Thanks to his phenomenal success, Jackie Gleason lived a life more closely resembling his character, millionaire Reginald Van Gleason III, than his humble Brooklyn beginnings. Now you can buy a piece of that success for yourself on Bring a Trailer in the form of Gleason’s 1969 Lincoln Continental limousine, specially made for The Great One himself. Aside from its famous owner, it also features some technology that was ahead of its time, as well as some that can stay in the 1970s where it came from.
Carron and Company of Inkster, Michigan, customized this car for Gleason in the early 1970s. Despite some resemblance, this is not the Jackie Gleason limo that appeared in an episode of “Pawn Stars” (that was a 1978 model). A custom grill partially covers the headlights, a styling cue introduced in the early 1970s models that were just hitting the streets when this car was converted. The most notable alteration is that the car has been stretched between the front and rear doors. Those suicide rear doors may seem like another custom feature, but they were standard on the Continentals of the 1960s, and this was the last year they were available.
The custom rear offers a nod to the Continental’s past, with a false “spare tire” added to the trunk lid and rear bumper. This styling trend would return in later Continentals, but like the covered headlights, it was not present on standard 1969 models.
The most unusual exterior feature is the hump at the front of the roof, just above the windshield. This periscope rear-view mirror enables the driver to see behind the car over the top of the roof, even with the limo’s privacy screen closed, in an age before exterior cameras were available. Ford experimented with the idea in the mid-1960s, making this unusual feature yet another link to Ford’s heritage.
‘Put the evidence in the car!’
The interior is as opulent as you’d expect for a car of its time, with gold cloth and burgundy carpeting. The rear stereo has been upgraded from an eight-track player (which Ford helped invent) to a more modern unit. A boat anchor of a contemporary TV sits on top of a powered drink cabinet with a built-in clock and a fold-out table. With the push of a button, either the table or the entire cabinet slides out, providing the rear seat with easy access to the chilled booze inside. If only the table is extended, a special roll-back top allows middle-row passengers access to drinks, because you can’t interrupt the party in the back.
The car features two independent air conditioning systems, one for the front and one for the rear. Even ordinary cars have independent front and rear A/C today, but over 50 years ago it was special to have even one air conditioner, let alone two. The rear A/C was a completely custom design. A schematic diagram of it, with Gleason’s name right on it, is included with the car. This is good because it looks to me like you’d need to be a nuclear submarine engineer to understand it.
Under the hood lies a 460 cubic inch V8 with a three-speed automatic transmission, but who really cares? This was Jackie Gleason’s limo, and how sweet it is. Documentation that comes with the car says that it originally cost $65,000, which translates to more than half a million dollars today. Bidding is off and running on Bring a Trailer, and the winning bid may well exceed the car’s original purchase price. The winner will gain the honor of sitting where The Great One once did, riding away in the lap of 1970s luxury while yelling, “And awaaay we go!”
