C56D2784 in La Habana

[Tom Gibson]

Greetings,

For additions made to Havana's legendary Tropicana Cabaret, Cuban architect Max Borges Recio won the Gold Prize in 1953 from the National College of Architects. The club's mirrored entryway provides a multi-faceted backdrop for the '56 Mark II C56D2784, one of nine known to have arrived when new to Cuba's capital city.

56 C56D2784 9 Mark II DSC_9127CXT.jpg

Ordered by a prosperous Havana Ford dealer, the Continental is said to have once belonged to Marta Batista, wife of the deposed dictator who fled the country on New Year's Eve, 1958, sixty-one years ago tomorrow. Owned for many years by a now-retired Cubana de Aviacion pilot, C56D2784 is a regular fixture on the streets of La Habana. First black, then a dark red and now a light ivory-green, the car's Batista attribution is still up in the air but hopefully one day we can prove that claim, one way or another.

[Tom Gibson]

Thanks to the exhaustive research posted in the Mark II Production pdf and detailed posts in the "Official" Registry,
some blanks can be filled in the nine Cuban Mark II listings. The eight that were shipped from Pier 27 in NYC were
carried on ships that were part of the Naviera Vacuba, S.A. fleet, majority-owned by Julio Lobo, Havana's "Sugar King".
(The Sugar King of Havana, by John Paul Rathbone, Penguin Books, 2011)

http://www.histarmar.com.ar/MarinaMe...ahiaDeNipe.htm
Here is the BAHIA DE NIPE that brought 2784 to Havana for Carlos Alonso, the owner of El Relampago, one of the Havana
Ford dealerships. The car's current owner, Julio Palermo drives 2784 often, and I've encountered him twice at the
afterglow parties for the Rally Regularidad Copa Castrol, in 2018 and 2019.

Premio-5X.jpg
Several of the Registry listings note that on arrival in Havana, the invoices are bound for delivery to: "TAG U.M.C."
This would be the Universal Motor Company, a Lincoln-Mercury dealer in Havana. A 1957 Havana Grand Prix
Kodachrome floating around the Web shows a '57 Lincoln Premiere Landau "Carro Oficial" courtesy of U.M.C.,
and my research confirms that U.M.C. was a Havana L-M dealer in 1956 through early-1958.

Kudos to those who pulled together that awesome data!

[Tom Gibson]

This is Julio Palmero's 2784 as it now appears, at the entrance to the famed Tropicana Night Club in photos from November 2018.
The color is a light ivory-green that shows better than the previous orange and dark red versions of the car.
It is still driven regularly in Havana.

56 C56D2784 9 Mark II DSC_9127CXT.jpg
56 C56D2784 10 Mark II DSC_9129CXT.jpg

[jdsnoddy]

Thanks for sharing Tom. I like this new color.
V/R,
John

[Pat Marshall]

Tom, thanks for the pictures and the good input. I have updated the history of 2784 in our Registry.

https://www.markiiforum.com/showthre...6689#post56689