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Ken Leonard | all galleries >> Galleries >> Classic Car gallery #1 > 1956 Lincoln Premier - Click on photo for much more info
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1956 Lincoln Premier - Click on photo for much more info


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ross47929-Jan-2012 19:26
I remember the day my Dad brought home his brand new 1956 Coral Lincoln Premiere. Wow. I sure wish I had bought that car when I was a teenager.
george blankethooper 24-May-2011 16:27
this is awesome info
george blankethooper 24-May-2011 16:27
this is awesome info
Brian 30-Jan-2010 17:57
Did you guys know that Elvis Presley owned a 1956 Lincoln Premiere for a very short time??

Elvis had been on the Steve Allen show on July 1, 1956 and the show got top rating over the Lincoln-sponsored Ed Sullivan Show. So, on July 12, Ed Sullivan, who had previously said that he wouldn't touch Elvis with a 10-foot pole, announced that he had hired Elvis for three appearances.

During the afternoon of July 21 Elvis headed for downtown Memphis in his yellow 1954 Cadillac Eldorado convertible. Arriving back to his house about an hour later he was driving a brand-new Lincoln Premiere. The car had a wisteria purple bottom and a white top. He had traded in his '54 Cadillac. "Just warying my interests," Elvis said.

Two weeks later, on August 4, Elvis traded in the Premiere for a Continental Mark II.
Ray 25-Jan-2010 08:59
My girlfriend and I worked at the same Johns-Manville office in Boston. I started in 1954 and she in 1956. We each worked there for four years. Our friend Bob started in 1957, the same year his grandfather gifted him with a 1956 Lincoln Premier convertible, gold with black and gold interior. I lost touch with Bob after I went in the Air Force. I don't know how long he was able to keep that car, but it was a dream. So was my girlfriend, Brenda, and we are still together. We'll be married 50 years, 05/01/2010, same original paint jobs for both of us.
Jacques Bergmans 23-Oct-2009 22:51
I have a 1956 Lincoln Premiere, good restoration car/project. I can send more details and pics if you or anyone is interested in this car. It's pretty much all there, minus the back window and there is a bullet hole in the roll up window behind the driver's seat. The car is parked on my farm about 30 miles from I-10 and Lordsburg, New Mexico.
les sherry 23-Jul-2009 12:32
would you sell it thanks regards les
Guest 28-Jan-2009 22:51
For the person asking when Julia Meade did the Lincoln commercials...I believe she stopped in 1957.
Guest 28-Jan-2009 22:51
Julia Meade did do other things besides the Lincoln commercials on Ed Sullivan. You can see some of her accomplishments at juliameade.com What a beautiful, gracious person! I think her connection to the Lincoln image really added class to a classy car.
buddy 27-Jan-2009 12:10
also i have two hubcaps that did not get junked with the car that i cherish today
buddy 27-Jan-2009 12:06
i had a coral & white hardtop in 1963 after the auto went down i converted to a stick with a T85 trans out of a 56 mercury police car with a 49 mercury 4.11 rear i wish i had it now
Terril 15-Jan-2009 15:22
I have a picture of a Lincoln Continental car that my Father receive the keys to, from Ed Sullivan.
Can you identify the photo of which year the car was from.
If you e-mail me, I could forward you an image of the photo that I have.
My father was on the Ed Sullivan commercial for Lincoln Continental car.
emma 24-Dec-2008 00:02
the lincoln premier in the picture is nice but i have a question. of all the lincolns which one is on top. can you put them in orher for me.
Ron Bussler 12-Nov-2008 00:26
In my opinion the 1956 Lincoln Premiere is the most beautiful car ever manufactured in the USA. I own a white one with a burgundy interior. It is a joy to look at and drive. It never fails to get admiring looks when I take it out for a spin. I've owned many old cars, but the 1956 Lincoln is by far my favorite. To me at least, it looks far more modern than today's generic jelly bean designed cars. Ron Bussler
Ken M 02-Sep-2008 02:40
I had a "thing" for that model car in my early teens. I thought then, and I still think today, that it looks like it's moving fast even while it's standing still. Unfortunately, by the time I went to college, a car became to me little more than an evil necessity. Sometimes a seductive evil, but that feeling has stayed with me to this day.
kevin kk 09-Aug-2008 22:16
1956 lincoln premier has to be the cleanest lines of any post war domestic car ever built inside was a very up scale dash and door handels and tri color leather apnnels, never to be duplecated again, and only produced for one model year!, i have a island coral convertable , that i show on occasion, and interestingly people say wow wow what a pretty cadillac till they get close and see the lincoln emblems , kevin in florida
Ken Leonard08-Jul-2008 22:54
PLEASE NOTE: Sales of cars NOT allowed here. Thank you for your understanding.
Your comments otherwise most welcome as long as you keep things clean.

