(I wrote this some years ago for the anther forum.
Of course I'm name-dropping like a bandit, because I never met Ed.
Strangely, I moved to from Utah to California the same year he moved from California to Utah.
He died on my birthday, at 69, only 2 years older than me. RIP Big Daddy.
Anyhow, I'm just trying to foster some discussion of the Roth influence and history.)
+++++++++++++++++++++
First, this is about what I owe Ed Roth. But before that it's about a movie, and I'm wondering if any of you saw it or one similar when you were in school?
I remember seeing this movie shown at our school, done by the recruiters & design guys from GM.
It was in '67, I believe, and the movie was about General Motors Institute, but also showcased their current drawingboard concepts and photos of futuristic models in lovely miniature settings.
It was all super professional to some 13 year old, but the thing I realize now and didn't then was how much all the cars owed to the Beatnik Bandit, Mysterion, Orbitron, and their ilk.
In Podunk Minnesota, we weren't commonly seeing these things that were already well known on the west coast. I knew Roth existed and had some monster and Rat Fink trading cards, probably drawn by Roth, and had even built one of his wacky models, or an imitation of them, the Wacky Woody.
But Roth was obscure to us, and yet not ( I now realize) to the guys at the big 3. This didn't come to me until I recently bought Tales Of The Rat Fink and saw the details of Ed Roth which I never knew.
The thing is, that GMI movie was a big part of of what drove me to engineering as a profession, and it was the cool cars in that movie that really tweaked my 13 year old attention...that's what got me to apply & be accepted to study engineering at GMI.
Maybe it sounds funny, but I owe something to Ed Roth for what I am today.
+++++++++++++++++++++
So, if you have any idea about that movie, or about Roth's influence in the concept car styling business? I'd be very grateful to hear of either.
Of course I'm name-dropping like a bandit, because I never met Ed.
Strangely, I moved to from Utah to California the same year he moved from California to Utah.
He died on my birthday, at 69, only 2 years older than me. RIP Big Daddy.
Anyhow, I'm just trying to foster some discussion of the Roth influence and history.)
+++++++++++++++++++++
First, this is about what I owe Ed Roth. But before that it's about a movie, and I'm wondering if any of you saw it or one similar when you were in school?
I remember seeing this movie shown at our school, done by the recruiters & design guys from GM.
It was in '67, I believe, and the movie was about General Motors Institute, but also showcased their current drawingboard concepts and photos of futuristic models in lovely miniature settings.
It was all super professional to some 13 year old, but the thing I realize now and didn't then was how much all the cars owed to the Beatnik Bandit, Mysterion, Orbitron, and their ilk.
In Podunk Minnesota, we weren't commonly seeing these things that were already well known on the west coast. I knew Roth existed and had some monster and Rat Fink trading cards, probably drawn by Roth, and had even built one of his wacky models, or an imitation of them, the Wacky Woody.
But Roth was obscure to us, and yet not ( I now realize) to the guys at the big 3. This didn't come to me until I recently bought Tales Of The Rat Fink and saw the details of Ed Roth which I never knew.
The thing is, that GMI movie was a big part of of what drove me to engineering as a profession, and it was the cool cars in that movie that really tweaked my 13 year old attention...that's what got me to apply & be accepted to study engineering at GMI.
Maybe it sounds funny, but I owe something to Ed Roth for what I am today.
+++++++++++++++++++++
So, if you have any idea about that movie, or about Roth's influence in the concept car styling business? I'd be very grateful to hear of either.
