According to the book Cadillac V-16s Lost and Found by noted historian Chris Cummings, this Sport Phaeton began as a genuine Hollywood V-16, shipped new to the Don Lee dealership in Los Angeles on 19 July 1930, finished in Black and Sable, striped Apple Green with Sable fenders and chassis, and dual sidemounted spares.

The West Hollywood used car dealer who dealt it five years later told buyer G.

Thatcher Darwin that it had belonged to Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who had posed for publicity photographs with a similar but not precisely identical Sport Phaeton.

A budding young Cadillac enthusiast, Mr.

Darwin paid $150 for the Sport Phaeton, which served him faithfully as an everyday automobile for several years, including one memorable trip chauffeuring his mother and aunt up Mount Wilson on a sightseeing journey.

Sometime after World War II, Colonel George Van Deusen, Commanding Officer of the Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, learned of the V-16, and pursued its acquisition from Mr.
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