The Midas Touch…
In 1980 American Express teamed up with John DeLorean for a Christmas promotion, offering a limited edition of 100 24-karat gold-plated DeLoreans for $85,000 each. The response to the promotion, as to the car itself, was underwhelming: only two were sold– though a third gold-plated car was assembled in 1983 with spare parts that were required by American Express in case one of the other two that were built were damaged.
But in fact there was a fourth golden DeLorean. Michael Feldman, who’d paid $28,000 (including an early delivery premium) to get the first production model, decided that he’d do the plating himself. He found an electro-brushing facility and had his car gold-plated, panel by panel, to a 24-karat luster. The process cost him an additional $8,000– not chump change, but a comparative bargain. Still, a golden car wasn’t the most practical vehicle in the world; Feldman sold it in 1981 to the first a series of subsequent owners.
The Golden DeLorean (note John Lennon’s psychedelic Rolls Royce in the background)
Feldman’s story in full here (whence the photo above); the promotion flyer, via Dangerous Minds, to whom, TotH.
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As we keep our eyes peeled for Doc and Marty, we might recall that it was on this date in 1956 that “Heartbeak Hotel” earned Elvis Presley his first Gold Record. Presley’s first million-seller (and his first release on RCA, after moving from Sun), the record sat at number one on Billboard‘s Top 100 chart for seven weeks, topped the Country and Western chart, and reached number five on the R&B chart. It continued to sell– it was eventually certified Double Platinum– and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1995.
