ABOVE: 1949 Lincoln in the United Kingdom
Originally published in the May-June 2003 (#252) issue of Lincoln & Continental Comments magazine.
By Tim Howley
Where were you when the 1949-51 Lincolns and Lincoln Cosmopolitans were new? Remember, these cars were introduced on April 22, 1948. Senator Joe McCarthy was just starting his un- American Activities rampage. Babe Ruth made his last public appearance. Citation was the race horse of the year, Television was just beginning to come into American homes. But most folks remained content with their longtime favorite radio shows like Amos ‘n Andy, Burns & Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, The Aldrich Family and The Life of Riley. You listened to pre Rock ‘n Roll songs like The Tennessee Waltz, A Slow Boat to China, and Buttons and Bows. You went to innocent family movies like I Remember Mama, Paleface and Portrait of Jenny.
On Presidential Election night Harry S. Truman went to bed thinking that Governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey, had won the election. But the polls and the early election results were wrong. “Give ‘em hell Harry” won his first full term in his own right and rode to his inauguration triumphantly in the White House 1949 Lincoln Cosmopolitan convertible. The American public would see the inauguration parade and ceremonies for the first time on television. Later, in a dispute with a GM dealer, Truman would order a whole fleet of White House 1950 Lincolns. That was how much a part of the American scene Lincoln was in those days.
In 1949, America was at peace. Most big cities still had two or three daily newspapers. Supermarkets were something very new. You still had your milk and eggs home delivered. You could drive from Chicago to Los Angeles in about four days on route 66 in your new 1949 Lincoln, paying about 23 cents a gallon for premium gasoline, and staying in a new, clean, modern motel for about $3 a night. Your Lincoln’s radio played songs like Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, Dear Hearts and Gentle People, A Dreamer’s Holiday, Mule Train and Mona Lisa. Maybe you’d stop along the way at one of those new drive-in theaters and see I was a Male War Bride with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell , Adam’s Rib with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn or On The Town with Frank Sinatra and, Gene Kelly dancing their way through New York Navy style.
But things weren’t all so slow and easy in 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea and President Truman authorized work on the new H bomb. Later, Truman seized all U.S. railroads to forestall a general strike. Most of us still traveled by train in 1950 although if you had more money than time you could fly coast to coast in a few hours in a Stratocruiser.
Radios and juke boxes in 1950 played Harbor Lights and Hoop-Dee-Doo sung by Perry Como and Music, Music, Music sung by cute little Teresa Brewer. On the silver screen Judy Holiday became an overnight sensation in Born Yesterday and Bette Davis proclaimed, “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” In All About Eve.
In 1951 you had one last chance to own the last flathead V-8 powered Lincoln new or you could pick up a pretty good ’49 for about $1,500. If you picked up an evening paper on the way home you found out that President Truman fired General MacArthur. You still read the Saturday Evening Post, but now half of America’s middle and upper class families had television sets, and that year television went transcontinental by cable. This year was the real beginning of the information explosion that would just build and build. You could watch Joe Lewis in an eight bout comeback, finally TKO’d on October 26 by Rocky Marciano.
Remember Johnny Rae weepfully singing The Little White Cloud That Cried, Shrimp Boats Are A ‘Cornin’ or Nat King Cole coolly crooning They Try To Tell Us We’re Too Young. 1951 wasn’t much of a memorable year for films, but there were some big spectacles like Quo Vadis, An American in Paris and The Great Caruso.
There are not many 1949-51 memories left, The music is fading into the night now, the greatest faces on the silver screen are gone, the biggest world figures of the day are only names on yellowed history book pages. And those old Lincolns with the funny headlights and whale like styling, are the old soldiers in MacArthur’s farewell address who just fade away. Those were the good old days.
ABOVE: Bob Reed with his 1949 Lincoln Town Sedan model made out of bondo.