There are beautiful Rolls-Royces, there are special Rolls-Royces, and there are outstanding Rolls-Royces.
The DUCHESS is one of the few outstanding Rolls-Royces.
The DUCHESS, my favorite friend.
The original was delivered to Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book"!
Rudyard Kipling gave his cars nicknames. He wasn't happy with his Lancaster at all; he called it Amalie. He once had a girlfriend named Amalie, and she always rejected him! And this Lancaster did the same; it always rejected him, just like Amalie!
He named a Daimler Jane Cakebred, after a London vagrant who had racked up 93 convictions for drunkenness and disorderly conduct in one year; she was always causing trouble, just like the Daimler!
With his Silver Ghost, everything was different: Kipling respectfully called his Rolls-Royce “THE DUCHESS” because it was so majestic and always reliable.
A wonderful dream on wheels!
Today I know what Kip felt when he first saw the Silver Ghost: You're paralyzed, as if you've been hit on the head, and you have only one thought: How can I get close to, or even possess, this wonderful creature? You solemnly vow to give up cigars and whiskey, to forgo five years' vacation. And to work twice as hard as before, yes, you'd even be willing to convert... if only it would do some good.
Rudyard Kipling loved and admired his Silver Ghost and was always with her. His DUCHESS accompanied him for many years. He told stories about her, and even wrote a poem about her.
Countless books, magazine and journal articles—not to mention newspaper pieces—attest to the fascinating life of the DUCHESS. Only a small portion (around 20) of its television appearances survive on cassette or DVD. Among them is the world television show celebrating the 100th anniversary of the automobile, presented by veteran producer Michael Pfleghar. The show, an American production, aired worldwide in 1986, from South America to Russia, from Africa to Scandinavia, and the DUCHESS was the only Rolls-Royce featured in the two-hour spectacle. Above is a studio recording with Charles Rolls and Henry Royce and (in red) racing driver Niki Lauda. Because the DUCHESS's owner refused to release the valuable car for studio recordings in February, Mercedes-Benz requested the climate-controlled transport vehicle for the Popemobile, which was then in Stuttgart. An underpass between Bad Tölz and the Bavaria film studios in Munich-Geiselgasteig proved to be too low, so the papal transporter of the DUCHESS had to take a detour of over 100 kilometers around Munich.
Klaus-Josef Rossfeldt, a renowned Rolls-Royce historian and well-known non-fiction author, wrote his extensive Rossfeldt Report on the DUCHESS: