Other events were celebrated as well, such as the unique event described here involving the Mercury Comet, made in Lorain.
Sixty-four years ago this month, the one-year anniversary of the Comet was celebrated with a unique cake that rolled off the assembly line, as noted in the Journal article above from March 16, 1961. As noted in the article – since it was the day before St. Patrick's Day – "A group of "Irish colleens" were on hand to serve the cake to visiting dignitaries, newspaper, radio and television representatives and hundreds of plant employees."
How did they bake a cake as big as a car?
"A base was built from an actual car chassis complete with wheels and scrap body stampings," noted the article. "The actual baking of the cake took place during the last two days. The top third of the entire car was edible cake."
The company that made the car was the same food services company that was the supplier for the Lorain plant. They used 166 dozen eggs, 193 pounds of flour and 482 pounds of sugar as the main ingredients.
I wonder what that cake would cost today?
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A year earlier, the introduction of the Comet played out in local car dealer advertisements. S. W. Becker Motors was the Mercury-Comet dealer whose ads featured it.
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| March 16, 1960 |
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| March 17, 1960 |
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| March 21, 1960 |
7 comments:
That era of car, after excess of the "big fins," always appealed to me.
The cake, today... $1,749.52 - raw ingredients, no colleens included.
Does anyone remember if the Comet was a top seller in Lorain/Erie counties due to the local "pride"? I don't seem to remember the thunderbirds/cougars being overly popular around here in the 80's and 90's.
The Comet was a glamorized Ford Falcon. My first car was the latter; it was quite a vehicle. My father bought it for a fifth of liquor, which was more than the heap was worth. I was happy to have it, though!
Unlike Don, I'm a sucker for fins; the '59 Caddy Fleetwood is the "it" car for me. Still, compared to the soulless "rides" on the road today, the Mercury Comet is chock-full of downright panache.
If someone were to manufacture an old school, stylish piece of Detroit iron, they'd clean up.
And now for a little bit of useless automtive trivia.For the first two years of production,the Comet didn't have a Mercury nameplate on the car.As the Comet was originally going to be a compact car for the infamous Edsel line.So when Ford discontinued the Edsel,Mercury dealerships sold it instead.You can see by the unique canted taillights the Edsel resemblance in "60-"61.Plus the first couple years the Comets ignition keys were styled like Edsel keys.And to show how exclusive that Ford was promoting the Comet to be,on the door VIN it stated (Made In USA by Comet),instead of either by Ford Motor Co or Lincoln,Mercury.I highly doubt that Comet sales would've helped the Edsel lineup anyways,as it turned out the compact Falcon sold much better than the Comet throughout the whole time they were built from the same platform.But for a few bright shining decades,the Lorain Assembly Plant had it going on with the products that were built there.
ALAN: My dad owned a (used) '59 Fleetwood. He always described as the best car he ever drove. I was not a fan because the silky-smooth ride made me carsick as the chickens.
https://www.classic.com/m/mercury/comet/1st-gen/
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