On April 4th, 2001, the world lost Rat Fink’s father – Ed “Big Daddy” Roth.
 
 

He started working on real cars at age 14, when he got a 33 Ford Coupe. Around this time (1946), he became really impressed with a new material – fiberglass - that Ford was touting as the material of the future. The demo was of Henry Ford wacking a trunklid made of  ‘glas with a sledge, and all it did was bounce off. High School, Junior College, then a stint in the Airforce, and it was 1955. He obviously had been thinking about cars the whole time he was in the service, because when he came out, he started hustling to make ends meet by pinstriping and flaming cars, and by 1957 had joined forces with  “The Baron”, and went into business with him as “The Crazy Painters”. By 1958, business was so good that he quit his day job at Sears, and went full time. By the end of ’58 they ran this ad in the digest sized Rod & Custom:

 

Note the mention of “Individually Styled Weird-O Shirts”. These started out as t- shirts (or sweatshirts) with a name on it, drawn in magic marker, with color added from a spray can. Caricatures soon followed, which evolved into how gross could you make the person look. From this the “monster” designs developed – no cars, just grotesque “outer space” creatures. At that time, Disneyland was all the rage in California, and all the goody-two-shoes stuff was the complete opposite of what Big Daddy and the Hot Rod Kool movement was all about. BD came up with a critter to counter Mickey Mouse – and Rat Fink was born! Here’s the recently reissued Revell plastic model kit:

 

As he went to car shows to sell Weird-O Shirts, he eventually learned 3 things: 1) People wanted cars on the shirts along with the monsters. 2) An airbrush was a lot faster than doing shirts with a magic marker. 3) Just adding color to a shirt with a silk-screened design was a lot faster than airbrushing from scratch! The ads for his shirts started appearing in Car Model in 1962. For Christmas that year, I ordered an RF shirt for my best friend, and my Mom included a “Race” design for me also. I remember sweating it out until the package from Roth Studios arrived on Christmas Eve! Those shirts are long gone – but I really wish there were even scraps left!!!!!

 

I 1964, the model kits started arriving. Along with the above Rat Fink static, came 3 others – “Mother’s Worry”, “Drag Nut” and Big Daddy’s alter ego –“Mr. Gasser”. More important to slot fans, Revell converted 2 of their “standard” slot cars, the Lotus and BRM F1 kits, to the infamous “Rat Fink In Lotus” and “Mr. Gasser In BRM” kits. Big Daddy was riding the crest of his popularity. The agreement with Revell paid him 1 cent royalty for each kit sold. In 1965, he received $32000 from Revell. For those of you that math hasn’t always come easy, I got out my calculator and did it for you – that represents 3 million, 200 thousand kits !!!!!!!!!!!! That’sa lot of kits, whether it’s 1965 or 2005!!!!!  His nickname “Big Daddy” came from the people at Revell, who told him that they couldn’t just put “Rat Fink by Ed Roth” on the kits. Ed said that he had been known as “Big Ed” in high school, and they took it from there. I got to see Big Daddy live in person in 1999, here in western New York, at a car show. I took my “Rat Fink in Lotus” kit to get him to autograph it. He went NUTS! He said, “Where did you get this? I haven’t seen one of these in many many years. It must be worth a grand!” Here’s a scan of the cover, with his autograph: This is also available in the VSRN Art Gallery as an Iron-on!

The inside of the box has some more Fink Art: In keeping with the theme of RF, they chose a lovely shade of “Candy Grape’ll (to match the faces of your opponents)” for the body! The frame is a later version than the one which first appeared with the Lotus kit. The rear tires are slicks and wider than the stock Goodyears  found in the Lotus kit – probably the same as the Cobra and ‘Vette. Motor is still the original Sp-500 Mabuchi.

Here’s the first page of the instruction sheet: In addition to the obvious driver change,  the GMC blower, roll bar and decals are all “special”….plus the steering wheel is gone – obviously not necessary!

The companion kit is “Mr. Gasser In BRM”. Big Daddy though of himself as “Mr. Gasser” – sort of a self portrait!

 
 

More Roth Art inside:     The official color of the body is listed as “Mildewed Tangerine” !

For a kid who had really enjoyed BDR’s creatures (what can I say – it was right for the times!) going to see Big Daddy in person was something I never thought I’d get to do, especially almost 40 years later! My parents had taken me to a “Cavalcade of Cars” car show in Philadelphia in 1963 where he was supposed to make an appearance, but he wasn’t there when we were (although “Mouse” was), and I always regretted missing him. When my buddy and I got to the show in 1999, we walked into the building, and saw his banner up on the back wall, and the line waiting to see him.  We got in line, and bought our share of stuff. We had also come prepared with other stuff for him to sign. As we got closer, he was kind of subdued and tired looking – but it was early Sunday morning, and he had probably flown in on the red-eye. The guy ahead of us had a copy of Roth’s autobiography “Confessions of a Rat Fink”. Big Daddy took it, then stopped and got his first bite out of his bagel. He opened the front cover, drew Rat Fink across both pages, and inscribed it “Buffalo Bagels Rule!”. My buddy had a Custom Car Show program from the early 70’s with one of Roth’s cars on it, plus a babe in a bikini. He picked up the program, pointed to the girl and said “You do know that this isn’t me, don’t you?” and laughed. He called his wife over and repeated it for her. She kind of rolled her eyes, and said “Yes Dear”!

I showed him my “Rat Finks Of America” certificate as a joke to get a conversation started. He took it and scrutinized it carefully – pronouncing it as an original he had done (which I already knew) as opposed to the later ones done by Mooneyes. As we were ready to leave, I asked if I could get a picture of him, and he obliged. Naturally, I neglected to turn on the flash. He said “Try again”, and repeated the pose. Here’s the shot (note the half eaten bagel in the picture….)

Last Fall, my buddy and I learned that Big Daddy was scheduled to make a repeat appearance in the Buffalo area this June, and we’ve been making plans ever since. We won’t get to see him again, but we’ve both glad we had our one chance. Ed “Big Daddy” Roth created enduring characters that were part of American Pop Culture – and went far beyond what he ever thought they would be. They were sure a part of my life – and I’m sure glad they were! Aloha, Big Daddy