1930 Rolls Royce Phantom I Transformal Phaeton

1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Transformal Phaeton
Sold for US$ 742,500 Including Commission
Bonhams Auction, Amelia Island, Florida 2015
Coachwork by Hibbard & Darrin
Chassis no. S317KP
Engine no. 20178
BODY NO. 767
7,672cc OHV Inline 6-Cylinder Engine
108bhp at 2,300rpm
3-Speed Manual Transmission
*A gift to 20th Century film icon Marlene Dietrich
*Unique example of the Transformal Phaeton
*Subject of a $500,000 restoration
*Multiple Best in Show and Best in Class award winner
*Prominently featured in Tom Cotter's book The Cobra in the Barn
MARLENE DIETRICH
Newly restored and never shown, this magnificent 1930 Rolls-Royce Torpedo Transformal Phaeton by Hibbard & Darrin is documented to have been delivered new to Marlene Dietrich, one of the greatest film icons of Hollywood's golden age.
Born near Berlin in 1901, Dietrich became an international film star with her role in 1929's The Blue Angel, directed by Josef von Sternberg. Shot with both German and English soundtracks, the film was the first major sound motion picture made in Berlin, a global center of avant garde film production at the time. Dietrich sang what would become her signature song, "Falling in Love Again," in the movie.
On April 14, 1930, Marlene Dietrich arrived in Hollywood to continue making films with von Sternberg, who had left Germany a few months earlier to work for Paramount Studios. In a letter written that evening, Dietrich mentioned that von Sternberg had greeted her at the train with two welcoming gifts from Paramount...a bouquet of flowers and a green Rolls-Royce.
That green Rolls-Royce is the very car offered here.
Dietrich and von Sternberg immediately set to work on the Paramount production Morocco with Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou co-starring. Remarkably, Dietrich's Rolls-Royce appears prominently in the movie's final scene. The big car was moved around on location in the California desert on an enormous sled, drug by a huge Caterpillar tractor.
Rolls-Royce factory records show that ownership of Springfield Phantom I chassis S317KP, with coachwork by Hibbard & Darrin, was formally transferred from Josef von Sternberg/Paramount Studios to Marlene Dietrich on November 26, 1930. A few days later, Morocco opened in movie theaters. Dietrich would receive an Oscar nomination for her performance in the film.
Dietrich was photographed several times with her sleek uber-luxury car for publicity purposes. Some of the resulting pictures are still frequently published today. Dietrich's daughter, Maria Riva, reminisces about the Rolls-Royce in her 1992 memoir, Marlene Dietrich. Maria recalls the big green car—and it's fascinating sculpted radiator ornament—when she, at age 6, joined her mother in California during 1931. Other childhood memories of the Rolls include shopping trips to Bullocks on Wilshire and runs to the beach—always with her mother's liveried chauffer, Harry, at the wheel.
Dietrich had a long career in film and, later, as a live entertainer. In 1939, the year she became an American citizen, Dietrich played a memorably comedic role in Destry Rides Again, a film co-starring Jimmy Stewart.
During World War II, Dietrich toured extensively with the USO, entertaining Allied troops in both European and Pacific theaters. In the 1950s, Dietrich chummed with Frank Sinatra and the "Rat Pack" in Las Vegas. She opened at the Sahara Hotel in 1953, receiving a then unprecedented $30,000 a week to perform. Poor health finally sidetracked one of the entertainment world's most enduring and unique personalities in the mid-1970s. Marlene Dietrich died at age 90 in 1992.
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Robert Myrick Photography