(first posted 10/31/2014) Where have all the old hearses gone? There was a time when these body haulers were a common alternative to the VW bus (conveniently displayed in the back) if you wanted to hit the road as a group, or just collect a group as you rolled along. Plenty of stretch-out room, and gas was cheap. Throw some mattresses in the back, and scrounge some cans of left-over paint to redecorate the outside. Go somewhere, do something. Riding around in a hearse was a perfect way to express one’s youthful immortality. Have kids stopped being immortal?
I googled endlessly to find one with a nice psychedelic paint job, but this ’55 is the best I could do. But the vintage is about right; our CC 1970 hearse was still in front line duty back then. But Caddy hearses and ambulances from the early fifties were common and cheap back then, since funeral operators couldn’t be seen driving such outdated iron, thanks to Detroit’s rapid styling changes. Nowadays, I see hearses twenty years old sitting under the carport of the funeral home, waiting patiently for the next revenue run.
The business end of a hearse is always the rear door, even if it is a handsome vintage Caddy. The big question is always what’s inside, especially if you were hitchhiking, and one pulled over.
Would it be this?
Or this? Depends on your luck. More likely a band, all jammed in with their amps. I do remember a mixed-gender ride in one somewhere near Mendocino which led to a chilly overnight camp-out on the beach, but the details are a bit fuzzy right now thanks to what was circulating in our bloodstream.
Thanks to the magic of google, I did stumble on a site devoted to the cult of the hearse, but with a more current flavor than the hippie-flavored hearse culture of yore. Times change; tastes change.
No Caddy hearse/ambulance piece would be complete without the above picture of a rather famous ’59
And since we’ve taken that detour, let’s go ahead and add in another stellar ’59, like this wild one.
And the “Cathedral”, complete with VW body as part of the upper structure.
Enough temporal distractions; let’s not ignore this handsome 1970 Cadillac which supplied the basis for this hearse. I wasted so much time trying to find an image of a proper psychedelic hippie-hearse, that I didn’t try to identify the maker of this particular hearse body. Turns out it’s a Superior. There used to be quite a few of them, but it’s dwindled down, over the decades. Do they throw a funeral parade when a hearse maker shuts down?
There’s plenty of power under this hood in case someone wanted a high-speed funeral parade. I assumed these commercial chassis came with the 472 CID (7.7 L) mill that churned out 375 hp, but the owner of this “funeral coach” as he pointed out was the correct term has the 500 CID (8.2 L) engine. Hmm; can anyone confirm that’s what the commercial cars came with in 1970? Either way, it’s the high water mark for classic Cadillac hearses (oops). I do wonder if some of the hearses built with Caddy’s 140 hp 4.1 L engine in the eighties struggled a bit.
The funeral business is intrinsically a traditional one, or at least slow to change. Hearse styling cues have forever aped the old horse-drawn hearses of yore, although that textured bright work is a distinctly contemporary seventies touch.
Actually, the funeral business is going through changes too, and natural burial sites are a hot thing here now. And how best to get you there than this bike hearse. Where is this service located? In Eugene, of course. Now I know why I’m not seeing as many old hearses around.
I’d be quite happy to roll out to a natural burial site in a meadow, encased in a quickly-decaying basket or cardboard box. But I think I’d feel bad about someone trying to pedal me out that far; all that huffing and puffing. I’ll take this fine old Caddy, preferably with some nice low-restriction mufflers or glass-packs on that high-compression big V8, whichever size it is. Got to have some music to go out with.
Stones’ ‘Shine a Light’ will see me out.
I’m not that much into hearses, but man, that is a sad sight. Its apparent static decay leads me to guess it probably wasn’t in too bad a shape when it was left there to rot.
There are two very different types of “professional car” hobbyists, and they don’t particularly like each other. On one side there’s the “hearse clubs”. Most of their cars are customized to one degree or another and “death” imagery (caskets, skulls etc) is very popular. This is where you’ll usually find the stereotypical Goth-type who drives a hearse.
On the other side there’s the Professional Car Society. Think of them as the Bloomington Gold of hearses, ambulances and limos. (though not as obsessed with stuff like date codes and tire tread pebbles) The PCS is made up largely of folks who work in the funeral biz and veteran EMTs who were around during the Mother, Jugs and Speed ambulance era. The PCS has strict rules against caskets and any sort of “macabre” imagery on a hearse or flower car. (“tasteful” floral displays are permitted) Ambulances are allowed to have stretchers and other medical equipment so long as it’s all period correct for the car.
Regardless of one’s philosophy on how these cars should be preserved, at least people are doing it. They’re all rare, (even when the pro-car industry was at its peak Cadillac never shipped more than a couple thousand commercial chassis per year) and even today’s badge-engineered Accubuilt (S&S and Superior) cars are still built with a lot of work by hand.
As it always is in any hobby or ideology field-there are the purists/traditionalists/orthodox and then there are the innovators/progressivists/heterodox.
In hobby fields, I think the dichotomy makes it interesting. I’m firmly in the purist camp on about anything.
Well ;
My Hearse is kinda scruffy ~ it’s a Shop Truck and I have to put my few Dollars into my old Chevy Pickup , I doubt either I nor my brother will ever even re paint the hearse , I think it’d look much better is we compounded then waxed the current paint but he says no .
Mechanically it runs fine as do most stockers .
Those other things pictured here , I know for a fact they’re all un maintained and will hit the junkyard soon , I hate those things as they have sufficient $ to buy decent survivors & screw them up then run them straight into the ground .
GRrrrrrrrr.
-Nate
What better vehicle to take your last ride in than a Cadillac hearse.
Nice car .
I hope that ’55 Superior was a movie car ! i’d have to b*tch slap the fools who did that for real to a clean one .
-Nate
hehehe I would *love* to see that b*tch slap
F.Y.I. It’s from a late 70’s-early 80’s? movie “The Warriors” 🙂
You must be referring to the one from the 1979 Warriors NY gangs of the near future movie. “Oh warriors, come out to play! “. Back in the late 80s a alternative clothes store worker drove around in a, I think a 69, 70 Caddy hearse. He told us it was speed limited to 40 mph. He just drove it around town to basically advertise the store so lack of speed was never a problem. Folks will turn ambulances in to campers.,some one died but many helped to live but hearses, their for the demolition derby race when but out to grass.
Let’s not forget Claire Fisher’s ride on Six Feet Under…
How about the gorgeous 1996 they destroyed for the scene where her dad died?
The correct engine for a 1970 Superior (the coach builder is always listed first ) Cadillac Hearse is a 472. Like all Cadillacs except for the Eldorado, the Commercial Chassis first received the 500 in 1975.
You’re right. The ’68, ’69 & ’70 would have the 472.
But by ’71, the normal Cadillac line got 500’s (technically 501’s)
Why would the commercial line retain the 472 after ’70? You sure???
Only the ’71 Eldorado had the 500-cu-in engine. The Calais, DeVille, Fleetwood Brougham and Fleetwood Seventy-Five all used the 472-cu-in engine up to and including 1974. And the 500-cu-in engine really was 500-cu-in. There was no 501 or 502. That inaccuracy started because there was a tag on a hose with those numbers.
The ’55 pictured above is from the movie “The Warriors.”
Many years ago, I was told the same thing from a guy who owned a 1970 Fleetwood 75 that he said, had a 500 cu.in engine instead of a 472… I can’t confirm if it’s true or not and I didn’t ask for more details about it…
A lot of the 472/500 confusion stems from the fact that the 1968/69 500s were different blocks than the 472s. Starting in 1970 the 472s all got the 500 block. The only difference in a 70+ 472 is the crank. Everything else is the same. So when people run the block numbers in their car it comes up as a 500 block even though if they measured the stroke they would find out they actually have a 472
When I was about 13 or so, a guy down the street from my best friend was a plumber who used a 1960 Cad hearse as his business truck. It was in decent shape and around 14-15 years old at the time. I think it was a Superior, but am not sure. Black, of course.
I think newer ones hold their value better with the slower change in styles, and you no longer get the simple but high quality running gear that Cadillac used to be famous for. And maybe kids try to rebel against their parents in other ways now.
Not hearses, but I saw this ad for the Superior Seventy today on another site. I could really go for that Pontiac chassis “consort” ambulance!
I like to think of these as “Cadillac Station Wagons”.
“Warriors… come out to play-ay”
Yeah, the guys in that hearse were decidedly not psychedelic.
There don’t seem to have been many Mopar based professional cars, but a decade ago I ran across this ’77 Chrysler
Given their popularity as police cars, I’m a little surprised there weren’t more Mopar ambulances.
Newport?. Wonder if it had the 440 with cop suspension and brakes. Fastest hearse to the crem so always in front of the que. I know I’m talking about the Blues Brothers 74 Monaco here. Artistic licence….
Dan, this looks like a very slight customization of a standard T&C wagon, complete with full interior. Chryslers were not popular with coachbuilders because of their Unibody construction.
