In the opinion of the legendary Elvis Presley, a new Cadillac was the ultimate symbol of American style. It turns out that Elvis wanted just about everyone he knew to own a Cadillac and live the same luxurious lifestyle.
The stories of the King giving Cadillacs away to his family, friends, and even complete strangers are legendary.
Almost 20 years ago, Elvis Presley fan Rex Fowler made a documentary about the rocker’s habit of giving away cars. The film was titled 200 Cadillacs after Fowler had heard that Presley had given that many of the cars away.
“It’s hard to get an actual number,” Fowler admitted. “There are people in Elvis’s inner circle who say it wasn’t anything like 200. But others say it was at least that many or more. I don’t think we’ll ever know.”
Elvis was even honored by a dealership with a plaque for being the “World’s Best Car Buyer.”
“It’s #CadillacDay Elvis Presley was well known for giving away Cadillacs. One car dealer honored him, by giving him a plaque for being the World’s Best Car Buyer, with the names of 31 people he had given cars to.”
Elvis Presley May Have Went a Little Overboard
His obsession with giving away Caddy’s first started after Elvis Presley had his first modest hit in 1955. The “Jailhouse Rock” singer immediately bought a Cadillac for his mother. Then, 20 years later, Presley bought a Cadillac to give to one of his backup singers. That’s when things started getting a little out of control.
Apparently, at one point that same year, Presley entered the showroom at Madison Cadillac in Memphis and bought up 13 Cadillacs.
He promptly gave the order to give the cars away to any of the people who were working for him at the time. Meanwhile, while Elvis was still in the showroom, a bank teller named Mennie Person was admiring his Cadillac limousine out front. So, naturally, Elvis approached her and asked, “Like it? I’ll buy you one.”
The King quickly had his salesman add it to the list. That brought his grand total of car shopping to $140,000 for the day.
Furthermore, there is also a story involving a woman casually mentioning to Elvis her birthday was coming up in two days. So what does Elvis do? He has one of his guys cut her a check, and gift her with a Cadillac, of course.
There are also stories of Elvis Presley paying a visit to a Denver car lot. While there, he casually buys a few Cadillacs for three policemen, a doctor, and two others. And when a local news station caught wind of the story and briefly mentioned him on the air, Elvis immediately called anchor Don Kinney to offer him a Cadillac.
Kinney apparently thought it was a joke and hung up. However, the King of Rock n Roll refused to take no for an answer. Elvis called Kinney over and over until he agreed to take the car.
