On a Roll With Rat Fink
Curvy exteriors and loads of muscle-bound hot rodders were on full display at the Rat Fink Reunion on Saturday. And the cars were pretty hot too.
About 400 custom car lovers came to pay homage to Rat Fink--a bloodshot, freaked out little rodent born from the pen of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth.
In the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, Roth was, along with Von Dutch, one of the first hot-rod builders and car customizers in California. His wild auto concoctions outmatched their monikers--Rotar, Tweedy Pie, Mysterion, Drag.
“The cars came first,” Roth says.
Then he created his monster. As a reaction to the sugar sweetness of Mickey Mouse, Roth adapted his car-detailing talents to comics, and Rat Fink came to life. Roth even took Rat Fink to Disney Studios to see whether the company wanted to give Mickey’s family a little dysfunction. Disney shut him out, but that didn’t stop Roth.
The Finks went on to become the mascots of surf and drag culture, even turning up in ‘60s Frankie and Annette films, like “Beach Blanket Bingo.”
Roth was on hand at the reunion, which was hosted by Moon Eyes, a custom retail shop in Santa Fe Springs. What started 25 years ago as a gathering of a few guys in a garage has, in the last 10 years, become an annual gathering for an extended family. But for this clan, motor oil is thicker than blood.
The crowd was as deftly put together as their pin-striped cars. The men were adorned with lengthy chin beards (sans mustache) and jeans cuffed high. The women were carefully painted, balancing on platforms under parasols and Lily Tomlin, Ernestine-the-Operator hairdos. Tattoos peeked out of practically every Betty Page bustier and rolled-up T-shirt sleeve.
The look is a serious investment, and the cars aren’t cheap either. Gene Winfield, another top name in concept construction, was on hand with his 1941 Ford, “So Rare,” which has a price tag in the $55,000 range. A standard “chop job” from Winfield’s garage runs about $17,000.
That’s not counting costs for all the personal touches that make one’s car a work of art--miles of chrome, custom upholstery, fiberglass, pin striping, enamel flames licking the hub caps, skull gear shifts, vintage gauges, barefoot gas pedals, brass and, of course, the fuzzy dice.
Big Daddy no longer sells his custom cars.
“They just become garage queens,” he says. Instead, he donates them to museums.
“The reason this is so popular is because Ed is such a good human being,” says Burt Grimm, a 12-year veteran of the reunion. “And the same goes for Rat Fink. He may be Mickey’s disturbed cousin, but he’s never done anyone harm.”
