Pinstriping on cars andmotorcycles was a dead art when 15-yr. old Kenny Howard went to work inGeorge Beerup’s motorcycle shop in the mid-forties. The last automobilestriping on an american car was done by General Motors in 1938. Then, inthe mid-fifties, customizers brought it back in style in mostly radicalform believing they were doing something entirely new! Kenny, the motorcyclemechanic was the man who started this “new” vogue under the name “Von Dutch.”
Dutch’sDad was a well known designer, sign painter and goldleaf man in the SouthLA area known as Maywood. The well known Western Exterminator Logo is anexample of his work that lives on today.
Dutch would occasionally bring a bike home from Beerup’sshop borrow his Dad’s brushes to put pinstripes all over it. When Beerupsaw what dutch had accomplished, he couldn’t believe it, and moved himfrom mechanical work to painting and striping. For the next decade, hebuilt a reputation that he really never wanted.
” I’m a mechanic first.” he used to say, “If I hadmy way I’d be a gunsmith! I like to make things out of metal, because metalis forever. When you paint something, how long does it last? A few years,and then it’s gone!”
For the next several years Dutch painted and pinstripednothing but motorcycles, moving from shop to shop, saturating each area.By the mid-fifties he had done thousands of bikes, but very few cars. Stripingcars started as a joke when he was working at Al Titus’ motorcycle shopin Linwood, California. The whole car striping idea started to ‘snowball’and he was there.
He was approached by a guy known as the Crazy Arab, who thought it could be worked into a full-time occupation. Dutch didn’tbelieve it, but he tried it, and for the next three years he worked atit until it just drove him nuts!
When Dutch quit striping in 1958, he was still ingreat demand. Customizers from all over the country had heard of him, andcars came from as far away from the L.A. area as New York to be “Dutched.”When a car owner came to him, he didn’t tell Dutch what he wanted, he justtold him how much ‘time’ he wanted to purchase. The designs were up toDutch, and many of them were created way down deep in the recesses of hiseccentric imagination. He had hundreds of imitators and followers; ShakeyJake, The Barris Brothers, Tweetie, Slimbo, Big Daddy Ed Roth and manyothers.
Dutch On Money
Despitehis genius and popularity, Dutch never made any money from striping. Moneywas something he detested. In this quote from a 1965 article Dutch explainshis thoughts on money.
“I make a point of staying right at the edge of poverty.I don’t have a pair of pants without a hole in them, and the only pairof boots I have are on my feet. I don’t mess around with unnecessary stuff,so I don’t need much money. I believe it’s meant to be that way. There’sa ‘struggle’ you have to go through, and if you make a lot of money itdoesn’t make the ‘struggle’ go away. It just makes it more complicated.If you keep poor, the struggle is simple. “
Every so often he would double his rate just to weedout the undesirables. So many were demanding his services that he justcouldn’t stand it anymore. It didn’t work! No matter what hecharged, they just kept on coming! He hated the commercial aspects of whathe did. He believed that you couldn’t focus on doing good work if you worriedabout the money, and ‘good work’ was everything to Dutch!
So, after about 10 years of hiding out, Dutch surfacedin Arizona, where he made guns and knives, did some custom paint, bodywork,and pinstriping. He and his wife and kids tried. somewhat, to live likea ‘normal’ family…..in a house…with a bar-b-que….and a station wagon.
The Brucker Years
The domestic life lasted until the mid-seventieswhen Dutch dropped everything, and moved back to California to take overthe job vacated by Big Daddy Roth at “Cars of the Stars.” He wouldbe the general fabricator and custodian of the Bruckers Family’s Collectibles.The Bruckers gave Dutch a house to live in and appointed him work hoursof9 to 5. Much to everyone’s amusement, Dutch started calling himself J.L.Bachs, short for Joe Lunch Box.
When ‘Cars of the Stars’ closed up. Dutch moved to Santa Paula, Californiaalong with the Brucker Collection and lived his remaining years right thereat the warehouse, behind a locked enclosure, mostly running everyone off,especially those wearing any kind of uniform or carrying a clipboard. Healso shot at a guy who said he was from Cleveland! Dutch got to be reallyeccentric-amundo!
It was during these years that he turned out somebeautiful knives, all hand-done and brass-etched. He sold about 100 ofthem for $300 each. Today they would easily fetch $3,000! He also builtsome extraordinary motorcycles and lots of other stuff, like (no kidding)a steam-powered TV set. He also built the “Kenford”….1956 pickup witha ’47 Kenworth cab combo!
