Folks Of Interest Big Daddy Roth article in todays LA Times-12/27

Well done article. I didn't know about the lawsuit(s)...too bad.

Back in the late-80's, I was Ed's meter reader when he lived in La Mirada. He was working a few miles down on Beach Blvd. at Knott's Berry Farm at the time. I remember coming around the corner each month and seeing his tiny little Honda in the driveway, all painted up. You could look through the hatch-back window and see all his sign painting junk back there. It was such a mess...but in a good way. Cans of 1-shot, rolls of toilet paper, half gallon cans of turpentine...

I'd love to see all Darryl's stuff in a museum setting. Other people could add stuff too, on a rotational basis, so there's always something new to see.

 

Man, I wish I could say my bike was pinstriped by him...I made a hashjob of that on my bike way back when

But, yeah, I would be thinking it would be nice if the collection did stay together. I'm not sure myself how it could be done...there would have to be a lot of investment in the idea right from the get go...

 

Ed Roth had a life changing effect on me. When I saw Excalibur for the first time in 1959, or 1960 I fell in love with the design, and what could be done with fiberglass. In 1963 I learned how to sculpture car bodies in clay, and spent two years with General Motors. In 1968 I got into fiberglass making molds, and for the next forty plus years had the opportunity to design and develop some of the most interesting things in the composites world. All this dew to one man. Big Daddy Ed Roth. Without the inspiration drawn from his creations I would have never gone on and had one spectacular interesting life. I retired five years ago, and have spent almost every day sculpturing projects, my passion in life. Even today I spent the better part of sculpturing 3D flames on the side of my T Bucket body. This is a first, and I always think. How would Roth do it!
I got a chance to talk to Mr Roth sometime in the late 90's when he was somewhere in Utah, I think. We talked about molding techniques, and I told him how he inspired me as a young kid. He was so humble that I was almost thrown for a loop. I had learned, and developed methods totally different than what he had used. I respected him to much to ever question his methods when it came to building his creations. After all he was the consummate master of creative design, and who the hell was I. He had made using fiberglass as a median an Art form. For that Ill forever be great full. It's hart warming that so many people respect and admire his memory and his lifes work.
Thanks for reading,
Johnny Sweet

 

Good article. I wasn't around in the 50's and 60's, and was a little too young in the 70's to remember, but Ed and my dad were somewhat friends. Enough that dad would always go talk to him at the shows and I'd sit down and listen to them chat. I never fully appreciated who he was, because everytime I saw him he was trying to get people to pay for an airbrushed t-shirt and seemed to always be scraping by. We went to his house in Manti UT once and he showed us this giant fiberglass mess he was working on, not sure which car that was, but that was the first time I realized "this guy is crazy".

My dad took a business associate from Mexico to a big car show one year, might have been SEMA. Anyway, they ran into Ed. Knowing the Mexican businessman was a big Ed Roth fan, my dad introduced them. The first thing Ed said was "Can I ask you a question? Do the Mexicans drink the water in Mexico?" His intent was to get them to go away, I'm sure. lol....

I guess Ed had bugged my dad to sell him my Chevy while I was out of the country for a couple years. I told dad to please not sell it, and he hung on to it despite tough times. One year, on my birthday, I received a letter with a "Ed "Big Daddy" Roth logo on the envelope. Too my surprise it was a hand-drawn rat fink holding a birthday cake. It said "Happy Birthday" on the bottom. The rat fink had a "speech bubble" and was saying "Is your '54 for sale?". Pretty damn cool. I still have that framed.

Can't believe it's been 10 years. I'm fairly young (36) but my dad has introduced me to quite a few of the greats; Tex Smith, Ed, Magoo (what happened to him?), Winfield, Edelbrocks, etc.... It breaks my heart to see them slowly move on. Now, dad's got cancer and isn't too far away from being reunited with those guys. I just hope I can pass the torch to my son as impactful as dad passed the torch to me.

Thanks Bob, that was a good read. Brought back good memories.

 

Great article. I'm only 26 but Roth has been a role model and hero of mine since I first found out about him around age 20. The world needs weird, RIP Big Daddy.

 

We met him when he was working at Knott's Berry Farm as a sign painter/pinstriper and he invitied us over for a spaghetti dinner that he made in the dogs' bowl because of the natural enzymes in dog saliva, of course he never told us until after we ate, lots of stories and lots of laughs, a talent that will never be replaced.

 

There's gotta be more on this board than me who remember him in Maywood & seeing him driving his creations down Slauson Blvd.

 

I met Ed at the LSSRA Run in Waco TX in 1988. He was judging the model car contest. He could not believe that a woman would build model cars. We talked for awhile and I got a picture with him. My husband bought a five gallon trash can that he painted that they were auctioning off for I think a charity. Wonder what that can is worth today? Might just put it on the market.

 

I met him in the early 90's also, real nice guy. I also went to the laguna art show several times and have the posters to prove it . I wonder if you can do another roving art collection, like laguna art center, tustin.... a great one would be the old santa ana city hall, they have a room up stairs.......

 

They used to paint those cans at the RatFink Reunion then auction them off. One year this guy came up to Ed and said he wanted one of the cans,but had to leave to catch a plane. Ed told him $1500. He handed Ed the cash and left!!!

 

Good Read,
Thanks for sharing with us not living in So-Cal

 

I have fond memories of "Big" in action at one of the Rat Fink Parties at Paul Camilleri's Shop. There he was with a hot dog in one hand and a loaded brush in the other, stripping the deck lid on a black 32 3 window. I have a picture of that somewhere ..........