Kustom Kulture 101 (Ed Roth & Von Dutch Tribute thread)

[mnpctech]

WizD member,

The intent of this thread is to hopefully "turn on" some of you to these guys like we had been as kids. Modders, Pug, Dutchcedar, Grump, Corg8d, scopEDog and mnpctech grew up admiring Ed Roth's custom car creations & hot rod artwork. You could say Ed played a role inspring their own creations. If Ed "Big Daddy" Roth were alive today, theres no doubt he would have modded his own PC. This thread is here to not only celebrate these pioneers, but to keep interest in "lowbrow" or "kustom kulture" growing in the case mod community. Feel free to post any photos of work you find by them or other hot rod icons & artists.


http://prudhoe.codeword.com/mnpctech/aWIZB/roth/Tribute.jpg


By Ken Frost.
Taken from Chapel-of-Memories.Com

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth March 4, 1932 - April 4, 2001

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth was born in Beverly Hills on March 4, 1932. He grew up in a German speaking household with a younger brother, Gordon. In school Ed learned to speak English and he liked to draw. Ed was able to do his homework and keep up with the rest of the class while he drew pictures of airplanes, hot rods and monsters. His father Henry was very strict with the brothers and kept the two out of trouble by supplying them with tools and a workshop. Ed's dad was a German cabinet maker and it was in the workshop where Ed learned how to build crazy stuff out of wood.

Ed purchased his first car in 1946 shortly after WW II ended. It was a 1933 Ford Coupe. He graduated high school in 1949, and went on to college majoring in engineering so he could advance his knowledge in automotive design. He started with his '33 Ford. Ed did pretty good in college but got bored with his engineering and physics classes cuz they just didn't have anything to do with cars.

Ed joined the Air Force in 1951 and went to bombsight school in Denver where he learned how to make maps. He became an expert barber on the side. He was stationed in Africa for awhile and then transferred to South Carolina for 4 years before coming home. Ed was honorably discharged in 1955.

By that time he owned several vehicles, he was married and had 5 children, all boys. Ed began working at Sears in the Display Department and started pin striping cars after work.


http://www.ratfink.org/images/outlaw.jpg (http://www.ratfink.org/images/outlaw.jpg)
"Outlaw"


As his family grew so did the bills. In 1958 Ed went to work full time with "The Baron" and his grandson Kelly. Using junkyard parts and a newly developed product called fiberglass, Ed created automobiles in his garage. Ed's first car was called the "Little Jewel" and then shortly after that came the "Outlaw", which showed the world that anyone could design and build a car without being some kind of certified automotive engineer. All you really needed was imagination, some motor head know-how, a lot of elbow grease and gumption.


Presto! His garage became his studio where other creations came into light which include the "Beatnik Bandit" and "Rotar".

Ed became Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, a hot-roddin' gear head, mad scientist and struggling artist who financed his inventions by selling drawings and t-shirts at drag events, fairs and car shows. Ed would draw cartoons of monsters that he created and pictures of cars. But when he personally airbrushed t-shirts with the monsters driving the cars, people went crazy and would line up at his booth.



http://www.ratfink.org/bigdaddy1.jpg
Ed signing autographs @ Route 66 San Bernardino, CA September "99"


Ed's most popular monster was Rat Fink. Rat Fink started as a drawing that Ed had put on his refrigerator. "Big Daddy" was a genius at designing cars but it was Rat Fink that brought him fame. By 1963, teenagers across America were buying Rat Fink model kits and mass-produced Rat Fink T-shirts.



http://prudhoe.codeword.com/mnpctech/aWIZB/roth/Ratfink.jpg


When Ed got so busy that his garage couldn't handle the work, he moved his operation into a new shop in Lakewood, California. Ed had to hire several employees to help him build and produce more custom car and t-shirts. Revell American produced model car kits that featured the "Beatnik Bandit" and " Road Agent". Other model kits included "Rat Fink" and the gang a group of hot rodding monsters. Here is a very interesting Note: During 1963 Revell paid Ed a one cent royalty for each model sold. Ed brought in $ 32,000 that year in royalties, now figure out the math, that's how popular Ed's creations were.


http://www.ratfink.org/ratfinkscave/images/bandit2.jpg


The Gang included: Rat Fink, Drag Nut, Mother's Worry and Mr. Gasser. They soon became heroes to young kids across the nation who could relate to the stories and themes of the gang.

