Doug Young's 1972 Cadillac wagon. Way cool.

The Old One loves cool vintage cars, and this one is a serious beauty.  This is our friend Doug Young's 1972 Cadillac Fleetwood station wagon.  He brought it by the store last Saturday.

Doug was looking to find out a little bit about her past, so I did some research on these custom beauties.  Apparently more than a few major celebrities have had custom Cadillac wagons over the years.  This 1972 wagon is documented to have been owned by Elvis Presley.  Note for later:  it has the same two-way tailgate as Doug's car.

Elvis' car has quite the history.  I'm quoting this from the Elvis' Cadillacs site:

Elvis's Cadillac station wagon (VIN 6D49R2Q163176) is cream with a black vinyl top, leather interior and has a small gold plaque on the passenger side door engraved with "TCB." It was auctioned by Guernseys on October 7th-8th 1999 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas for $34,500. It has four regular doors and the fifth door on the back opens two different ways.

The new owner, who wished to resell it for $50,000, had a letter from Jack Soden (President of Elvis Enterprises) saying this car has a more colourful story than most of the cars Elvis owned and gave away. Apparently Colonel Parker's widow laughed with Jack when she saw the car at the Guernsey auction as Elvis owned the car, but gave it as a gift to Colonel Parker. The car was in Las Vegas and Elvis would "borrow" the car for trips to Los Angeles. Colonel Parker got tired of tracking the car down, so he told Elvis to take the car back, and he did, back to Graceland where it was used for hauling friends and groceries. Incredibly, in June 2005 the owners at the time changed the sale price to $75,000, however in September 2005 the vehicle was listed on ebay and sold for $29,972. The proud new owner of this car is Ken Lucci of Bellaire Beach, Florida, an avid Cadillac collector.

Some more info on the car from Ken: "This custom built Cadillac Estate Wagon  was owned by Elvis Presley from 1972 until his death in 1977. After that it remained at Graceland until auctioned off with other Elvis memorabilia in 1995. I have the title signed by Jack Soden President of Elvis Enterprises, and a letter from them as well. The car is said to have been kept in Las Vegas at the home of Col. Tom Parker Elvis’s Manager, and then at the Las Vegas Hilton where Elvis played engagements from 1972 thru 1976. After his final engagement on December 12, 1976 the car was sent back to Graceland where it remained in use by the staff until well after the King’s death. The car actually started its life as a 1972 Cadillac Fleetwood sedan that was shipped from the factory in Detroit to the American Sunroof Company where it was converted in to an Estate Wagon. The top is dark brown vinyl not black and it has 73,000 miles on it. It has chrome spoke rims (not caps) with 24kt gold plated spokes. The car also has 24kt gold finish emblems. It is a very unique car. In 1972 ASC built two of these custom vehicles, one for Elvis and the other for singer Dean Martin. The whereabouts of Dean’s car is unknown."

I'm not sure that the other 1972 ASC Cadillac wagon belonged to Dino.  Dino had not one but two custom Cadillac wagons.  The first one was built from a 1970 Eldorado by George Barris.  From Car-Nection:
 
This is the "Casa de Eldorado" station wagon built for rat-pack member Dean Martin at a reported cost of $18,000 ...not including the base car!  At least four were built and there were other orders on hand, in 1970, for twelve more units. One of these may have been owned by singer Glen Campbell.

And Dino's other Cadillac wagon was built from a 1973 Eldorado.  Also according to Car-Nection:

Here is another custom station wagon built on the Cadillac chassis.  Its current owner [2002] writes: As  for the story behind it, it was built in late 72 for Dean Martin (I never was able to get an exact build date, but judging by the use of 1973 quarter panels I would imagine it was close to 73). Around 1976 the car was auctioned off in Las Vegas, and purchased by a man here in Evergreen Park, Il. My father and a friend found the car advertised in the Tradin' Times newspaper, in 1988, for something like $1200.00. We went to check it out, and ended up buying it right away. When we got it, there was extensive sun damage in the rear compartment (the windows weren't tinted), and it had been sitting outside, so there was a lot of surface rust on the hood & roof. Dad had it painted, and basically replaced the whole interior except for the seats, and that's how it is today. When we bought the car it had about 55,900 miles on it, now it has about 56,700 miles on it. We don't use it much.

Perhaps the other ASC 1972 Fleetwood wagon (if there was only one other) belonged to a celebrity, but it probably wasn't Dino.  A note about ASC from coachbuilt.com:

ASC Custom Craft introduced a line of Cadillac station wagons that were built on the rear-wheel-drive Deville chassis and are known to have built a number of wagons using Eldorados, one of which was owned by recording star Glen Campbell.  ASC’s wagons were built using the back half of salvaged GM clamshell station wagons that were attached to new 4-door Devilles and Fleetwoods at the C-pillars. Most of the Eldorados were attached at the B-pillar although a few, including Glen Campbell’s, were attached at the C-pillar and included the small Eldorado rear quarter windows. The 4-door wagons resembled the full-sized Oldsmobile and Buick Wagons and were quite successful. The Eldorado-based wagons looked awkward from day one and very few were built.