Forpinstripers, Von Dutch is the one person most responsible for the existenceof the craft. He’s also responsible for other custom touches we’re allfamiliar with as he was also the creator of the motorized rollerskate andputting VW engines in anything but VW’s. He was an expert gunsmith, knife-maker,and fabricator. To those who knew and understood him (not to many) he wasa Great Philosopher.
The FlyingEyeball
Nodiscussion of Von Dutch would be complete without touching on the subjectof his famous Flying Eyeball logo. What’s the story behind it?
According to Von Dutch, the flying eyeball originatedwith the Macedonian and Egyptian cultures about 5000 years ago. It wasa symbol meaning “the eye in the sky knows all and sees all”, or somethinglike that. Dutch got a hold of this symbol and modified it into the flyin’eyeballwe know of today. He always believed in reincarnation, and the eyeball,somehow, was tied to that.There have been numerous “incarnations” of thisdesign over the years. It still remains an icon of the ’50s and ’60s streetrod crowd. Now ya know!
Dutchlived life hard. His bad habits eventually caught up with him, and he developeda stomach abscess. He didn’t like doctors, but towards the end, the paingot so bad, he finally saw a doctor. By then it was too late. Dutch diedon the 19th. of September, 1992, leaving behind his two daughters, Lisaand Lorna.
On a personal note…. The reason I’m in this businessis solely due to Von Dutch. He ‘spider-webbed’ my ’49 Ford Dashboard in1954 and I haven’t been right since.
I striped my first car ….a 1951 Packard…soonafter, then over the course of the next 15 years, I practiced on the sidewhile working at a “Real’ job. In 1969, I started hanging out withDutch to get my mind ‘Right.” He worked on me pretty good, and here weare today.
I guess the ole’ man is turning over in his grave(actually, his ashes were thrown in the Pacific) now that the computeris here! “Progress”….something he hated.
Thisis a picture of Dutch standing next to a sign we made for him about 10years ago. It says “Thanks, Dutch……If it weren’t for you, we’d allbe punchin’ clocks!” In the center is an engine turned panel signed byall the stripers who showed up at the RatFink meet that year. When we gaveit to him, it was the only time I ever saw him teary-eyed and speechless!
Dutchused to like to write me every now and then. Pictured to the right arescans of 2 of the actual envelopes. Click on the photo to see a more detailedview.
My mailman was just about to quit what he thoughtof as a boring job until these letters started showing up. He’s still onthe job today!
I’mnot sure if VonDutch was trying to save a few pennies or if he just didn’tlike our official US stamps. For whatever reason only he knew, Dutch preferredto draw and color his own stamps. Click on the examples at left and seeif you don’t agree that his homemade stamps arn’t much better.
Picturedhere is a fibreglass CORD replica that I had in 1970. It burned up so Ire-designed it, and DUTCH did his thing to it. One of the crowning touchesto this car was a huge engine turned dash panel he made out of an old stopsign. He left the STOP part on the back and engine turned the opposit side.He thought it would be really funny if some guy restoring the car in thefuture, got up behind the dash and saw “STOP!”
Hereare scans of two original Von Dutch business cards. To the far left ishis pinstriping card and next to it is his machinist card. Click on eachimage for a more detailed image.
The bus was a Long Beach, California city bus that was given to Dutch by awoman in the early ’60s. for payment of some work he had done for her.He set up living quarters at the rear, the remainder of the vehicle wasa machine shop, including a bluing tank and an old metal lathe coveredwith Dutch’s pinstriping. The floor was covered with cigarette buts, beercans, and metal shavings. VonDutch was at best, a terrible housekeeper.
Back in the slleping quarters was a TV and about150 manuals on all sorts of machinery, motorcycles, and guns. He had aphotographic mind, so all the words in these books, were in his head. Hecould dictate verbatim, paragraph by paragraph, any part on any subjectin these manuals…..and give you the page number, too. I asked him onvewhy he bothered to keep the books, since he had them all memorized wordfor word. He said “I like to look at the pictures!”
Meet The Author
Bob Burns shared a 38 year friendship with Von Dutch that began in 1954 andended with his death in 1992. Today Bob lives with his wife Dawn in Prescott,Arizona where they own and operate Bob Burns Signs & Pinstriping. Stayedtuned for a future LetterheadProfile on Bob, his family and his work.
In the meantime, drop by hiswebsite. You may also want todrop Bob some e-mail to let himknow how much we all enjoyed sharing his memories and photos of the lifeand times of Von Dutch.
