(first posted 8/7/2013) No, I wasn’t the first to come up with this; it was her husband; who else? In 1953, Prince Aly Kahn saw the Cadillac Ghia Coupe on the stands at the Paris Auto Show, and was inspired to buy it for his beautiful wife, American actress Rita Hayworth. So my job is easy; just paste the pictures together and you decide whether her husband saw an intrinsic connection between the two, or just had good taste in women and cars
Both their front ends are certainly stunning. Rita was born Margarita Carmen Cansino, to a Spanish Flamenco dancer father and Zigfield girl mother. She was an under-age dancer at a Tijuana club when she was discovered by Fox Studios. Acting did not come easy, but she quickly became one of the hottest stars in Hollywood. Her one-glove strip tease in the movie Gilda cultivated her sultry image, and in 1949 her lips were voted best in the world. I’m afraid a lot less information is available about the 1953 Ghia Coupe. Do you even care?
Rita was a top pinup girl during the forties, and married Orson Wells in 1948. Her career continued to blossom, but that was temporarily endangered by her reckless affair with Kahn. Since their brief marriage ended right about the time the Ghia coupe was made, perhaps it was a reconciliation gift. If so, it didn’t work. Her next of five marriages already began in 1953.
Like Marilyn Monroe and many other stars, Rita struggled with alcohol all her life, and her last years were a sad decline until her death in 1987. But she left an enduring legacy on screen and in the memories of those she captivated. The Ghia Coupe fared better: it sits well preserved in the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, California.
Was this the first use of twin headlights on a car, or did Ghia copy the idea from somewhere else ?
Twin what? Seriously, I’m not sure, but will keep an eye out for an answer.
@Paul: +1 😉
Nice headlights! 🙂
Yes! Lovely headlights and mudflaps too!
Nice work Paul…. I’m impressed you managed to maintain ‘some’ concentration throughout the comparison. 🙂
BTW: I’ve had a Monroe reference now a Hayworth mention….. who’s next??
Can I nominate Hedy Lamar or Ava Gardner??? 😉
Car? What car?
Hedly! Hedly!
Von Shtupp! Von Shtupp!
Some of the 50s show cars passed through some wealthy hands after they were made. The owners often “updated” them. My guess is the quad headlights were added in the late 50s. The grille piece between them looks familiar — very much like 60 Corvair or 58 Studebaker pieces. A recent photo of this car shows it with Cadillac wire wheels — the ones shown here are Eldorado hubcaps used 55–58. So, many changes have likely been made since Ghia built it. Look for photos taken when the car was new.
I think Ghia must have built two of these, since the car with wire wheels has fancier bumpers, a different grill, and side marker lights and was pictured in 1955 by Road and Track. This blue car still seems to survive with simple bumpers and no side lights. There are references to two having been made. Both seem to have had four headlights from new.
Ghia did a few other similar cars about the same time as this. The 1953 Chrysler Ghia Special and 1954 Chrysler K310 come to mind. Also the Dual-Ghia, which was based on another concept car that was done by Ghia for Chrysler. I don’t believe any of these had quad headlights though.
Pretty sure Prince Ally Khan wasn’t a Saudi — he was the son of the Aga Khan. Ismali muslims are very worldwide now — but ethnically he is far closer to a Pakistani than Arab.
My cometary on the car and Rita?
Tex Avery’s Red Hot Riding Hood! Hooray! – I never saw this Ghia Cadillac before, but I see it’s influence now on the ’55 Nash proposal (for ’57) by Pinin Farina . . . .
Can’t top Tex Avery.
The influence of this Ghia to the Nash Special (built in ’55 but under consideration for ’56 or ’57). Note: Nash (AMC) would’ve only had money to tool ONE car for 1957; it was either this or the Rambler. No brainer for George Romney as Rambler sales were seeing increasing gains year to year while Nash’s (and Hudson’s) kept sinking. Makes one wonder; what it THIS style was applied to the Rambler? As it turned out, the Rambler re-vamp was pushed up a year for the 1956 introduction (it was supposed to be a ’57). We’re getting in the weeds, aren’t we?
The dual headlights appear to be massaged ’59 Chevy units. Hayworth’s appear to be original issue.
This would have been a path to Cadillac becoming a world class luxury car. I wish they would have pursued it. Can you imagine a Ghia Fleetwood?
Poor Rita- have a drink for her, Alzheimers disease got her way too early!
