In 1963, at the age of 36, Sammy Davis Jr. fell in love with a Rolls-Royce.
The singer, film star and Rat Pack regular was given the use of a chauffeured Silver Cloud while in England for a week of variety performances at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre.
As the picture above demonstrates, Davis literally did a song and dance every time he rode in it, donning the requisite English gent’s bowler hat, walking stick and tweed coat to boot.
Sammy Davis Jr. does a dance with his chauffeured Rolls-Royce in London, 1963
Back home in L.A. the next year he treated himself to a brand new Silver Cloud III convertible, which cost $20,000 at the time – about $140,000 in today’s dollars.
Davis showed off the car (along with the rest of his fleet) in front of his stylish 15-room Hollywood Hills mansion below in Ebony magazine in December of ’64 (below).
Nonetheless, he declared to the mag, “I don’t bring showbusiness home.”
Somehow we find that hard to imagine….
Click to enlarge
- Posted July 20, 2011
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- Keystone / Stringer / Getty Images
