Gates of Graceland - Graceland Secrets at the Elvis Presley Automobile Museum

hi Elvis fans Tom Brown here and another edition of gates of Graceland and in case you can't recognize the surroundings I am over the rope in the car museum but it's okay it's official I've got my white gloves more importantly I have Angie Marchesi director of archives thank you for letting me thank you for letting me jump to jump the curb I tried to keep you out oh yeah you did I kind of brought a camera so I thought so you're okay yeah so we're here for what another unseen Graceland except this time we're talking about Elvis's car this is unseen Presley motors really this is unseen Elvis cars I mean the car museum so wonderful it kind of always has you know a base of vehicles and then you kind of rotate different things in and out because I don't know how many cars you have we have probably about 30 cars in our collection but of course we have records of Elvis buying over 200 vehicles giving most of those away know um you know Elvis was famous for giving cars away because cars were really kind of a status symbol for him so back in the 50s when he first started recording the first thing that he wanted to buy was his own car it was used it was actually a Cadillac and it burned up on the side of the road not long after he purchased it but yeah so cars really were kind of the status symbol that he had made it right so Elvis was a huge car guy and not just Cadillacs all different kinds of brands which you can see here in the car museum as well as in our collection which ought to take a look well that's the fact you know we get to walk by and sometimes doors are open and sometimes they're not this is a special time we get to we get to open a door knock us in the door to look I have my glasses on what are we in front of here this car right here this probably is that one of the highlights of Elvis's first purchases I'm going to just touch it you know this is the very first rolls-royce that Elvis purchased 1960 black rolls-royce he bought it in California had it customized and then brought it here to Graceland I mean when you buy a Rolls you have to have a customized work right now so Elvis would own several wars races throughout his life but this was his first asain of the first of anything is always your favorite yeah as I was walking around the car museum a quick sidebar question we all are fascinated by the vehicles but my dad was a tire so you know after he retired from the military had a tire store and he sold I'm fascinated by looking around do you have difficulty do you find you look for vintage tires - we do whenever the tires need to be replaced but knock on metal knock on wood most of the tires that are on these cars are the original tires that were actually on the cars when Elvis owned them see tire collectors will come and look and go wait a minute now but yeah that's what we've been told you know obviously you know we're not all round from that time period but yeah so we try to keep the cars as original as possible so if there's little scratches or dings and things like that that were here when Elvis was here we really don't want to get rid of them they go onto the vehicle it really was Elvis's vehicle that yeah that's what happened you know one fame I mean one of the favorite things in the car museum that I love is the John Deere because it is all deemed up and that is because Elvis used it heavily yes exactly anyways I said those things tell stories it gives the car scare hitter alright let's let's look inside they're going open the door I know they are I'll let you do the honors tom oh that's good action hmm so here's the inside of elbow wowsers - boys look at that you've got the - you've got obviously the turntable you've got the RR on the brake pedal yeah yeah little unique things about the car that you just went and think you know automatic windows for what year vehicle 1960 Wow yeah I didn't know they had that technology mm-hmm and it looks like in the column transmission yes yeah so nothing but the best that's right just vehicles kids today you've just missed the era where you know first of all you had the big bench seat yes but you slid across at the corner pretty well and just the space and it wasn't about it it wasn't about safety it was about beauty well that last board is gorgeous with the wood and all the silver no airbags you know airbags but you had you to have plenty of space yeah but this is just all original interior and this seems like a really heavy car it is that's the but the I mean they don't make cars like this anymore I mean a lot of our cars when you look at them it's like their tanks yeah literally compared to today's cars yeah what's my miles per gallon on a car like this not very much it wouldn't think so calling around then gas back then wasn't you know $3 a gallon either yeah it to this the thing I love about this is it looks like the kind of car that Elvis can drive and not really be anonymous I mean the car itself Lynne you could see this coming young people would look at it and that's another thing that Elvis did drive his cars himself you know a lot of celebrities don't they you know get chauffeured around and things like that Elvis was always the driver he loved to be in control he loved to show people his city from you know the interstate and things like that so it was not unusual for him to hop behind the wheel and just take off I love the scene in that's the way it is where Elvis is going through the MGM gate he's driving Charlie's sitting in the passenger seat and Richard Davis is in the back seat in the back seat and Elvis is driving them to the studio Elvis is their chauffeur exactly ya know so Elvis really I mean he loved to drive that was you know it was kind of you know I guess growing up back then and being able to buy your first car and being such