"Desperate Rock'n'Roll" Vol. 14

...At some point in the fifties a lot of Hollywood people discovered Barris and the customizers...
... It was somewhat the way literary set had discovered the puppeteer, Tony Sarg, during the thirties and deified him in a very arty, in-groupy way, only I think in the case of Hollywood and Barris there was something a lot more in-the-grain about it. The people who end up in Hollywood are mostly Dionysians sorts and they feel alien and resentful when confronted with the Anglo-European ethos. They're a little slow to note the difference between topsides and sneakers, but they appreciate Cuban sunglasses. In his showroom at Kustom City, down past the XPAK-400 air car, Barris has a corner practically papered with photographs of cars he has customized or handmade for Hollywood people: Harry Karl, Jayne Mansfield, Elvis Presley, Liberace and even celebrities from the outside like Barry Goldwater (a Jaguar with a lot of airplane-style dials on the dashboard) and quite a few others. In fact, he built most of the wild cars that show-business people come up with for publicity purposes. He did the "diamond-dust" paint job on the Bobby Darin Dream Car, which was designed and built by Andy DiDia of Detroit. That car is an example , par excellence, of baroque streamlining, by the way. It was badly panned when pictures of it were first published, mainly because it looked like Darin was again forcing his ego on the world. But as baroque modern sculpture - again, given the fantasy quotient in cars to begin with - it is pretty good stuff... (excerpt from "the candy kolored tangerine flake streamline baby" by Tom Wolfe to be continued...)
traxfromwax:
1. Two Ton Annie - Johnny Marlo 2. Shot Rod - Conny & The Bellhops 3. Riot In Cell Block No 9 - Ron & Joe 4. All Night In Jail - Rod Bernard 5. Shimmy Shake - Billy Land 6. Seventeen Steps - Ben Smith 7. Shiverin' And Shakin' - Dean Beard 8. Betty Lou Got A New Tatoo - Creep, The 9. Romeo's Teacher - Lanny Duncan 10. Teenager's Party - Rythm Rockers, The 11. Rip It Up Potato Chip - Kenny Lund 12. Tip Tap And Tell Me - Gene Terry 13. Baby Do - Johnny & The Joys 14. Blue-Grey Rock - Sean Martin 15. You Heard Me Knockin' - Billy Adams 16. Rampage - Eddie Angel
ripped from vinyl in glorious monoloudarama!