I can’t help but wonder if the primary reason Chrysler had 25 of these ultra-expensive limos hand built by Ghia in Italy was so that its top execs had something appropriate to ride in when they showed up in New York. That, and obviously it was a halo car, of sorts, making sure that at least some folks knew Chrysler wasn’t knocked totally out of the ring by not having a regular production limo like Cadillac.
25? How about 8?
They’re going fast…only eight left…hurry!
I gulped when I saw this ’64. Ghia did this…rear window? That is so wrong, especially on a car that is trying so hard to look as square and angular as possible.
$18,900, that’s $160,000 in 2020 dollars.
Here’s a ’57, which has always been my favorite year for these Imperials. In 1957, its styling was in a class of its own. By 1959, it was already looking out of date.
Dated or not, these Crown Limos all made a statement, and it was not a subtle one.
Well, Chrysler’s ring was never luxury limos. They never made more than a couple hundred of them per year. Chrysler’s ring was low-price limos for big families and taxis. From 1936 to 1954 Chrysler owned that market. They got back into their own ring in ’84 with the minivan.
Cadillac knocked the shit out of Imperial, Lincoln and,most of all, the stodgy, dated Packards in the 40’s and 50’s, not to mention the sixties…..
Ring?
Definitely concur on the rear window on the ’64. It’s a monstrosity. I realize they were shooting for “the carriage trade,” but swear before God, that thing LOOKS like i was taken off a carriage. What in the name of all that’s holy were they thinking??
Might there be more to the story? Who was Mr. Walker Way, and were these limos essentially some sort of special order for Mr. Way and Manhattan, dressed up and promoted as a factory project?
If so, the oval rear window may be some sort of regional NYC status symbol. So many of the more eccentric auto styling exercises fit in perfectly with a specific time and place. Take the Studebaker Avanti. A photo of it in mid-century Palm Springs, CA, places it perfectly at home. Not so much in South Bend, back in the day.
Here’s Mr. Way. He was a Chrysler executive, serving as the head of merchandising in the early 1950s, when in 1955 he was appointed as the President of Chrysler Manhattan.
I’m not quite sure about the details of Chrysler Manhattan, but it was a factory-direct sales branch of sorts that specialized in high-end sales. Apparently, quite a lot of 300s were ordered through Chrysler Manhattan, and presumably, most (or maybe all?) of these exclusive, custom-made Imperial limos.
I assume that the lure of the Halo Effect was strong here — that Chrysler could claim to make the most expensive American car.
If I recall correctly, there were no Imperial Crown Limousines made for 1962, but they re-emerged (with that oval rear window) in ’63 – and that particular car had its public debut… not at an auto show, but rather at the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden in New York. I think Chrysler sponsored the Horse Show, and since it was a big social event for the ultra-rich, it seemed a logical place to show off their new limo. Undoubtedly, a few of the dozen or so folks who bought one attended that show.
Love it or hate it, that oval window let the people driving in back of you know that you were not in just any ordinary Imperial.
The reason to ride in a limousine,
Is the desire to be seen.
Don Michael Corleone’s Imperial limousine at his Lake Tahoe estate was even more exclusive than I thought. Any idea how many Chrysler/Ghia produced in 1958?
My first thought when I saw the photo!
If you listen closely, you can hear the fan belt slipping…making a screaching noise…..as the chauffeur turns the wheel.
Power steering belt.
I believe that Imp limo labelled as a ’57 is actually a ’58, the ’57 grille should look like this (pic) whereas the ’58 has the subtle vertical bars as shown above:
Here’s the ’58:
I know nothing of these–but totally see what a wow they were in 1957, and dated by 1963. And, thanks to Robert Kim, I see how special the “Godfather” ar was…
This source—reliable?—gives all the yearly production figures. Also shows us a conventional, squared-off rear window for 1965, which is OK with me; but then one 1964 with the square window, too?: https://notoriousluxury.com/2015/04/11/crown-jewel-1964-ghia-landau-crown-imperial-limousine/
Is this the first landau vinyl roof, or is it another material?
Does anyone recognize the location in the top ad? There’s a NY flag. It isn’t the Plaza Hotel.
Ralph L – you are correct – it IS 58th Street at 5thAvenue, and adjacent to the Plaza which is to the right of the image.
The building with the flags is the former Savoy-Plaza Hotel, replaced by the General Motors Building.
Ghia Limousines were so exclusive – 10-15 made per year – that you had to write a letter of application to Chrysler and be selected. These were not retail items that one just ordered, you were ordained to have one.
They weren’t simply “stretch jobs” – New cars were sent to Ghia in Italy with the stronger convertible X frame under them, and the cars were totally reworked.
Note that the car has aircraft style doors that curve up into the roof, no drip-rails? This was extreme craftsmanship in the old-world tradition, made possible by Italy’s impoverished state in the 1950’s where people who could still do this work were relatively plentiful. I read something about a courtyard at Ghia where there were a herd of tree stumps that had been shaped specifically for panel-beating and that workmen would hand-hammer panels on them.
This is a deeper dive into that topic:
https://www.web.imperialclub.info/Articles/GhiaImperialsRLangworth/index.htm
The names of people who had them were AAA Royalty of society – Jackie O rode in the white house’s 1960 to JFK’s funeral, The 64 White house car served LBJ. Juan Trippe, Rockefeller. Those sorts.
https://www.web.imperialclub.info/Yr/1960/Kennedy/index.htm
The smaller rear windows were for privacy and DID harken to the carriage trade and tradition. Note that unlike modern crap-can “Limos” that are stretched at the B-pillar, these were stretched just in front of the C-pillar? That’s the difference between a “Limo” and a “Limousine” in my mind.
