If you were a sexy burlesque star with a wardrobe full of bustiers and boas, would you putter around in a sensible sedan? Dita Von Teese, the celebrity known as The Queen of Burlesque, answers that question with a decisive “no.” Before you go typecasting her as the kind of woman who speeds around in a dynamic sports car, consider Von Teese’s penchant for everything retro.
This is the performer and model who draws from ’30s and ‘40s Hollywood starlets and old school pin up photos for her style inspiration. Hence, she has amassed a small but notable collection of vintage cars, each one of which she feels has a distinct personality. Today’s featured listing proves that not all love affairs last forever, as Von Teese has an auction on eBay for what is unceremoniously described as her 1939 Packard 120:
Perhaps the subtitle of the auction captures the listing better, “Dita Von Teese’s 1939 Packard 120 sedan with rare option Tachometer.”
It’s a Friday night. You are tooling down a country road on the way to pick up your date. The two of you head toward a small but fabulous roadhouse to dance to live jazz and celebrate. There’s no synthesizers or Auto-Tune in sight, just a quintet that gets the joint jumping.
This is the mood Von Teese alludes to when she describes her vintage cars in an interview in Forbes magazine. “You can’t be in a hurry when you drive these cars,” she says. “They’re meant to be driven and enjoyed.”
The profile chronicles the star’s history with classic cars. It began when she was 22. She purchased a single, more modest vehicle and gradually traded up and added to her collection, reflecting her growing fame, checkbook balance and knowledge of older vehicles.
In the interview, Von Teese likens her vintage cars to her preference for other things from the past. “I like having old things around me because there’s a certain artfulness and craftsmanship that isn’t possible now,” she says. “There was a time when everything was made with a certain aesthetic for beauty and art, and there are a lot of modern things that that’s not important to the people designing them.”
This fabulous French-Blue 1939 Packard 120 sedan is in excellent condition, according to the listing, which states,
“This car was restored about 10 years ago and runs and drives absolutely perfectly.
The engine and transmission are in pristine mechanical condition, having been rebuilt at the time of the restoration.
The paint, although very nice, is just starting to show it’s age a bit with a few areas of light crazing, as you can see in the photos, but it doesn’t detract from the beauty of this car in any way, and a new paint job isn’t necessary at this time.
The electrical system is in excellent working order, with all gauges and lights working well.
It has a VERY RARE original factory Tachometer installed where the clock would be.
Dita put new tires on this car less than a year ago, they are the Coker Radial wide whites, and they make the car drive very smoothly, and they look slick! Also of note is the exceptional glamorous flying lady hood ornament with etched glass detail, a fine example of the type of artistry and quality that makes these cars so desirable and excellent investments.
There are no mechanical issues whatsoever with this classic, restored-original car. Dita personally enjoyed driving this dreamboat of a car to many different events, used it in her photo shoots and videos including a Forbes story about her classic car collection.”
Take a peek at the legendary beauty driving this legendary beauty in this video from Forbes:
We have to agree, she is indeed a beauty!
Here’s an interesting bit of trivia about the woman who collects everything from head vases to Victorian eggcups. She has a room in her home dedicated to vintage hats. And where does she source the items for her various distinctive collections? According to an interview in Collectors Weekly, her inventory is the result of “…cruising eBay and flea markets over the years….” It’s only appropriate, then, that she would use one of her favorite sources for acquiring treasures to auction off her prized vintage vehicle.
