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Fender Coronado II
In the 1968 release of MGM's Speedway, Elvis' twenty-sixth film, he costars with Bill Bixby and Nancy Sinatra as a benevolent and successful race car driver in trouble with the IRS (Nancy Sinatra) because of extravagant spending and mismanagement of funds by his childhood friend/manager (Bill Bixby). He had previously worked with Bill in Clambake and had first met Nancy when he returned from the Army and again when they worked together on her father Frank's Welcome Home Elvis television special in 1960.
Production began at MGM Studios in June of 1967 following Elvis' recent marriage in May in Las Vegas, which, incidentally, he traveled to and from via Frank Sinatra's personal Learjet. In the movie he and Nancy perform one duet together of There Ain't Nothing Like a Song during the final scene and in it he is briefly pictured playing the only guitar he's seen with in the movie, all the while with his arms around Nancy.
The guitar used was a 1966 or 1967 Fender Coronado II. Designed by Roger Rossmeisl, the head of Fender's R&D department who was brought in to Fender initially to develop their acoustic guitar line, he was also responsible for the development of a guitar seen with Elvis in Clambake, the 1967 Wildwood.
In their attempt to cash in on the semi acoustic thin-line electric series like the Gibson ES-335 and Epiphone Casino, the Coronado models, I, II and XII, were first listed by Fender in their July 1966 price list at $229.50, $319.50 and $449.50 respectively with Cherry and Sunburst the only colors listed. An optional tremolo (vibrato) tailpiece was an extra $55. They would soon offer a Coronado bass and other colors, including Wildwood and the antique-style Antigua.*
They guitars had maple front, back and sides with top and back binding on the top and back binding. While the Coronado I was a simpler single pickup model with dot inlays, the Coronado II featured two pickups, block inlays, neck and f-hole binding. The necks were maple with rosewood fingerboards, optional maple fingerboards for the Coronado II in 1969. The Coronado XII was a twelve string version. The pickups were made by D'Armond but eventually were branded Fender. Though they are somewhat collectible today, the endeavor was not that successful for Fender at the time and the Coronados were discontinued in 1971.*
Bill Lynn, an acquaintance of Elvis' who had appeared as a band mate on screen in Easy Come, Easy Go, also appear in Speedway as a member of the band in Speedway playing different instruments. In the final scene of the movie he is seen as the drummer, his real life profession. Though the Coronado II is used only briefly in the scene, it has appeared in more than a few promotional shots and had sometimes been confused as the very similar model played by Elvis during the 68 NBC TV Special, that being a Hagstrom Viking II. This page added August 15, 2010 is part of the section The Movie Guitars of Elvis Presley. FENDER®, STRATOCASTER®, STRAT®, TELECASTER®, TELE®, P BASS®, PRECISION BASS®, and the distinctive headstock designs of these guitars are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.
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