Beaulieu displays Elvis Presley’s last Cadillac

Elvis Presley

It’s 80 years today since the birth of Elvis Presley and Beaulieu is paying it own special tribute – displaying the last Cadillac driven by the King of rock ‘n’ roll.

And one of his biggest fans, Lady Fiona Montagu – wife of the founder of Beaulieu’s National Motor Museum – took the opportunity to pose beside the car in the jumpsuit she had specially made for her Elvis-themed 70th birthday party last year.

Fans can now visit Beaulieu to see the 1977 Cadillac Seville, bought by Elvis in October 1976. It still has the CB radio Elvis used to talk to the kitchens and guard house at Graceland and was driven by him until the day before he died.

Lady Montagu said: “I am a huge fan and had the costume made to wear at an Elvis-themed fund raising evening we held in the museum last year in support of our Beaulieu education charity, the Countryside Education Trust.”

The Cadillac Seville V8 Automatic was manufactured by General Motors and the body was custom built by Fisher for Cadillac. Features include electronic windows and mirrors and a grey interior with wood grain accents on the dashboard, doors and steering wheel.

Previously auctioned in Las Vegas in 1994 and sold for $101,500 to a private collector, it again came up for sale in August when Graceland held its first ever auction. The auction coincided with Elvis Week at Graceland, which commemorates the legend’s death on August 16, 1977.

All of the items in the auction were offered from third-party collectors. Among them were rare and unique artefacts from the collection of Greg Page, founding member of Australian children’s music group The Wiggles, who is one of the world’s biggest and best-known Elvis Presley collectors. Page’s items included Elvis’s 1977 Cadillac Seville.

The car was purchased at the auction for $81,250 by Steve Horn as a present for his wife Suzannah. Steve and Suzannah, who are great Elvis fans, run Europe’s Tribute to Elvis, an annual Europe tribute artist contest held in Blackpool with the winner taking part in the contest finals in Memphis.

Explaining their decision to offer the car for display at Beaulieu, Steve said: “We wanted to give all of Elvis’s UK fans an opportunity to see his car and Beaulieu is the perfect location. We are delighted they could find a space for it.”

Other highlights of the Graceland auction included Presley’s first-known signature – on a Tupelo, Mississippi school library card – a handwritten set list from 1969 and jewellery, such as the beloved lion’s head pendant he wore while meeting President Richard Nixon.

It is believed that Elvis purchased more than 200 Cadillacs in his life; for himself, friends, family and even strangers. After his death it was gifted by his father, Vernon, to Elvis’s girlfriend, Ginger Alden.

See beaulieu.co.uk

Elvis Presley