a symbol that was something that's like I'm driving you around yeah okay a lot of cars in this era the model building see look at that oh look at that that's just gorgeous okay all right we're let's head down the walkway here we're gonna head over I want to show you somebody Elvis's fun vehicles all right let's go okay Tom here's some of Elvis's fun vehicles yes like we like to call us these are the things I made Graceland his big playground and we're standing in front of his doom buggy yeah and the first thing I notice because we're up on the platform and when you're walking by you're down there I see the gas goes of course right in the front of the car because it's that's the do you know do you know what movie Elvis famously drove a dune buggying drove a dune buggy like a NASCAR driver live a little of a little yes I mean you watch that movie and you wonder how in the world did he stay in that vehicle because he had some sand dunes yes he does but he put the dune and dune by this dune buggy what you is unique about it is that we actually have the check for an Elvis purchased it in the late 60s and he bought it out in California yeah and the funniest thing is that two weeks later we have a second check and it's for $700 worth of repairs do much well he enjoyed having the dune buggy yes he did he went around Memphis looking for dunes and the other thing I know Danny yeah I think I noticed no no doors you're just done no doors you do the whole Dukes of Hazzard thing you just climb right in yeah yeah not a lot of comfort in here either just um it's definitely a recreational vehicle nothing for leisurely drives around Memphis that's you're sure it does have a backseat barely barely but you could climb somebody back here and I bet you Elvis pack this full as many people as he could and drove it around Graceland then got back and saw how many people he had left exactly they were losing people yeah left and right if you want to walk around here Tom I'm going to talk of to you about another really inconspicuous vehicle this yeah really you know if Elvis was trying to drive around town and not be noticed he would definitely be not be taking out his super trikes this is amazing this is just it's hard to think of this as a motorcycle hybrid it just it looks like from here it's a car you look at the trunk and everything exactly you know I mean so yeah this is one of three super trikes that Elvis have custom-made right here in Memphis at a shop off Lamar Avenue oh you know looking at all these vehicles like this what do you do to store a motor vehicle I mean I think about all the stuff in the engine and gasoline and oil and everything once what's the status of all well all of these cars can still run but because of Tennessee law and things like that to have them displayed here inside a building they have to be completely drained and all of their fluids so of course antique car owners don't cringe at that we understand that to keep a car going you need to have it lubricated but because of the display laws we have have them totally drained that doesn't mean that we can't Lube them back up again and start driving them again you have to as an archivist you have to make the decision between you know the the collecting of cars and the displaying of Elvis cars exactly so you know since you have to scan it you have to kind of yeah maneuver along there's also another supertrike over here if you want to take a look at this as we were il vyses pedal car did you realize that this is a plane no I was up here earlier you were close I was up here yeah you were around and I was looking there's it's like a I used to have a little car like that when I was about four you know you do this with your feet yep and this one same thing it's a it's a pedal car it's a little pedal car what's a handbrake with and on the hills of Graceland do you think Elvis used the handbrake oh maybe when he got to the street maybe there's the stop daddy opened the gate I'm calm I'm right throughout and this is another one of our super trikes like I mentioned Elvis had three that were custom made one of them currently is on display at the Rock Hall of Fame in Cleveland oh good Sena glad to know Elvis is up there he should be yes Elvis is represented in all the major Music Hall of Fame's as you probably have seen a few guys you go around that's right yeah so this is a third love this and I love these little little little foot holders for for your passenger yeah the person that is brave enough to sit behind Elvis as he's driving this down Elvis Presley Boulevard and looking at it too this is one of those kind of Easy Rider you're like doing this you're like you're relaxed though right back yeah and again this is a car that you would probably look at the car first and then as it drove by you'd be like oh wait that was Elvis that was Elvis yeah yeah I've heard around and and the photos I've seen of Elvis and and people always think he was in the mansion he didn't get out really he was tooling around Tennessee and Mississippi and if you were out at the time he was he was out there yeah but the beauty of Elvis being able to be on a motorcycle is he put the helmet on and he gets to be incognito incognito he gets to be normal unless he's driving something like that unless there's just that part of them that still had that well I don't wanna be that anonymous you know so out of all the cars in the car museum probably the most famous car that we have on display is the pink Cadillac we'd like to go take a look oh I let's go let's go oh my gosh watch your step we're headed downhill no hand breaks here she is that's it oh just the beauty and guess what I have what's that I oh my gosh look at this look at that the original keys to the pink Cadillac Wow yep okay they still open the door I'm gonna thank the door look how small they wore by no you