Real Von Dutch Stories?

Wow...I can't imagine some of these comments on this board about that guy. A "storied past" is one of the foundations of hot rod/kustom legends and makes this what it is at the core. Anyone who doesn't feel that may never get it. I'd like to see it go back on topic and hear more about him.

 

I met "Dutch" when i was just a kid, later i worked with him sorta, at Movie World Cars of Stars, along with Roth. He was "different",tempemental",outspoken at times, talented, diverse,but most impotant of all he was "Dutch" ......

Now he is gone.........love him or hate him........he was the man !

 

Take your pick!

 

I had several friends who knew him.He worked for one of them.In fact he showed me his last statement which was pretty racist.He wrote it the day before he died.Could have been tempered by the pain / frame of mind he was in.
He wasn't a particularly nice person but he was a brilliant artist. Some people believe the two go hand in hand.
BTW,It is my understanding that the Family didn't make diddly squat off of the name.They sold it for a rumored $500.oo bucks.
The Bruckers had most of his work.

 

Von Dutch flies in the face of what some push as traditional.We are all sinners in our way..!..

When the city put the kabash on his home garrage machine shop he moved it into a bus they had no laws against.

 

I beleive its in Rodders Journal #1
the best account of "Dutch" is by an old high school chum of mine, Dave Williams who now owns Low Buck Tools.

Its called Von Dutch Story #32.........check it out, its the real deal !!

 

I read or heard somewhere that if a customer or someone came by and wanted something striped and that person was a complete ASS to Dutch, he would stripe it and do an awsome job, but the paint would never dry (don't know how he mixed it). Proves a point don't be an ass if you don't have to be.

 

I don't have any stories about VonDutch, but I read an autobiography about Eric Burden(rock-blues singer, Animals, War). In his book I was surprised to learn that he knew VonDutch and has some stories about him. I can't remember them now, it has been too long since I read the book.

 

In 1958 I was in 7th grade at Paramount Jr.HS in Paramount, Ca. and I remember an older high school guy would pick up his girl friend every day in a lowered '57 Dodge 2dr hardtop. Well one day he came in with a new pin stripped drawing on the front fenders (just in front of the doors if I remember right) of a little guy pissing into a champaign glass.... he said it was a Von Dutch. I remember also a cop making him take it off because it was "obscene", oh ya got to love the 50's!

 

Not sure if the story "Palmer" told is related to the interview Jack Baldwin did for Car Craft's February 1956 issue or if Kenneth Howard every painted in\on his car?!?

There no doubt that he didn't take this interview to seriously....
(Attached is the interview)

 

I got news for some of you, but racist junkie fucks are what make the hot rod world go round.

 

Actually Kenneth wasn't a junkie alcohol was his drug of choice. They used to say if you gave him a bottle of "Daygo Red"1 and left him alone he'd stripe the hell out of things.
He probably wouldn't have hung with you anyway, he really didn't like people that well.

But here's something I remember from my younger years.

Mr Howard used to blow into the Ol' Man's shop a couple of times a year (or so it seemed). Dad would usually have some striping work lined up for him. He'd drink with him awhile then leave him with a bottle and some sandwiches and lock up the shop.
Come back the next morning and the stuff would be striped.
One time they got plowed before the Ol' Man left him for the evening. I went with him to open up the next morning and mr howard had striped literaly everything in the shop, the work bench, the tool boxes, the crapper. Every car and bike in there. he grinned at the Ol' Man and said "No Charge Johnny."
Then we all went to breakfast.
After Dutch left the ol' man set about takeing laquer thinner to everything. he said it was a place of business and not a canvas.

1 Daygo Red was a term used by many for red italian wine way back when and no offense is intended to anyone on the board. hence the quotation marks.

 

There are a lot of things "Different" and "Off" about creative genius types thruout history. He wasn't any different from those who painted sunflowers, chopped off their ears, wrote symphonies they couldn't hear, painted upside down in churches, designed things 500 years before anyone else could build or understand them, or played a right handed guitar left handed from the gut and the heart instead of the music book...

His knives and guns are legendary because he was totally into what he was doing. Those he did for himself. The painting and the persona was how he made his living and delt with the pressure. How much was real and how much was for show or just to buy him space in a world that pushed at him, only he will ever know.

 

i am a good friend of Stan Betz, he knew "Dutch" as well or better than anyone. Heres is a pic of Stans shop truck "Dutch" flamed for Stan .Sorry for the crappy photo but its all i got.

 

I don't consider any of these bad qualities. I subscribe to them myself upon occasion. I've read so many great, really funny and cool Von Dutch stories that they've sort of flowed together. Has anyone a pic of the postage stamp that he designed for a buddy that communicated with Kenneth often? I also remember reading a story by a prominent writer about driving his '57 Ford from somewhere in the Midwest to California after high school graduation strictly for the purpose of a Von Dutch striping job. Dutch told him to go buy a case of Ale in quarts and come back. Dutch then drank the whole case by himself as he worked and did an unbelievable striping job for the kid including his dash.

Racist, a drunk, druggie, anti-social or however you want to think of him, Von Dutch is one of my heros for WHAT he could do, not for his weaknesses.

Jan

 

I hate to think that we've gotten to the point in this country where we need to post a PC statement explaining "Dago Red". Hell I'm part Mick (Irish), part Dago (Italian) , a redneck hippie bitch and proud of all.. It's not you, P&B...it's society. That was a GREAT Von Dutch story, BTW.

Jan