Armbruster-Stageway did some limo stretches on Chryslers, so maybe this could be one of theirs. Also, many funeral homes found it more economical to use smaller and less expensive vehicles for things that were not full funerals, such as trips to hospitals and morgues. I recall standard station wagons being used in the 70s, and have seen minivans doing such duty more recently.
I have little doubt this is a real funeral coach.
There were a few “small time” coach builers – mainly in the South, for some reason, that did a vast array of coaches on just about any chassis you wanted.
Non-stretched Fords and Chevs were actually common in the ’50s and ’60s.
But many of these low-cost cars were stretched as well.
The ’70s Stageway stretched Chrystler sedans were referred to as “Airport Limos”. (Don’t know if that was an official term)
Hadn’t thought about the unibody thing. That does make sense.
What other choice do they have now, though? Guess they had to make-do…
“I recall standard station wagons being used in the 70s, and have seen minivans doing such duty more recently.”
A local funeral director uses a Hyundai iLoad van (reasonably common here) for collection duties. The only way you can pick it is the silver paint and TFS- plates that match the rest of their fleet.
If I was running a funeral home I would look at running a 1950-60s hearse, I bet more people would be interested in something classic rather than a modern interpretation. Its not as though they have a hard life that would create maintenance challenges.
Bike hearse? My first reaction was ICK! HIPPIE CRAP!
After a bit more thought it’s a decent idea in terms of efficiency and resources. Which vehicle naturally goes 5 MPH without overheating? A bicycle.
However, the open basketwork coffin is going to need a lot more flowers by the end of the ride.
THANK YOU for all the added photos ! .
I’m on another computer this morning and I still can’t seem to find photos of my ’80 Cadillac S & S Victoria hearse , it was a hit at the Haunted House in Echo Park last night….
-Nate
I believe at lot of our used hearses ended up the the third world. Many of those countries I’ve visited had American hearses going back to the late ’60s, and good portion non-Cadillac. Mexico, outside of wealthier urban areas, seems to favor 80’s Buick stock.
That may be true, but I do know that many other Countries that used US based chassis would be constructed by a coach builder in that country.
They are usually very different and sometimes rather odd looking compared to a Superior, or a top of the line S&S Hess & Eisenhardt.
I think this whole thing of adding mags, spiders, “creepy” graffics is VERY SAD.
I seriously doubt theses people know or even care their coaches are all hand made works of art.
In the early days in the “classic era”, to have a hand made coach built car on a Cadillac or Packard chassis meant you were a man of means, and (hopefully) a person of great taste and appreciation well thought out lines and proportions.
Sorry for the caps, but..THESE FUNERAL CARS AND AMBULANCES ARE just about THE LAST HAND-BUILT CARS IN AMERICA!
It really pisses me off they don’t get the respect they deserve.
End of tirade 🙂
Carrosseriefabriek Huiskamp from my country built hearses based on US cars for many decades. Now they import them straight from the US.
What’s this, a Mercury ?
Source and more pictures here: http://huiskamp.com/bedrijfsprofiel/
Huiskamp Carrosseriefabriek is the manufacturer in the Netherlands. It is a 1964Pontiac Parisienne from Canadian (or Australian)
http://huiskamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/elsxx1982
Yep, “carrosseriefabriek” means coachbuilder. Some other nice pictures here: http://www.oost-online.nl/index.php/cultuur/cultuur-en-meer/exposities-in-oost/2232-bedroefde-bolides-het-grote-lijkwagen-retrospectief-in-museum-tot-zover
Hand built. Don’t make me laugh. A lot of non Daimler hearses in the UK were just sedans or wagons with the back cut off and replaced with fibre glass panels. Watch them fold up in demolition derby race. OK for doing less than 40mph . Many funeral fleets had ex livery Daimler DS420 limos as no one cared their engines soon for the heavens.
That would be okay if the funeral cortege that didn’t involve a trip out of town. No good in rural areas then. A quick run down the highway would be, um, interesting.
This is how I want to be driven to my final rest! A new Rolls Royce Phantom Hearse!
http://www.autofocus.ca/news-events/rearview/going-out-in-a-rolls-royce-phantom-hearse-is-the-way-to-do-it
love the shot of Louise Lasser sitting cross-legged in the back of her Hearse (with her Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman hair out of their pigtails! ) I remember that photo from an article on her at the height of MH, MH popularity of just after.
For the price charged, this is what your loved one should get.
