Vehicle Description
One of the most infamous cars on the planet, the Rolls Royce owned
and driven by one of Hollywood's biggest Diva's, Mrs. Zsa Zsa
Gabor. If you were alive in 1989, you couldn't escape the story...
You know the one, the one that involved a Beverly Hills officer and
the palm of Zsa Zsa Gabor's hand.
June 14th,1989, Zsa Zsa Gabor was pulled over in Beverly Hills for
expired tags, she became quite frustrated when the officer didn't
recognize her Hollywood status and provided her with no special
treatment. This lead to Zsa Zsa slapping the officer and ultimately
to her arrest. The story made headlines around the world. Zsa Zsa
took full advantage of the incident booking interviews including an
appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Phil Donahue and
more. The incident even made a cameo on the big screen in the
blockbuster movie Naked Gun.
The car, a beautiful 1979 Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible, the
ultimate status symbol of its time. Bought new by Zsa Zsa Gabor but
what really makes the car special is how long she owned it.
Typically the rich and famous do not keep their cars for any
substantial period of time. Zsa Zsa owned this car for a very long
time and put the majority of the miles on it. Even at the time of
the arrest the car was 10 years old. Zsa Zsa knew an opportunity
when she saw one, besides the publicity for herself, she new the
car would also be in demand for collectors.
Taking full advantage of the situation she decided to send it to
auction giving reason for selling the car was because she was
afraid to drive it in Beverly Hills and would be replacing it with
a Cadillac. She attended the auction and represented the car
personally. It sold for top dollar to a very delighted collector of
celebrity owned cars. The was car proudly displayed in the
collection from 1990 until 2012 when the car was acquired by our
museum. Since Zsa Zsa's ownership, thirty two years ago, the car
has been driven minimally with only about 200 miles added to the
odometer. The car is all original with only 49,284k actual miles,
it is still titled in Zsa Zsas name and wears Zsa Zsas original
license plate.
The car has been a huge attraction to our museum gaining attention
from the public, media and even Zsa Zsa herself when she learned
the car was on display in our museum, but its time to rotate the
car for new exhibits and let another caretaker enjoy it.
"Zsa Zsa Gabor sits in her Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible as she
leaves court at a lunch break of her cop-slapping trial on Sept.
28, 1989, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Gabor threatened to call police
on a mob of reporters who surrounded the car as she awaited a jury
verdict. "Don't scratch the car," she told the media mob."
