George Barris - How good was he? Really?

He was on the Gong Show, and also claimed to be a C.I.A. hitman.

 

Chuck Berry. Whose gonna throw Chuck Taylor in the mix?

 

Master of promotion.

King of Kitsch!

 

James Taylor is so mellow..............

 

But I can compare him to a friend of mine, about the same age as George, who has spent more than half a century of turning out quality work.


He doesnt self promote either, so you've never heard of him.

Out of those two guys, I know who deserves more of my respect....

 

I remember back in the mid-60's some of the car magazines would try to get a debate going between Barris and Roth, as to who really is the bigshot of the custom car scene.
I was always a Roth fan. Roth was dirt-under-the-finger-nails, rowdy, kind of what the Rat Fink character was...the anti Mickey Mouse. Roth appealed more to me because I liked the anti-establishment aspect of his at***ude, cars, shirts, art. Even his Revell stuff kind of had an edge to it.
Barris was, in my mind, the corporate guy. He was building stuff for the movies and TV and was/is good at what he was paid to do.
Hey. when it came to the compe***ion that was fabricated by the magazines, my vote was always with Ed Roth.
But, George Barris has made a good living doing what he loves.
When it comes to taste all discussions are suddenly on a slippery slope. When I go to a car show, out of the 400 cars that I might see that day, MAYBE I would actually see two that I REALLY liked. The other 398 would be too low, too high, don't like the dope-dealer bling wheels, wrong color, etc. etc.
I'll bet George would dislike aspects of my car, but I would sure hope that he would appreciate it none-the-less.
I say, good for ANYONE who can make a living doing what they love, no matter what it is.

 

I'm not the world's best guitarist, so I don't knock Eddie Van Halen.
I'm not the world's best car builder, so I'm not gonna knock George either.

How good was he? In my opinion, I'd say "pretty damn good". He's contributed a lot to our society, it doesn't matter who likes it. As long as George likes it.

 

George has my RESPECT! The guy is over 80 and can still CUT a top !

 

Chuck E Cheese, damn good pizza maker.

 

Bill Hines.
No self promotion just hard work and cool ****.

 

Gene Winfield

 

yeah man Chuck D is OG

 

Back to George Barris.
T.C.

 

He didn't have to self promote. He was working for George Barris when he moved to California who promoted for him.

 

you got to hand it to a guy that can still sling show after show.
How many a**** us that will get to only build cars for their whole life,
and live to be over 80.
Most guys that tried to follow his lead end up the Host at Walmart!
TP

 

Well said. Of course, I agree with you too!

I'm glad George B. was and is around, our hobby/lifestyle is all the better for it. I just don't think he understands subtlety. He should be the west coast's "Kustom Kars Diplomat" to New Jersey. Only kidding, relax.

 

It's easy to say George Barris or Bill Hines or WHOEVER did ****ty work or whatever.....But when it all comes down to the bottom line...all the quote unquote"PERFECT" work all the rest of us did.... does not mean ****....
we were not George[orBill] or Gene or Darryl or Troy or Chip]were we?
And most probably never will be equated as one of the "greats" in the scheme of all things automotive....
We just have to realize that some folks are celebrities and some are experts.....its not the same thing at all.......
like apples and oranges ,if you will.

 

Self Promotion= Larry Watson

 

Surprised that no one has mentioned Floyd Cotterpin..........................

 

good point. well put.

 

Somedays ya jus' gotta ask yourself............

Would the world be so ga-ga over cars like the Hirohata Mercury if
it had been built by some no name in his garage in Southern Iowa,
instead of George sayin' "hey, lookie here, look at this" and beatin
the drum, stokin' the star-maker machine?


S****ey Devils C.C.

 

George had his thing going,but it's always been Big Daddy Roth,to me,for best custom car builder. Never did anything twice. Set the standard for "way out" cars. Like was mentioned before,get down and dirty,builder. Let his cars speak for themselves.
Movie cars...George
Custom cars...Roth
Custom drivers...Sam

 

For all you know-it-all George Barris bashers,,,guess who taught Sam how to do bodywork???.........that's right,,good old "no talent" George

and guess who taught George how to do bodywork?????,,,,,,,,,just some silly guy named WESTERGARD,,,,,,,,,,

Quoted from "The Big Book of Barris"

George had ideas of what the future could hold in the customizing business. George asked Sam if he wanted to join him in the custom car business. Sam was a little hesitant because he did not have George's mechanical or bodyworking talents. George was adamant. He knew his brother had a good eye and sharp instinct with his hands, and George figured that he could quickly teach Sam the basic tricks of the trade.
Within a few weeks, Sam knocked out some reasonable bodywork, and they agreed to pool their talents and rent a larger shop on Imperial Avenue in Los Angeles.
The brothers struggled at first, like any new business, but the level of skills increased, Sam became more confident, and George advertised and drummed up business. Because of the increase in business, the shop became too small, so they quickly moved to a larger location at 7674 Compton Avenue in Los Angeles.

There seems to be a lot of this "George Barris had no talent" talk here lately,,,maybe some of you guys should do a little reading before jumping on the bandwagon because it's the cool thing to do,,,,I'm sure any one of you could have built MUCH nicer cars than George ever could have,,,in fact, why don't some of you post some pictures so we can all see how SUPERIOR your work is to George's,,,,The guy is an ICON,,,,he should get some respect here of all places....If Sam was still alive, I'm sure he would be disappointed by the disrespect some of you guys have shown his brother here.

half you guys wouldn't know what a good kustom was if it bit you in the ***,,,****, even the Modern Grecian, generally acknowledged as one of Barris uglier creations would put some of the stuff I've seen here to shame..

 

THANK YOU! I've seen some of the stuff the **** talkers roll in- VERY sad!

And just building one or two "decent" cars will NEVER stack up to the hundreds with the Barris name attached. I find unknown beauties knocked out of HIS shop every time I go through a stack of little magazines.