Webb Pierce’s Bonneville is a white 1962 Pontiac convertible that a Hollywood tailor turned into a rolling stage costume. Nudie Cohn covered its cabin in silver dollars, mounted guns on the outside and put a saddle between the front seats. Pierce was one of the biggest country stars of the 1950s, so he wanted a car that looked the part. Today the Webb Pierce Bonneville sits in a museum in Nashville, and anyone with a ticket can see it.
The car makes more sense once you know the two men behind it. One was a singer who never saw a spotlight he didn’t like. The other was a tailor who made rhinestones a country music uniform.
Their story runs from a Hollywood garage to a Nashville museum floor.
The tailor who dressed country music
Nudie Cohn was born in Kiev in 1902 and died in 1984 at 81, according to a history by Tim Dye published by the Pontiac-Oakland Museum. He first came to the United States in the 1930s. In New York, he made G-strings for showgirls. Then, in the early 1940s, he moved to California and started sewing clothes in his garage.
After that, the business grew fast. Nudie moved to a shop in North Hollywood, and in 1963 he moved again to Lankershim Boulevard. By the early 1950s, he was also the tailor for Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Later, in 1957, he made Elvis Presley’s $10,000 gold lamé suit. Dye’s history also credits him as the first tailor to put rhinestones on clothing.
Cars came later, and they were never his main trade. Dye counts 18 cars that Nudie customized in all, most of them before 1967. All but two were Pontiacs. The exceptions were two Cadillacs, one for Elvis and one for Nudie’s wife, Bobbie.
Why Webb Pierce wanted a Nudie car
Pierce was born on August 8, 1921, and joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1952, according to Legacy.com. His 1950s hits included “Wondering” and “In the Jailhouse Now.” American Songwriter counts 30 top-10 singles in a row for him, and 13 of those reached No. 1.
He also loved to show off. Legacy.com reports that he built a $30,000 swimming pool shaped like a guitar at his Nashville home. It became a tourist stop, and Pierce charged admission until neighbors complained to the city. Dye’s history adds that Pierce reportedly ordered a new Nudie suit every time he had a No. 1 song.
So a Nudie car was a natural next step. American Songwriter says Pierce asked the tailor to cover “a pair of Pontiac convertibles with silver dollars.” Legacy.com also says Nudie customized two convertibles for him. Of the two, the 1962 Bonneville is the one that survives in Nashville.
Revolvers, rifles and a cabin full of silver dollars
Legacy.com lists what Nudie added. Revolvers serve as the door handles. Rifles sit on the fenders, while steer horns ride up front. Inside, silver dollars cover every wooden surface. The seats wear hand-tooled leather, and a small child’s saddle sits between the front seats.
Even so, the music press noticed the cabin first. No Depression lists “his Pontiac Bonneville with silver-dollar-studded, tooled leather interior” alongside his sequined suits and his guitar pool. Those three things came to define how Nashville remembered him.
The Pierce car also follows Nudie’s usual recipe. Dye writes that Nudie focused his customizing on the interior, with cowhide seats, a pistol shifter, a saddle console and silver dollars on the door panels. Outside, meanwhile, his cars typically wore steer horns, guns and horseshoes. Because Nudie built most of his cars on Pontiacs, the Bonneville was the usual starting point.
One number gets repeated online, and that is a precise count of the coins. Neither of the sources used here gives one, so this story leaves it out.
The other Nudie Pontiacs
Still, Pierce’s car was not the only famous one. Dye’s history describes a 1963 Bonneville convertible that Nudie made for Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. They used it as a parade car, and it reportedly carried about 500 silver dollars inside. Later, that car moved from California to Branson, Missouri, with the Roy Rogers Museum.
Another went to Audrey Williams, Hank Williams’ widow. Her 1964 Bonneville convertible later passed to Hank Williams Jr. and appeared on The Beverly Hillbillies. According to Dye, it sold for $214,500 at RM’s auction in Phoenix on January 24, 2006.
Nudie Pontiacs also reached the screen in other ways. A 1966 car appeared in an episode of Batman, driven by the villain Shame, played by Cliff Robertson. Meanwhile, a 1968 car turned up in the Monkees film Head, the newest Nudie Pontiac Dye found.
Where to see the Webb Pierce Bonneville now
Pierce died on February 24, 1991, according to Legacy.com. He reached the Country Music Hall of Fame as a member in 2001, a decade after his death, as American Songwriter notes.
His car, however, got there first. Dye’s history says the 1962 Bonneville went on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 1994. Later, in 2005, the Pierce family donated it to the museum. Legacy.com calls it one of the top attractions there, and it is open to the public. The Webb Pierce Bonneville has now been on view in Nashville since 1994.
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