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Crazy Painter
by K. Schipper
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It probably wouldn't surprise anyone if Tom Kelly's
blood didn't contain a hint of shimmer or pearlescence.
The owner of the Bellflower, Calif.-based Kelly
and Son the Crazy Painters, got a leg up on the
competition by starting to stripe at the ripe old
age of 13, when the craft became a teen craze in the 1950s.
Kelly was fortunate to be able to learn many of his skills from
his grandfather. Today, he works with his son, Mitch, and he doesn't
mind admitting he hopes there'll be another generation of the Kelly
family in the shop some day. In the meantime, though, he still
says there's nothing else he'd rather be doing.
TEEN DREAMS
Tom Kelly is a Southern California boy, born and reared, which
probably contributes some to his feelings about vehicles and their
decoration. It's a place he describes as being, "right where
the cars belong." As for the idea of doing that decoration,
Kelly grew up with it, fueled by the example of his grandfather.
The older man, known by everyone as The Baron, started striping
for Studebaker back when the product line was wagons and buggies.
Later, he spent 25 years striping on the line for the Ford Motor
Company.
"Back in the early '50s, when striping started coming back -- when Von Dutch
started to do it -- I got my grandfather talked into coming back and striping
again," Kelly explains.
Across the span of more than four decades, Kelly's
enthusiasm makes a great deal of sense. It was Von Dutch who brought the ideas
of striping and car customizing to Southern California teens, a group Kelly fit
at the time. And, he adds, there were probably no more than a handful of bona
fide stripers in the country then, including The Baron.
Although Kelly laughingly laments he didn't always get a lot of
beach time, he did earn an advanced degree in striping while still
in junior high and high school. "I'd get through school and
he'd be waiting for me and away we went," Kelly says. "We
used to go around to the car lots and stripe about 10 cars a day.
That's back when they'd stripe the cars on the lot to make them
custom and we'd charge $10 a car."
Early on, Kelly says his grandfather used to do the outside striping,
and he'd concentrate on some of interior things, as well as murals.
He also started right off using an airbrush. "I think the
very first job I did was with an airbrush," he says. "I
use it just like an extension of my finger; it's just like
using a pencil except you're using an airbrush." It's probably
little wonder that he adds, "I've been painting so long I
can't remember not painting."
After finishing a high school career that Kelly says he completed
mainly because of work he did for the school, rather than for his
homework, he went into business with his grandfather as The Crazy
Painters. Later,"Big Daddy" Ed Roth also helped expand
the young man's horizons as he also became one of The Crazy Painters,
although Kelly describes himself as, "just kind of a third
wheel," to the two striping masters.
That situation lasted a little more than three years, and during
that time Kelly also found himself working on another hot item
of the time: Sweatshirts. "We did all the weird designs on
sweatshirts with the airbrush," he explains. "I used
to do as many as 35-40 every day, and we sent them all over the
United States and the world."
After Roth decided to go his own way, Kelly remained working with
his grandfather until the older man passed away in 1962. He then
worked by himself until son Mitch joined the business 16 years
ago.
Like the older Kelly, Tom says he didn't have to twist his
son's arm to get him interested in the business. "He really
wanted to do this," says his father. "I made him work
for somebody else to learn how to pull the hours, but I guess it
didn't work too well; he comes in late every day," Kelly
adds with a laugh. "But, this is all he ever wanted to do.
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| TOM KELLY |
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| Kelly's grandfather, known professionally as The Baron. |
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Tom Kelly of Bellflower, Calif., inspecting his work on an '89 Dodge van. click here for a larger image.
-Photo by Marshall Spiegel |
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| Kelly was finger painting murals as far back as 1957. click here for larger image. |
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| Kelly points out the detail in his mini-mural. |
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| A little brush work here and there puts the finishing touches on another mini-masterpiece. |
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Kelly put roughly four hours into this airbrushed mural. The job retailed for $500.
-Photos by Marshall Spiegel |
| Tom Kelly Links |
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