A quick visit to Shorpy shows the extremes of Elvis’ rapidly growing collection of cars in 1956, when he was just 21. In this shot, on his Harley (looks like a 750 flathead Sportster), Elvis is in front of the (first, I assume) house he bought for himself and his parents, and a trio of Cadillacs. That Series 75 limo/sedan was undoubtedly the longest production car in the world at the time. And its 5.4 L engine was one of the biggest too. But He obviously liked tiny cars too:
A Messerschmitt Kabinenroller, no less (or no more). OK; maybe not exactly as small as the Peel, but small enough. And its 175 cc engine was one-thirtieth the displacement of the Caddy. Probably smaller than the lawnmower. Maybe it was just to drive around on the lawn.
At this time, Elvis would have been 31. He couldn’t have been a WWII Vet at 10, could he?
No, this is right. He was born in 1935, so he would have been 21 here. He died in 1977 at the age of 42.
Elvis served in the military but during peacetime in 1958, after Korea and before Vietnam.
The house pictured above was his first house at Audubon Drive in Memphis, this was before Graceland.
Get rich overnight, buy a house in the suburbs, park three Cadillacs on the lawn. How American is that?
Elvis is associated with Cadillac to the point of being a stereotype. It is no surprise then that the recent former president of a local Cadillac club in North Carolina is also the president of an Elvis impersonator fan club…
Interestingly, as many Cadillacs as he bought (and he probably bought more as an individual than anyone else) one of his Lincoln Mark IVs is what is on display at the Rock `n Roll HoF in Cleveland, OH.
He did have a thing for a certain John Deere farm tractor which he used up until the end.
http://video.elvispresley.com.au/1957_rare_home_movie.html#sthash.HUZi4rZ2.dpbs
Small Trivia: The pink Cadillac be bought his mother that became one of the most famous cars ever actually started out blue and was repainted by a neighbor.
Elvis had all sorts of cars, alot of Cadillacs, but Lincolns, a 600 grosser, King Midgets, one of the first Toronadso, Jeeps, Panteras Stuz Bearcats,were all part of the Elvis fleet at one point or another, you name it, he probably had one, he was really rich and he loved to buy stuff.
Possibly even a Scout II. It is hard to say for certain but there are a number of pictures of one parked at the guard shack at Graceland. It is possible that it was owned by the guard, but then again it could have been provided for the guards by Elvis. http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5047/5318117825_412b8d36f6_o.png
He had a BMW 507 when he was stationed in Germany.
That’s a top 5 automobile for me!
The list also includes about a dozen Ford Rancheros (purchased at the beginning of 1967 for his Mississippi ranch), a ’62 T-Bird Landau coupe (which he kept only for a few weeks and traded/gave away because the wire wheel covers kept falling off on a drive from Memphis to L.A.), Chrysler and Pontiac Station Wagons (to tow the trailer with all his stuff between Memphis/L.A./Memphis). Mostly there were Cadillacs, with some Lincolns in between. In Germany, he bought his father a 300 Adenaurer and leased a couple of BMW 507s for himself.
The Harley is a model K (odds are a KH), not a Sportster. Was the forerunner, had what became the Sportster bottom end, but was a flathead rather than the Sportster’s Shovelhead OHV arrangement (ok, ok, Ironhead Sportster, yes I know a Shovel is a big twin).
It was a K model with the hot parts from the KR racer a special order in a bid to keep up with the Triumphs of the day I think. I’ve often fancied a K model or Sportster but never been keen on big twins. I’ve seen pictures of Elvis with the beautiful Mk2 Continental
I thought it was PEEL not Peal, as in peel you off the front of a city bus. I wonder if the Fleetwood limo with the roof rack in the middle was used for touring with his band?
It is called a peel
That’s the first house Elvis bought for Vernon and Gladys in Memphis – 1034 Audubon – in 1956 for $29,000. They only lived there for a year until he bought Graceland.
According to Peter Guralnick’s biography of Elvis, his first nice used car was a 51 Lincoln Cosmo with 10K on it. One of his crew crashed it into a hay truck so Elvis bought a used 54 Cadillac in pink and white. That one he had for only two months – it burned up between Hope and Texarkana when “a wheel bearing caught fire.” Within a short time the money was rolling in and he was buying new Caddies and Lincolns.
I see the A/C intake vents on the limo but it doesn’t appear the sedan has them.
I’ve read a lot about Elvis’s cars over the years but never have seen a final tally of how many he bought – it had to have been in the hundreds given how he bought fleets of cars and trucks for his gang as well as many cars as gifts for lots of other people. Amazing when you realize how short his career was – barely 25 years.
It’s hard to tell, but the Cad sedan appears to have a/c as well. It is interesting that the limo has blackwall tires. With that big crease in the side, it was probably replaced soon after this anyhow.
Zooming in you can almost see the vents and what appears to be the plastic tubing reflected through the back glass. And the convertible has the continental kit, correct?
I wonder if the Memphis Cadillac dealer’s records were preserved. Would be interesting reading today.
The ’55 he bought his Mother (in the Graceland museum) has the factory (trunk) Frigidaire A/C as did the ’54 Fleetwood Series 75 eight passenger sedan (not a limo – no partition glass). The ’54 was kept through 1957. Seems his mother wanted chickens and one of Elvis’ boys bought a few dozen of them shortly after he purchased Graceland. The chickens shit all over the inside so badly that the Cadillac dealer couldn’t adequately clean it; it was traded for a Fleetwood 75 limo (a ’58 model).
There were two Cadillac Dealers in Memphis at the time; Southern Motors and Madison Cadillac. Elvis frequented both over the years, along with many trips to Hillcrest Motor Co, in Beverly Hills where he bought ’em by the dozen.
Well, this is a momentous day: my favourite internet site, Curbside Classic, and my favourite singer, Elvis, intersect. That top photo is awesome! Here’s the same house today, courtesy of Google Maps. More trees, less Caddies:
It looks empty. Why don’t they (EP Enterprises, or whatever it’s called) just sell it? Why is Lisa Marie hanging on to it? She didn’t live in it. Priscilla didn’t live in it. Why are they holding on to it?
Don’t know where you saw they own it but so what if they did? It’s a free country and they can do as they please. They don’t own it according to this though. http://www.elvispresleynews.com/ElvisFirstHome-AudubonDrive.html
This article reminds me there is a documentary called “200 Cadillacs”. It’s about EP and all the cars he owned and bought for other people. I would really enjoy seeing it but don’t want to buy it.