rat fink purchased by big daddy?

Interesting either way.
I truly wish I could have met the man, so many people I know that did, and nobody can say anything but what an amazing person he was.

Stolen bought or created, the fink sure took over like wildfire.

 

I think of Big everytime I walk out to the driveway .... RIP rankman!

 

Well I guess if you are going to get 'picky' you could say that he also 'stole' the 'R' in the ROTH logo from Triumph logo.

 

Truth is that before today I hadn't heard of Stanley Mouse. It is a common thing for folks to say that Roth stole something from them, or that someone else of note stole something from them.

 

Wish "Rainguy" would post some stories....he's got some great Roth tales!........RIP...BDR!

 

RIP Big Daddy. There's so many stories and claims out there. It doesn't matter.

 

So, I figure someone here might know the answer....

Friend of mine tells me that George Barris was the first with Rat Fink.
And that Boyd Coddington stole his idea...
...

 

I saw Ed driving down Katela in Orange the other day. So I flagged him down and bought some stickers from him. Then he told me to come by his house later and get some others, So I did.

Well, a few years ago...

 

Funny,you should ask,hahaha. NOT true! It was his. He did have other artist do work for him though.

 

Big Daddy told some of the best stories I ever heard. He was quite a guy, one of a kind!
Gone But Never Forgotten!

 

Yea, that's kind of why I never take sides on this discussion.

But Mouse is pretty famous in his own right, probably more famous than Roth outside the car world. He did lots of album covers and posters (Filmore concert posters for Grateful Dead, Joplin, etc.) that are collectable now.
Larry T

 

RIP BIG ED RF lives on!!!!!

 

met him one year at Hot August Nights,walking thru the parking lot checking out the cars.got to talking with him,good people.he scribbled a bunch of lines on my t-shirt signed it ROTH.shook hands went our ways

 

Taken from "Confessions of a Rat Fink", Ed Roth, 1992-

"It all started back in the '50s, I think, as we were sittin' at the Apollo, a fast food restaurant on the eastern edge of Maywood. And as is natural for us chow-'em-down hounds, I grabbed a size-15 glove full of those napkins that come out of those stainless-steel holders & (to protect my burlap-textured Levis) spread them on my lap in anticipation of the three fully-loaded burgers & fry-grease that filled the order blank (cheese and the rest, y'know) of the unsuspectin', half-asleep, part-time waitress. This friend o'mine who'd come with me was used to these types of goings-on. We all called him "Fast Eddie." (In later years, he'd push the silkscreen squeege for me.) So, me an' Eddie started yakkin' about engines & the latest movies. Eddie popped up & started this thing about how this movie "Fantasia" was stakin' a big claim on the local pocketbooks. Well I had gone to see it, & I'd been getting pretty fed up with all the publicity this little mouse was gettin'.
I told Fast E that it was all a big publicity stunt from Disney. I told him how Disney had developed Mickey Mouse from a sickly stick figure in "Piccolo Pete" in the late '20s to a full-fledged mouse in the fantastic "Fantasia". So I started steamin' a bit & I took one of the napkins in my t-shirt & spread it on the table. I took my pencil and started drawing this rockin' n' rollin' Rat Fink character. It was a put-on, natch. But it gave me alot of pleasure puttin' Fast Eddie through one of these head trips. And since I had my feathers ruffled & I was getting hotter & hotter, that pencil flowed like a finely-oiled tool. I told Eddie if we hopped in the old time machine & danced back in history far enough, that Mickey's ancestors would've looked something like "This!"
Up to then I had not the foggiest idea of what I was gonna draw so I quick put two eyeballs down first & then the jagged teeth. After that, the drawing of Rat Fink just oozed from the pencil. I put the initials RF on the pot belly, er...chest...to symbolize his nutty name. Kinda like Superman. And I put a cape on him just to make him a little more "special," but I erased it cause I figured that the owners of Superman might get a little upset with my brand of humor & instead of makin' him bulletproof or somethin' . I figured I could have him sew up holes in his skin or nail it back if he gets shot or loses a limb.
The food came and the napkin went into my pocket to escape the ketchup mess & fry-juice that usually accompany such delicacies. I forgot about Rat Fink until the next day when Fast Eddie came into the shop & asked me to do that twisted drawing on a shirt. His freaky friends wanted it on their shirts too, so I scoped out the idea of getting some iron-ons or a silkscreen made. A silkscreen lets you make copies in seconds with each stroke of the squeegee. So far, I'd been doing shirts with a small airbrush & it took about an hour to whip out a half-decent one.
I took that future museum-piece of a napkin & enlarged it onto the fridge in my shop with one of those overhead projectors that were always being hawked in old comic books & in my usual race car style, I outlined that rat in black to make him more "outstanding."
Back then it was like the dark ages of silkscreening. Most experienced silkscreeners were still using touche & asphaltum, so I went to this hotshot engraver who had the latest tech on screens. I walked into the place & the head honcho told me that I had to provide a piece of black-and-white artwork to make the transparency for the screen. Argh! Oh man! I explained to him 'bout the blown-up drawing that I had perfectly(and permanently) painted on my fridge. This dude's face curved into a sly-kinda grin & he said "That'll do!" Immediately I jammed back to the shop, dissected the fridge, got the door, & flew back to the engraver to make the screen.."

 

Met him once at a guest apperance at a local auto parts store. My 13 year old son was with me and "Big Daddy" took extra time to talk to him and answer his questions. He also took the time and interest to step outside and check out our ride. Great Guy!!

 

THE STORY IS IN THIS BOOK.
Originals by Monte Decals - Bill Selby
www.billselby.com/monte.html

 

There have been some great stories in HAMB Threads, about Roth's shop, and Hell's Angel activities...and the site: http://www.ratfink.com/ed-roth-museum.php

 

He might have copyrighted the image in 1966, but I bought a Rat Fink decal in 1962. Here is the proof.
The reason the car sported the Fink, was that I used to make owners of the more expensive sports cars cry. Full race, 1300 cc, and hot enough, that if not driven carefully, could break any part of the running gear at any time.
Those cars were not made to handle much power.
Bob

 

Late 70's I was doing some work on a guys show car a couple units down from me in the industrial complex. The car was freshly painted and Glen had this crazy looking guy there to pinstripe. it. Wer're standing in front of the frig shootin the shit and he says "ever seen a perfectly straight pin stripe?". "Sure" I say, so he then proceeds to load a brush, walk over to the frig and put it at the top of the door and it proceeds to slide down the door of the frig. "That's the only straight pin stripe you'll ever see" he says. Neat parlor trick...... from Ed Roth...... RIP.

 

An old thread, but I just told the story about the demented looking Micky Mouse as drawn by Ed on a napkin last night to the neighbors grand daughter. I told her to draw me an original of Rat Fink and another character together. It will be a good one if she does it. I`ve told a few other artists to do the same rendering, but to no avail.

 

Or you can ask Von Franco, and he might give a part of the true story and more of the mystic of Ed Roth.
He was larger than life, and there will never be another.......