I remember when I was living in Manhattan (NYC) and the Rolls Royce dealership on the east side had a customer walk in looking somewhat less than affluent (aka jeans and a little less than polished) and no salesperson came over to him but for one since they thought this was someone not able to purchase a Rolls. It turned out to be artist Claes Oldenburg and he ended up buying two from the one salesperson who gave him the time of day.
I had a somewhat similar experience when for whatever reason I received a hand delivered personal invitation from the President of Rolls Royce asking me to test drive a new Corniche Convertible. If I did test drive it I would received a custom made Brioni sports jacket for free with no obligation to purchase the car. The jacket would be made through Neiman Marcus and they would fly someone in from Italy to fit me and pick out the materials, etc.
It just so happened that I had my suits made at that NM at that time so I brought the letter in to them to ask it if was real. They called in the store manager to meet me since they had heard of that being done for a select few people and had not met anyone with that "golden ticket". They confirmed it was real so I made an appointment with the Rolls Royce dealer in Manhattan.
I arrived wearing my jeans, mets shirt, Acura baseball cap and my Simpson driving shoes. They didn't believe I was the one with the appointment until I showed my letter and photo ID. I then drove the salesman all around manhattan for the next hour in a Corniche Convertible, brought it back and told him it was uncomfortable (I was actually too tall with the ragtop up), got my ticket punched by the GM of the dealership and made an appointment with my personal Brioni tailor.
8 weeks later I had a custom made Brioni sports jacket with a retail price of $3800 (the buttons I picked out added to the price..........).
And nobody ever was able to tell me how I got on "the list" for this since it was meant for high profile celebrities and athletes........... :tongue:
