Ed "Big Daddy" Roth

By David Glenn Cox

Note grease stains on shoe.

Okay, so far this blog has been filled with 19th century stuff shirts. Guys born before Grandpa met Grandma and they were all geniuses' la, la, la. But what about the geniuses born in the 20th century?

Ed Roth once said, the only two classes he passed in high school were Auto Shop and Art. He graduated in 1949, taking those two talents and combining them to create something completely new. Where Harley Earl took factory cars and styled them, Ed Roth made his cars art. He changed the way we thought about cars, through his art. They were automobiles as Roth saw them, no differently, than Van Gogh saw Sunflowers or Monet saw water lilies.

He grew up on the edge of Los Angeles, in the center of the hot-rod craze of the late 1940’s. Ed finished high school and was off to college and after a year, he left school for the Air force. By 1955, his enlistment up, Roth now had a wife and five children in tow. Through the original auto paint striper Von Dutch, Ed Roth began to do paint striping and custom car painting. Earning $4.00 per pin striping job and with all the work he could handle, Ed Roth said good bye, to his dollar an hour job at Sears & Roebucks and for the rest of his life he did what he wanted.

He painted and pin striped cars, adding his own unique touch and through car shows, began air brushing tee shirts. In 1958, Ed Roth began selling “weirdo” tee shirts from the back pages of Car Craft magazine. His Rat Fink character has become an American Icon, his over the top, “gee, this will really shake up the folks” tee-shirts became a national craze. Ed Roth never gave much thought to his lost career in retail, he was doing just fine.

A year later, Ed entered his first, fiberglass Kustom car “The Outlaw,” in competition, Roth’s revolutionary use of fiberglass made the car a sensation, in hot rod circles from coast to coast. “The Outlaw” won so many car shows, there was talk of banning “The Outlaw” from competition. Eventually, they understood that Ed Roth had changed custom cars with “The Outlaw,” and you just got to keep up or else fade away, and just as they were trying to keep up, Ed Roth introduced, “The Beatnik Bandit.” A Plexiglas bubble top, two seat roadster, with a futuristic joy stick for the throttle, brake and steering.

"The Outlaw"

The Beat Nik Bandit- One of the first 12 Hot Wheels Cars

The Mysterion

The Orbitron

The Road Agent 1965

The twin Ford engined “Mysterion” was created in 1963, followed by “The Orbitron” in 1964 and the “The Road Agent” in 65 and his “Surfite” mini surf buggy appeared in the film “Beach Blanket Bingo” along with numerous ads and commercials during the 1960’s.

“Surfite”

Ed even tried to build a flying car (Rotar) with limited success.

In 1962, the Revell Company began selling plastic models of Ed Roth’s Kustom cars, followed by plastic models of his monsters in hot rods from his drawings. Earning a one cent royalty per model, Roth earned $32,000 in a single year. By 1963, Rat Fink was a national craze; Roth sold shirts, hats, record albums and key chains, anything and everything Rat Fink. Roth was a marketing genius, advised by the folks at Revell to make himself more interesting, Roth donned a second-hand tuxedo and monocle. He became Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and made himself the personification of his own work.

Ed “Big Daddy” Roth identified with weirdness and for the masses who felt weird themselves, they flocked to him. He wasn’t a phony or a candy ass, he’d hung out with bikers and knew how to throw a punch. He was a real American character, living a real American life, with all which that entails.

Ed Roth had become a counter-culture figure, but then, around the time the Beatles, first appeared on the Ed Sullivan’s TV program, the culture changed, and so the bubble burst. Surf music, beach movies and Rat Fink, all fell out of favor, as the British invasion had begun. But the Chevy big block 396 will forever be the Rat motor, and will be adorned by a Rat Fink at car shows, all across America. Chrysler had their “Elephant Hemi’s” Chevrolet had the mouse the roared, the 396 rat motor.

The Elephant and the Rat

Big Daddy lived the American Dream; he parleyed his talents and came up a winner. He pioneered the airbrushed tee - shirt and revolutionized the Kustom car industry. He is a true, founding father of custom auto painting, including an innovation we know today as metal flake paint. Today Ed Roth’s art is highly prized and his cars are on display in auto museums and insured for millions of dollars, just like Van Gogh’s or Monet’s, only these are Roth’s.

The Beat Nik Bandit II

Orbitron Found