My grandfather prepaid for his cremation, but the mortician tried to exhort some ridiculous sum to take his ashes to the nearby cemetery for the interment ceremony, as it was not included. He lied, saying that it was mandatory under some code. A quick call to the regulatory board fixed that, that creep sounded like Ralph Kramden trying to apologize. He was already p-offed that we were providing our own urn, a nicer vase my Mom had quickly found at TJ Maxx for $20 after we were presented with the house prices for one. We used a boom box instead of his paid organist/wife. He claimed his PA system wouldnt play our CDs. We drove Grandpa ourselves in a relative’s Town Car. I would love to meet that caring professional again in a dark alley.
yep, I don’t want a ceremony of any kind. I think Prepaid is the way to go, but still there is so much fraud in the USA… hard to say what ‘service provider’ to trust!
Well done, Hat Man!!!
People that take advantage of death sicken me.
Lummox ;
When my ex Mother In Law Died after my wife left me , she and her idiot brother went to Forest Hills where the smiling sad looking man cheerfully signed them up for about $45,000.00 worth of BULLSHIT , of course the idiot brother (business owner who never helped nor offered one thin dime whilst M.I.L. lived with us then got sick and died) ‘ forgot ‘ to sign any papers so my ex woke up a few days later realizing she was holding some *very* expensive paper , called me and I went right down and read them the riot act ~ they were ashamed whilst in the lobby but not once they had me in the closed office so I kicked the door open and straightened them right the hell out .
Shameless bastards .
Cremate me then toss my ashes out ~ don’t weep for me after I’m gone .
-Nate
This is a sad story. But I like the way you write things down ! I can see the whole incident, from A to Z, happening right before my eyes…
Sad but true .
The Ex was a serious drama queen , I was young and clueless when I was 18 and married her ~ she married me penniless , gave me my Son and then left when I turned 35 ~ all in all I got out clean as a whistle ~ she didn’t want my crappy Ghetto house , old cars , motos or truck .
Interestingly ever since she calls guess who first , every time she crashes another husband or boyfriend .
My son is permanently pi$$ed off at her and asks me why she gets a pass when no one else ever does : because of _him_ of course .
Some trades are *so* easy to be dishonest in it’s amazing .
Mortuarys , Mechanics , Plumbers , HVAC Servicemen etc. .
it’s sad but true , I feel they can only take advantage of me with my permission .
I propped that @$$hat’s door open so he’d understand he could be nice or suffer my taking it out into the Lobby…. I didn’t have to yell nor raise my voice , that would have been impolite to the suffering people out there .
-Nate
That’s why I love living in a small town – the shysters have nowhere to hide.
See “Grand Theft Parsons” for a recent recreation of the psychedelic hippie hearse. Not a particularly creative one, I’ll grant.
BigOldChryslers wrote a story on the 66 Newport that appeared in the film and includes a pic of the 68 Caddy hearse.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-cinema/curbside-cinema-the-grand-theft-parsons-1966-chrysler-newport/
Gram is one of my favourite artists and that movie was a travesty considering how that story would have made a great film.
No Cadillac had a 500 except for the Eldorado until 1975. This includes all commercial chassis vehicles. For 1975-1976 they all had the 500. Since these engines are dimensionally identicall, they could be swapped with ease. BTW, the engine is a 500, not a 501.
The early 70’s hearse/ambulance combos like this with the professional chassis came stock with the 500 CID engine. The funeral home I started at had a 1973 S&S Cadillac and it had the 500 in it….monster engine!
Interesting to note then Superior had still kept the front vent windows while Cadillac dropped them.
Where have all the old hearses gone?
Is it just Halloween, or am I thinking more Ghostbusters cosplayers (like in that photo) than there really exist with them?
A 1972 ad with some hardly-old choices for us:
Paul, the commercial chassis caddy’s in the 80s never got the 4.1. they kept the 368 of 1980 all the way till 84, they also never got the 1981 V864 version of that engine, so they were actually powerful enough and reliable enough bro make damn good cars. Of course that all ended when the commercial chassis went FWD in 85
A half century on Cadillac is still the choice:
https://superiorcoaches.com/funeral-vehicles/
Though, what make these coachbuilders will turn to when the sedans are gone is anyone’s guess.
Almost looks as if they’re all building on the same platform:
https://armbrusterstageway.com/gallery-new-hearse-for-sale/new-funeral-coaches/
“You think when you die, you go to Heaven? You come to us!”
Regarding pics of psychedelic hearses, this one is a bit mild but here’s a very clean 1960 Eureka hearse with its owners at a concert in 1970
Great photo. That scene looks familiar.
? Is that Eureka a Superior body ? .
-Nate