Maybe you've seen this, and maybe you haven't. It shows up on blogs from time to time. It's posted on YouTube as the Ratfink Nazi Helmet Commercial. It alludes to a possibly long-lost '68 Ed Roth TV commercial that advertised his "Surfer's Helmets" (as Roth called them, along with his Iron 'Surfer's' cross), which may have run in the local SoCal area at one time. Not the case.....
The segment is actually from the movie You Are What You Eat, released at the end of Sept. of 1968. The movie is an early underground "documentary", in the vein of later works, like The Monkees' Head, The Mothers' 200 Motels, and the Jimi Hendrix docu Rainbow Bridge. The "commercial" was actually a satirical spoof included in YAWYE, lampooning the Teenage Fairs, a yearly 10 day event held at the Hollywood Palladium from 1964 - 1972, expressly to market wares to the emerging teen market segment who had for the first time, a lot of discretionary income to buy with. The Teenage Fairs were held at different times, but always held to coincide with the L.A. Basin's high school's Easter Spring Break, to maximize the attendance. A good thumbnail history, and the actual purpose of these Fairs can be found here:
The IMDB credits the voiceover in the film to "Emperor Rosko", BBC radio DJ Joey Pasternak, son of movie producer Joe Pasternak, but that isn't correct. The voiceover for the movie was actually done by Rosko, the black DJ at the time for L.A. radio station KBLA.
Interesting to note, the Teenage Fairs (as you'll see in the link I provided) had both an amateur "Battle Of The Bands" to provide music during the event, and also well-known groups that played during the event as well. Some of the groups that appeared over the years were Sonny and Cher, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, The Chambers Bros., and Sly And The Family Stone. It's also funny to note that Capt. Beefheart and His Magic Band won one of the Teenage Fair's Battle Of The Bands competitions.
Also, in the link I provided, it states that there were always hot rods on exhibit, along with a full midway of vendors. While I've not read anyplace for sure if Roth (or a designated outside vendor) had a booth set up at any of these Fairs, or had any of his cars appear there, but the chances of both those things happening were probably pretty good. Roth would have never missed a chance to sell his wares to an eager teen audience with money to burn, and the Teenage Fairs were a perfect place to do just that. Also, it was right in Roth's backyard. I think that the film footage YAWYE culled from whatever source for the commercial spoof movie segment was probably shot during the Teenage Fairs around '65-'66, not in '68 (Roth started selling the helmets and crosses around mid-year of '65 in magazine ads), and I'll bet that Roth was indeed set up there, selling those Surfer's Helmets at the Fair as fast as he could stack them up - hence the proliferation of them on attendee's heads in the film segment.
Anyways, here you are, the Roth "commercial" that never was........
Anyways, here you are, the Roth "commercial" that never was........
5 comments:
Fantastic stuff Rich, I did a post on it some time back but had no idea whatsoever of the real background, enlightenment is mine, super sleuth strikes again, cheers.
Rich, A few things.
As a kid, I alway wanted a German helmet and finally got a plastic one around that time, but now can't remember where hell I got it.
I remember hearing about the Teenage Fairs every year on the radio (never went), but I'm real sure one of of my brother's bands either played there or at least, auditioned for it.
There's a good chance that a lot of those kids walking around with German helmets, bought them from Pete Millar instead of Roth.
Pete was a good friend of Roth's and also sold Surfing/Pit Helmets, Surfer's crosses, Iron Crosses, and such on the inside back page of his Drag cartoons comic book. He likely got some of his stuff from Roth since it also included Rat Fink Hats and decals.
The Drag Mate in the April 1966 issue of Drag cartoons is posed in front of Pete's Dragster (Intruder II), at Pete's booth/display at the Teenage Fair. Universal Studios was promoting the movie "Out of sight" at the fair and they used Pete's Dragster in the film. Also the cover of that DC was an image from the movie.
Chris, Makes sense. Never thought of Millar, and I remember those ads in Drag Cartoons. I never bought those magazines, I just looked through them in at the newsstand. A kid's allowance doesn't go too far, and AMT model kits were only a $1.49, so that's where my money went.
And, as I said, I thought there was either Roth or another vendor there selling the helmets, and Millar sounds like he was probably the guy! Thanks!
Rich, I dug it out and double-checked the April '66 Drag cartoons.
It states that the Drag Mate (pictured in a Drag cartoons booth with the "Intruder II" dragster), was photographed during the filming of the movie "Out of Sight" and there is a Teenage Fair sign in the background. Also, in the back of the comic are more images from the Movie/Fair that again show the display. It seems the only items in the booth were the Intruder II plus the Nov. and Dec. '65 issues of Drag cartoons. No helmets or anything else. So at least Millar was aware of the Fair and I'm sure he would have told Roth if he hadn't already know about it. If that was in '65 they both would have had plenty of time to be involved in selling their wares at later Fairs. A website I ran across mentioned that there were Hot Rods at the Fairs and loosely associated it Roth, Dean Jeffries, and Von Dutch. My brother's mother in law knows Pete's wife and said one day we'll go see her. If we ever do, I'll ask her what she knows about it.
rich and chris educating the masses...right on!
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