Either way, Doug's car is most probably not the other ASC wagon, as Doug's car was built by Moloney Coachworks of Chicago:

How many 1972 Fleetwood wagons were built by Moloney is unknown.  Most of the estimates I see indicate "a dozen or so."  So these customs were built by ASC and Moloney, and maybe others were built by other companies as well.  It would appear that the custom shops used various parts from other GM vehicles for the tailgates (among other things) as evidenced by this:

So Doug's Moloney car and Elvis' ASC car have the same tailgate design, but this 1972 custom (builder unknown) has the retractable tailgate from the Vista Cruiser.  To further confuse matters, this Moloney brochure from 1972 shows the retractable tailgate (sorry about the small pix) -- huh?

So we know that multiple builders built multiple versions of this car.  Now, where did Doug's car come from?  And who owned this car before Doug?

Forest Cadillac of Clayton, MO (a St. Louis suburb) no longer exists, and apparently has been gone for some time.  (Maybe somebody from St. Louis knows more about this.)   Doug's car was apparently built in Chicago by Moloney, and was in Missouri at some point.  One more observation on Moloney, from coachbuilt.com:

Earle Moloney was a real estate developer and executive with the family-owned Molon Motors Corporation in 1967 when he cut and stretched two Lincoln limousines. This was a complete departure for Moloney whose family owned the Bally Manufacturing, Comar Electric, and Molon Motor & Coil companies. Moloney's experience in manufacturing electrical products was little preparation for building limousines. "People asked why I would do anything that foolish," remembers Moloney. The answer was that Moloney loved the idea of custom limousines and saw few people building them. By the time he sold Moloney Coachbuilders to Cadillac dealers Jacques Moore in 1986, Moloney had built more than 11,000 limousines, armored vehicles, and custom automobiles. More than anyone else, Moloney had helped to usher in the era of the contemporary stretch limousine.

Moloney's first two years featured expermentation with 12-inch stretch limousines and Cadillac station wagons. One of Moloney's intentions was to provide a wider selection of vehicles for Cadillac dealers. Another potential market was the building of custom limousines for celebrities and private individuals. Moloney quickly found success in both of these markets. Customers would include Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, and Liberace.

One can only imagine how playboy Hugh Hefner used his 1974 Moloney Limousine!
Moloney limousines were a favorite choice by heads of state such as Queen Elizabeth

In 1970, Moloney Coachbuilders expanded to include George Lehmann and Bill Palmer from the innovative coachbuilder Lehmann-Peterson. Lehmann headed sales while Palmer managed a production team that included a number of Lehmann-Peterson veterans.

Cadillac dealers responded eagerly to new innovations such as rear-facing bench seats in place of the traditional jump seats. Cadillac welcomed Moloney as a means of extending its presence in the limousine market and invited him to exhibit his vehicles at annual new model previews. "1970 was a turning point," says Moloney With his models refined and production running smoothly under Palmer, Moloney established a network of dealers in major cities. In New York, Potamkin Cadillac would eventually sell more than 2,000 Moloney limousines including 280 in a single year.

As the livery industry grew in major cities around the country during the 1970s, many operators chose Moloneys over the Cadillac formal because it suited a wider range of customers. With a television and rear-facing bench seat, limousine operators had a vehicle that could work seven days a week.

Moloney sales grew steadily during the 1970s despite competition from other early coachbuilders such as Executive, Gaines, and American Custom Coach. The Moloney sales staff included Matt Baines who later founded Limousine Werks, and Tom O'Gara who started O'Gara Coachworks which is now O'Gara/Hess & Eisenhardt Armoring.

"In 1977, Executive had a pricey car and was doing a good job in retail selling," says Moloney. Even though his competitors were selling factory-direct, Moloney continued to sell through Cadillac dealers. "We have worked with some great dealers like Hanley-Dawson and Penske," says Moloney, "and we relied on them because we were not qualified to service limousines ourselves. Some coachbuilders made it hard on dealers by undercutting them and going directly to the customer. When I have a commitment to a dealer, I never undercut them."

This station wagon was among the vehicles Moloney developed for Cadillac dealers

So we know this:

1.  Doug's car was built by Moloney in Chicago.

2.  Elvis' car was built in Michigan by ASC.

3.  Moloney and ASC built cars for Elvis.

4.  The second ASC wagon's whereabouts are unknown.

But:

1.  We don't know how many Moloney 1972 Caddy Fleetwood wagons were built.  But Doug has what seems to be one of them.

2.  We don't know whether Dino had the other ASC 1972 Caddy Fleetwood  wagon, but we do know that Dino had a 1970 custom wagon and a 1973 custom wagon.

3.  We don't know how many ASC 1972 Fleetwood wagons were built, or if the Elvis car was really an ASC car.

Folks, this will require more research.  Have a good evening.

-- OHW