This additional length before the C pillar moved the back seat rearwards and created the need for the additional window rear of the rear door window/or allowed that section to be a blind panel if you REALLY wanted to stay out of sight.
https://www.web.imperialclub.info/Yr/1964/Limo/index.htm
This design allowed the famous person the ability to step in and sit BACK into the rear of the car, away from flashbulbs and other people next to them at the stoplight.
The oval rear window was an option, and it made most of the press photos, but was in the minority – most of the rear windows were smaller-than-stock rectangular shapes from the top-of-the-line Le Baron model – the Imperial model that shipped with NO OPTIONS, because it had them all. It also included a smaller, more formal backlight (rear window) to set itself apart from the rest of the Imperial line 1959-1973
The Online Imperial Club is at http://www.imperialclub.com and I help out there. We have a sweet tooth for formal cars, and if you go to IMPERIALS BY YEAR, select your year, and look at the top of the page, you’ll see a button titled “LIMOUSINES” – click that for everything that we’ve ever found in 27 years of looking. Also note that we process our images before posting – color correcting and descreening them. They have large-format files available (throughout the site) that can be printed – no yellowing or dots.
It’s interesting to see that they were aiming for, and reaching, a more exclusive and glamorous clientele (I get the impression in the ’60s it didn’t get much more so than Jackie) than the Cadillac Series 75 limousines which were semi-mass produced and went to car services and the funeral trade by the hundreds.
Cadillac limos were limited production models and they achieved the private rear seat by adapting coupe rear quarter panels and roofs. I agree that a true, classic limousine does not have the rear door open to reveal the passenger, they have to actually exit the passenger compartment to be seen. Those stretch jobs are a travesty and a parody. There is nothing aristocratic about them or their use.
Having recently taken a trip to Vegas where I rode in a few limousines, I can definitely claim a preference for those that are NOT simply stretched at the B-pillar. Being a fairly tall, large guy, it’s much more to comfortable enter and exit the ones with a proper stretch – that is, immediately in front of the C-pillar.
Unfortunately, the cheesy “party limos” outnumber the true limousines by at least 2 to 1 (and probably more).
I very much enjoyed your fact-filled post. Thanks.
I recall reading an article in SIA years and years ago on these. Chrysler had done the 55-56 limo in-house, but the Ghia solution was probably a win-win, from both reduced costs and snob appeal of hand-built by Ghia.
I love this advertising concept. “Here is our limo. Unless you apply and we choose you, you can’t have it.”
I wonder what kind of car Mr. Walker May drove, (or was driven in)
This was a car that never needed more cow bell.
The Rockefeller home Kykuit in NY’s Hudson Valley has a 1959. Very impressive automobile.
Indeed, Governor Rockefeller had two exactly the same . One was kept at his 5 AVE apt in the City and the other in Albany for his first wife Mary Todhunter Rockefeller to use . She often stayed at the Governor’s Mansion ……. Perhaps so Nelson could , Ah, enjoy the company of Happy Rockefeller , his second wife, the former
Margarita Fidler Murphy , the then wife of a Rockefeller University Md , research professor.
After the scandal and divorce, Happy went to court in an attempt to regain custody of the Murphy children . She lost !
The Rockefeller estate Kikuit has a magnificent “barn” a brick English Tudor style building with the collection of carriages and cars of the Rockefeller family over the years ! Nelson’s last Imperial Ghiais one there with license plate NYS 1 .
FYI ……Todd , as she was called , hated the upstate Imperial…..she had custom made Checker type taxis made into limos for her ! Of course they were ground up brand new with all the bells and whistles including mouton fur carpets.
Only 25 people in the world could posses one of these, but it took just one ignorant copy writer to misspell the word “Carrozzeria” in the second sentence and undercut the whole made-in-Europe-by-Italian-craftsmen conceit. I wonder how many people even noticed this in 1960. Obviously not the person whose assignment was to proofread the ad.
No spellcheck on his IBM Selectric typewriter…
Chrysler management knew they could not compete with the Cadillac Fleetwood 75’s for volume livery/limousine sales. They had tried from 1946 through 1954 when the Crown Imperial was based on bodies shared with Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler livery/taxi models. As luxurious and finely crafted as the 1955-’56 Crown Imperials are, such low-volume coachbuilding operations made little sense for a company the size of Chrysler Corporation.
Ghia was a natural to contract to coach build this series given their show car performance. Quantity was completely a secondary consideration; these were solely to generate prestige for the automaker. Hence the application process which itself contained the implication that one had to qualify to be selected for this privilege. These motorcars were not for just anyone even if they had the wherewithal to purchase one.
Whether they had the intended or any effect on Imperial sales is moot. They are the very last of truly coach-built Imperials that went back to the inception of the series.
From the AACA Forum
https://forums.aaca.org/topic/178860-1957-65-imperial-limousines-by-ghia-for-chrysler/#comment-886029
Classier than the horrible mobile crawl spaces that are stretched out today and almost exclusive that combined with the hand built by Ghia makes them a true luxury car.
A far less glamorous Imperial limo in the 1970 film THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN
I Know a little history about this car.
T he production Was Hard and dificult, and the New changes in guía factory become impossible the production. For this, a little spanish manufacturer called Barreiros finished the job.
This car is the only guía that was made in spain.
What engine did it have?