Chrysler Is Not Going to Come Out with a Chopper: Ed “Big Daddy” Roth on the Great American Dream Machine.

Broadcast television wasn't always the snooze-fest it is today. Take, for instance, The Great American Dream Machine, a weekly program created and produced in New York City by the seminal WNET independent and later Public broadcaster. (Currently THIRTEEN PBS, see the logo here.) Running for the 1971 and 1972 broadcast seasons, TGADM took a satirical look at current events and gave some screen time to the emerging pop- and counter-culture movements and figures. That includes Rat Fink creator Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, who appears in the weekly "Great American Hero" profile of episode 4, season 1.

Roth, who fashioned his public persona out of the burgeoning Kustom Kar craze of the 1960s, managed to eclipse the street and show scene, sign a contract with Revell for model kits based on his creations, and eventually build a DIY mail-order empire of Roth T-shirts and other products avaible via a mail order catalog, all while still accepting contract work and building the odd car or chopper when the mood dictated. Rat Fink, the most visible and iconic of all Roth's creations, served as the masthead and and linchpin of his operation, and still commands a rabid fan base today.

So popular was the Kustom Kulture movent, provocative auteur Kenneth Anger and Author/Journalist Tom Wolfe each took a stab at defining the movement, the former with his three-minute Kustom Kar Kommandos film commentary, the latter with an article in Esquire magazine,The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, which was subsequently published in a book format collection of essays that used the same as the collective title.

Roth is at his best here, lucid and playing to the camera in a fashion that wouldn't become normalized for decades. He spends much of the time calling out Detroit designers, accusing them of essentially being a bunch of martini-swilling yes men. Roth however, exists in world free of the EPA, safety concerns, and economic and practical reality. And really, if Detroit designed and built the Surfite or the California Cruiser trike, Big Daddy would be without a job.  

Roth became heavily involved in the chopper scene at one point, and was the publisher of Choppers Magazine.

The episode continues with vaguely automotive themes, employing a surplus of the stock footage mixed (a collection of low-speed crash testing films directly follows the Roth segment) with original animation and scoring. In short, the kind of programming made possible by boardroom TV executives anxious to exploit the counter-culture and newly-emerging teenage consumers for profit, but completely unaware of how to do so. Once Rowen and Martin struck gold with Laugh-In in 1968, everyone with a programming schedule to fill was tossing money at hip young producers and directors hoping to replicate the success. Not until Saturday Night Live debuted in October, 1975, would a single production successfully combine these elements and capture a major audience.

The Roth segment starts at the 2:29 mark, but we encourage you to watch the episode in its entirety to get a refresher in the state of youth-oriented television circa 1971. It feels a bit like a low-grade meth-influenced cross between Zoom and Monty Python.

Fun Fact: John Lennon praised the show in a 1972 radio interview, saying "But this Great American Dream Machine that they have on [New York-area public TV station] Channel 13 is as good as, if not better than, anything that's on British TV, including Monty Python's Flying Circus, which is not as heavy as the Dream Machine."

Fun Fact: Chevy Chase, Nina Simone, Albert Brooks, Jane Fonda, Martin Mull, Studs Terkel, Linda Lavin, Artie Shaw - yes, the one with the clarinet - Don McLean, Lee Meredith, and others all contributed to the show.   

Fun Fact: The Birthday Party, Nick Cave's legendary and influential Aussie post-punk band employed Roth for the cover art of their 1982 release, Junkyard. 

The entire run of The Great American Dream Machine is avaible for free viewing on tubi.

Five Photos: House Industries Exhibit at Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation

 House Industries: A Type of Learning

As you might expect, the exhibit leans heavily on the work of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.

House Industries first collaborated with Roth over twenty years ago, turning some of his iconic hand lettering into font and clip-art sets for graphic designers and collectors of Roth paraphernalia.

Roth's Mysterion disappeared decades ago after a confluence of owners picked its chassis dry. The remnants were reportedly acquired by a body shop owner in Missouri. This replica was built by Dave Shuten.

Also on hand is Evel Knievel's jumpsuit from his failed Snake River Canyon Jump. It shares a display case with a generic Misfits poster, some back issues of Thrasher, a fuel tank and some other sundries pulled from the psyche of 70's era teens.

A Danelelctro doubleneck guitar--six on top, four on the bottom--accompanies a display of the "Flyer" font set. Culled from a selection 80s hardcore flyers and records and often named accordingly, the typefaces will be instantly recognizable to even casual hardcore aficionados. If it feels a little as if your youth has been co-opted for others benefit, well, you are not alone. That said, HI cuts no corners, and everyone one of its products and projects is completed with the utmost integrity. The exhibit runs through September 4, 2017 at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan.

Please Give.

