Ed “Big Daddy” Roth - Rat Fink

Ed “Big Daddy” Roth was a founder of what later became known as the Kustom Kulture movement, starting off his career as a painter and hot rod builder in the 1950s and eventually creating world-famous characters like Rat Fink and wild show cars such as The Outlaw, The Beatnik Bandit, Mysterion, and Rotar. Working the show car circuit in the 1960s, Roth promoted his bubble-topped customs, sold airbrushed monster t-shirts and promoted Revell model car kits based on his own designs and creations.

Ed's parents moved to Bell, California from Germany in 1928. He remembers going to kindergarten in 1937 not being able to understand what the teacher was talking about. During WWII Ed was harassed at school for being a Nazi. He didn't have any friends to help him out, so his pants often ended up in the top of a flagpole. He spent a lot of time escaping reality by drawing wicked things in his notebook. The notebook became a battleground, filled with drawings Japanese, German and American soldiers, guns and wrecked airplanes. After school Ed would spend his time making machine guns and bombs out of plywood and coffee cans. In 1945 the war and Ed's artistry ended. It wasn't because of the peace, but Ed had turned 13 and he was getting primed for his driving license.

Ed was driving at 14, which was driving age back then, and Ed was bugging his dad about buying a 1934 Ford. As it turned out the car had no pink slip, Ed's dad told him not to buy the car. Ed really wanted the car, and used to dream about it at nights. Ed saved all his money for another car, a real cherry 1933 Ford 3 Window Coupe. He paid $350 for the car, and became king of the hill. Everytime Ed tried to street race his coupe, he'd usually break the engine, so he became a cruiser at early age due to the economic aspect of it.

Over the years he worked with a variety of Kustom Kulture icons, including Robert Williams, Ed “Newt” Newton and Von Dutch when the two artists worked for the Brucker family’s Movie World theme park in the 1970s.

Roth passed away on April 4, 2001, but his use of bright hues, wild bodywork, outrageous monikers and over-the-top promotion has turned his original show cars into rolling art, and most have been snapped up and restored as icons of a highpoint in automotive design and expression.

Roth’s cars and choppers are so famous in custom culture circles, they rarely changed hands over the four decades since the heyday of traveling custom car cavalcades and road shows.

Ed Roth was member of the Maywood Drag Wagons car club of California.