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Good taste and limousines have not always mixed. The
buyer
of this limousine wanted to stretch a 2-door sedan... an extra set
of front doors led to this result.
(Courtesy Springfield Coachbuilders, Springfield, MO)
Let me tell you about the very
rich.
They are different from you and me.
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
Yes, they have more money.
- Ernest Hemingway
The story goes that upon leaving a
restaurant, rival shipping magnates Stavros
Niarchos and Aristotle Onassis stopped by a Rolls-Royce dealership. When Niarchos
took the bill for the two new cars, Onassis interrupted, "Let me get these - you paid
for
the lunch." Having just installed one of the first car phones, British entertainment
mogul
Lew Grade phoned from the back of his Rolls-Royce to even the one-upmanship score
with rival Jack Hylton. The latter's chauffeur responded, "I'm sorry, Mr. Hylton is
on the
other phone." When Arthur de Cordova was visited by LeBaron representative Hugo
Pfau to discuss a new order, the phone rang. De Cordova excused himself and
attended to the call. When he returned he said to Pfau,
"That call just paid for the car."
After a motorist assisted a chauffeur to fix
a flat along a highway, the limousine's rear
window dropped and the good Samaritan was asked what would be an appropriate
reward for the assistance. Perhaps flowers sent to his wife would be nice, was the
reply. A short time later, the man and his wife were astounded to find, along with a
gigantic flower arrangement sent them, a note saying that the mortgage had been paid
off by the stranded limousine riders -- Donald and Marla Trump.
A few chauffeured eccentrics like Henry Ford who preferred to ride in the front
passenger seat of a Ford sedan, or the English Lord who was driven about in a
less-than Rolls-Royce because he "could afford to look poor" are not among
limousine
trend setters. For the rich and famous who really want to show it, the limousine shall
be commensurate with that status and announce it. And everyone will notice. In the
world of the limousine, excess is a virtue; only excessive modesty is overkill.
The limousine and custom coach have always
been the product of a simple question,
"what if...?" What if it had a television? What if the seats were of zebra-hide?
What if
one could send a fax while on the road? What if it had a Jacuzzi in back? What if it had
everything, including the kitchen sink? What if it was the "biggest, most luxurious
automobile the world had ever seen?" As a general rule, the "what if" is
answered
by a "how much?" which, as John Pierpont Morgan said, if you "have to
ask..."
Excess has always been its own
virtue with limousines.
It all started early.
1907 early.
(La Guide du Carossier, 1907)
...and the girls have always loved a
great limousine,
(Courtesy Library of Congress)
1933 Rolls-Royce in White -- Outrageous in 1933!
(Photo by Michael L. Bromley
With thanks to Regal Limousine and Erin
Platform shoes c.2001)
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