Exhibitions about Kustom Kulture and its effect have been done, most notably at the Laguna Art Museum.īesides Big Daddy’s art, Roth’s collection provides a visceral sense of his dad’s personality jumping out at you like a lick of flame from one of his hot rods - a free spirit, a showman, a prankster, a dad. Roth said he would like to get the bulk of the collection into a museum. Surrounded by his dad’s legacy, Roth feels an obligation to ensure that this unique slice of Southern California pop history is remembered and enjoyed by future generations. He won the fight shortly before his death in 2001. Big Daddy refused to let them have it, sparking a court battle that resulted in him suing his sons and his ex-wife. Little air bubbles over the cartoon’s mouth were full of amusing questions like “what’s your crazy dad up to now?”īut by the late ‘90s, Roth’s brothers Howard and Dennis - both artists and hot rod builders in their own right - clashed with Big Daddy over the rights to operate Roth Studios, which their mother had owned since the divorce. The walls of his home shrine are littered with old faxes of drawings that his father would send him with salivating Rat Fink cartoons requesting steering wheels and tail lights. As a manager of an auto parts store, Roth was able to help Big Daddy with parts that he needed to build his new hot rods. Roth and his father began rebuilding models together, and Big Daddy began appearing with his cars at car shows again and revived some of the old T-shirt designs and merchandise that had made him a legend decades ago. “I could tell that as more of the cars were being restored, deep down Big Daddy knew that … ‘Hey, it’s my name, but my kid pulled me out of bed, splashed water on my face and said, “Hey, we’re going back on tour.”’” Pete Santini, a custom car painter out of Westminster, has helped Darryl track down and restore two more of Big Daddy’s classic cars, the Druid Princess and the Motorcycle Hauler. Eventually, Big Daddy realized Roth’s quest was one born out of loyalty and a sense his father still had something more to give. Dirty Doug), he was so angry he refused to speak to his son for two years. After finding out that Darryl had restored the damaged auto with longtime Big Daddy collaborator Doug Kinney (a.k.a. The first of his finds was the Wishbone, a car that Big Daddy originally hated so much that he sawed it in half after building it in 1967. In the early ‘90s, Darryl saw a renewed interest in hot rod culture and decided to start tracking down his father’s old signature hot rods, which were scattered from the garages of car collectors in Santa Paula to the casinos of Nevada. By the early ‘80s, he’d taken a job as a sign painter at Knott’s Berry Farm, using the assumed name Bernie Schwartz (based on actor Tony Curtis’ real name). Though he continued to build cars sporadically, he shunned the rebellious remnants of Rat Fink mania, dropping out of the limelight and severing ties with family and fans. It also took an emotional toll on Roth and his brothers, who moved with their mother to Cudahy after the divorce.Īfter remarrying several times, Big Daddy converted to Mormonism. That lifestyle eventually contributed to the end of his first marriage, to Darryl’s mother, Sally, in 1970. Life felt less sweet when Big Daddy began associating with the biker gang Hells Angels in the late ‘60s. And while hanging out in Roth Studios in Maywood, he remembers that his 6-foot-4, 240-pound father’s hands were enormous and dwarfed any brush he was holding. “I used to sell Rat Fink key chains for lunch money,” Roth, the youngest of five brothers, recalled. Roth remembers souped-up hot rods his dad had worked on out of the renowned Movie World, Cars of the Stars and Planes of Fame museum in Buena Park. “It was rebellious, but paradoxically, it was just good clean fun.”īut to Darryl Roth, the collection is simply part of his childhood. “I had all the Rat Fink-related items growing up,” Stanford said. The valuable collection contains thousands of mementos, art pieces and artifacts that his dad created.įor well-known custom car designers like Steve Stanford, Big Daddy’s influence doesn’t come with a price tag. Some of his collection includes an original sketch of the Flying Eyeball logo created by Von Dutch (born Kenny Howard), a Kustom Kulture legend and friend of Big Daddy’s whose name is now associated with a lucrative clothing line. His den, garage and various storage spaces are crammed with original model kits of “Big Daddy” cars found everywhere from Japan to Mexico, old bikes and cars his father created, rare photo reels of him in his famous top hat and red suit coat with tails. With today’s resurgence of interest in hot rod culture and Big Daddy’s legacy, Darryl Roth has decided the huge collection of his dad’s work that he spent years tracking down and now has lying around his house should probably be in a museum somewhere.
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