiction.
This picture of 1959 Imperial was taken in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1960. That had to be similar experience as to see the UFO. If remember well the story, that little guy become a well known photographer and of course, big car collector 🙂
The mention of the Imperial’s brief appearance in The Godfather, Part II reminds me of something I’ve always wondered about that scene.
As the limo pulls up to the gate and it’s being opened (supposedly mechanically), there’s a sound that I can’t clearly identify. I don’t know if it’s the gate creaking on its metal hinges as it’s being opened, or the sound of the Imperial’s power steering being cranked all the way to the right limit of the steering gear.
Interesting grille indeed, though instead of seeing teeth per se, I see an orthodontist’s artistry at work.
Should be interesting to layer this detail on top of an older Buick’s choppers…or a DeSoto’s pronounced / gum protruding canine teeth…
Were these cars meant to be sold to the public, or meant to be rolling Antoni Gaudi inspired art? The idea that Chrysler permitted Virgil Exner to create a sui generis automobile and that it could be commercially appealing is answered by the market with a resounding NO. The Exner creations in 1957 struck a popular chord, which every automaker then attempted to copy. Yet, by 1957-1958, the auto market went 180 degrees. Drivers flocked to smaller, more affordable and maintainable vehicles, such as the VW Beetle, Studebaker Lark, and Rambler Classic and Rambler American. Even bad imports such as the Renault Dalphine were being purchased in the USA. All manufacturers had small, affordable compact cars within the year. The market had spoken. So why is Chrysler still permitting their chief stylist full reign, instead of being reigned in?
In for a penny, in for a pound? Chrysler sunk millions into Exner’s gaudiness, and thought that perhaps after the 58 Recession, Americans would return to garish excess? Perhaps. Yet – even with all the internal scandals rocking Chrysler, the company didn’t pull back until it was too late. By 1962 their car’s stylings were driving buyers away from very good cars.
Antoni Gaudi never advertised his architectural designs as “Classic” – because anyone with eyes could see that before them sat buildings never before seen. Barcelona didn’t suddenly start building Gaudi-inspired structures because Gaudi’s work wasn’t for public consumption. There is a place for this – and that place is not in the field of the consumer marketplace. The idea that Chrysler would permit Virgil Exner to turn cars that were to find favor with the public, into auto kitch, is still stunning today.
I have owned many cars in my life and all I can say is I have never owned a car that receives more positive attention than My 59 Imperial Crown Southampton. Even the Caddy club has swooned all over my Imperial. Its a keeper
Hi guys, there will always be a market for excess and bling in everything.!!. Like it or not. It was way ahead of its time. It certainly shook Cadillac and Lincoln in 57 and WAS better built. All these knockers on here and ill-informed should keep quiet or take off the blinkers and stop listening to gossip and shrewd marketing. Truck chassis and engine (probably why it got banned at demo derbies). Better handling than the competitors. I own and have restored both a 59 Cadillac coupe de ville and these 59 cars which i still have. To say Cadillac was the standard of the world was fantasy and a lie as like all the other cars they had terrible rust areas where there was no paint, double skinned water traps, leaks etc. This Imperial is one of the great underrated cars of the period. Get one of each to restore and you will know I am right like I did. Chris Perth Australia.