Tales of the Rat Fink

[Racerbvd]

This is just too cool not to share... Where can I get the hat & glasses..

[Hugh R]

It is cool, when you load it go and do something else for about 5 minutes while all the ads and credits load up.

[Racerbvd]

Yea, lots of ads, but worth it for young bucks like me, it is a great history lesson..

[red-beard]

You would need A/C and sunscreen in that thing.

[pwd72s]

Many thanks Byron. History lesson for you...memories for me.

[Tobra]

Big Daddy Roth, yeah baby

[pwd72s]

Enjoyed every minute of it...well, not the ads. But still well worth the price of admission!

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Enjoyed every minute of it...well, not the ads. But still well worth the price of admission!

I hope there is a DVD, it would be worth having.. Ever ricers needs to watch this before they can call themselve a "Car Guy".

[Joeaksa]

Does bring back a lot of memories...

[racing97]

Oddly enough I was working at a Porsche Dealership in the Mid 70's and in walks Ed Roth himself buying 914 parts for a Trike. I called him Big Daddy and he almost cried. He was working as a sign painter at Knots if you can believe it.

regards

[R K T]

I literally grew up at Lions Drag Strip, due in part to my Dad being the President of the LA Harbor Lions Club that sponsored Lions D.S. I had my own permanent pass and could go anywhere at the strip.
In the early to mid 60s, Ed would come out to Lions on the weekends in his truck and set up a little stand and sell his shirts. He had all the silk-screened shirts, but his really cool stuff was his custom airbrushed shirts. Just tell him what you wanted, what colors you wanted....and your name. He would turn a plain white T into a work of art in about 5 minutes. I think he charged something like $4.50 for a custom!
I was in my early teens and was absolutely spellbound watching him do the shirts. I would stand for hours watching him. When the headliners started running the 1/4 most people would go into the stands to watch. I stayed and hung out with Ed. He was really a great guy and we would talk about all kinds of things, when we could hear each other over the cars racing. Didn't really realize at the time how much he impacted and influenced my life. So much that I became a graphic artist, and to this day some of my work has a little "Big Daddy" in it. He was much more than the crazy guy he portrayed.

[Z-man]

Kool documentary. Brings me back to my childhood -- in the 70's, Rat Fink was still pretty big.

Thanks for posting that up, Byron!

-Z-man.

[GWN7]

There is a reunion in Manti, UT in June

EdRoth.com - The Official Site of Ed "Bid Daddy" Roth - Rat Fink Lives!

I have ratfink stickers from the 70's around here somewhere

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by R K T

I literally grew up at Lions Drag Strip, due in part to my Dad being the President of the LA Harbor Lions Club that sponsored Lions D.S. I had my own permanent pass and could go anywhere at the strip.
In the early to mid 60s, Ed would come out to Lions on the weekends in his truck and set up a little stand and sell his shirts. He had all the silk-screened shirts, but his really cool stuff was his custom airbrushed shirts. Just tell him what you wanted, what colors you wanted....and your name. He would turn a plain white T into a work of art in about 5 minutes. I think he charged something like $4.50 for a custom!
I was in my early teens and was absolutely spellbound watching him do the shirts. I would stand for hours watching him. When the headliners started running the 1/4 most people would go into the stands to watch. I stayed and hung out with Ed. He was really a great guy and we would talk about all kinds of things, when we could hear each other over the cars racing. Didn't really realize at the time how much he impacted and influenced my life. So much that I became a graphic artist, and to this day some of my work has a little "Big Daddy" in it. He was much more than the crazy guy he portrayed.

Great story! Hope you were able to get some photos of the two of you!

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by GWN7

There is a reunion in Manti, UT in June

EdRoth.com - The Official Site of Ed "Bid Daddy" Roth - Rat Fink Lives!

I have ratfink stickers from the 70's around here somewhere

The front of my dresser was covered with those stickers when I was a kid. The gum was awful.

[Zeke]

Roth was no doubt a genius. More than that, he was relentless. He became very commercial. You can see the same thing that happened to Elvis happening in Roth's career as promoters and publishers got hold of his work. Not that he wasn't a promoter in his own right.

I see a lot of his influence still today. The ads for the Pomona Swap Meet are in Roth's art work style.



The comparisons of his work to today's products missed, IMHO.

The Rat Fink was never animated that I know of and I didn't care for the interpretation. However, someone spent a lot of time documenting Big Daddy's early life. Read Wiki, he became a Mormon in 1974 and lived in Utah during his later years. That doesn't make too good of a movie script.

I think the movie "American Graffiti" reignited the early days of hot rods for many. It never really died, but almost.

[sammyg2]

Who knew that Ed Roth sounded exactly like John Goodman?
The smothers brothers were in there too.
Pretty sure I heard leno.

Was that Ann Marg-rock?

[sammyg2]

I think I heard that car guy from ZZ top too.

[pwd72s]

WARNING! Mustang content...

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

WARNING! Mustang content...

Was that the car that blew up and hurt people in the audience?