There were also several record albums produced. The band was called Mr. Gasser (featuring Ed Roth) and the Weirdos. The songs featured on these records told descriptive stories about the gang and their favorite pastimes like hot rodding and surfing. The general message intended was that being different or weird was o.k. and being a Fink or a Weirdo was cool. It was a lesson some of us never forgot.

Rat Fink and the gang driving their hot rods have become rock-art icons. Originally they were adopted by surf musicians and today the gang can be found everywhere. A number of punk and alternative bands have used Roth's images on LP's and CD's such as: Birthday Party "An Australian Band" with Junk Yard cover 1981 and current releases by the Voodoo Glow Skulls Cover Artist "Marco Almera". There is even a band called Rat Fink.

Other Roth fans and enthusiasts include the Cramps and Rob Zombie of White Zombie. Rob Zombie is also an extremely gifted artist claiming that "Big Daddy" is his Daddy.


http://www.ratfink.org/images/junkyard.jpg


Ed Roth's artwork can be found throughout the late 80's and mid 90's in underground comics produced by Roth and Sloane. You can also find Roth's artwork in tattoo parlors and in art galleries. Yes, many of us consider Roth's work fine art. You can also find Roth's creations on posters by other American cult artist as Johnny Ace, Jimmy C, Frank Kozik , Von Franco and a host of others.

We lost our big guy on April, 4th 2001 the doctors said it was a heart attack. Ed Roth's genius has created a timeless monster. Rat Fink and the Gang will still reach the diverse demographic appeal of the young adults of today and us baby boomers of the fifties. Rat Fink and the gang will continue into the new millennium capturing a new group of Finks young and old for decades to come.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photos I've found of Ed with his cars and their model kits

Beatnik Bandit
http://prudhoe.codeword.com/mnpctech/aWIZB/roth/RothBeatnikBandit%20copy.jpg

http://prudhoe.codeword.com/mnpctech/aWIZB/roth/rothbook%20copy.jpg


Outlaw
http://prudhoe.codeword.com/mnpctech/aWIZB/roth/RothOutlaw%20copy.jpg



http://prudhoe.codeword.com/mnpctech/aWIZB/roth/RothOutlawKit%20copy.jpg



Mysterion
http://prudhoe.codeword.com/mnpctech/aWIZB/roth/Rothmysterion%20copy.jpg



http://prudhoe.codeword.com/mnpctech/aWIZB/roth/RothmysterionKit%20copy.jpg

Complete line of Ed Roth model kits from Revell owned by Phil Denslow
http://prudhoe.codeword.com/mnpctech/aWIZB/roth/modelkits%20copy.jpg

[mnpctech]

Von Dutch The Leonardo of pinstriping
by Doug Harvey

Taken from LA Weekly's Art section Sept 20 - 26, 2002

http://images.laweekly.com/ink/02/44/sm44art2.jpg

http://oas.villagevoice.com/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/default/empty.gif (http://oas.villagevoice.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/laweekly.com/Art/140302126/Middle1/default/empty.gif/34313139663864393430663438663830)
TEN YEARS AGO THIS WEEK, AFTER SEVERAL years of abdominal ruptures, fistulas and other grim, untreated medical portents, L.A.-born machinist and auto painter Ken Howard died from cirrhosis of the liver -- a common ailment among artisans who work with the lead-based enamels favored in commercial painting, and compounded in this case by years of heavy boozing. This probably isn't a very unusual story in the automotive customization industry, but not too many custom painters, 10 years after their deaths, wind up with their names emblazoned on a line of designer jeans, and a solo museum exhibit of their work. But there has never been another painter quite like Ken "Von Dutch" Howard.

Von Dutch, as he is almost universally known, is variously credited with inventing the over-the-top decorative mode of pinstriping that became the hallmark of hot-rod modification, and with being the first person to airbrush monstrous caricatures onto T-shirts -- inspiring Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and thereby millions of impressionable prepubescent minds, not to mention jump-starting a billion-dollar niche of the garment industry. He's also said to be first in the chain of idiosyncratic weirdos who married West Coast blue-collar popular culture to high art, a feverish hybrid that blossomed in the 1980s as Lowbrow art. Some even claim that Dutch was greater than the sum of all these -- that he was a latter-day Leonardo da Vinci, albeit a drunken, erratic, cantankerous, even a sociopathic one.

