It recently came to my attention that among the “loved-or-hated” 1958-60 generation of Lincoln motorcars, there are only curbside examples profiled on CC of the 1958 and 1960 models . . . but no ’59s. So today we’re going to fill this terrible vacancy, and include a ’58 and a ’60 to boot! The following photos I took myself using a 35mm camera with Kodachrome slide film in the fall of 1989–thirty-three and a half years ago!
First I have to point out that 1989 was a long time ago–this is a picture of me graduating from college that year.
Now I had been an old car enthusiast for a long time then, and I read a lot of classic car magazines. My main area of interest was American cars from 1955-62, and I discovered that while some years, makes, and models from that era were commonly written about, others that I really liked were basically ignored, much to my disappointment.
So I approached Car Collector & Car Classics and asked them if they would like me to write an article for them on the 1958-60 Lincolns. They said yes, so I wrote the article, but I needed pictures of these cars to go with it.
In those pre-Internet days, you couldn’t just Google search images or names of owners of these cars–1958, ’59, and ’60 cars of any make were quite scarce even then. But somehow I managed to find three owners (one for each model year) who agreed to have their cars photographed for my article. The ’58 owner (Robert Vogelsang from Long Island) supplied his own photos; the other two gentlemen, John Zaleski of Edison NJ with his ’59, and Joseph Nicastro, Jr. of South Plainfield with his ’60 agreed to meet me in Chatham so I could take pictures. It was great meeting them and seeing their beautiful cars in person!
Car Collector & Car Classics published the article in their July 1990 issue. However, because of space limitations, only a few of my photos were used, and they were printed in black and white, not color. So until now, no one has seen these slides in full, glorious color except me. In fact, it would be impossible to produce these images today because Kodachrome went out of production in 2009–you can’t obtain Kodachrome, and nobody can develop it anymore. And we all know that Kodachrome can’t be matched for that certain depth of color richness and softness that modern methods cannot truly duplicate. CC has many posts showcasing vintage Kodachrome slides that make the world look wonderful!
c. 1960 or 2022? My attempts to re-create the look of a vintage Kodachrome slide using a smartphone camera and photo imaging software.
So here are the slides from 1989, which I just had converted to digital format for posting on this site:
Robert Vogelsang’s 1958 Lincoln Continental Mark III convertible: (Kodachrome slides provided by the owner)
From the 1958 Lincoln brochure, convertibles shown in Deauville Yellow and Jade. As Ed Sullivan said when introducing these cars on his show, “Those are really knockouts, aren’t they? I had my eye on one down at the factory–it’s a Mark III in Peach! Oh, brother–this is really a job! So stop in at your Continental and Lincoln dealer’s this week, and see these magnificent new cars for yourself!”
John Zaleski’s 1959 Lincoln 4-door Landau: (Kodachrome slides taken by me in Chatham NJ, 1989)
Very similar to the one Norman Rockwell drives (except Mr. Rockwell’s is a Premiere, one trim level above the regular Lincoln series).
Like that Mid-Century Modern concrete block in the background? I thought it was the perfect backdrop for this Lincoln.
Here’s a Google Streetview of the same building today. The solid wall of hedge has been broken up. That’s not a flag at half staff–it’s a flagpole attached partway up a streetlight post.
“3 TONS”. Yup, that says it all! (Actual shipping weight is listed as 5000 pounds, so that’s 1000 pounds short. Load it up with a few heavy passengers and some luggage and you might get to three tons).
In this recently posted YouTube commercial, Les Tremayne and the charming Julia Meade show us why this 1959 Lincoln is so spectacular:
Here’s the 1959 Continental version. Hard to distinguish from the Lincoln and Lincoln Premiere from this angle. Main differences are grille texture, triple taillights, reverse-angled backlight, and more lushly-trimmed upholstery.
This generation of Lincolns were available in some very exotic colors with names like Claret, Sapphire, Rosemetal Iridescent (extra cost), Cameo Rose, Jade, Suede, Sunstone, Burnished Gold, Peacock Green. When selected, such vibrant color tones could do wonders for these cars.
The unique “aircraft-type” instrument panel which was shared with the ’58s. The odometer read about 30,000 miles, which was claimed to be original.
Joseph Nicastro, Jr.’s 1960 Lincoln Continental Mark V 4-door Landau:
Just like this ad. “A new peak of perfection in America’s finest motorcar.”
The 1960 Lincoln grew pointy new “Dagmar” bumpers, which had been dropped in ’59. This was not the last American car to have them–in 1961, Buick sprouted a new pair.
1950s TV star Dagmar, and bumper bullets on the 1956 Cadillac. I think you get the idea.
The dashboard was completely redesigned for 1960, with four round dials in pods which closely resembled the gauges on the 1956-57 Continental Mark II.
