Throughout most of its run, Lincoln’s sales paled against Cadillac’s. With period snapshots featuring them being rather scarce, I won’t deny gathering these images took some doing. But at last, I got enough to share this visual time trip of Dearborn’s top luxury brand, posing alongside families, owners, and even some admirers.
A few of these Lincolns appear in unusual places; which means either the vehicles are already second-hand or happen to be traveling or otherwise. On that note, I do know the Zephyr and ’46-’47 Continental are definitely second-hand, since the photos date from around 1970.
Update: the ’46-’47 Continental photo is from 1970. While the Zephyr at the Golden Gate was shot in 1958, around the time the car had reached 202K miles since new.
Bottom Photo:
Yes, I confess, I had a pair (actually two pairs) of pants like the gentlemen getting out of the Lincoln. Part polyester, part cotton with an obligatory white belt.
It was the 70’s, you had to be there!!
+1
Me too!
I had “blue ones, brown ones, and green ones.
I have a picture of myself as a toddler in those plaid polyester pants.
LOL–Standard attire on most used car lots back then!
Confession is good for the soul. Now for the penance.
The Lincoln in the top photo had red, reflective tape pasted on the back bumper. I recall this was a fifties thing that some drivers did. Other popular mods were having little blue reflectors on the taillights, curb feelers and rubber straps hanging from the undercarriage rubbing the road, supposedly to eliminate static electricity. Another was yellow fog lights as big as headlamps.
I will say with no hesitation whatsoever that the 1958-60 Lincolns were the buttugliest cars ever built. Which of course made the ’61s even more amazing…
Reverse slant rear windows were a design dead end, weren’t they? Think Mercury Turnpike Cruiser, Citroen Ami6, the “Harry Potter” Ford Angilia…
On the “Anglia” they look “spiffy”;and that “64-5ish” Mercury.
What’s so special about the Golden Gate Lincoln Zephyr photo is that Indiana University shows us how Charles W. Cushman purchased the car new in California, and had put 202K miles on it by the time this photo was taken (1969, they tell us). Many more photos here: https://digitalcollections.iu.edu/collections/2801pg36g?utf8=✓&cq=zephyr&sort=&locale=en
See my comment below. I’m almost 100% sure that couldn’t have been taken in 1969; not later than 1964. Unless a 1940 car was consider historic enough to keep its old plates. But I don’t think so. In any case, interesting history.
Edit: from what I see the notes for that photo show it was taken in 1958.
I was going to say that it has a fifties vibe to it (beret), and then I checked the file and confirmed it too: 1958.
Thanks for looking further into this. Whoever reposted the photo clearly used the Indiana University’s 1969 date as was what they used, but as I’ve discovered with the University of Texas, those folks aren’t the most car savvy in their captions. I’ll update the text.
Thanks to everyone that “dug deeper” with this sub-story today. That Zephyr must have been an uncommon car to see on the streets even in the 1950s!
Oh, that slightly worn ’40 Zephyr coupe – I’m in love!
Me too! And in that exact condition.
I don’t think that Zephyr photo is from 1970. Those black on yellow California plates were all replaced by yellow on black in 1964, with three letters followed by three numbers (for cars). Those plates and all subsequent color changes remain valid, and the state has just been adding digits. The new-for-1964 plates quickly used up the starting letters to about M, so the green Continental with HIS plates probably got those in the early part of the year. My family’s 1964 Volvo which was registered in October, was MLT001 and my own 1965 Volvo was NKX129. Don’t ask me why I still remember those …
Black plates started in ’63.
The shot with the family and their yellow Conti convertible might well have been an ad.
They were aiming a bit more upscale. And this ad is only for a regular non-Continental Lincoln, unlike that convertible. (I was hoping to find houses as seen in for example 1961 Lincoln ads.)
What happened to editing? Anyway actually no houses in Lincoln ads over several years, just jets, cabin cruisers, high end Manhattan type locations, modernist office buildings, viewpoints, forests. All very upscale and sometimes even including actual rich people.