would think that they would break yeah you know because they're so tiny and this car is it's like you have such a huge car is out of proportion with this the size of this I you know in the 60s growing up everybody had the big cars but this this is truly the biggest vehicle one of the biggest vehicles I've ever seen up close like this it's it's amazing and quickly for everybody tell them the story of so this why this is here yeah this is a 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood it's a 60 series there was actually a little over 18,000 of them made and they cost a little over $4,000 to buy brand new when Elvis purchased it it originally was blue Elvis had it custom painted pink and he actually used it for touring believe it or not this is how the guys would get around they had equipment that they'd strapped to the hood of it to the top of it and they used this car for touring you know I'm and also as a fan looking at it the hundreds of times I camped out here and looked at it these are not Ruby mirrors no they're spotlights side Marisa they're spotlights there's a little handle in there and something else that's interesting about this car is that you see that what looks like futuristic gadget on the dash yeah it looks like a radar detector or something it's a dimmer switch it detects lights coming on and it will dim your headlights now why don't we still have that I have no idea now you have to do it yourself now I'm left up to the jerk I'm meeting in traffic to turn his lights down zactly and back in my day - you had it on the floor the little toggle button on the floor that you get with your foot - blower the line that's what that is the other unique thing about the catalog which probably Elvis really loved is that this series the Cadillac was one of the first to have a 250 horsepower engine so it had some power yeah again not really good on the gas mileage I was thinking you know but gas is you know 10 cents 15 20 cents or whatever at the time you get that and that's nothing well and the what happened with this car in particular is that Elvis was touring in the 50s and Scotty was driving and it had a wreck never little outside outside Texarkana and so while they were getting it repaired Elvis I bought another car for Turing and what's this came out of the shop he gave this to his mom okay see in in some we take the legends and we merge them it's like we think Elvis bought this for his mom and gave his mom the keys right she couldn't drive she never got a driver's license yeah so the only people that drove this car you know besides the guys when they were touring would have been Vernon or Elvis mm-hmm well you want to use that key and unlock it and take a look okay we're over on the hidden side and I'm the keys in the thing there and oh that's that's historic we got that right we got me opening but these are the keys right here did I show you that look at that again with the lots of room and the metal metal dashboard and padded on top yes no air conditioning you actually guess what you see this back here Elvis customized didn't have air conditioning added duty this is air conditioning one okay mm-hmm so the cooling is all back here in the trunk is where it's kept Wow they didn't really care about weight or anything back in the day did they they just you know how much this car weighs Oh about 5,000 pounds it's a tank and this tank actually just came back from London not too long ago you keep the windows rolled up because it's there's a big ocean there there yeah I would it would oversee the London and was seen at the o2 exhibit I can imagine people in Europe they just think of America and Elvis and they think of pink Cadillac and they didn't have a such an iconic thing to take over there yeah well the funny thing about Elvis it's like there's certain things you think of when you say motorcycle you think of harley-davidson when you say Memphis you think of Graceland and when you say cars you think of cattle axis that's a part of the rock legend Elvis wrote the book on being a rock star but the thing that most rock stars you don't hear about giving away car away cars he he sure did and if you were friend of Elvis's and he didn't give you a car that was unusual yeah and you were telling me to not he was sometimes he would give it to you but sometimes he would take it away but he took it away for a good reason yes Elvis would do the car pass around I guess you say hey George give me your keys and he give those to Richard and give George some new parking sat down and pick one out go down and get you a new car happy birthday you know and of course the famous time that everyone wonders about is if it was a true story that Elvis actually bought a Cadillac for a lady that was in a showroom and that story is also true that legendary that she's there looking at this car that obviously she cannot afford this vehicle right and Elvis goes up to her she was african-american and Elvis goes up to her and talks to her and they hit it off and he's there talking about the car and he asked her if she likes it and she said she does and he answers the keys well I want to use these one more time because there's one more thing here on the car that I want to show you you're gonna we're gonna crank it and drive it out no but follow me oh okay takes you a while to get from the front of the car to the back this is a long car yeah okay so I'm going to open the trunk Wow now there's your lolene system there's the cooling system with the tubes I noticed as I walked around the car the tubes that send the air to the front of the car in kind of and kind of fell apart yeah but the other unique thing about what's in this trunk is this is the original spare tire for the Cadillac right there right there and never been obviously not never been used ever been used yeah I seem like when I'm with you I