BloodDrive, gore, Syfy, official, trailer, grindhouse, coming to TV, June 14,

"They Would Pick Him Up When He Fell." Rolling Stones Visit Gibson Guitar Factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1975

Photo Courtesy of WMU Archives and Regional History Collections

Keith Richards and Ron Wood tour the Gibson guitar factory July of 1975.
Like most of the small to medium sized rust belt burgs located within the inescapable gravitational pull of Detroit, auto manufacturing was a driving force in the economy of Kalamazoo, Michigan. (Until the mid-1990s, K-Zoo was home to both the Checker Motors Corporation and GM's two-million sq. foot Fisher Body stamping plant.) But, in a textbook example of the odd dichotomy and attitude that defined the rust belt, Kalamazoo was also home to Gibson Guitar Factory--i.e., "yeah, wood or metal, strings or wheels, it don't matter much to us, we MAKE shit here." Founded as the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg Co. Ltd in the early 20th century, Gibson called 225 Parsons St. home until the move of its operations to Nashville was complete in 1984. A decade earlier, the Stones came to visit.

Photo Courtesy of WMU Archives and Regional History Collections

Gibson was owned by Norlin in '75, and in retrospect quality was at an all-time low. Ron Wood was still a relatively new Stone, and the band was slated to play COBO Hall on July 27 and 28. Keef was still living in 24/7 party mode.

Photo Courtesy of WMU Archives and Regional History Collections

Jump on over to MLive for the rest of the photos and the complete story.
As for the old factory on Parsons St.? It's still humming, turning out some of the finest quality instruments available today as the Heritage Guitar company.
(Photos Courtesy of WMU Archives and Regional History Collections)

Busted!

Click for larger image

Does This Sash Make Me Look Fat?

 

















Random photo snapped at the 2013 North
American International Auto Show(NAIAS)in
Detroit Last Week.

So wait, when did Bibendum get so svelte? This photo is evidence that the following conversion actually took place in an office somewhere:

"Uh, yeah. I've been meaning to bring this up. You know Bibendum? Our century-old, illustrated pneumatic cartoon mascot-The one that's supposed to represent big round inner-tubes? I think he's too fat-it's just not in tune with the message that we want to send. I mean who wants to be represented by a fat person?"

Well Mr. corporate executive, I can think of numerous successful entities currently subscribing to the "girth gives birth to mirth" ethic. Here's one you might've heard of, right off the top of my head: Christmas. Not to mention Bob's Big Boy, FAT Wreck Chords and maybe last but never least, Fat Tony's out on the Vineyard.

The old adage remains true: "Never trust a skinny butcher,  barber or tire salesman."   The lone exception of course, if said butcher, barber or tire salesman's name is always prefaced with the word "skinny." As in, "c'mon  kids, we're all going over to skinny Dave's for haircuts. Then I'm gonna' get a new set of Michelins from skinny Bob at the tire store."  Bonus points if the individual is in fact, obese. But I digress.

I expect this kind of shortsighted nonsense from American companies as they flail desperately at ideas while they fight their way to the bottom. But from the French -the world's premier practitioners of the butter and cigarettes lifestyle- this type of deranged lunacy is inexcusable.

I'll take my Bibendum classic style, thank you:

Silent Flaccidity

A pair of Franco-Italian relics from Citroen's hydro-pneumatic empire sit quietly awaiting their fate.

Citroen bought Maserati in 1968, hanging on to their Gallic independence until filing for bankruptcy in 1974.

Optimistic 1960's space-age elegance still apparent despite years of neglect.

I've been lucky enough to witness fully operational Citroen SM's in the wild, first in in N.Y.C. and then S.F., where the quirky and sophisticated SM seemed somewhat at home. Stumbling across these derelict  examples here in Toledo, I experienced the the same feelings of confused elation I imagine UFO-conspiracy kooks feel when they happen upon the remote scrap-pile of a residential bathroom remodel gone bad they're just sure is a UFO crash site.












The hydro-pneumatic suspension system that permits the SM to navigate crater-strewn streets and highways with such aplomb and neutrality also provides for the vehicle's variable ride-height capabilities, the bodywork often settling merely inches off the ground while at rest.

A total of 12,920 SM's were produced from 1970-'75, including 2,400 exported to North America in 1972-'73.



Where: Dorr St. near Holland Sylvania.
Best Case Scenario: These are simply parts cars, and a fully-functional Citroen SM is at this very moment plying the streets of Toledo, swallowing Fiat 500-sized potholes with indifference and wowing kiddies and jaded bystanders alike with impromptu curbside displays of automotive-suspension calisthenics. 

Worst Case Scenario: After completing an arduous restoration of concours quality, the formerly carefree enthusiast becomes a demanding pecksniff and begins to unravel with the sad realization that his meticulous grande routière will never experience the intoxicating effervescence of  genuine French air and hydraulic fluid simultaneously escaping from numerous locations along the vehicle's undercarriage while circling Avenue des Champs-Elysees during la vendage. Crushed by this glaring inadequacy, narcotics become the owners only form of relief, eventually abandoning the vehicles here during an opiate-fueled stupor.

Shrine on, you crazy diamond(s)

Rarely performed outside the protective cover of temple walls, the "Raised-rear, throttle-plate tickle" is arguably the most provocative of all Shriner secret handshakes.

T-4 days till Shriner Car Day, AKA Memorial Day.