http://www.laweekly.com/images/ink/02/44/sm44art3.jpg

Dutch was born and grew up near Watts, the son of an accomplished sign painter who did the gold-leaf lettering for the doors of both City Hall and UCLA. Never one for schoolwork, Dutch is said to have ended his academic career by climbing out a second-story school window into a tree. In some ways he never came down. As a young teenager (and perhaps even earlier), Dutch was striping motorcycles at a professional level, and had already developed his now ubiquitous "flying eyeball" logo. Blessed with a misanthropic anti-authoritarian streak as well as a preternatural facility with the paintbrush and lathe, Dutch found himself in the right place at the right time -- riding the wave of post-WWII disgruntlement to underground fame in the nascent hot-rod and Beat cultures. Photos from the mid-'50s show the ascendant icon with a patently un-bohemian flattop, but dressed in a proto-psychedelic airbrushed shirt, sitting cross-legged and playing the flute, surrounded by empty Gallo jugs, a third eye glued to the middle of his forehead. Weird with a beard, Daddy-o.

The '50s were Dutch's heyday, at least in terms of being a productive member of society. His reputation spread far and wide, and he found himself in the enviable position of being able to charge exorbitant prices to paint whatever he wanted. Originally striping only motorcycles, Dutch took on car jobs as a sort of joke -- legend has it his sweeping, freeform, curvilinear style was invented when a customer asked him to cover the cracks that had shown up on his door after a hasty paint job. Once it got started, that line just seemed to keep going -- skittering from surface to surface, occasionally submitting to the contours of the object it was decorating, but more often tangling in on itself to form intricate geometric landscapes or figures (often a pointed caricature of the vehicle's owner) before zipping off to inscribe the hood or trunk in a corona of flame. Dutch worked quickly and produced thousands of paint jobs during this period, and it is on this work that his reputation as an innovative visual artist rests.

http://www.laweekly.com/images/ink/02/44/sm44art1.jpg

Sadly, much of this work is now lost or untraceable, and only a glimpse of it is to be had in "Von Dutch: An American Original," the otherwise comprehensive exhibit of his life and work at the Cal State Northridge Art Galleries through October 5. Still, that glimpse is enough to solidify Dutch's status as both a remarkable, unprecedented talent as well as an important influence on the legendary Ferus Gallery artists, whose Finish Fetish and Light & Space works spearheaded L.A.'s first forays into international art-world prominence. The impact of custom automotive techniques on these movements has been cited often enough, but usually in a general -- and generally dismissive -- manner. The truth is, if you speak of custom car painting in L.A. in the late '50s and early '60s, you are speaking of Von Dutch. He was even invited to exhibit in that archetypal L.A. gallery, but couldn't stomach the bullshit of the art world, even in those allegedly freewheeling days. Mind you, if Dutch had been a little cagier and painted his semi-abstract pinstripe fantasies on archivally prepared minimal surfaces, instead of the thrift-surrealist enamel paintings that were his apparent attempt to crash the gates of high culture, the history of L.A. abstraction might have been altered dramatically. We'd have Yek 40 years sooner!

On the other hand, if he had been able to fit in smoothly with the movers and shakers of the Fine Art world, he wouldn't have been Von Dutch. Instead, he blew them off -- as he blew off almost everyone. At the height of his popularity, Dutch found that the rewards of fame and prosperity were painful distractions from his work -- the only thing he cared about. He turned his back on success, living a Gypsy lifestyle out of a converted Long Beach city bus and working itinerantly and close to the poverty line -- as a machinist and sign painter as often as a pinstriper. Nevertheless, that line was unstoppable. "An American Original" collects a dizzying array of objects -- crash helmets, gas tanks, spark-plug testers, a prosthetic leg, fire extinguishers, rocking chairs, bicycles, buckles, tools, work gloves, doodled napkins, etched-glass windows, clocks, signage and novelty machines (though not the coin-operated guillotine, nitro-powered roller skates or steam-engine television he invented and built from scratch). The few objects not graced with his poised but restless line are the elaborately engraved knives and operational firearms that he carved from metal and wood without plans or measurement. IN THE LAST TWO DECADES OF HIS LIFE, "Leonardo" Dutch found his Ludovico Sforza in the form of the Brucker family and their Movieworld: Cars of the Stars Museum in Buena Park. Parking his bus in the lot, Dutch became the museum's artist-in-residence, designing displays, painting signs, building cars, and manufacturing improbable gizmos like the Schockenschpitter and Beepelfleetzer for the Chamber of Horrors. When the museum folded, Dutch followed the collection to Santa Paula, content to hide out and tinker away his final years. Most of the Northridge show comes from the Brucker's collection, and it is thanks to them and the legion of Lowbrow and Kustom Kulture enthusiasts that enough work has been preserved to make up such an exhibit. Dutch would be horrified. As strong as the visual work remains, much of his status as an art hero derives from his sheer contrariness. It remains a central paradox in non-mainstream culture that in order to honor the vision of someone like Dutch, whose life and art were fashioned as a repudiation of the intangible vectors of coercive cultural enshrinement, we have to resort to the same hierarchical canonization procedures -- museum retrospectives and Melrose boutique branding campaigns -- that he lived to subvert. But I suppose that's the pessimistic view. If just one young artist comes away inspired by this show and preserves his individuality and vision by becoming a crabby, antisocial, narcissistic Gypsy drunkard, it's all worth it.