A tour-de-force of modern industrial design. The overall look with that thick steering column makes it seem like you’re piloting the USS Norfolk. Everything feels big . . . solid . . . spacious . . . smooth. I actually got to drive it around the block. This ain’t no Honda!
Side-by-side views:
1960 Continental and 1959 Lincoln look dramatically different from the rear, even though they’re basically the same car.
10 nanoseconds before a head-on collision between a ’59 and a ’60. (This is just a simulation–no collision occurred.)
Back-to-back shows some interesting differences.
Looking back on it now, I wonder about the guys I met that day in Chatham and their cars. How are they doing? Do they still own the cars which were in such nice original condition? A lot happens in 33 years. If they were age 40 or 50 then, they’re 73 or 83 now. The world, and all of our individual lives have changed so much. I guess that’s one reason I like old cars–the original condition survivors are tangible links to a past which was real and beautiful in its own way. And no matter which old cars we’re drawn to, that’s precious!
There’s still something that I like about those three cars, as well as the 56 and 57. They, not the 59 Cadillac, have always been the true exponents of Fifties Excess. Admittedly, I’ve never had the desire to actually own one (my taste runs more to Citroen DS’ if I want weird), but I still like them.
And with every styling revision, it got a little worse. That 60 back end is nothing to write home about compared to the 59.
This is my favorite car story that I’ve read in my lifetime. The whole Kodachrome thing is fantastic! Drove in a ’58 Continental in 1963, twice, and the feeling of luxury exceeded any car I’ve ever been in. It was such beautiful excess and amazingly powerful for most any car of the time, much less a six ton land yacht.
More than any other car, I realized even as a kid, that one “arrived”, when owning a car like that. Once had a friend that was an amateur car designer. He was super talented. His old drawings were amazing. He explained that he quit, the moment he viewed the ’58 Continental.
Thanks for sharing, Stephen. One of my favorite things about this site is that I never know what I will wake up to!
I’m an unabashed fan of these 58-60 Lincolns, but I realize that puts me in a significant minority here. The styling of all these barges is way out there, to be sure (exactly how much did they have to pay Norman Rockwell to call it “clean”), but I’ll take mine in a ’58, please. Its styling is the most wild, with the separate headlight pods and most wildly scalloped fenders (both of which got toned tone a bit in 59 and 60).
Smartphone are cool but no one did a song about it like Paul Simon did with Kodachrome. 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rlDTK6QI-w
Btw, interesting to note then these 1958-60 Lincolns borrowed some styling cues from the proposed 1957 Packard that never was.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/forgotten-future/cc-forgotten-future-1957-packard/
Kodachrome has not only a song but also a state park named for it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodachrome_Basin_State_Park
My 15 year old granddaughter is quite a little firecracker. I have no doubt that she’s never heard of Paul Simon or Kodachrome and doesn’t care. However, she just got grounded for one month for who knows what and she lost her cell phone for punishment. I’m hearing Paul Simon singing “Momma don’t take my cell phone, Momma don’t take my cell phone, Momma don’t take my cell phone away!” Different times. Different priorities.
Ive hardly ever seen these cars in the metal, I consider that a good thing the styling is bizarre even for 50s USA, pieces of that styling appeared on other models but Lincoln got the whole lot and its just weird.
A classmate’s father (quite well off financially) had one when I began junior high school. As I remember it, it was white, and I thought that it was distinctively beautiful. Of course that was before I ever saw a ’56 Continental Mark II.
These cars look menacing and evil to me, especially in black. Fascinating, to be sure.
I always thought that the Soviet Union should have used these as the basis for ZIL styling instead of the 1955-56 Packard (and later the 1964-66 Imperial).
Great article, been an old car nut since I’m a kid also…I like them in original condition.. I have the 60 Lincoln tail light setup on my 63 s22 convertible… Those big ones were some boats.. Actually saw a 60 convertible at a Cruise in in ct. Last year very impressive… My little comet
Here’s the ’62 Comet S-22 my mother had which I drove in the late ’80s:
Nice styling on this two door Comet. Really like the sporty looks of the car. Was it a good driver by the 1980s?
I wrote about it here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/car-of-a-lifetime-1962-mercury-comet-s-22/
Great story on the Comet. So I guess the driving experience could be best characterized as “vintage 1960s”. I’m just a little older than you. Born in 1965. That Benz you pictured at the end of the story is beautiful. Always liked the styling and proportions of that model.
I’ve tried and repeatedly failed to simulate Kodachrome in the digital space. If you have one in your hand and see the scan on the screen, you’d know what I mean. That just can’t quite be done justice. The richness of certain colors and a near 3d depth of view get lost. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate digital photos and what it’s done for us, but Kodachrome is a unique extinct and poison form. Maybe gone, but we’re richer for having had it.
