(first posted 6/5/2017) Some cars just have a way of making a connection with a guy. There are cars that have become iconic in film. There are cars that loom large from youth. There are cars that are just so strikingly unique that they cannot help but make an indelible impression. What do you have when a car checks all three boxes? We have this one right here.
My favorite motion picture of all time may be the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock thriller North by Northwest. In it, Cary Grant’s character (advertising man Roger Thornhill) is mistaken for a mysterious spy named George Kaplan. In running for his life from the sophisticated criminals who are trying to kill Kaplan, Thornhill meets a Miss Eve Kendall, who was played by the lovely Eva Marie Saint.
The movie is vintage Hitchcock, with suspense, action and little bits of subtle comedy. For those who have not seen it, I am doing my best to avoid plot spoilers, and urge you to leave your computers or other electronic devices immediately and go see it on the biggest screen you can find. I love the film for many reasons, but one of them is a couple of scenes where we get glimpses of Miss Kendall’s ride – a sparkling white 1958 Continental Mark III convertible, almost the spitting image of this car.
And the reason that this car resonated so much with me by the time I first saw this movie in the 1970s? It was because the 1958-60 Lincoln and I had some history.
Actual photo of Howard’s 1947 Lincoln.
I met my best friend Dan shortly after we both started 7th grade. We became fast friends and shared an interest in cars (and other things) that had come before our time. Dan’s father (my Car-Mentor Howard) had a beautiful original 1947 Lincoln V-12 sedan and my own father was only six months into a 1972 Continental Mark IV. I suppose you could also say that we were both wired to avoid current fads. All of these things came together and we became simply crazy about Lincolns of all kinds.
These 1958-1960 behemoths stood out, of course, as some of the most outlandish of the breed. This meant that Dan and I loved them simply for that reason. If there was any vehicle that was 180 degrees out of phase with the zeitgeist of the early 1970s, the monstrous 1958-60 Lincoln would be it. Silently egging us on was a derelict copper 1960 Lincoln Premiere 4 door that sat in a driveway somewhere near Dan’s neighborhood. We would ride our bikes there just to look at it, fantasizing how we could pool our money, buy it, clean it up, fix a couple of things and have the coolest car of any kid in Fort Wayne.
The fun began when one of us mentioned this idea to Howard, probably looking for some idea of how much such a car would sell for. We might as well have suggested donating to the Communist Party. “Junk!” was the first word that spat from Howard’s mouth. “Absolute Junk. These things were junk when they were new.” Howard went on for the next ten or fifteen minutes detailing how a man he worked for had bought one in about 1959 and had nothing but trouble with it. He remembered how the windshield cracked when the man drove it over some railroad tracks. He ended with the warning that if Dan ever tried to bring one of those things home, bad things were going to happen. I had never heard Howard take such a set against a car, but it was plain that he simply hated these things. An older me might have smiled and retorted with something like “That’s pretty strong talk for a guy with one of those POS 292 V-12s under a hood in your garage.” But having just barely made it into my teens (and it being over 45 years ago) that sort of backtalk just wasn’t done. Anyhow, with such venomous disapproval from an elder, the forbidden fruit of this generation of Lincolns became all the more attractive to us.
As Dan and I got older we moved on to other cars and neither of us ever got that ’58-60 Lincoln we were so crazy about at age thirteen. But they still fascinate me the way few other cars of that era do.
I am going to go out on a limb here and assert that these are the best looking American luxury cars of 1960, and not by a little. Not that the bar is all that high. This car should get more credit than it does for a basic shape that turned out to be quite predictive of the future. This car (along with the 1958-60 Thunderbird) was one of the first to offer the unapologetically rectangular shape that would become so mundane by 1970 after so much of the character had been removed from these earlier designs. Seriously, the styling on this car is far closer to the 1970 Lincoln Continental than would be 1960 to 70 comparisons of Cadillac or Imperial.