Crazy that the convertible has the backward tilting rear window and the star on the sail panel. I doubt it slides down, though. Maybe an advertiser would try to hide much of the car behind the kid.
That ’56 Premiere is going to be a tight fit in that garage.
Which is prolly why it’s parked out front!
The 1958 version looks way wider but the 1956 is 79.9″ wide and the 1958 is 80.1″,
which may have made them theoretically illegal by a tenth of an inch in some states.
Or how about Oliver and Lisa Douglas`s Continental convertible from ‘Green Acres’? It got replaced by a `69 or `70 Marquis convertible for the later episodes after the Continental convertible was dropped from the line.
Seventh photo down featuring the maroon convertible and the small plane was taken at Central Flying Service in Little Rock, next to what is now Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport Still a going concern, https://central.aero/. I was there recently, as they have a great little meat and three diner, where a private pilot could certainly have a hundred dollar hamburger, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/$100_hamburger
Mom & Dad with TWA carry bags:
Probably on their way to Paris since TWA had a stronger presence there than London at that time. Bags were probably a gift from the travel agency with three part part tickets in a TWA sleeve. Mom practiced her French for three weeks prior to the trip.
On a recent road trip thru France, I found most spoke English better than the Americans!!
Reminds me of “Ethel” ((I Love Lucy)), apologizing to the British guy. “I’m sorry, we’re Americans. We don’t speak English”.
My uncle bought an identical ’58 yellow/white Continental convertible in Dec. ’57, and I took many top-down rides in it. It was the first car I’d ever seen that had power front vent windows. That feature, plus the retractable glass rear window, made it quite a stand-out at the time.
Sixth picture – I can’t reconcile in my mind the size of the car vs the size of the garage. And the narrow driveway. And it looks to be a new house.
A single car garage would not have been typical in a house of that size and type by the late 1950’s. But there it is.
My paternal grandfather had a 1949 Cosmopolitan like the one in the fifth photo. His car was a four-door, but otherwise the two cars are identical right down to the faded paint in the same non-color. Far from being a status symbol, it was his beater work car, and a bit of a joke in the family. This was the early 60s. At the time, it was an old, out-of-date car. Everybody called it “Stinky.”
I love all of these shots – though the white-ish 49 coupe looks kind of sad in its drab surroundings. I wonder how that 49 front end got approved.
I count myself fortunate that my father never owned pants like those of the guy with the 70’s Town Coupe.
Third photo – I cannot reconcile why that red Lincoln has an apparent numbering on its back window. 9229 as I read it. Possibly used for limo service? Unless those numbers are a reflection coming off the house somehow.
I’m pretty sure that California used to issue a paper strip car license to put in the back window until they mailed you the real plates (or whatever the reason for the wait for the metal plates was). This practice lasted for a couple decades after that photo.
I definitely remember those paper strips although I never had one myself, probably because of not buying a new car.
Why not one more.
That woman in the 3rd picture down could almost be my mother, not her twin, but more than a passing resemblance, although mostly the era, hair and style.
I didn’t know Lincoln offered a (I assume) slide down rear window like I think it was Mercury Montereys in the mid 60s. As a kid I thought those were cool, but the adult asks what function did they serve.
The slide down rear window was great for flow through ventilation in the days before air conditioning was so common and the tilt of the back window meant that it could be used on rainy days with the front vent windows cracked open. It was also great for venting cigarette smoke.
Nice pictures .
My high school girlfriend’s mother had a ’65 Lincoln, tag # PIA 522 . I wonder if it’s still road worthy, my GF pretty much hammered it by dragging all four doors on bollards now & then .
I’ve never really cottoned o the looks of the ’49 but I know they’ve never lost popularity either .
-Nate
Growing up as a kid my father had a 52, 57, and 61 Lincoln. Fabulous ride.