Ken Leonard
Classic Car Photographer
Guest 20-Jun-2008 21:29
IN 1970 I BOUGHT MY FIRST 1956 LINCOLN PREMIER YELLOW WITH A WHITE TOP WITH YELLOW AND WHITE LEATHER INTERIOR. I WAS 18 AT THE TIME AND PAID $750.00 FOR IT. LOOKING AT YOUR PICTURE IT SURE BRINGS BACK GOOD MEMORIES. JIM HANSON MPLS MN.
Guest 27-Mar-2008 04:21
Lincoln has always been my favorite. I like the Julia Meade Lincoln commercials. Does anyone know what years she did the Lincoln commercials ? I have seen her in spots for 1955s and 1958's did she do years after (or before) the range on 1955-1958 ?
THANKS
chris steadman 19-Nov-2007 03:29
this lincoln is a beauty, but my favorite 1956 is the one my grandparents bought new in roanoake, va, a black sedan with red and black cloth interior, i have several pics of this car and i can say, it is my favorite of all time. they had a 1953 cosmopolitan and a 1955 capri, but the 56 premiere was my granny's favorite. the midnight black finish was flawless. the story goes, from my granny, her and my grandaddy were at home and he was washing their light blue 1955 capri sedan one afternoon. the chrome ring around the headlight fell off and he was angry. she jokingly said "let's go get a new one" and with that he said "get your ass in the car" so they went to the local dealer there and they had two 56 premiere's, a baby pink convertable and the black sedan they took home that evening. the following year they traded the 56 on a 57 premiere, dark blue with a white top and they traded that on a white 59 continental. i could have listened to my granny talk for hours when i was a kid about their travels in these great classics. they are still the best ever made to me to this day.
Guest 31-Aug-2007 21:18
I had a 56 that I put 200K miles on it before I started using it for a field truck. i had 12 leaf spings on each side and hauled wood in it. I wish I convertedit into a Lincoln "ranchero" instead of a field truck. Luigi
David Knight 24-Feb-2007 23:11
I agree that the 1956 Lincoln Premier Hardtop is one of the best looking cars of all time and this one is beauty.
Jan Golon - Connecticut 15-Sep-2006 16:06
Thank you so much for the great photo and info. Amazing to find this by chance this week … the same week my Mother would have celebrated her 85th Birthday.

The 1956 Lincoln Premiere, in yellow, was her choice for her first car. Until 1956, Mom never drove. Pretty tough to haul groceries in the back of a stroller with two toddlers in tow.

For her birthday in 1956, Dad took Mom to pick out her very first car, thinking that a Mercury would fit the bill nicely. No dice. Jo-Jo wanted that pretty yellow Lincoln Premiere on the other side of the lot. It had a white top, just the like one in this photo, and a white leather interior. But Mom felt the car would look sleeker with a black top, and had the dealer paint the top black. The rest, as they say, is history.
Rick Johnson 07-Apr-2005 23:09
"Lincoln..........unmistakenly the finest car in the fine car field". During the fifties,it was common to have a certain person appear in television commercials in behalf of a certain product or brand. For example, Betty Furness was the spokesperson for Westinghouse appliances. Ronald Reagen was the spokesperson for General Electric. The same was true for automobiles. Dinah Shore and Chevrolet, Milton Berle for Buick, and Groucho Marx for DeSoto. In my boyhood memory, one person stands out above all others, and to the best of my knowledge, never was known for doing anything else. Lincoln-Mercury was the primary sponsor of the Ed Sullivan Show for most of the fifties decades. Ed usually pitched for Mercury, but there was only one person who did the commercial spots for Lincoln. Her name was Julia Meade. She usually appeared in beautiful gowns and introduced a film short showing her driving a Lincoln at some famous place like Washington, D.C., where on a very cold January day in 1957, she had the top down on her Lincoln Premier convertible as she drove by the reviewing stand for the second Eisenhower-Nixon inaugural. She always ended her spot with the same quotation: "Lincoln....unmistakenly the finest car in the fine car field".

The 1956 Lincoln Premier Hardtop in Ken's photograph was totally new in 1956. Whereas 1955 had been the big change year for most cars at GM, Chrysler, and Ford, Ford waited until 1956 to introduce a new Lincoln. It was longer and lower, with very clean lines and minimal chrome. The new top of the line series was the Premier, and the Capri was relegated as the entry level series. An integral bumper and grille treatment with hooded headlamps were up front, and cathedral tailights with dual exhausts integrated into the bumper were in the back. The side panels were sculptured and was known as the "waterfall" treatment. It came in popular fifties colors like turquiose, coral, and "Wisteria", a shade of lavender. The public response was sensational and Lincoln almost doubled its production and sales in one short year.

When most people discuss the 1956 Lincoln, they usually are referring to the more renown and famous Lincoln Continental Mark II. But my personal choice for the best looking Lincoln of all time is the one so beautifully photographed in this Gallery from front and rear angles by Ken Leonard.
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