spend all my time going Wow Wow it's funny because there's a couple other car people that say with everyone with me they're always under the car yeah yeah there's so many different angles to to Elvis's career that that draw people in you know classic car collectors Auto people love Elvis because of what you've done with the vehicles and how you've maintained them and how he maintained them and that and what I love is their iconic to us but to Elvis they were just his image let's go to the gig yeah Scottie you drive Scottie you drive DJ you drive I'll catch some Z's here in the back you know oh mom here's your car no do we have home movie footage of Vernon and Gladys the first time it snowed here at Graceland driving the car around the front mm-hmm and actually having a little bit of a snowball fight and eating the snow that's where Gladys could drive it around she didn't need a driver's license burn in Javits she oh did she burn in Jeff still he still didn't you still didn't drive burn in drove it yeah but this is funny because this is a kind of car you could take to the drive-in yep and you got paid you had to pay by the number of people that were in the car not the number of people you can fit the trunk that's right back in the day back in the day go see Elvis how would you look here's a here's a contest you go see an Elvis movie to drive in in this car that would be amazed that would be an amazing contest that will never exist you know on the way over to this iconic car we passed another car that I love is a 70s Elvis guy the incredible Stutz you want to take a look back and see yeah when I see that you've already taken the keys away from me for this one here it is the iconic black Stutz this is probably my favorite Elvis vehicle and as I'm up here looking I see the spare tire on top of the trunk yes yeah unfortunately the trunk is actually tied to a button in the glove compartment so there's no see there's no way to open it without having to push the button which means you need battery powers or I would gladly show you this truck as well it's quite amazing so this 73 studs Elvis buys in September 74 I feel like I'm used car shopping you're trying to sell me and I'm gonna buy this one you don't have to hard sell me on this one do you want to sell I'm you know want this I'll take this one as is you know he paid a little over $20,000 for it it's one of several Stutz that I was actually owned the unique thing about this car is that if you run the numbers that are on the side of the door it's supposed to have black leather interior as you can see Elvis customized it yet again uh-huh not only with the red leather interior but all of the gold trim that you see inside the car hey yeah this car actually is completely functional we recently had it completely restored a couple of years ago and it made its debut at the Speedway in North Carolina you know who drove it I do know who drove it I'm a fan of NASCAR and you've got the most iconic NASCAR driver to drive one of Elvis's most iconic cars Dale Earnhardt jr. big thrive his car but you there has to be a part of you thinking I've just given the keys to Elvis's stuch to a NASCAR driver yes and heavy feet they do have very heavy feet and this cars got some pickup believe it or not and you know Dale loved driving it course he's a huge Elvis fan so it was a great honor for him and but yeah this car here is actually completely restored inside and out well the inside still original but as far inside I mean under the hood and this was an everyday car for all this - um it was can you imagine driving down you know the streets here in Memphis and this car pull up next to you well you had it was either Isaac Hayes or Elvis if you were in Memphis in the 70s exactly yeah yeah this also was the last car Elvis drove there's an iconic photo of Elvis at the gates of Graceland in this car exactly taken on August the 16th you know after he returned home from the dentist you know so this was the last car was drove which kind of if you start going through Elvis's car history cars had a cycle you know he would he would buy them he would drive them he would give them away or trade them in for newer cars there were a few exceptions obviously the pink Cadillacs one of them but for him to buy this car in September of 74 and still be driving in 77 we have to determine that this was one of his favorites and not not his only Stutz though he had bought stutzes earlier right oh yeah his first Stutz he actually purchased was ordered by Frank Sinatra and but Elvis showed up at the dealership the same day the car showed up and Elvis left with the car that day kind of charmed his way to owning his first Stutz yep Elvis knocks Sinatra off the charts a couple of times and then he still since then he takes his car this is one of the centerpieces of our collection well this thank you so much for letting me look at this one and like I said this and this is one of those cars that when you think of Elvis and you think of Elvis in the 70s you think it make it art you think of the Stutz yeah yeah I've actually even met some people that have named their dogs Stutz oh really because of because of this car so because of this car well Angie you just got you've got so many vehicles there's so much more we can see but you know what car museum part 2 I got it we'll do it all right you're on you're on all right everybody you heard her we just decided on the spot there's going to be a part two with more vehicles more from Presley motors and Angie I'm Tom Brown thanks for watching gates of Graceland we'll be back real soon bye later you

Channel: Graceland

Views: 1,175,618

Keywords: Elvis Presley's Graceland, Graceland Memphis, Cars, Cadillac, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Rolls-Royce

Id: fWM2p2Bazn0

Length: 22min 53sec (1373 seconds)

Published: Fri May 27 2016