Ive heard rumor of a sweater my grandfather had painted by Stanley Mouse sometime between 1959 and 1962, in Pittsburgh at a local car show. Well today all the stars lined up. He finally found it in the bottom drawer of his night stand in a plastic bag and I happened to have my camera for some X-Mas photos. I snapped a few shots of it. It has never been worn and shows some slight yellowing from age, otherwise the colors are bright and its in beautiful shape. The W3QIY were his ham radio call letters when they lived in Apollo, Pennsylvania. The Back: Mouse: The Front:
That sweatshirt is too cool, I have a "hillbilly helmet" (Rat Fink style cloth pointed hat) that was painted by Mouse. Small world, I lived in Apollo also! My family moved to Calif. in 1964 when I was 4 years old. But we used to go back every other summer to visit family and I remember my older cousins were drag racers in the late 60's (tri 5 Chevy's) Ed and Ron Rowe. My mom and dad met at the "Charburger"!
Excellant piece of history! Hope Grandpa realizes who should be getting that should he pass on to hotrod heaven.....
Great, creative post title! "W3QIY": so was he a ham radio operator, too? (Pittsburgh is in 3 territory). Be nice if you found some old tube-type radios also -- especially the traditional "Amplitude Modulation" type transmitters.
Man that is SO cool! I dug up a T shirt, not nearly as good as that but it is a hand painted T a family friend did of my fathers, then mine.... now my fathers again 38 coupe back in the 70s. I cant believe my father was ever that small! Doc.
It had to be pre-'65 because that's when he quit painting shirts and moved to San Francisco and into his next period. Definitely a cool find, painted by Mouse for sure, but technically a "limited edition print" rather than a full original. The black outlines of the car and monster were pre-screenprinted, then Mouse painted in the color, shading and the names at the car show. Still a worthy piece, though....I once saw a website that was actually selling some of his paint rags as originals. I have a Mouse original he did for me in '73 (about 8 years after he quit doing car shows and shirts). I'll try to find and post it here.
He still owns every piece of equipment hes aquired since the late 40's. He actually has the same exact radio pictured above. Heres a picture of him at his desk in 1950.....He's also one of the charter members of the 10-10 club operating on 10 meters. Believe it or not his member number is 3, and I know they have well over 75,000 members to date.Each number assigned by order of enrollment.
Very Cool! Then he has a great collection of equipment that's grown very nicely in value. Looks like he was a home-brewer as well from the looks of the transmitter. Real treasures
WOW! Nice find! Its amazing that this stuff wasn't just tossed out over the years. Thankfully I still have my sweatshirt that Big Daddy Roth painted for me on my 11th birthday in 1961. I had my Roth catalog with my selection all picked out when my Dad drove me to Roth's shop in Maywood on a rainy saturday. Roth greeted me, wished me a happy birthday and started airbrushing my new sweatshirt for me. When he was done he asked me if I would like my name on the front. I said, yeah, and so he did and even added the spiders as an extra surprise!!! I wore that thing to LIONS every Saturday night until I outgrew it...Damn, I love that thing and the memories that go along with it! \
Last saw Mouse when he was a 16 year old kid starting out at the Detroit Autorama in 1958. He was wearing a black bowler hat. Chubby little Dude.
That new liver(?) he got seems to be agreeing with Mouse? He'll be around a bunch of years yet! He claimed the hamburger grease got to him.Maybe the screening ink/One Shot? I inquired if he'd autograph my glove box door...."Yeah,for $100." Nah...
*Update* Hard to believe I posted this over twelve years ago. We lost grandpa towards the end of 2018, and unfortunately my grandmother was, and is still suffering the awful effects of dementia. Needless to say many of his items promised to me and items that were left to other family members were either donated or thrown away by grandma without anyone's knowledge, including the sweatshirt pictured above. If anyone ever happens upon it, hanging on the shelf of a random Goodwill, Salvation Army, Ebay, or Other, snatch it up quick and message me here. I will pay a finders fee...
Oh man that sucks! So sorry. My avatar is “Ice Cream Kid” by Mouse. Here's what Stanley says about the Kid: Trouble comes in many flavors. Ice Cream Kid is in hot water. The jury is out. His only defense is love
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