[dutchcedar]

What can I say? I’ll tell ya how this guy became my idol as a kid…


I was ten years old (1964) and had been saving money to go to the Oakland Roadster Show. Ya see, we had a teenager down the street, a real “cool cat” who had a jalopy and all he talked about was this damned show, so I really wanted to go. On that Sunday, I even heisted money out of the church offering plate while it was passed by. Any way, I had to “sneak out” to go and took a bus down to the Oakland Auditorium, while my folks thought I was at a friend’s house.


Anyway, I get to the show and will never forget how amazed and dumbfounded I was looking at all those friggin’ cars. I mean, jeez, you never see cars like that on the street and back then, magazine pictures weren’t like they are today. There were a couple hundred cars there, dragsters, customs, hot rods, motorcycles… it was crazy.



After hours of gazing, I come across this dude painting t-shirts in a booth… Ed Roth. I spent some time inchin’ closer through the crowd, and ended up right behind him. I think we talked, but it was so long ago I can’t be sure anymore. Anyway, I’ll always remember that Sunday as an all-time “best day”.



I went to that show every year since, until I moved up here ten years ago. In the early years I made a point of watching him, even bought a few t-shirts from him. It was fun to follow him and the other customizers over the years.



Even today, sitting on top of my back-up rig, which is just to the left of my monitors, sits a 1/18 scale diecast of the Beatnik Bandit. It’s been there for years already… its just real “comfortable” there.



http://www.amdreview.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=105010

p.s. mnpctech... this is the case I want to "redo" real soon... think deuce flames and louvers on the side panels... polishing the finned top and front plate, custom paint on that black front plate. :unsure:

[mnpctech]

When I was a squirt (early 70s) I spent my summers @ Grandmas w/ my 2 cousins of similar ages, John and Michael. Grandmas house was cheaper then hiring a baby sitter. Grandma usually kicked us out after 30mins of our "rough housing" or any attempt @ pestering her poodle & jack russel.

"Go outside, Scram!" :rant:

Our adventures usually led us to the park, public swimming pool or "candy walks" to Synders 2 miles away. Those walks seemed like an eternity for 3 kids. About halfway was a public library w/ air conditioning :p It was here that I have my first recollection of Ed's work. I saw these Monster car drawings in HotRod (http://www.hotrod.com/) Magazine. It was one of his T-Shirt Ads! I loved doodling cars so I'd gaze at those Ads forever admiring his unique style.. And those crazy monsters coming out of the roof! :blink:


more to add later

[mrplow]

Consider me educated :o

[fillip]

^^^ ditto.Wow, still can't believe ppl will pay £70 for a Von Dutch baseball cap, friggin' stupid. Whats more amusing is that everyone i know who has bought one doesn't know 'Kustom Kulture', hot rods or anything else concerned with car customisation.

lol.

[scopEDog]

I first heard about "Big Daddy" in the mid 80's while growing up. A buddy of mine showed me a book filled with custom car/motorcycles and his work stood out as being very unique and incredible. At the time i didn't know who he was or knew anything about the scene. Only years later did i realize what he symbolized and the contributions he made to artists and gearheads alike. A while ago i ran into this after he passed away, i thought it was a good read:

http://www.driveonline.com/html/ed_big_daddy_roth.html

Thanks for posting this Bill...very cool B)

[mnpctech]

I added your name to the list ScopEDog ;)

[jaguarking11]

Very cool, i recently saw a documentary of his work on tlc as well as the speed chanel. His work was amazing to say the least. Its nice to see people apreciating his work even though I am too young to have lived through his era of art, and he died a while after I found ou what he did. RF forever...yes I know what RF stands for... Rat Fink

[jaguarking11]

Well I was ebaying some crap out of curiosity and I found this thing.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=7251&item=4542204405&rd=1
It has a small rat so it may be something in disquise.

