In the spring of 1965, Elvis Presley had a new movie to sell. It was called “Tickle Me,” and the plan was the usual one. Send the star out on the road, let fans line up, get the newspapers talking. There was just one problem. Elvis was too busy to go.
So his manager had another idea.
That manager was Colonel Tom Parker, a former carnival man who ran just about every part of Elvis’s career, from the record deals to the movie contracts to how the public got to see him. Parker was famous for turning anything into a show. And he knew he couldn’t send a worn-out King of Rock ‘n’ Roll on a long promotional trip.
What he did instead sounds almost too odd to be true. He sent Elvis’s car.
Not just any car. Back in December 1959, Elvis had bought a 1960 Cadillac limousine, and a customizer named George Barris went to work on it until it looked like nothing else on the road. Parker and RCA, Elvis’s record company, put that car on a truck and sent it touring the country in his place. A man named Gabe Tucker, who worked with the label, drove it from stop to stop.
So what made a car worth touring without its owner? The paint, mostly. This walk-through shows it as it sits today, so you can judge for yourself.
A close look at Elvis’s gold Cadillac at the museum in Nashville
The Country Music Hall of Fame describes it plainly. “The original car features gold-plated highlights and forty coats of paint containing crushed diamonds and fish scales.” Read that again. Real crushed diamonds and real fish scales, layered on forty times over, which is part of why the gold seems to glow in person.
Fans didn’t need Elvis standing next to it. They came just to see the car.
It toured America through 1965. Then in 1968 it went even farther, crossing the ocean to Australia and New Zealand, where the appearances raised $149,175 for charities down there. Somewhere along the way the original gold bumper was swapped out for a plain one before the car went on display, and the reason is funny in a sad way. The gold bumper came off too easily, and people kept wanting to walk away with a piece of it.
A full walk-around of the famous gold limousine
Think about what the Colonel pulled off. A singer was too tied up to travel, so a car went in his place and drew crowds all on its own. That tells you something about how big Elvis had gotten, and how well Parker understood what people wanted.
The Cadillac is now in the collection of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, where anyone can go stand in front of it. The videos give you the shine. Seeing those forty coats catch the light for real is a whole other thing.