How did Roth afford to build so many cars ?

Yeah,... It was cool.

 

Ed was one of those guys who came around at the right time. He never imitated anyone, he totally did his own thing and was a big part of the car culture then and still is today.

Growing up in the '60s into the '70s, every kid had some sort of Big Daddy Roth product in his possession from stickers, t-shirts, model cars, Rat Fink figures, you name it, we had it.

I was under the impression that he was filthy rich, lived in a lavish Hollywood estate.. nothing but fame and fortune... definitely had the fame part covered. But he lived frugally and never forgot where he came from.

Bob

 

As mentioned, the late 60's saw the Rat Fink style shirts and funky show car era decline or at least drastically change; dope, free love a new wave of music, etc. which probably resulted in a drop in sales. Though possibly, he received royalties from Mattel from the Beatnik Bandit being in the '68 Hot Wheel launch???
The fall of Choppers magazine and the fact that Roth was now pushing 50 leads me to believe he simply was looking for a solid 9 to 5-a regular pay check with health benefits. At this point in his life, it may have been more reasonable than the wheelin and dealin, travelin and scraping lifestyle of earlier years. Most of us have caved to work a "regular job" to pay the bills. He still striped cars (probably for cash or bartered labor/parts) for people on his off time and was probably doing pretty well. I believe he put in about 10 years between Knott's and Stars of the Cars which would have helped his Social Security year credits. Hell, he was well respected and was doing what he liked on the 9-5. It wasn't like he was shoveling shit somewhere.
Maybe be married several times had an impact to his financial situation? My best friend had been married 5 times by the time he was 45. He used to say "I figure I buy a chick a house every 5-10 years!

Big Daddy was an icon and his shit was "IN".
Here's Elvis on his Roth trike;

 

I remember parents getting pissed off when he would sign a kids t-shirt,cause he never just SIGNED a shirt. He would make some crazy Monster face or character and the parents would get mad. My dad hated it when he would draw something on my hand or shirt. He would drag me into the bathroom and scrub off whatever Ed had drawn on my hand. My dad wasn't a fan of ROTH stuff...he just didn't get it.
About the venders...I only was allowed to go to the local shows,so I don't know about Nor Cal and shows out of state.

 

It always had a Triumph on it. Originally it was red. Never seen a different bike on it. Of course,it's been around a long time and one of the owners may have used another Bike,but the Triumph was the original Bike.

My 3rd favorite Roth car...
1-Road Agent
2-Druid Princess
3-Megacycle Transport(Pepe's Truck)

 

Like I said. In Hutchinson ,Kansas in September, 1967 it had a blue Sportster on it. As I understand it, 1967 was the year he had built and showed it for the first time on the show circuit .I couldnt take my eyes off of it. I was there all day.

 

I wasn't questioning it,just never seen any pic's with a different Bike on it.

 

Wasn`t trying to discredit you either. I would have loved to have been in your shoes spending that much time around him. I am an artist and car builder too that has been stuck in the middle of nowhere,Kansas all of my life and was so lucky to have even seen it out here. We always had Starbird but Ed was an artist !

 

Aaron, you are probably one of the few that can relate and speak with authority!

 

Just to set the record straight, that show in the little quanset hut building at the Kansas State Fair was put on by Ray Farhner from 1962 on. He hauled his own showcars such as the Eclipse, Boothill Express and other cars he had leased for a year at a time from the builders.

I was there all day, every day at every show from '62-'68. I operated the only booth inside the show, where I airbrushed monster shirts in what can only be described as Ed's style. Ed was nowhere near the place, as Farhner leased the car from him and Ray hauled it and other showcars in a semi trailer from show to show.

There was never only two cars in any of his shows, always at least 7 or 8.

The car carried a Triumph chopper, which, believe it or not, was the more desirable bike in the early 60's.

 

I guess we remember what we want to remember ? What I remember was a small brick building in the middle of the fairgrounds with two cars inside and no vendor space inside.I had a Tshirt airbrushed outside the building at a row of plywood booths just east of this building on the midway. The way I remember, on the west side was the grandstand building and the quanset buildings were on the east side of the fairgrounds and housed crafts and buisiness display boths such as Bell telephone where they gave out trinkets like keychain princess style telephones etc.I have no idea why I remember different than you but this is what is stuck in my memory. I also remember a Roman chariot chopper with custom shop made wood spoked wheels with gold irridite rims and wide Indy tires that sat outside. Years later I saw the wheels for sale at Dale wilch`s speed shop in Kansas city.If I am nuts then all I can say is what a cool dream.

 

I would never trust my own childhood memories as much as I would my adult memories and I believe therein lies the difference.

I moved my booth from inside the show to the corner next to the quanset hut in the late 60's; you bought your airbrushed shirt from me.