An enjoyable writeup of cars I never saw on the street even back in the 1960s, and have only seen once-twice at shows all these years. I’ll hope these survive and are in good hands, ’cause they sure looked good in 1989!
Here’s the studio set for a print ad:
And here it is with the final product:
wow, the backgound/backdrop actually looks like they’re outside and not on a stage set.
One of my beater cars during college in the 70s was a ’60 Continental. Paid $95 for it. The car was in amazingly good condition for the price, but these old luxury sleds had no resale value by the time they had aged a decade +. The transportation value for the money couldn’t be beat. However, these darn things were hugely expensive to actually run.
Even with the 1960’s 2v carburetor, double digit fuel mileage occurred only occasionally. The dual exhausts with mufflers and resonators rusted quickly on leaded gas and road salt. Just replacing the exhaust could cost 3x the value of the entire car, so various patches were an ongoing project as the cars aged. The windshield wipers operating off the return lines of the power steering system were cable driven units that were easily damaged if you’d forget to free a frozen wiper before turning them on. Repair required removing both the exterior cowling and extensive dashboard disassembly. The power window wire routing in the door hinge area was poorly designed and prone to breaking after a few years of flexing. These cars had some really daunting maintenance issues for a used car.
Despite the problems, I recall them as a wonderfully comfortable ride. My Continental had a limited slip diff. Combined with the weight of the car and a proper set of studded snow tires (recaps of course), the car was almost unstoppable in the snow. It had to be deep enough to start grounding the chassis before the car would have trouble moving. In winter, the car had 2 heater cores and did a wonderful job ducting air through the doors to the rear passengers. The breezeway rear window was a great feature in summer with a non-AC Wisconsin car.
The car wasn’t particularly quick, but it pulled like a locomotive. I was lucky I had the time and knowledge to keep mine reasonably well repaired for the year I owned it. For someone who had to hire the work out? Well, there was a good reason resale value was so low.
Though this generation of Lincoln is not my favorite (I prefer the 1955 and 1957 models as well as the 1960s versions) of these three model years, I like the ’58 and ’59 better. The tail ends of these two just look better to me than the ’60.
The design team of those Lincolns, particularly the 60, must have been taking LSD at the time as I can see no other way anyone would have thought they were good looking if clean.
While very much acquainted with Kodachrome, it was the only color film I shot back then, I’d be very curious about the cameras used. The focus on many of the shots is quite soft as it is not the film which was known for fine grain. Below Kodachrome 1976.
I had the same thought, about these scans all being very soft and low resolution. I assume it was in the scanning process. Maybe Stephen can tell us how he scanned these.
I too would like to know how he scanned these. I have a lot of slides that I am having trouble scanning decently.
I don’t find it hard to scan my slides at all. I use the holder that came with my Epson V550 and have a far easier time scanning my slides than I do negatives.
All the slides used here were scanned exactly that way:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/vintage-snapshots-and-photography/vintage-slides-car-show-1972/
Kodachrome: the first truly successful color slide film. It’s amazing it stayed in production as long as it did, considering the complexity of its processing. But its longevity under good storage conditions is superb. The ultrafine grain made the quality of the camera’s optics the limiting factor in resolution. And the colors captured never felt exaggerated to me. (Ektachrome by the late ’70s or early ’80s had become stable and long-lasting, but the colors could be a bit overdone to me.) Scanning Kodachrome is a challenge, though, because it captured so much detail even in dark areas of photos.
I saw a few of this era of Lincoln when I was a kid and the cars were still young. (No doubt purchased from Selby Lincoln-Mercury, across the street from Paulin Oldsmobile-Cadillac.) Our family doctor had one, and he made house calls on more than one occasion, driving his Lincoln. (This was in the early ’60s, I think, when some doctors still made house calls.)
I love Kodachrome for enhancing textures like no digital camera can.
I know this story is about Lincolns and indeed these are some magnificent cars but boy do I miss Kodachome! To me it was/is the finest color film ever produced! I still have my full complements of 35mm cameras and lenses; Canon Ftb, 2 F1’s and an EF along with about 10 lenses gathering dust. along with a full color darkroom equipment. Digital just cannot compare
These are the cars that certainly demonstrated the “MId Century Modern,” Googie design. All flat planes and angles, free floating planes, like the reverse slat roof. Consider that the styling of the ’58 Cadillac could best be described as baroque, while the ’59 especially would be Space Age Futuristic, and the cleaned up ’60 model repeated that tune at a slightly lower volume.
My favorite is the original 1958, with the front fender blades conforming to the contour of the front fender wheel cove. I prefer the oval treatment of the rear end over the flat 1960. From a direct side view, the design flows very well. The biggest controversy, besides the large size of the vehicles, are the canted headlamps. The ’58 has body colored pods that contain the lamps, I find that bolder design to be more pleasing, while the following years tried to tone down the design and better integrate them into the grille.
