![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n\n\tWhile performing in the Gershwins\u2019 musical Funny Face in London in 1928, Fred Astaire bought a custom-bodied 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Town Car. He was so impressed with the vehicle, he shipped it back to the States after the run, outfitted with a custom Louis Vuitton trunk for his tap shoes. Likewise, when Marlene Dietrich arrived in Hollywood from Germany in 1930, executives at Paramount greeted her with a green Phantom I convertible. The car even appeared in her Hollywood debut, Morocco, which earned Dietrich her only Oscar nomination.<\/p>\n
\n\tSince its release in 1925 \u2014 100 years and eight generations ago \u2014 the Rolls-Royce Phantom has maintained its position as the British ultra-luxury brand\u2019s most expensive (and exclusive) model. Hailed for their seemingly effortless power, supple ride, technologically sophisticated gizmos and exquisite interior and exterior appointments, Phantoms have been the ultimate celebrity status symbol nearly since the nameplate\u2019s release. This was partly by design.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIn the early days, Hollywood encouraged their stars to ride around in very expensive cars,\u201d says Leslie Kendall, curator of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, \u201cbecause it enhanced their celebrity and by extension, the celebrity of the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tPharrell Williams\u2019 Phantom VII, driven by his bodyguard in Miami Beach in 2006. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGTCRFOTO\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tRapper Rick Ross drew a crowd in a Phantom VII Drophead Coup\u00e9 in 2011. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGTCRFOTO\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
\n\tThey weren\u2019t necessarily the most demanding clients. The Phantom IV limousines of the 1950s were built solely for autocrats and rulers like the Shah of Iran, General Francisco Franco of Spain and Queen Elizabeth II of England. \u201cTo own a Phantom IV, you had to qualify as a head of state or of royal birth,\u201d Kendall says. \u201cThat was the most elusive Phantom and the one that was off limits even to Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBut as musicians became royalty in their own right, they ascended the leather throne. Big band leaders Duke Ellington and Count Basie traveled by Rolls-Royce, likely in a Phantom II or III. Elvis Presley customized a 1963 Phantom V with a telephone and a microphone in case inspiration struck. French songbird \u00c9dith Piaf was a Phantom fanatic, as were soul legends Sam Cooke and Al Green.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn 1964, John Lennon bought a Phantom V, commissioned a custom psychedelic paint job and outfitted it with a record and cassette player and external speakers. (As if seeking a cleanse, he purchased a second Phantom in 1968 in white-on-white.) Liberace covered one of his Rollses, a 1962 Phantom V convertible, in a disco ball of tiny mirrors; it co-starred in his endless Vegas residency.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tThe Phantom III Sedanca de Ville driven by Auric Goldfinger in 1964\u2019s Goldfinger.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGoddard Automotive\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tJohn\u2019s 1960 Phantom V, with custom pink and white paint and matching interior. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy<\/p>\n
\n\tLiberace\u2019s flamboyant heir, Elton John, validated his success with a white Phantom VI. While being driven to a 1973 Manchester concert, he spotted a newer brown Phantom in a dealership, instructed his chauffeur to pull over, bought the car and rode in it to the event. Later, he outfitted it with a stereo so potent the back windshield required shatterproof reinforcements. He customized another, a 1962 Phantom V, with a disinhibited cotton candy livery, inside and out.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIf you bought one of these cars, you didn\u2019t sneak it home at night and hide it in the garage. You paraded it,\u201d says Kendall. \u201cIt is beyond conspicuous consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tElton John with his 1973 Phantom VI limousine in 1975.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDennis Stone\/Mirrorpix\/Newscom\/ZUMA Press<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tA\u202f1961 Phantom V, re- engineered by British company Lunaz in 2020 to run fully on battery power.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCover Images\/ZUMA Press<\/p>\n
\n\tPhantom took a break in the \u201990s as Rolls reorganized. But when Phantom VII was released in 2003, it immediately became a hip-hop icon. T-Pain, 2 Chainz, Big Boi, Fat Joe, Rick Ross and Pharrell Williams all bought in. Drake\u2019s manager gifted him a Phantom that the rapper had rented \u201cto keep up appearances.\u201d And Jay-Z and Beyonc\u00e9 purportedly commissioned a $28 million custom-bodied \u201cBoat Tail\u201d convertible, based on a Phantom VIII\u2019s underpinnings.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe next-generation Phantom IX will be electrified, like all future Rollses. But that seems unlikely to dim its allure in Hollywood. \u201cA Phantom will always be equal parts elegant and intimidating,\u201d Kendall says. \u201cSo, you\u2019re always going to have that turn-your-head-and-see-who\u2019s-inside phenomenon. You can\u2019t help but peek.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tThe 2024 Phantom VIII Extended Wheel-base Goldfinger tribute car.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCover Images\/ZUMA Press<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tDavid Beckham left home in a black 2008 Phantom VII Drophead Coup\u00e9 in 2008. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWENN Rights Ltd\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tA 1960 Rolls-Royce Phantom V owned by Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines, at the Presidential Car Museum in Quezon City. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWalter Eric Sy\/Dreamstime.com<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tQueen Elizabeth II of Great Britain examined her 1960 Phantom V, which was specially converted to run on liquid-propane gas, in 1998. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPA Images\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tMarlene Dietrich with her Phantom on the set of the 1930 film Morocco. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tElvis Presley posed with his 1963 blue Phantom at his Graceland estate in Memphis in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tullstein bild\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tThe hood ornament of John Lennon\u2019s 1963 Phantom V, which had the psychedelic paint job. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Rolls Royce<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tA 2017 Rolls-Royce Phantom<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGoddard Automotive\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tShirley MacLaine draped over a 1931 Phantom II Sedanca de Ville in the 1964 film The Yellow Rolls-Royce.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n