 

The childhood memory thing was what I was trying to say. Regaurdless as I said earlier I am thankful to all of these guys who built the sixties show cars as they shaped my whole life. I had several models of these guys cars and the way they all traded and showed each others cars we couldnt keep straight who`s were who`s. For the longest time I thought Starbird did the Mega Cycle only because it was at this fair and local. Years later I asked Starbird about it and when I described it he said it was Roths car. I may remember this wrong also but it seems to me that the Beer wagon was at the Kansas state fair once also. I had models of the Beer wagon Pie wagon,Red Baron and Tirantula dragster. All I can say is thanks for the shirt . It was a prized posession until my mother threw it away without me knowing it. She said something about being totaly worn out. What did she know. All the airbrushing was still there. Who cares about the rest of the T shirt ! I also bought a plastic chrome world war II German helmet at one of the booths. My dad got plenty upset over that as he was a WWII veteren. I was too young to understand,I just thought the thing looked cool.

 

Great read, fellas. This should be a lesson to all of us to live life.

 

Cool, man Those Chrome plated plastic helmets were a Roth product; I bought them wholesale from Ed and you bought that from my booth too! The German helmets brought a lot of heat on us too; The Hutchinson newspaper ran an article during the fair on the fact that we we selling this controversial item. I'm glad you enjoyed the shirt and helmet.

 

I don't know anything about anything, but I did read an article on Kustomrama that said the mega cycle was built to haul Ed's Harley XL

 

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One of my most prized possessions! Met him for the first and only time at the 94 Dallas Autorama.
I was 46 at the time and felt as though I had grown up with him as part of the family.
He had always been part of the "hot rod scene" that kept all of us involved with cars.
He seemed a really nice guy. My son was impressed that his celebrity hadn't clouded his ego. Mike

 

Thanks for the stories....
Guys like Roth were willing to give up a lot to do what they did.Gas was 25 cents a gallon and all that..but..a top paying blue collar job was maybe 4 bucks an hour.
Give up the stuff we take for granted and it can still be done today.

 

Your wrong on the Elvis trike! It was made by supercycle custom bike builder for Elvis ! I have the title for it in my display case! Wasnt wild enough to be Eds!

 

That's correct,but it didn't fit.

 

You may be right in that, Ed's HD may have been the original plan and that article may have stated that. Bad Bob just explained it..the harley didn't fit. Out of 10 images of the car on Google image search, none show a Harley. The Triumph was re-painted at some time, as some of the Google images show a red Triumph and some are blue, I saw the car at its first show outside of California and I'm pretty sure the Triumph was blue. Ed Newton would know.

 

Still have mine,given to me by him when I was a kid. Still has an original Rat Fink water decal on it. I had Doug Dorr stripe it at a show back in 06. Sally had given me a chrome one and when Ed saw it,he snatched it off my head and gave me one of the scratched up ones. When I got home I painted it flat black. I get asked why I don't wear it. It's in my Hotwheel showcase and I can't find the key! I need to get a locksmith over there and have a new key made.
There's actually a photo of me wearing it in a Car kulture D'Lux magazine.

 

I would still swear to it that it had a blue Sportster on it when I saw it but as Tom Daniels says, I was a young boy and he was an adult. We were both there all day and it appears he forgot that his booth was outside until we had this conversation and I know I have gotten many details twisted since then as this was 46 years ago and with him being busy with his shirt sales etc. I wonder if he is remembering the Triumph on back at other shows he worked and maybe the thing had a Sportster on it at Hutchinson while the Triumph was somewhere else for some reason?If he remembers for sure about this particular state fair show he would be the only one to tell for sure. As I said ,I was a young boy and could have easily remembered wrong but my favorite bike was a Harley Sportster and it seems solid to me that a blue one was on the Mega Cycle.

 

I wish I still had mine ! I have a real one now but dont have the guts to wear it ! Bad Bob you are just spoiled man spoiled ! No one should have had it that much better than the rest of us.

 

Didnt fit as in look right or actual physical size ? The answer to that question would end this question if it didnt fit physically.

 

That was way before I knew who I was dealin with! He was just Uncle Ed to me.
Here's the best I can do for a photo of my helmet. Maybe I can take a pic when I get home.

Here you go....

 

Too long...

 

I remember ordering one and it was so small, only a kid could wear it.

Hey BadBob, right outside of a show when Roth had the Fang on display.
there was parked by the door a 55 chevy with radiused wheel wells. The dash was completely covered with green stamps. Was that Roth's car?

 

I'm wearing a Rat Fink shirt right now....

It's funny growing up, I knew who Rat Fink was. I had some stickers and such. It creeped my Mom out....so Obviously I loved it. But had no clue who Roth was. This would have been in the 80's....not sure how I ever discovered Rat Fink....but it fucked me up for life.....in a good way....

 

In his book Ed says he "chain hoisted the Sportster to the ceiling & cut out cardboard templates for a plaster mold. I got me a junkyard even-fire Buick V6 engine & it fell into place with the odd looking body. Trouble was the stock Sportster on back. Thru a series of trades I got the Trumpet which sits on the back from a fellow show exhibitor Bob Aquistapace from Hollister, California. He traded me for the XL because he was tired of the trumpet he had built & shown for so many years."

Sounds to me like he built it with the Sporty on back and it didn't fit as in look right.