Introduction and Roof Height

any other interesting things hidden around here. I'm Wayne Lansing from Historic Attraction. This is one of the many cars we have in our presidential car fleet. This is it—a 1950 Lincoln. If you look at the wall behind you, you'll see President Truman sitting in it. In 1950, a company called Henney Motor Company received a contract to build nine of these special extended-wheelbase Lincoln Cosmopolitans for Truman, but the reservation of these cars was handled by Hess & Eisenhardt. Hess & Eisenhardt is best known for building the Lincoln Continental that JFK rode in at Dallas in 1963. I think that's where most people heard the name from. And Wayne has several presidential cars here, built by Hess&Eisenhardt. One particular thing happened to him that stands out. If you look at the roof, it's 7 inches higher. And you know why he was 7 inches taller? This was done for the convenience of high-ranking officials who wore top hats. In those days, top hats were quite often used by representatives of higher rank. Your head would be on the roof. So what did they do? Cost was not an issue. They wanted to do everything very professionally. So they could get out of the car and immediately pose for a photo, without having to fiddle with adjusting their hats. This is quite appropriate, as many presidents, one of whom was President Lincoln, initiated this. My God, he was tall already. He didn't drive a car. They weren't there then, but, by God, it influenced the future of presidents . At first glance, this car doesn't look elongated, but it is . Truman's Lincoln has a 145-