History Larry Watson's Personal Photo Collection

He lives in central calif. I beleive he married a Bekendam. I"ll try to find out and let you know. Roger

 

The Peanut House was a bar in North Long beach that catered to the Outlaw biker type crowd. At least so I was told by an old biker friend of mine who got all misty eyed when he saw the peanut house in the picture.

 

These, story within a story are cool. Keep them both coming.

 

Thanks for the Peanut House info...

Candy green with a metallic gold roof paint job by Larry on this unidentified 1960 Ford Starliner. Moon hubcaps on Chrome reverse wheels and a perfect California rake.






Here is a photo of one of the two 1955-56 Fords I have material on from Larry's Personal Photo Collection. Painted Pearl Pink with Candy Fuchsia over a mildly de-chromed but otherwise stock body.1959 Dodge hubcaps, lake pipes, spotlights, and a nice slight forward rake make this a very nice cruiser for the late 1950's, early 1960's. Not visible in this photo is the tube grille, which looks really nice in the car. There was no info on the owner name with the photo, and I have never seen it other than in this photo collection...

 

That Barbershop in the background of the pink 56 Ford was across the street from the Peanut House.

 

SUCH a great thread.

Thanks for the Peanut House info, guys. I never would have thought something named the Peanut House could be a bar--but here we are.

Side note: I think the Magic Cork, as seen in the photo with the '55-'56 Ford, was a fairly well-regarded restaurant, part of a small chain in this area.

Oh, and the cars are nice too.

 

That Crown Vic is gorgeous!

 

I knew the Peanut House was a bar, not sure about the biker part, and I and several friends ate at the Magic Cork several times. Roger

 

Inspiring..makes me want to paint my caddy right now !!!

 

I never get tired of this thread, Rik keep'em coming!

 

watson inspired me to be a professional automotive painter when i began 16 years ago.i pored over any and all print i could find with his work. my greatest joy is telling those who ask me who watson was all about his work and such. my personal favourite.....

 

Rik,
do you have any pictures of Sam DeKruyf's '58 chevy? My grandpa had told me his car was painted by Watson back in the day when they went to Valley Christian in Bellflower.
I believe it was green and white........Santini painted a car for DeKruyf a few years ago that was a present from Sam's son in law. It was on the cover of Rod and Custom

 

I don't remember seeing any of Sams car at Larrys, But I think I remember Sam telling Phil Troost at the GNRS that he had some. Roger (ps my wife went to Vally christian the angel factory as we called it.)

 

I have also checked and as far as I can tell there are no photos of Sam DeKruyf's '58 chevy in the scans I have.


Here are two more photos of the Larry Watson Personal Photo Collection.


Mean looking 1955 Chevy, black with a teal blue pearl roof. Chrome reverse wheels with thin line white wall tires. The Custom behind it looks interesting as well. Could be a late 1930's Chevy with a vertical Corvette grille. I think I have seen it before... but can't remember where.







Larry Watson painted this 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham in a wonderful deep candy pearl, which works really well with the factory stainless steel top. Other than the Watson paint I don't think anything has been done to this classic ride. No lowering, well factory air suspension allowed adjustable height, so no need for that. Even all the factory trim remained on this car. The car was only a couple of years old when Larry repainted it...

 

I just did a nice article on the Larry Watson painted 1955 Mercury for the Swedish Gasoline Magazine. An article about the mystery about this car with no owners name. Larry could not remember the owners name, some of his friends and co-workers could not remember his name... But thanks to Sondre - Kustomrama - and the 1959 Renegades Motorama Program we now have a name to go with this wildest Larry Watson painted custom ever... Dave Kyte of Santa Barbara... only mystery remaining is who did the body work...

 

this thread is great. those locations on artesia arent far from me. if you guys do a google map search on the addys, you'll see whats there now. the buildings are still there, some have changed a little. the one near artesia and woodruff is remarkably intact.

thanks for posting these pics!

 

Bill Decar still owns it and leases it to a body shop.

 

I would love to see this in color...

 

On Rikster's site here.

 

and where is the car now !

 

Rikster, thanks for taking the time to post everything...a very inspirational thread!

 

Larry had a couple of his cars at a night photo shoot. The photos taken by James Potter came out really fantastic. Wonderful lighting effects from the longer exposure time. Some where with and others without a model. Here is snapshot taken that night that did not came out as perfect as the one James Potter made - a bit overexposed... but still very interesting to look at Larry's 1959 Cadillac.







I have shown a different photo of this great looking Larry Watson painted 1956 Chevy before. And mentioned its wonderful white tuck&roll interior then. Well here is the photo to proof it. Great work on the interior with its tuck&roll on the dash and on the top and lower part of the side panels. It's heart shaped floor panels and white piping around the dark carpet. And I love that color...






Great looking 1956 Chevy Nomad painted by Larry Watson. Wonderful shades in pearl and candy on a Nomad with a perfect California Rake that works so wonderful with the forward rake on the B-Pillars on these cars. Some trim was removed as where the door handles, but that is about all the body work that was done to this car in the early 1960's. Chrome reverse wheels on thin wall white wall tires and a set of Dummy Spotlights.

 

Actually I do believe that Larry moved to Bills shop from his Bellflower Blvd shop which I am surprised there are no pictures of. It was next door to Greater Central Market. Larry didnt even have a booth there and I can remember driving down Bellflower and a big cloud of overspray coming from his shop.

 

The peanut house was a beer bar no biker bar when Larry was at this location.It was called the Peanut house because they served a big bowl of Peanuts with the beer and the floor was covered with shells.

 

Wow, good to know this.

Wonder if they bought the peanuts from Marmion's downtown?

Thanks for posting.

 

The Bellflower shop is buried under the 91 freeway

 

What a glorious thread. Thanks to both Rik and Roger for your memories!

 

Thanks alot!!! Tons of work Rik, thanks for taking the time!

Roger.........Angel Factory huh? That school was about 95%+ dutch back then so that sounds about right, dutch girls are hard to beat....maybe I'm biased though, my wife is too.

 

Geez! Pics of that Grapevine does all kinds of wonderful things to me... but I must say, the b/w photo in front of Rose Hills just about does me in!

 

I'll bet that MUF license plate was popular!