DICK SHAPPY ~ THE LEGEND CONTINUES

Founder of The Cadillac Lounge and Dick Shappy Vintage Autos.

Born in Rhode Island in 1945, Dick Shappy enlisted in the U.S. Army at 19 and served as a medic. From the start he has lived life strictly on his own terms.

After returning home he channeled that same drive into two lifelong pursuits that still define him. On one side of Charles Street in Providence he built The Cadillac Lounge into a genuine local institution — a multi-level house of live performance, hospitality, and full-scale adult entertainment that has operated for decades.

On the other side, he has spent more than fifty years rescuing, restoring, and championing extraordinary classic automobiles and motorcycles — Cadillacs (especially the great V-16s), Duesenbergs, Packards, Flying Merkels, Crockers, early Indians, and far rarer machines that most collectors only see in books.

Dick has always regarded adult entertainment as an artistic expression of freedom: an evening of live performance, good company, and real hospitality. When the City of Providence tried to revoke the club’s entertainment license in the late 1990s, he took the fight all the way through the Rhode Island courts and won.

The same uncompromising standard shows up in his restoration work. He is the kind of collector who will spend years returning a 1911 Osgood Bradley trolley car to its original condition, or coax a long-neglected Duesenberg or brass-era motorcycle back to life.

Fellow enthusiasts know him as the “Cadillac Man.” He has earned awards at major Concours events, hosted the annual New England Regional Cadillac & LaSalle Club invitational for more than a decade, and was featured on the History Channel’s American Pickers.

He still tells people he’s 39. And he fully intends to live to 100.

The Legend continues.