Sunday, June 21, 2009

Now for something slightly different- For Father's Day

The process of acquiring images for this blog requires purchasing many lots of slides. Many times the collections not only include Disneyland and other amusement park images, but also pictures that touch on my other interests. One of these interests is the history of Hot Rods and of the whole Hot Rod culture. This interest is due directly to my Dad from when I was growing up. In the late 1950s, my Dad used to build and run hot rods. During the same time an up and coming hot rodder, customizer and artist, Ed Big Daddy Roth was selling shirts, decals and other items. Growing up, I would look through my Dad's collection of Hot Rod and Rod and Custom magazines, as well as Hot Rod Cartoons and Drag Cartoons from the time period. I was always intrigued by Ed's artwork and his advertisements in the magazines. I was also well aware of Rat Fink and enjoyed the monster aspects of him. Imagine my surprise when my brother found this group of slides showing Ed painting shirts on Catalina Island in 1962. First off is Roth airbrushing a shirt.

This lucky kid is wearing a print of Roth's 1960 creation, the Beatnik Bandit.

Finally, a freehand design of a drag boat.

Luckily, I have been able to find one sweatshirt by Roth as well as my Dad found one of Roth's Rat Fink Hillbilly crash helmets. We also have collected promotional pictures, postcards and programs where Roth set up as a vendor. Now if I could only find a Roth T-shirt with a freehand design!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool. Not used to seeing him so young or thin. Feel free to post photos of your Roth collection.

Major Pepperidge said...

WOW Patrick, those are really incredible! "Big Daddy" Roth is a legend, and even today the whole car culture movement remains very infuential, especially in the "lowbrow" art scene.

Great find!

SundayNight said...

Nice father’s day tribute and fantastic photos. Wow, Ed was no fool. Spend time over on Catalina painting shirts and getting a tan. Nice summer! Those Rat Fink illustrations are burned into my memory from the 60s. Thanks for posting these rare images.

Mark London said...

A W E S O M E !

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

NICE & Rare! Rat Fink! - Wow,"Burned into my memory" indeed. These are very cool, thanks for posting!

tikiranch said...

What a find you just never know what turns up is a stash of old slides.

sroden said...

holy cow... amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Sorry Gang, NOT ROTH

Matterhorn1959 said...

Hey Anonymous- how about a little proof about it not being Roth?