From Graceland: Karal Ann Marling's description of Elvis's Solid Gold Cadillac:

"...The Solid Gold Cadillac took the operative fantasy to a grandiose extreme. The body glowed with forty coats of hand-rubbed pearlized finish made of crushed diamonds and fish scales from the Orient. The bumpers and the hand-spun hubcaps were plated in 14-karat gold, as were the swank interior accessories: the shoe buffer, electric clippers, record changer, bar, swivel-mounted TV set, and dual phones. The back seat had gold lamé drapes. The roof was studded with real gold records. It was a theme car, honoring gold records and Elvis Presley hits. And it was also, as experience soon proved, undrivable. Traffic stopped whenever the Elvismobile appeared. Mobs surrounded the car. It couldn't be left unattended for a minute. Every time a fan got close enough to touch a bumper, Barris presented a bill for several thousand dollars worth of repairs. Disgusted, Elvis shut the Cadillac up in the Garage at Graceland.

"Toward the end of 1966, with his client's movie career tailing off into something worse than mediocrity and record sales on the wane, Colonel Parker talked RCA into buying the car for $24,000 and sending it on tour as a kind of surrogate for Elvis Presley, who hadn't made a live appearance in years. So the Cadillac opened shopping centers and allowed itself to be admired in the parking lots of theaters where smaller-than-usual crowds were expected to turn out for the star's latest film epic, the turgid Frankie and Johnny. The car tour was a great success. In Houston, 40,000 came to take a look and take home a free `Elvis Presley's Gold Car' postcard. In Atlanta, the car was the guest of honor at a dinner for 250 dignitaries..."

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Copyright © 1996 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Illustrations: Karal Ann Marling

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