As briefly influential as Virgil Exner’s 1957 Chryslers and Imperials were and as flamboyantly famous as Harley Earl’s outrageously finned 1959 Cadillac would become, the 1958-60 Lincoln turned out to be the design most predictive of the future. Forget the fins, the huge expanses of chrome and the over the top sculpting of the Cadillac and the Imp, because this Lincoln is positively conservative in comparison. The Lincoln is simply one great big broad-shouldered rectangle (albeit one with a lot of visual interest).
Did I say visual interest? If it were possible to ditch the canted headlights, the wraparound windshield and the period roofline, the basic bones of this car could have been competitive in 1970.
After all, a 5,200 pound car of these dimensions would not become out of the ordinary until the New World Order writ by the Energy Crisis of the 1970s and the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) regulatory scheme that it spawned.
Here is something I’ll bet you didn’t know about these Continental Mark V convertibles: One of 2,044 produced, this convertible was the 2nd highest production body style behind the 4 door hardtop (6,604). The big droptop Connie outsold the 2 door hardtop by nearly 600 units, and roughly doubled production of the 4 door sedan, the 4 door town car and the 4 door executive limo combined. I can’t think of another American convertible that performed so well in comparison with the other body styles offered. You have to admit that these made for a particularly impressive convertible.
You also have to admit that I have become something of the Continental convertible whisperer here on CC. Some time ago I stumbled across a 1940 Continental being loaded onto a transport and now this. Is there a car more opposite the original Lincoln Continental in concept, design and execution than this one? With the possible exception of the beautiful red leather that both offered, that is. The 1940-41 model ruled for decades as the “it car” of its generation. This one? More like the Anti-It.
I very nearly missed this one. I was on my way to the bank with a deposit for my office. I did not have long before the bank closed and there was no time to waste. Until I spied this giganto Lincoln about to be loaded onto a truck parked on a vacant lot. The driver knew nothing about it but had no problem with me stopping to snap a few pictures. I could have stared at that inviting red leather interior until nightfall, but the driver had to move along and I had to get to the bank. It was a good thing I stopped when I did because by the time I left the bank (having made it there with moments to spare) the Lincoln was there no more.
Just like in North By Northwest, the car was there for a brief moment for me to enjoy and then it was gone. All that was missing was Eva Marie Saint. Or Howard, shaking his head and saying “Yes, it looks nice. But it’s still junk.”
Every generation of Lincolns from the late 30’s to the early 60’s are design icons to me, except the 1952-55, which look like dressed up Fords. A couple years ago I saw a 1956 two door hardtop in the Coney Island Mermaid parade, glistening awesomely in the sun. The bumpers etc. were no doubt rechromed and looked better than original. These and the ’58-’60 are probably generally undervalued as classic designs, although perfect ones are worth a lot today. The interiors of all of them are spectacular as well. The 1958 got worse with each facelift, just like the ’61.
1956 Premiere 2 door hardtop:
The idea was to make the manufacturing simpler, they weren’t identical, just similar. The wipers nobody seems to be able to explain, some say that the ’61 Lincoln was designed in a narrow room (the Stiletto Studio) and an engineer was looking at the mirror image on the back wall when he did the wiper drawing. But, if this is so, why didn’t they change it with the ’66 design? The goal with the ’61 was to make a profit and this entailed a simpler construction process, with the more successful T-Bird being the lead dog, so there was much more thought given to keeping the two cars closer than they were before. Although the Lincoln had hydraulic wipers in ’61, the T-Bird had electric through ’61-’62, then converted to hydraulic. So, it was never a perfect match, just a little boost for the bottom line.
emjayay,
Think about a Lincoln dealer in ’56…the award winning ’56 Lincoln and the Continental. After a lot of struggle, finally good times are here. Then the questionable ’57 fins, followed by the ’58-’60s. It was a long wait until 1961! By the way, I wouldn’t agree that each year of the ’58-’60 design got worse, just more conventional, after all they were stuck with a unique basic design which was unibody and unpopular, all they could do was to make it a little less “dramatic”. I always liked the ’60 best, much better interior and the front bumper ends looked much better.