[Zero_Distortion]

a cousin of mine knew those guys and a few others in the scene back in the day, I only found out when I went for a cigerette one thankgiving and I went in the garage since it was snowing out, then I saw all the photos and artwork all over the wall so I called him in to elaborate. Small world.

[lbreevesii]

god, i had nearly forgotten about those guys. It's no doubt that they have inspired more people than even we could imagine. Look at guys like Chip Foose and Boyd Coddington. They draw on inspirations rooted partially in the work of these guys. They are men of artistic genius. Thier work lives on.

~Larry

[Dar Kuma]

chip foose used to work for boyd coddington

go figure

[pure_rock_fury]

I am going to resurect this post just a bit to say that Von Dutch is beyond words. His work always gave me that shiver down my spine when I saw it. I am a huge fan of Ed Roth also, but for some reason when I think of old school rods and bikes Von Dutch pinstriping comes to mind. God I wish I was old enough to have lived through that era and really been able to participate. (Only 26)

Ok, so I can't type... insert smiley with tangled fingers here.

[Tattoo]

you didn't add me to the list of names! oh wait, i'm not technically a "modder" yet. hehehe

I wasn't born until '72 unfortunately, but I fell in love with the kulture early on. my mom can still remember me memorizing "Grease" at 6 years old, and singing along to all the songs. I even BEGGED for a pomp. lol

I've always been big into cars because of my neighbor. I can't even begin to list all the cars I saw come and go out of that garage over the 10 years we lived there, but he's the one that turned me on to the Ed Roth stuff, and pinstriping. Wish I could remember his name... :/

[mnpctech]

Great seeing this thread again.

The memory lane stories remind me of how I loved CARtoons magazine as a kid in the 70s.. The artwork of George Trosley (http://www.georgetrosley.com/80.html)

Oh, and MAD Magazine too. Remember the back page fold? and Spy vs Spy?!

[Tattoo]

oh yeah. I used to get in trouble at the local convenience store for folding the back page of the new issue when it came out. lol

[dutchcedar]

My favorite part of MAD magazines were the little cartoons drawn in the borders of the pages...

And Tatoo... Hollywood's making a movie about Bette Paige... coming soon to a theater near you... :thumb:

[Tattoo]

My favorite part of MAD magazines were the little cartoons drawn in the borders of the pages...

And Tatoo... Hollywood's making a movie about Bette Paige... coming soon to a theater near you... :thumb:

I know, I know!! I'm so on top of that. I'm still peeved I missed a biography on Lifetime or Discovery Channel. One of those "learning" channels. grrr...

Oh, for all you krazy kustom lovers, here's a link to a site with some pretty nifty swag! thought i'd pass the word along. ;)

Go-Kat-Go! (http://www.go-kat-go.com/index.html)

[mnpctech]

and MOONeyes (http://www.mooneyesusa.com/) :cool:

Love their gauges (http://www.mooneyesusa.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=325).. hmmm, MOOneyes theme case mod would be cool.

btw: I'm now allowed Collector license plates for my 1986 Jetta since its 20 years old. No need to buy annual registration tabs again! I was thinking of getting them personalized... maybe "TUNEDVW" ....the whole thing still blows my mind

[mnpctech]

Ed Roth's legend lives on! :shock:

Ed's 3 sons, Reno, Darryl, Lil Daddy carry on their dad's legacy.

Show Trailor on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ2HlyxWrCM)

[Zero_Distortion]

hmm I might have to go for that mooneye half sweep tach for my bike, hope its not designed purely for V8s.

[mnpctech]

Props to Pug for posting this interview on YouTube! ....

You should post more. It's the only footage I've found online of Kenny Howard aka Von Dutch

Big Daddy Ed Roth interviews Von Dutch

Ruf4QQuBEmM

[Pug]

Cheers dude. I found it a while back. Wish I had the complete vid.
I ought to find my YouTube password, I seem to remember one guy saying he thought he had the rest of it on VHS...

[mnpctech]

Hmm.. found some for sale here.. looks sorta shaky to order from tho
http://www.jacquescoulombe.com/Mack.htm

"Pinstriping 101" by Ed Roth (VHS TAPE)
"How to Pinstripe" by Ed Roth (VHS TAPE)
"Von Dutch Up Close & in Person" by Ed Roth (VHS TAPE)
"Pinstriping Made Easy" with Pinkston & Lusk (VHS TAPE)

[Pug]

Ooh, nice find.
Wonder if they're originals?

Need someone local to go check 'em out, really.