Very interesting article. The taillights on the Cadillac look like those of an early 1950s Pontiac.
Rita Hayworth, like many Hollywood sex goddesses, did not have a very happy personal life. It’s interesting how great beauty in a woman does not necessarily result in a happy romantic or personal life. That was the experience of Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Sharon Tate and Farrah Fawcett. They seemed to end up far too often with men who were chronic cheaters, verbally/physically abusive or heavy drinkers/drug users – or some combination of those three. Apparently great beauty does not bring about great self-confidence.
One minor correction – Rita Hayworth died in 1987, not 1980.
Thanks for catching that typo; fixed.
That Cadillac is beautiful, though I never cared much for Rita Hayworth (always been more of a Garbo fan). I suppose if you restricted me to a 50s beauty, I would go with Ms. Loren.
According to Car & Driver, three were built, and two of them were displayed together at the 2002 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. An intriguing design.
I can’t be the only one who thinks the car for Miss Hayworth was not the Ghia, it was the ’53 Cadillac Lemans. I mean, it’s as if the designers had her in mind when they came up with this…
No, I’ve seen many references to the Ghia Cadillac as the Hayworth car.
There were two Lemans cars built. One or both were extensively updated through the ’50s. I’ve seen a reference to one of the cars being owned by a GM executive – maybe given to him at retirement? Don’t recall.
Great find
Hard to put your finger on, however both Rita, and the Caddy have some outstanding features.
O my, she’s a beauty.
This Ghia is being stored at the Peterson museum in L.A. and can be viewed as part of the “Vault” tour. I got to stand right alongside it and look into the interior. These are handbuilt bespoke cars, I doubt that they used any production body parts, but you can see that they may have used the instrument cluster. The use of four headlights was to lower the hood line. Every picture I have seen of the car used quad headlights. Those wheels are gold Cadillac “sabre spoke” alloy wheels. These were used on regular production El Dorado models in the mid Fifties. The original 1953 El Dorado had Cadillac genuine wire spoke wheels. Cadillac may have offered both of these wheels as dealer options, and they have showed up on many regular Cadillacs over the years. Ghia and Pininfarina built many “one offs” for Exner and GM. There is a Petrolicious video on this particular car. I don’t know how to post a video but it is easy to Google.
I recall reading that Cadillac sent the 1957-58 Cadillac ElDorado body shells to Italy to have Pininfarina add the distinctive rear quarter panels and fins. Pininfarina also built the successor to the ElDorado brougham in limited numbers. Kind of like the basic platform of the Allante was shipped to Italy for the body construction to be added, then shipped back.
Not quite. The 1957-58 Eldorado Brougham (as well as the Eldorado Biarritz and the pictured Seville) were totally produced by GM in-house. The bodies for the 1959-60 Eldorado Brougham were made by Pininfarina.
Sorry to hog the posts. I’m on a Italian bodied Cadillac binge right now! 1961 Pininfarina Cadillac Jacqueline. Anybody care?
Two true bombshells from an era when that was the descriptive word.
Metal porn of the highest regard
The front end looks like a 4 headlight version of the Chrysler d’elegance.
Rita had left Hollywood and Orson Wells after he cheated on her, not the other way around. She went to Europe and soon Elsa Lancaster played matchmaker at a party, scheming to have Rita and Aly Khan meet. The love affair began but Rita naively thought she could settle into a happy domestic life at last. But the Prince had a number of mansions around the continent and liked to move among them. Finally the marriage ended when the playboy was seeing Gene Tierny. Rita reluctantly returned to Columbia Studios in CA to make films so that she could support her two children. Regarding cars, she left behind the 1948 Alfa Romeo that Khan had given her at their wedding. I was commissioned by the current Alfa owner to do a painting (30 x 40”)
pretty sure this is the wrong car, the one that aly khan had built and gave to rita is now in the peterson museum and is more of a burgundy color and has full bumpers and wire wheels. this car is rumored to have been built for John Perona, owner of Manhattan’s El Morocco
I took this photo of the Cadillac Ghia coupe in the Petersen Vault in 2021.
she was the cat’s pajamas
Visiting a man-made lake under construction, my mother’s friends voted her Miss Dam Site 1947.
Orson spelled it “Welles.” Rita and Orson married in ’43, divorced in ’47. Wikipedia says he and Aly Khan were once friends in childhood.