The Brougham Society- Long hoods, plush pillow top seats, interior gallery lighting, and trimmings that would out do Grandma’s Thanksgiving table. These Cadillac models were the last of the long bodies. The last cars with chrome bumpers and external protruding door handles where you pushed in a button with your thumb to open the door. These are the sophisticated cars of luxury and power. These are the elegant and stylish cars of the Brougham Society.
This blog post has a few purposes, 1. to celebrate this 1991 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham de’Elegance, 2. to celebrate the Brougham Society, a Facebook group with the most gracious host Richard, that lead me to this local dream find, and 3. The story of this specific brougham which was a dream of mine since 1991, and which was a valentines gift to an elderly woman from her husband.
The year was 1991 and my bride to be , still my current bride, and I were out “dream-building”. In a nutshell this is just another term for window shopping. I recall driving onto Anderson Cadillac’s car lot in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and there sat a maroon, two tone silver 1991 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham de’Elegance. The sales guy let us sit in the car and just feel and smell this new cars, the new leather! “WOW”, I said to myself, “self”, someday, just someday. Well a few years ago my day finally came.
Enter the Facebook group, The Brougham Society, hosted by a most gracious man, Richard Bennett. Facebook groups and the like are a great way for hobbyists to stay connected and network. Like everything there is a cost. In this case that cost is Richard’s time. Our host Richard spends countless hours performing group Admin duties and keeping the group clean and under control, not to mention the time it took creating the group. Members of the group post their broughams and broughams they see around the net or out on the street. We see, enjoy, and discuss broughams from every era.
One early morning a member posted a Craigslist ad for the 1991 Mac Daddy Caddy you see before you. It was just down the road about 20 miles from me. It appeared to be at a dealer however they were merely looking the car over for the widow who lived across the street, Mrs. Marcott. You see the late Mr. Marcott bought this very ruby red Cadillac brand new in 1991 as a Valentines day gift for his wife. She would drive the car on special occasions only racking up about 54k miles in 25 years. The car sat in her garage and developed rust in the exhaust system making it sound like a hot rod. This deterred Mrs. Marcott from driving the car so it sat, and sat. I was able to buy the car and finally check the box on owning the very same model and color scheme of car I said, “some day” to, in 1991. I received no flack from my wife as when I arrived home she actually remembered the car from the Anderson Cadillac car lot. Upon telling her the story of the car being a Valentines day gift for the previous owner, the car was welcomed into the family.
My wife and I took a few trips in our brougham enjoying the “float” as they say. To arrive at a supper club riding on crushed velour and then taking a seat in a dark red velour armed chair at the supper club, is another box checked off of the bucket list. -Jake
