Classic 1951 Mercury 4 Door Sport Sedan

Description

The 1951 Mercury was owned by a local, celebrity car dealer in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was married to Acquanetta, a B-movie actress who had appeared in such movies as “Tarzan and the Leopard Woman.”’

Jack Ross had the car parked in his Scottsdale Ford showroom for 27 years, according to his son, who sold the car in 2015. The car has 23,200 original miles. The transmission was serviced in 2016. The car was repainted and the interior carpet and headliner were replaced in 2016. This may be the one of the best-preserved, lowest-mileage Mercuries in the world.

A story below from The Republic, for your convenience.

By Connie Cone Sexton The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Feb 15, 2013 5:13 PM

The commercials were a bit corny, certainly campy and always good for a chuckle.

If you watched any late-night television in the Valley during the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, Jack Ross’ shtick was hard to miss. To pump up car sales for his Jack Ross Lincoln Mercury dealership, Ross was on camera, flanked by his wife, Acquanetta, a B-movie actress who had appeared in such movies as “Tarzan and the Leopard Woman.”

Acquanetta — still beautiful and beguiling — would introduce him while a football fight song played in the background: “They always call him Mr. Touchdown. They always called him Mr. T.” The couple would pose by one of the luxury cars, sometimes with its trunk open filled with food. Buy a car, get a trunk load of groceries. Buy a car, get a signed Acquanetta photo.

“He was very much the car politician: always smiling, larger than life and shaking hands,” remembers Mary Morrison, president of the House of Broadcasting Radio and Television Museum in Scottsdale. “Some viewers may have regarded both Jack and Acquanetta as strange, but you certainly remembered Jack Ross Lincoln Mercury.”

Ross, who died Jan.13 at the age of 85 from complications of Parkinson’s, is remembered as an iconic figure and business leader during a time when Phoenix and its suburbs were exploding with growth.

Don Luke, owner of Bill Luke’s Chrysler Jeep and Dodge in Phoenix, another veteran auto dealership, said Ross was one of the first car dealers to turn to television to pump up sales.

“And he was truly a good guy, a good and honorable dealer,” Luke said.

Ross and Acquanetta were a success and became somewhat local celebrities. They expanded their energies into the community, helping support or begin many non-profits.

Ross didn’t set out to work in the automobile industry. He planned to follow in his father’s footsteps and pursue medicine.

“He loved his father and had the utmost respect for him,” said Christina Ross, his third wife. “He saw how his father took care of people with medicine and would go care for people in areas other doctors would not. Jack would ride around with his dad and see this.”

After serving in the military, Ross enrolled at the University of Southern California and majored in biological studies. But a partnership with a fraternity brother altered his path.

The two had bought a filling station close the university. One day, someone put a car out on the corner of their lot. It sold, so Ross and his partner put out another car.

“He liked dealing with people,” Christina said. “He was a natural salesman, very gregarious.”

Ross was approached to manage multiple franchises for Jack Fraim, a WWII general who owned dealerships in Dayton, Ohio, and Los Angeles. While at USC, Jack married Rhodanne, and their son, Robert, was born in 1951.

The following year he was recruited to work for Packard Motor Company as their youngest vice president. In the mid-1950s, he opened Jack Ross Lincoln Mercury in Mesa. By then, he was married to Acquanetta. The business eventually moved to Scottsdale.

Ross and Acquanetta had four sons, Lance, Tom, Jack Jr. and Rex. Lance, the oldest, said his mother admired his dad because “he was a real gentleman with high high ambitions.”

“My dad was a very strict, controlling individual,” Lance said. “He liked to be in charge, and his demeanor was like (Gen. George) Patton. It was, ‘Yes, sir.’ As he got older, he softened.”

While the union of Jack and Acquanetta was strong for many years, they divorced by the early 1980s.

Ross met Christina, the woman who would become his third wife, soon after.

She and her mother had gone to the dealership to each buy a car. Ross waited on them and quickly sold Christina’s mother a car. Although Ross had the car Christina was looking for — a lipstick-red and white Lincoln Town Car with white leather interior — she hesitated. They left with only buying the one car.

“The next day, I’ll be darned if he didn’t drive the cars out to our house,” she said. “I told him, ‘You’re presuming a lot here.’ That was a bold move.”

She wound up buying the car. Their friendship led to dating and, eventually, marriage.

Ross had his own favorite cars. He once owned “singing cowboy” legend Gene Autry’s personal touring car, a customized 1951 midnight-blue Cadillac limo.

“Gene would always come by and pose with the car,” Christina said.

Ross loved being part of the community, and he widened his reach, making unsuccessful bids for governor in 1970 and ’74.

Ross kept his business going through 2005, when it was sold to Earnhardt Auto Centers.

Lance said his father was the perfect example of always wanting to keep moving forward.

“He was like John Wayne: You don’t talk about doing it, you just do it.”