Folks Of Interest Ed "Big Daddy" Roth

Thank you too, Moriarity. Really neat stuff.

 

I have a bunch of fuel altered stuff but holy crap... where do you find your treasures????

 

un f-n believable you have gathered up all this big daddy stuff!! ya gotta stop, i cant take any more...i'm commin elizebeth... (fred sanford)

 

My fav. show rod was "The Outlaw",but didn't love Roth's other stuff the same way.
As a teen in the late 50s,I did pinstriping,names on cars an airbrushed "T"s under my art name "The Bat" out of hell',at most of the indoor rod n custom shows around Florida,all the shows at Dinner Key. It was a few blocks from my house in Coconut Grove. I also had a hot rod an a custom that I put in the shows. Set my booth up between them when I was allowed too,if I had both cars in the show. All my art was one off,*never screened ! Looking back I should of learned how too market better,from Mouse an Roth,but teen thinking was one off was more real ART to me !. Ya,I know that was not too smart now!
I never met Roth,although it would of been fun I'm sure; At lest,as long as it was not at or in the week right after the big Miami Beach Con. Hall rod n custom show in 1961. The promotor called me,,told me I was not allowed too do or sell my art at coming show= no "Bat" at that show. Told me Roth had a sales booth with 'Exclusive' for "Ts" an art. WOW ,,I was mad as hell !!,Didn't go even too see show,or put my rod or custom in that show. After some time,before the next show Rudy{promotor}told me I get a free both at next show. I had got over being pissed at Roth.
So that's my only Roth story. Still love the "Outlaw".

 

Car show in Chantilly Va ...think it mightve been at the Dulles Expo Center...sometime between 1996 and his passing . He was showing his Beatnik Bandit II and doing artwork at the scene. He obligingly signed everything my brother and I brought...books, model kits, etc. He also seemed genuinely interested in who we were, what we did for a living, etc. Great guy, totally laid back and funny too.

 

Was workin the one shot sign painters colors while sitting at the show.

 

A souvenir from one of the Rat Fink Reunions ,

 

When we got to the show in Chantilly the first thing we saw in the parking lot was this truck...and thought...cool, the man is here....and he drove all the way from Utah!

 

My brother and I were checking out the cars at the annual Omaha car show in the late 80s and we wandered over to Roth's booth. My brother struck up a conversation with Ed and Scotty asked Ed what he was working on back home. Ed says he has this top secret project and can't talk about it but Dirty Doug is guarding the shop door with a machine gun! My brother about swallowed his gum and just stood there with his mouth open. We bought some little orange Rat Fink figures to put on our key chains.
Last time I saw Ed he was eating breakfast by himself at that truck stop on the access road to the salt off interstate 80. Musta been '93 or so.

 

VERY interesting post. I so enjoyed reading all about Ed. I wish I could have met him as I admire him just from what has been written about his character. The man had more than just artistic talent!!!

 

Some recent questions from my brother-in-law about Roth and my car had me searching for some stuff I have and then here to see what I could find. This photo is interesting in that the phone number is LO 74?78. When I had Roth pinstripe my 49 Fleetline, I picked up this business card. It has a phone number of LO 15381 but he had moved to Atlantic Blvd and the phone number had changed to LO 64363. Does anyone know where he was located then? The car also appears to have two car club plaques mounted to the bumper and the plate is a yellow and black issued in 1956 but may have another year sticker on it. Here is the business card I have ...

 

This photo is my car that he pinstriped and put a name on after I had to raise it up because of a couple of tickets I got for it being too low ...

 

Here's a beer mug that Roth lettered for me. Our car club took a few to him and he added custom lettering to them. Then my friend took them back to where he worked and had them fired. It's one of my prize possessions ...

 

The one question I still have is who was "The Baron"? I've tried searching but was unable to find out what his name was or how long he was working with Roth.

Does anyone have info about him they could share?

 

I am really jealous!!!

I'm pretty sure that is sugar pine, not basswood. The flecks are the giveaway. Basswood was more an eastern US wood whereas sugar pine was in every lumberyard in Kalif. Mark Gustavson has the Revell master body carving of the Mysterion in the Model Car Museum in Salt Lake and that is definitely sugar pine. He sent me these pictures for my book.

 

Speaking of Ed's construction methods, I have two long videos of him building the California Zoom 'glas car which he never finished, and the Asphalt Angel V8 trike. He had a welder, a hack saw, a drill. That's as sophisticated a tool bin as I saw in the videos. He NEVER brought out a tape measure.

He put the axles and engine for the trike on orange crates and just eyeballed the pipe frame and started cutting and welding.

He eyeballed the plaster for the Zoom body and laid up the 'glass. Then found out a front fender was a lot lower than the other so he just sawed the offender, repositioned it and re-glassed it, problem fixed.

He stirred his plaster and fiberglass resin by bare hand.

Moral; none of us has an excuse for not making our projects into masterpieces because we don't have all the 'proper' tools and supplies.

 

Never met the man. My loss

 

The corvette museum is doing a Roth exhibit until April. Headed over soon to check it out.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

His Mega Cycle changed my car and art life forever. I saw it fresh in 1967, fell in love with it and realized from that moment on that I could design and build cars with no limits to imagination. My son heard me tell this story and say that Ed Roth had a booth a couple isles over from our booth at the Rod and Custom Americruse in Springfield , Missouri in 1993. My son took one of my letter heads over to Roths booth and got an autograph from him for me. I don't know if anything could be better than that moment when he brought that to me. I still have that signed letter head and even more prized chunks of plaster pulled from under the Mega Cycle.

 

What city was this?

 

I apologize if this has been covered. Does Ed's '55 still exist?

 

It's a Blessing wen you know what you were put on earth to do.
Ed Roth Knew.

 

I lived in Redondo Beach. His shop at that time (1958) was on Atlantic in South Gate.