Excellent piece of writing, both as a personal anecdote and as innovation, pointing the connections that others don’t see. On the “squareness” point, I think you’re dead right. However, with gentle respect, personally, subjectively, I remain firm in thinking it an appalling looking thing. Good lord, in profile, the rear window finishes BEFORE the wheel cutout even begins, making such length thereafter that resembles it more of a trunk with a small cabin attached. The front looks like an angry bland person. The reverse-slope rear window looks like an upmarket pram when expanded to these dimensions, whilst someone clearly backed into the middle of the rear bumper and it was too late to change the tooling. It has all the famous silliness of late-50’s American styling with none of that masters-of-the-universe, flying-into-the-future exuberance that makes, say, the Caddy such an icon. It is a large, dull, besuited heavily built man trying to pull a face , stick his bum out and wear a lampshade, and it doesn’t work.
(Having ranted thus, keep in mind, Mr Cavanaugh, that I am someone who loves, for example, the Renault 16, a car that most think resembles a crashed prototype, so please do not take this as an affront to your taste; two people look upwards, one to see a radiant god, the other a particularly lonely sky).
They do look like they could be turned over and used as a sled-
https://i.wheelsage.org/pictures/r/renault/16_tx/renault_16_tx_9.jpeg
“The car with the railway lines over the roof?” my father would say. Doubtless, if we’d been snow-goers, he’d have made the sled joke. Hmm, the Renault Rosebud? (Well, the post did begin with a golden era film reference…).
It finally dawned on me, where the inspiration for this automobile came from. George Mason from Nash dropped some acid, asked Dick Teague to design something twice as large as a Rambler, and this was the result!
All kidding aside, nothing could have made this car any more attractive to me no matter what preceded it or followed it. The 1957-61 Imperials, for all their excess, had cleaner lines and just looked better. (Please, forget about the Cadillacs. The 1958s were not too bad, but that 1959-60 body was even uglier than the Lincolns were.)
I sure wonder what Packard would have begotten, had they hung on for five more years ~
Drawings and clays of the proposed (real) ’57 Packards that never made it past a single prototype look a bit like these Lincolns but with a vertical bar front grille, cleaner flanks, a similarly shaped C pillar but with a wraparound conventionally sloped rear window, and stubby fins. I could imagine this design looking fresh through the late ’60s simply by ditching the reverse-canted A pillars, cleaning up the C pillar area, and snipping off the fins.
Excellent article. However: Lincoln Premiere, not “Premier.”
Thanks for the sharp eye. Somehow my brain never noticed that final “e” in the name.
I agree with everything said by you JPC. Dad had an architect friend with a white ’58 Continental and I thought it was an absolutely stunning car when he first brought it to our house after he bought it new, and still do. It was very different than the ’58 Cad and Imp, and far more impressive in many respects. While the ’61 was a masterpiece in it’s own right, these are too, and certainly expressed the era in their own very unique way.
Lincoln ads stressed the spaciousness of the interior, it had ample head, shoulder and leg room. Lincoln designers might have been trying to make the car with the biggest interior. Contemporary testers would say that it was possible to seat four passengers across each seat. Though who would want to be seated elbow to elbow like in a bus seat?
On the other hand, the ’61-’63 was much more “cozy” inside. The front seat was akin to the GM Astro Bench with separate seat backs and a pull down armrest. The back seat was likewise a bit tight. When I drove my Dad’s ’63, it felt more like a personal car than a sedan. A four door coupe?
Lincoln later found a way to build a spacious cabin by basing their vehicle on a large SUV platform. The Navigator is much shorter, but taller, and a couple of inches narrower. But it has much more utility in passenger carrying and cargo carrying capabilities.
The ’58-’60 Lincoln was akin to the longer wheelbase Cadillac 60 Specials than to the standard DeVilles.
