Just got back from another trip to the Auto Collection show in Las Vegas. While most of the same Cadillacs were the same as my last trip a few months ago I did get a lesson in Cadillacs.
As I was walking around the show I came across a man name Jimmy Velvet who was there setting up his table. Jimmy was a close friend of Elvis and he has a book all about the photos he took over the years while he was touring. Just flipping through this book was an education in Cadillac history although that isn’t what the book is about. Jimmy has pictures of all the celebrities that he met over the years. I went through about 20 pages and saw many pictures of vintage Cadillacs usually with a celebrity in it. There was even a picture of Jimmy and Elvis mother standing in front of her Cadillac.
Jimmy and I hit it off and he told me some stories about Elvis’s Cadillacs and some that he owned also. Jimmy told me how he sold his 1949 Cadillac for $125, he told me about how they painted Elvis Cadillac from blue to pink before he gave it to his mother. It was really fascinating stuff for me and I hope to do an interview with Jimmy someday. We talked for about an hour as he was signing autographs. Although I didn’t know who Jimmy Velvet was at the time I became a fan of his. If you are a fan of celebrities of the 1950s and up I encourage you to get Inside the Dream book.
While I was researching this I found a couple of cool pages about Elvis Cadillac Elvis Cadillacs.