The 1941 Lincoln Continental Coupe Orson Welles bought as a birthday gift for Rita Hayworth is now parked at radio commentator Glenn Beck’s American Journey Experience museum.
Beck, a longtime Welles fan, posted a 25-second video of himself taking the fully restored luxury car for a spin on his Mercury One Facebook page earlier this month. It was later shared by iHeart Radio. Beck first unveiled his museum of U.S. history in 2020.
While Beck’s politics are quite the polar of the progressive Welles’, the conservative host has expressed a deep admiration for the late actor-director in a 2014 interview with Wellesnet. He has an impressive collection of Welles scripts, cameras and magic props.
The Lincoln Continental was sold by Worldwide Auctioneers last April. The purchase price was not disclosed.
During Hayworth’s courtship with Welles, the filmmaker bought the Lincoln Continental Coupe in 1942 for her in California and had it delivered for her 24th birthday to a movie set in Georgia.
They wed the following year and had a daughter, Rebecca.
The couple appeared together on radio, on stage in the Mercury Wonder Show, and in the film The Lady from Shanghai. Welles and Hayworth divorced in 1947.
There are several images of Hayworth posing alongside the Lincoln Continental, including one where she is sitting on the back deck of the luxury car without its bumpers, having donated them to America’s World War II scrap metal recycling campaign. Affixed to the car was a banner, “Please drive carefully. My bumpers are on the scrap heap.”
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