Didn’t the ’58 have air suspension? Cadillac also offered air suspension at this time. I’ve read that both systems were trouble prone.
I’ve always been amazed at the difference between the 58-60 Contis and the 61s. Couldn’t be more further apart! I loved both designs, however.
The styling was too advanced for it’s own good. People were not ready to see the straight lines. I have to believe the ’65 Cadillac stylists were inspired by some of this.
”the styling on this car is far closer to the 1970 Lincoln” Ed’s auto review
does not agree but yes for the following years , 4:00 to 6:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlJk9p2YSrA&ab_channel=Ed%27sAutoReviews
The roofline disappoints me on 2dr/convertible, but on 4dr (or convertible with top down), everything seems to work. And, oh, that interior/dashboard!
Browsing Popular Mechanics (Feb. 1958) yesterday, I learned that the front-bumper “Dagmars” had another nickname in the trade:
The 1960 Continental was certainly an improvement over the ’59 – the simplification of the headlights and grille brought a measure of elegance to the front end. But overall there’s still so much going on that it’s hard to see it as a single piece of design. It’s always looked to me more like a cartoonist’s impression of a luxury car than the real thing.
Of course it’s possible to love it at that level. It’s hard not to stare at this car, with something like wonder, whenever a picture of it appears.
The concept of ‘less is more’ (possibly exemplified at the time by the completion of the Seagram Building in New York City in 1958), had to wait another year or two to make it to the auto industry. 🙂
I love these cars. I wonder what got this thread going again after years of inactivity.
IAC, one of the things I like about the 58 – 60, and esp the 60, is the interior design. The dashboard instruments were beautiful and solid and reflected a “drivers’ car” ambiance too. The steering wheel center and column itself look billet-like. Yet still with an air of elegance. The switchgear for the windows, cigarette lighter knobs, other knobs, the horizontal grill of the dash, the integration of the AC vents with the dash motif… all of that is both elegant and substantial in a way that disappeared after 1960 when plastic and fake chrome started taking over and nothing felt substantial. The seats and panels are wonderful, the AC even had vents thru the doors to feed cool air to the back seat. The car had two evaporators to provide the cooling. Possibly one of the best cars ever made in that era. Sure, some later ones were good, even better in some ways, but none were as good all-around when in you include the quality and substantiality of the appointments, fabrics, switches, etc.
On the outside of the car, it too has a billet like look and feel. You don’t see joints much, everything just comes together, all of one piece. The grill is gorgeous and solid, not like the stamped sheet metal in lessor cars. So are the bumpers. The car doesn’t so much ride out and over bumps, it crushes them yet you barely notice. And for a large soft riding car it handles better than average for its time. And it scoots away from stoplights, esp the 58 but even by 1960 it still had what it takes to keep up with just about anything else out there. In one comparative road test roundup for the 1960 cars it beat all of the other luxury cars in every category except “looks”, which isn’t surprising, it does have a “look” not everyone warms to. The next most highly rated car in that roundup, when including price, was the 1958 Chevy, which beat all the other GM products overall.
Nice recent video of Glenn Kramer’s gorgeous 1960 Mark V convertible:
Thanks for posting! The whole Pebble Beach thing was glorious and the video was the icing on the cake. The MK V did great on the tour (60 miles) and so many people commented on the color. It is really a regal car, now separated from its time it becomes a mirror of an era of no foreign competition, cheap gas, an unlimited future and, well, optimisim.
Wow! What a coincidence! I just watched North By Northwest this past Saturday. I am a huge Hitchcock fan, and I watch all of my favorites of his every June. North By Northwest is in my top ten favorites of Hitchcock films.
I noticed Eva Marie Saint driving that 58 Lincoln conv. (I am also a big Lincoln fan). I think the 1960 Lincolns were by far the best looking of the 58-60 trio. The 58 front end/ grille
and headlight treatment looked odd.
A great movie, and a great article on a beautiful car!