31 Facts About Ed Roth

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth was an American artist, cartoonist, illustrator, pinstriper and custom car designer and builder who created the hot rod icon Rat Fink and other characters.

Ed Roth was a key figure in Southern California's Kustom Kulture and hot rod movement of the late 1950s and 1960s.

However, some of the designs that Ed Roth claimed to be his own art were in fact not his, but created by Don Monteverde.

Ed Roth grew up in Bell, California, attending Bell High School, where his classes included auto shop and art.

At age 14, Ed Roth acquired his first car, a 1933 Ford coupe.

Ed Roth studied engineering at a Los Angeles college, then served in the United States Air Force, and by the early '50s, was experimenting with fibreglass modelling.

Ed Roth began airbrushing and selling "Weirdo" T-shirts at car shows and in the pages of Car Craft magazine as early as July 1958.

The lesser-known Rendina Studios of Detroit and Mad Mac of Cleveland joined in on the monster "Weirdo" shirt craze, but Ed Roth was certainly the person who widely popularized the "monsters in hot rods" art form.

One of Ed Roth's personal drivers was a tangerine orange 1955 Chevy 2-door post with a Ford 406 cu.

Ed Roth built many trikes for himself and others, including Candy Wagon, California Cruiser, Secret Weapon, Rubber Ducky and The Great Speckled Bird.

From 1970 to 1975, Ed Roth worked for Brucker's Movie World and their "Cars of the Stars" display.

Brucker said that Ed Roth was very loyal and a very hard worker, even though he was not making much money.

Also during the 1970s, Ed Roth worked for Knott's Berry Farm as a sign painter and artist.

Ed Roth worked there for 10 years until about 1980, and among other things, did the lettering on many of the descriptive labels for objects in the Western Trails Museum at Knott's.

Ed Roth drew an image of his Rat Fink character acting out in a funny way on each painting while Jean Jacques Bastarache created the Master Fink underlying painting.

The paintings in all can be seen in the book titled Rat Fink: The Art of Ed "Big Daddy" Ed Roth published by Last Gasp in 1993.

Ed Roth was active in counterculture art and hot-rodding his entire adult life.

Ed Roth was inducted into the show's "Circle of Champions" in 2000, and was showcased as its "Builder of the Year" in 2006.

Ed Roth had his shop, that he started in early 1959, at 4616 Slauson Avenue in Maywood, California.

Ed Roth ran an ad in Car Craft magazine that year announcing the new address of his shop.

Ed Roth incorporated the Iron Cross into his artwork.

Ed Roth did not own a bike at the time, so he bought a brand-new Harley-Davidson Sportster and then proceeded to paint its gas tank a flat black color.

Ed Roth painted white lettering on one side of the tank that said: "Love is Hate"; and on the reverse side: "Hate is Love".

Ed Roth had taken black and white photos of different bikers.

Ed Roth made posters, with titles like "Beautiful Buzzard", or "Gray Cat" out of these photos, and sold them at car shows.

The gang arrived at the shop with guns drawn, but Ed Roth's crew defended themselves.

Ed Roth challenged the head biker to a one-on-one fist fight to settle matters in the middle of the shop.

Ed Roth joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1974.

Ed Roth shaved off his goatee and was heavily involved in social work through the church.

Ed Roth died of a heart attack on April 4,2001, at the age of 69.

The museum that Ilene Ed Roth created to honor her late husband includes displays of Ed Roth's art work and other memorabilia.