Vehicle exhibits

In 1926, Cadillac began the development of a new, "multi-cylinder" car. A customer requirement was seen for a car powered by an engine more powerful and smoother than any currently available. Development proceeded in great secrecy over the next few years.

Unlike many builders of luxury cars, who sold bare chassis to be clothed by outside coachbuilding firms, General Motors had purchased the coachbuilders Fleetwood Metal Body and Fisher Body to keep all the business in-house. Bare Cadillac chassis could be purchased if a buyer insisted, but the intention was that few would need to do so

The Cadillac V-16 (sometimes known as the Cadillac Sixteen) was Cadillac's top-of-the-line car from its January 1930 launch until production ceased in 1940 as the war in Europe quelled sales. All were finished to custom order, and the car was built in very small numbers in the eleven years the model was offered. The majority of these were built in the single year of 1930, before the Great Depression really took hold. This was the first V16 powered car to reach production status in the United States.

This Exhibit was originally owned by German-born American actress and singer Marlene Dietrich

Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich (website: marlene.com)

(27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992)

Marlene Dietrich was a German-born American actress and singer.

Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically.

In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as "Lola-Lola" in The Blue Angel, directed by Josef von Sternberg, brought her international fame and provided her a contract with Paramount Pictures in the US.

Hollywood films such as Shanghai Express and Desire capitalised on her glamour and exotic looks, cementing her stardom and making her one of the highest-paid actresses of the era. Dietrich became a U.S. citizen in 1939, and throughout World War II she was a high-profile frontline entertainer.

Although she still made occasional films in the post-war years, Dietrich spent most of the 1950s to the 1970s touring the world as a successful show performer.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named Dietrich the ninth-greatest female star of all time.