Long Beach 50's car club info needed

I am working on putting together some history on a Long Beach club from the 50's called the Cut Outs. One of the original founding members has been coming into the store and showing me a bunch of memorabilia from this club. They were mainly into customs, for example this guy had a 56 Stude that graced many a magazine cover back in the day. He brought in some old pics of Larry Watson painting his car and some other really cool items.
I've always been into the history of clubs, and I'm trying to put together a nice album for this guy in appreciation of a lot of knowledge and stories he has passed on to me. There are a few members still alive, but supposedly the club is inactive.
Any info/pics/stories would be great if anythings available. Being stuck on the east coast makes it hard, which is why I'm reaching out.
Thanks in advance,
Keith

 

You gotta be talking about Dick Gonzales. I have an original CUT-OUTS car club plaque. I also have a trophy that was won by a Renegade(another great Long beach Club) at a cut out car show in 1958. I also have an old Renegades car show program that has Dick's car in it.

The Cut-Outs had allot of magazine cars such as Gary Simpson's '58 Buick, Jerry Freigner's '55 Chevy, Ronnie Dulin's Plymouth.

I am very interested in Long Beach car club history and would love to see some of the photos he has. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know. I gotta get going , i am already late for work

 

Yes, it is Dick Gonzales. My store is in the building he owns. He lost the stude in a fire a while back.
thanks for the help. I'm going to be scanning in some pics and I'll email them to you. If you could take a few pics of whatever you have that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

M.B. For those that are not familiar with Dick's Stude here is a pic of it in front of Larry Watsons lakewood Blvd. shop, prolly around 1959.
The Cut-Outs and Renegades were a couple of the best known clubs from the Long Beach area that was a real hotbed of custom activity in 60's So. Cal.
I'll see if I can find some stuff for you as well.
Please put up whatever you get from Dick here for all of us to enjoy.
Thanks, Mick

 

My dad grew up in Long Beach, graduated LB Poly in 55. He wasn't in any car clubs, but I have heard about the Cut Outs all of my life. He always said they had all of the cool cars.

He has talked about one guy that had a red 32 roadster, decided to paint it white one weekend, but ended up with a pink car.

I would love to see some Cut Out's cars from the early to mid-50's.

Neal

 

Thanks for the pic!! He's bringing in his stuff tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have everything attached here by then. Amazing what a small world hotrodding can be!

 

I have over 30 plaques from Long Beach clubs on my car club plaque page. Here are two different plaques for the Cut Outs. I remember the first one.





Gary "Jughead" Simpson attended Redondo Union High School and I remember his 50 Chevy Convertible with the 302 GMC engine was one of the coolest cars there. His dad owned a Buick dealership somewhere around Downey but I'm not sure why he attended Redondo. Maybe they lived on the "hill" in Palos Verdes.

 

I will get some pictures for you this weekend, I will have to do it at my sisters house. I still would love to see anything he has. That would be great!

The Long Beach Renegades were the Craft Magazine's car club of the year in 1959. Rod and Custom had The Cut Outs as their club of the year. Both magazines had great articles on their clubs of the year, worth looking for.


I am 35 so I was not around back then, but after taking over my dad's magazine collection, I became very interested in Long Beach car clubs. The CUT OUTS had some of the best cars for sure.

I got a nice Email from him(Dick Gozales). I will send him one back tomorrow and see if he needs any old magazines with his car or club in it. I also have more than a few questions for him.

Thanks!

 

Here are a couple scans from the Nov '58 Rod & Custom that featured the Cut Outs.

 

This shows Dicks Stude before the Watson paint job.

 

Thanks for the replies! Like I said, I will hopefully be posting some pics today/tomorrow. I am also hoping to get some stories written down as well, so hopefully it will be a nice piece. Nice to see I'm not the only one interested in the history of these clubs. Once again,Thank you.
Keith

 

Just a quick update. Dick Gonzales came in today and brought about 300 pics from the Cut Out days and reunions, so I scanned a few and threw them on the web. If anyone is interested, here's the link: Cut Outs

 

Mass Butcher...I have to tell you...this is one of the coolest posts I've seen in a while. Those picts are the shnizzzza...Please post more!

