We can’t do Lincoln Week without acknowledging the brand’s contribution to popular culture, in the form of the original Batmobile.
The Lincoln Futura was designed in 1955 by Ford Chief Designer Bill Schmidt, inspired by mako sharks and manta rays seen while scuba diving (with Bill Mitchell?). It was built by Ghia in Turin, and sat on an experimental Continental Mark II chassis gathering dust for a few years.
Its Pearlescent Frost White paint was pioneering, and made by adding ground genuine pearls to the paint. The Futura was a huge hit on the auto show circuit for several years.
It even had a career in show biz before turning into the Batmobile, in the 1959 “It Started With A Kiss”, although painted red to show up better on the big screen.
After its first career was well over, the Futura was sold off to George Barris for $1 in the early sixties. It sat forlorn on Barris’ lot until 1965, when the call came for a suitable Batmobile for the new tv show. Batmobile producer gave Barris $15k and 15 days to make it happen, which of course he did.
The Batmobile became a tireless show-circuit fixture seemingly forever. It undoubtedly made the Futura the most successful show car in history.
I wonder how Batman avoided being hassled for having a red revolving light on the top of a non-emergency vehicle.
Because he was responding to a request from Commissioner Gordon?
Batman is really a vigilante, and in the fictional Batman universe I’m sure the Batmobile is unlicensed, so worrying about the red light on the roof would be low on his list. 🙂
In the TV show (and spinoff movie), though, Batman and Robin were deputized members of the Gotham Police Department — as they frequently took pains to remind people — and so I suppose in that sense it was all perfectly legal.
Well, since he was such an ally of the police, I guess they were willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that also had no wipers, headlights, functioning bumpers or outside mirrors, too.
For a teenager in the late 60s Batman was a favorite Yvonne Craig as Batgirl and Julie Newmar at Catwoman can’t forget. That was back when TV shows had real musical scores attached to them. Probably the only thing better on TV at the time, with a car, was The Green Hornet.
That $1 Batmobile sold for $4.6 million at Barrett Jackson in January of this year.
George Barris, the legendary car customizer that made it look so easy and so fun. I think for my generation he sparked a lot of interest in cars.
He even did a Prius.
Prinocerus! Ugly and pointless. Ugh. I guess we can be thankful he didn’t have time to screw up the Futura too much.
I don’t have a lot of respect for George Barris. He takes credit for other peoples’ work to build up his own name. He’s even made knock-offs of famous cars so people would think he made the original. I find some of his own work to be excessively “blingy”.
Agreed, he seems to have gotten a little carried away with the showman aspect.
That being said, as big a piece of cheese as the Batmobile is it’s a significant improvement over the original showcar. The lady in the red evening gown is obviously waiting forlornly for someone in a more tasteful vehicle..
It’s not so much taking credit as it not correcting certain assumptions. People assume he also built the Black Beauty and the Monkeymobile when it actually Dean Jeffies. However, Barris never lifts a finger to dispel these things.
For my money, the Green Hornet could kick Batman’s @$$ around the block, and Kato could certainly kick Robin’s. His car is nicer, too.
Not so. Barris co-authored a book in 1974 with Jack Scagnetti called ‘Cars of the Stars’. The text credits Jeffries with both the Monkeemobile and the Black Beauty.
Also mentioned is that the original Batmobile cost $75,000, and a further 4 built from a mold of the body cost $40,000. I’m assuming these were the invoice prices to the production company.
I’m not so hot on his customs and maybe he did do as BOC stated, but this book is evidence of his sharing the love with Jeffries and others.
That Prius above reminds me of the Sonny and Cher Mustangs. Ugh.
When you compare the Lincoln to Barris batmobile its obvious how little he actually did yeah not a fan.
True, this really shouldn’t be considered one of Barris’ greatest works, but then it didn’t have to be; just something that could plausibly be called a Batmobile. In that regard it delivered in spades.
Random factoid: One of the car mags (either Road & Track or Car & Driver) did a mock road test of the Batmobile and apparently massive weight and long overhangs made it a bit of a pig to drive.
That was true of a lot of TV and movie cars, admittedly. They tended to have the same sort of problems as show cars — namely, one-off designs with flashy gadgets designed more to look good than function reliably. However, instead of having teams of automotive technicians at hand to try to keep the thing from falling apart in front of crowds of gawkers, the TV and movie cars are stuck with casts and crews that don’t necessarily know or care about cars and have little sympathy for machinery. (I’ve heard a fair number of owners of interesting old cars who’ve decided renting their cars out to Hollywood just isn’t worth the stress, aggravation, and wear and tear.)
That movie clip is a riot! Lots of screen time for this fabulous car, I almost got used to seeing it on the roads. Amazing that Glenn Ford didn’t even break a sweat under that roof. (Didn’t he once say, “I’m a Ford, not a Lincoln.” ;-))
It would look a lot better sans bubbletop. A floating turret top like the GM ’59s could make it a well-proportioned hardtop. Someday I’ll take the time to learn how to do Photoshop customs….
Add a conventional roofline and it would look a lot like a ’56 Premiere–or rather a ’57 with those fins.
A 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III customized by George Barris was used in the 1977 movie The Car for the car in the title role . A cheesy movie , but a menacing looking vehicle , even today .
these kids sound envious of this bad ass car.
they would drop dead if they were lucky enough to have that car or even live in this cars era !!!!
and yes functioning headlights blinkers and mirrors
http://www.barris.com/carsgallery/tvmovie/cars-tvmovie.php
George Barris Rocks !!!!!