Question of the Day - 06 March 2018

“This car doesn’t seem to have the pickup that it had in 1943. Then again, neither do I,” the king of late-night told TV viewers when he showed them his father’s 1939 Chrysler Royal Sedan, lovingly restored to its original condition.

The salient facts about the car are it’s the vehicle in which he learned to drive, went to his senior prom in, and in 1994 sold it to the Imperial Palace's Auto Collections’ for $1. (Yes, a dollar.) It was displayed next to a placard that said, “Not for sale. Display.” 

In time the Imperial Palace became the Quad, then the Linq, but the Auto Collections was a constant until Caesars Entertainment turfed it out, effective last Dec. 30. 

The Collections’ website cryptically says of the Chrysler Royal Sedan, “Currently not available.” However, it's not among the myriad cars (searchable by make or year) that the Collections lists as having been sold. Indeed, display-in-perpetuity was said to have been one of the preconditions for Carson’s bargain-price sale of the Chrysler.  We searched Chrysler message boards and made multiple inquiries to the collection itself, but were initially met with silence.

Finally, we broke through to the Auto Collections General Manager Rob Williams, who told us, “The car has been sold.” The new owner is a famous person whose identity cannot be disclosed at the moment, but “there will be an announcement on a television show in the next thirty days. It’ll be a good segment.”

We couldn’t tease anything more out of Williams than that, so the operative phrase, quite literally, is "stay tuned." (At least one of us suspects it might've been sold to car connoisseur Jay Leno who has, reportedly, a garage that can fit 150 cars). 

As for the Collections itself, staff member Richie Clyne told TheShop.com that Caesars had had other plans for the space for a long time and the museum had operated on a series of 90-day leases. “Everyone is walking away happy,” he added. The collection itself had dwindled to approximately 65 cars, down from 200 or so in the Imperial Palace era (1981-2005).

As for the ’39 Royal Sedan, that initially belonged not to Carson himself, but to his father. It passed out of the family’s hands and in 1978, Bob Means of Norfolk, Nebraska, bought it at auction on a hunch that it might be the vehicle Carson so often extolled on "The Tonight Show." A bit of research on the vehicle’s serial number proved that it was, indeed, the Carson car, a little the worse for wear. For the princely sum of 62 cents, Means certified the car, then hired Pfeifer Auto Body to restore it to authentic condition. On Oct. 31, 1981, NBC-TV bought to car and gave it Carson as a present.

Carson hung onto the vehicle for 13 years, eventually “selling” it to the Imperial Palace. There, it was accompanied by a replica of Carson’s trademark desk and mike stand.

Given the mysterious fate of the vehicle, count yourself lucky if you saw it while it was a Las Vegas attraction.

“It’s going to the right person,” Williams assures us. “It was sad to see that car go. It’s been part of my life for a long long time.”