 

Those pics are cool. I emailed the link to my dad to see if he recognized any of the cars.

Post more if you can, especially the hot rods

Neal

 

No problem guys, glad you liked them. So many more to scan it'll take weeks, but I will continue to add them on that web page, and I'll update this post when I do. There are some really nice customs. Some of the pics aren't so great, but I'll scan all of them anyway.

 

this has been my favorite thread in i don't know how long......i am way into the old long beach car style......keep em coming.......and thanks,donnie

 

If you come across any pictures of a chopped 30-31 model A coupe that belonged to Sandy Jones, I would love to see them.

Sandy was in the Cut Outs and was a friend of my dads, but there again that would have been in the 54-55 era.

Neal

 

I only have one pic and its real rough. It's a side shot and it's really yellowed out. It's actually a scanned printout so if I scan it , it will probably be even worse. I have it on a page with Sandys 56.
I have pics of most of the members cars, such as Sandy, Chuck Bell,Bill Egerer,Jolan Ellett,Ron dulin,Jerry Feigner,Dave Labs,Don Milligan,Larry Messick,Gary Simpson, the list goes on. I'll still try and scan the pics in tomorrow.
Keith

 

Damn I must have missed this thread. Waay to little kustomhistory on her these days so this was a sight for sore eyes. Good to see Mickey the Lurker is still around here as well.

 

[ QUOTE ]
I only have one pic and its real rough. It's a side shot and it's really yellowed out. It's actually a scanned printout so if I scan it , it will probably be even worse.
.....I'll still try and scan the pics in tomorrow.
Keith

[/ QUOTE ]

I would really like to see that pic of Sandy's Model A, no matter how rough the scan ends up.

Thanks,

Neal

 

I'll have it on in a few.
Keith

 

Best I could do with it...

 

Very cool Thank you very much. I have heard about that car since I was a little kid. Now I have a pic to go with the stories.

I will email a copy of that to my dad and brothers.

Neal

 

Glad to help. I have a bunch of color pics from various Cut-Outs reunions from the past 20 years or so. I'm not too sure who everyone is, but if you need a pic of a member let me know, I'll see what I can do.

 

this post makes me think of a question i've got..i live in ohio and i'm in a club that was started in PA.with luck,i'll be moving to socal next spring and i'll be wanting to start up a chapter down there,so i'm wondering about clubs with the same name.our name's The Drifters and i'm just wanting to learn about clubs with the same name to get an idea of who's around the area.like i said,our club started in PA in '59 so i'm just curious about who's already in the area. any info would help,thanks
Creepy

 

Redondo Beach Drifters go back to around 1950- were pretty famous around here and still get together weekly on Friday mornings.

 

Well my contribution is a picture of an original pattern for "The Cutouts Long Beach" from my Chicago MetalCraft collection. Have no idea if it's long beach California.

A quick look in Mapquest came up with ten Long Beach cities in CA, NY, MS, NC, IN, MD, ME, MN, NJ and WA and there's got to be a bunch of beaches called Long Beach besides.....

BTW, The closest I came in the 4100 Speed Gems patterns was a Cut Outs in Bakersfield.

Dennis

 

a car im reproducing was in the cut outs . i belive in 52-53 it was a black roadster owned by jerry sutherland that once belonged to jack calori of the lbc lancers

 

Cool to see such great old pics. Looks like some of them were taken at Milliken high school. If I'm not mistaken, Milliken was built in '55, so that would kind of time stamp those pics.

Great thread, bump for Long Beach.

 

Sandy and Chuck Bell live on the same street in Westminster Cal. Sandy still loves his cars!
If anyone has any questions pertaining to the club, ask and I will do my best to answer.
It is still in the cards to resurect my "YELLOW PEARL" as the original one burned in a fire in Anaheim many years ago.
Searching for a 1955 hardtop or Speedsteer that would be right for the task!

Dick Gonzales