Ed Roth was a vital part of American car culture in the 1960s and beyond, his artistic creativity thrived in a time when the American hot rod and custom car scene was booming. Roth’s artwork was not only inspired by the automobile, but often the canvas was the automobile. His creations went beyond the scope of traditional customizers, becoming a caricature of a hot rod – blurring the lines between car and artwork.

This vehicle, called the Beatnik Bandit, is one of his most well-known creations. The Beatnik Bandit was designed by illustrator Joe Henning, initially, as a project for Rod and Custom magazine, and was built in 1960-‘61 in a one-car garage by Roth and “Dirty Doug” Kinney. It features a handmade fiberglass body on a shortened 1950 Oldsmobile chassis and is topped off with a “bubble top” that covers the cockpit – a space-age styling element that became extremely popular in the custom car scene of the 1960s. Roth’s car was immortalized in the form of model car kits from Revell® and later became one of the first Hot Wheels® cars, cementing the Beatnik Bandit and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth in custom car history forever.

Roth owned the car and used it for promotion of his mail order art (including his Rat Fink design) until the 1970s when he sold the Beatnik Bandit to a custom car collector. Eventually the car ended up with William Harrah, the casino and hotel magnate that amassed over 1400 cars. Harrah had the Beatnik Bandit restored to its original configuration as Roth built it. When Harrah passed away and his collection was split up, the Beatnik Bandit joined 175 cars that formed the National Automobile Museum in 1989 where it is still on public display today.

NHVR No. 35 | HAER No. NV-51