Hollywood: Stars’ Cars

It was one of those slow afternoons in a Beverly Hills auto showroom, and Burt Sugarman, 28, the smoothly pompadoured proprietor, noodled at his desk. In the window reclined a long, low, old-fashioned jobbie with running boards, bicycle fenders and blindingly chromed supercharger exhausts curling out of the hood. Suddenly, an ill-clad geek with long hair popped into the shop. Sonny Buono, of Sonny and Cher, pointed at the glittery relic and asked: “What’s that?” “Excalibur,” replied Sugarman.”I’ll take it,” chirped Sonny.

The two-seater Excalibur, custom-made in Milwaukee, is a fiber-glass replica of the 1927-29 Mercedes-Benz SSK, fitted onto a Studebaker Cruiser chas sis and propelled by a 350-h.p. Corvette engine. Sonny’s model set him back about $10,000, which is cheap considering that the Excalibur is the car-of-the-month in Hollywood, and that, furthermore, owning the car-of-the-month wins nearly as many prestige points these days as punching Frank Sinatra in the gush.

Curtis’ Kicks. Phyllis Diller owns three Excaliburs, in yellow, silver and grey—presumably rotated to match her hair. Bobby Darin, Eddie Albert, Actor James Darren, Batman Adam West and Writer Rod Serling have one apiece. Steve McQueen got one for his wife. Dick Van Dyke and his wife wear raccoon coats while tooling around in their yellow model; when people yell hello, Dick and Marjorie wave little pennants that say “HI.” Tony Curtis sold his two Excaliburs. He’s got four other cars anyway, and besides, Tony gets his kicks now by restoring authentic antique cars. “I suppose it’s something like the satisfaction a man got in the old days from keeping his horse in shape,” he says. “There’s something masculine about it.”

When a star is not projecting his masculinity and just wants transportation, there is always the Rolls-Royce. Andy Williams, Bill Cosby, Milton Berle, Peter Falk, Lucille Ball, Liberace, Jerry Lewis, David Janssen and Jack Benny all own Rollses. Red Skelton has two Rollses. Phyllis Diller, when her Excaliburs are sheathed, gets by with one. Bob Hope, true to his longtime TV sponsor, sticks to a 1967 Chrysler Crown Imperial hardtop.

Diamond Dust. The sportier types go Ghia. The classic is the 1962 Dual Ghia L6.4. There are only 26 in the world; Sinatra has one and Dean Martin and his wife Jeannie have His & Her models. The Martin household, in fact, runs a fleet of ten vehicles including a World War II “Weasel” personnel carrier. Young Dino, 16, is planning to ditch his 1965 Ferrari and get a Lamborghini Miura P-400, which cruises at more than 200 m.p.h. Dean’s mother-in-law has Jeannie’s old 1961 Continental, which became declasse in Hollywood when pressagents began driving them. The Martins’ housekeeper drives only a Cadillac.

The real problem is how to find one’s car in the parking lot at the five and dime. The answer is to add a homey little touch-up. Tony Martin’s Rolls has a special $1,000-plus finish called “pearl metallic,” but it is really ground-up fish scales. The late Marie Macdonald had platinum-dust paint on her Caddy, but Elvis Presley has diamond dust on his. For further easy identification, Presley’s car sports a yacht-style rear-seat lounge, portholes, gold lame drapes, gold curtains, gold mouton carpeting, gold-plated telephone and 24-carat hubcaps and tail pipes. The hubcaps on Ursula Andress’ BMW, on the other hand, sport medallions that depict Ursula emerging from a swimming pool.