The colors really do make these cars pop, that pink convertible is the ultimate manifestation of the late Fifties Dreamboat.
Maybe these will be more appreciated by the fans of Fifties architecture, they look better to me now, than they did when they were ten years old. Just like the design of Eichler houses has grown on me.
It’s amusing to think that when Lincoln released the advertising for the ’60 model, they knew that the revolutionary 1961 was waiting in the wings. Just imagine how the owner that bought a new ’60 Lincoln felt upon the release of the 1961 model. His car, that still smelled like brand new, now looked a decade out of style!
Thanks for the great article and pictures!
I`m surprised this article did not show that white `59 ? convertible with Eva Marie Saint driving away from Mt. Rushmore in the great classic ‘North by Northwest.’
I have always loved these cars. They can seat four abreast in comfort. Attached is a picture of Mrs. Oleg Cassini driving her 1959. Look at the size of Mrs. Cassini in relationship to this gargantuan car! I remember when I first saw a ’58 four-door with a black leather interior. It was beautiful. By the1960’s black interiors became more common aa were, sadly, common, whereas the Continental Mark III interior in black was elegant. Thanks for the memories.
Stephen: Thanks for this. At best I’d say they are intriguing cars. I had a prestige brochure for the ’60 Lincolns that even illustrated a Lincoln formal limo. Picked that up from Fran Kral Lincoln-Mercury when the cars were new.
One year my dad had a ’62 Olds Dynamic 88 in the garage. Never realized until today how similar the rear of that car was to the ’59 Lincoln. Take away the skegs and modify the fins a bit and the Lincoln becomes an Olds (at least the back).
The rear end of the ’59 looks Pontiac-ish of the same year.
My ’60 in Sapphire…color does make a difference!
Beautiful color and the photo is stunning!
I’m partial to blue, turquoise, or green on cars, especially vibrant shades.
Me three!
I hate to say, the 1958 Packard line was an insult to the marque when parked next to a Lincoln of the same year. (A digitally scanned Kodachrome negative)
Wow, that’s the most ’58 Packards I’ve seen in one place, other than perhaps dealerships in 1958. There’s not much to judge by but the exit sign and whatever is at the top left look quite modern so I don’t think it’s from back then, but the use of Kodachrome means it’s over a decade old.
So much to love in this article.
I remember buying and reading that magazine issue, all those years ago. (I still have the copy). Even them the 58-60 Lincolns were a fascinating mystery.
I love the late 50’s FoMoCo style across the divisions, in that its fully developed but free of the Earl/Mitchell styling cues. The tail and interior treatments worked best; fascinating retro-futurism detail built into the shapes themselves, more sculpted and less tacked – on ornamentation.
Lincoln really pulled out the stops in their advertising, with an impressive array of celebrities and leaders of industry weighing in on the cars. Name dropping to be sure with with a hint of intellectualism.
Finally, I found its interesting how quickly these cars moved through their life cycle, aging and depreciating very quickly , becoming worthless beaters in a few short years, then becoming collectible classics, a fascinating look into mid-century modern, all well within 30 years. I can’t imagine a singe 30 year old car today going through such a cycle.
I still have a deep fascination with these cars. These had pretty much disappeared from normal life by the time they were ten years old, where you still would occasionally see old Cadillacs or Imperials. I have never forgotten a weathered tan/copper 59 or 60 Premiere sedan that my friend Dan and I would ride our bikes just to see, as it sat immobile in someone’s driveway in probably 1973 or so.
I still (slightly) prefer the styling of the 59 over the 58 or 60, but would not kick any of them out of the driveway (I couldn’t kick it out of the garage because it might not fit). But I have reached the age where I must admit that I am not up for the ownership challenge of a car like this, with its many complex systems.
I’m the owner of The 1960 Lincoln Mark V 4 Door Hard Top, which I still own today. I can’t believe 33 years have passed since Stephen Pellegrino wrote that amazing article on the 1958-1960 Lincolns. They are massive unibody Automobiles.The 60 Lincoln is fully loaded except for it has no air conditioning.
Thanks for chiming in, good to hear it is still around and in my mind amazing it’s still with the same owner as 33 years ago. How is it doing?
I contacted Robert Vogelsang (owner of the ’58 convertible). He sent another picture, taken in the 1980s, of him behind the wheel. He sold the car about 25 years ago. Its last known location was Saratoga, New York.
Picture:
Those 58’s are so very cool as a Convertible. The body sculpture is so defined.
Finally found pics of the 60 I saw last July with the tail lights like my 63 s22 comet
Front pic