HILLBILLY CRASH HELMETS!  The Hillbilly Crash helmet, aka Rat Fink Hat was a hot rod tradition seen at the drag strip in the early 60’s.  The idea goes back to one of the origins of drag racing… the Hillbilly Moonshiner who would hop up his car to run away from the cops!  Roth started selling these with a big RF, or the person’s name on them and they caught on like wildfire, even appearing in Beach Party Movies and as the preferred headgear of skateboard teams!

SURFER’S HELMETS AND IRON CROSSES! In the early 60’s the iron cross became a symbol of rebellion that many surfers and hot rodders wore.  It had no political meaning, after all, many of these all-American kids had dad’s that served in WWII.  Roth made these iron crosses and German helmets available to finks everywhere as Surf & Drag Helmets and crosses.  But it was not without a mainstream backlash.  LOOK magazine called him “The supply sergeant to The Hells Angels” and SURFER magazine, who was still rather conservative at the time, wanted to distance themselves from surfers who were troublemakers and called it “the sign of the Kook”.  But Roth paid no mind to these accusations.  He knew what his Fink Army wanted!

ED ROTH JOINS CAR’TOONS in ‘63!  Before publishing Ed Roth Comics in ‘64, Big Daddy made several appearances in Pete Millar’s CAR’TOONS in ‘63.  Pete Millar drew this cool piece for the Ed Roth Fan Club shirt that was available in the pages of his out-of-sight, hot rod comics magazine.  Check out Roth diggin’ the silkscreen! Car’toons also featured artist Wes Bennett who was an early contributor at Roth Studios.

ROTH’S YELLOW FANG!  In 1965 Roth teamed up with drag racer George “Bushmaster” Schreiber and unleashed the YELLOW FANG DRAGSTER.  Powered by a 327 Chrysler mill, the streamlined Fang is easily one of the coolest looking dragsters ever.  It raced regularly at Pomona and Lions Dragstrip achieving top speed of 207 mph.  Check out Roth with his custom painted fire mask and clowning with the Bushmaster for a Hot Rod mag photo shoot.

ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH - WILDEST WEIRDO OF THEM ALL!!! This article from the 1965 INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AUTO SHOW program reads… “In the world we live today, only one name stands out as the WEIRDO KING of them all.  That’s right, he is none other than Ed “Big Daddy” Roth who has started more fads, created more trends, in addition to designing and building more swinging cars than anyone else in the field”. INDEED!

THE WILD ONES - MORE FROM ‘64!  More cool ads from CAR CRAFT and ROD & CUSTOM 1964.  In between it all, Roth also judged model building contests sponsored by REVELL!  Cool!

HOT ROD HOOTENANNY 1964! Roth’s 3 Surf/Hot Rod themed albums for CAPITOL RECORDS as MR. GASSER & THE WEIRDOS.  Roth contributed the gearhead lyrics, voice-over and sound FX of termites crunching!  The production was overseen by Hot Rod Music guru Gary Usher and featured members of “The Wrecking Crew”.  Dig!

FROM JAZZ TO FIBERGLAZZ 1964! Roth unleashed his latest fiberglass kustom creation, ROAD AGENT in 1964.  That same year he would also record 3 Surf/Hot Rod themed albums for CAPITOL RECORDS as MR. GASSER & THE WEIRDOS.  Roth contributed the gearhead lyrics, voice-over and sound FX of termites crunching!  The production was overseen by Hot Rod Music guru Gary Usher and featured members of “The Wrecking Crew”.  Can you dig it!

DRAG RAGS 1964!  Two boss ads from Pete Millar’s Drag Cartoons Magazine, SEPT 1964.

ED ROTH COMIC ADS 1964!  4 groovy ads from Pete Millar’s ED ROTH magazine.  1964 was the dawn of cool ads and shirt designs that Ed Newton would do for Roth.