Letter
to Rumpsville:
I loved your stuff on Von Dutch. The story about
him painting a car with flames on one side and scallops
on the other has certainly been exaggerated over
the years. He actually painted scallops on both
sides, but the scallops were not concentric on each
side. Dutch didn't take the time to measure them
out. The guy (who was a Hell's Angel) came back
later after he discovered Von Dutch's error and
raised hell.
Von Dutch wouldn't have it and went off in his own
world mumbling stuff about what an idiot this guy
was and that you can only see one side of the car
at a time anyway... A while later, the Hell's Angels
actually put a hit out on Von Dutch.
One of their members brought a Paugo(Harley Davidson)
frame for Dutch to stripe. While Dutch was preparing
the frame he got sidetracked (not uncommon for Dutch)
and got a little bit on the tipsy side (This is
another aspect of Dutch's life that people either
don't remember or choose not to include.
Fact is, Dutch was a drug addict. I believe he was
very talented, but none the less, a junkie.) Anyway,
during his trip he had visions of this frame turning
human and attacking him. He thought this frame had
to be possessed so he cut it up in 92 (more or less)
equal length parts(all I can remember was that all
the parts were the exact same length). He then took
these parts and strung them on a few shoelaces.
When the owner came to see his new striping job,
Dutch handed him the shoelaces strung with his frame.
Dutch was VERY lucky to have lived through this
encounter. He is EVEN luckier that the Hell's Angels
didn't go through with the hit.
-the end
Letter to Rumpsville:
I remember was the Yeankel Brothers/Danny
O'Brien Bonneville Roadster that he painted the
upside down face on. I think this was around 1954
or 55. Anyway, this is another case of Dutch using
a bit too much of his favorite "life enhancer".
He got confused and accidentally painted the face
upside down. The builder (Danny O'Brien) was pissed!!!
I mean REALLY pissed!!! After 2 straight days
of solid arguments O'brian finally settled with
Dutch.
Dutch gave him half off of the stripping job and
O'brien decided to act like it was done on purpose
to be different.
Either way, that was one cool roadster. I believe
there was a matching Ford pit truck striped by
Dutch as well Keep up the good work!
-the end
Letter to Rumpsville:
I've only met Von Dutch once and it was
for only about 5 hours. A friend of mine who had
known him since the mid 50's introduced him too
me in 1991.
At the time he was living in a trailer house behind
the home of a wealthy Hot Rod fanatic. I had been
brought up with stories about Dutch since birth
it seems and thought of him as a god. When we
went to lunch I told him about the stories I had
heard from my father and from my friend.
It took him a good hour to adjust all of the exaggerations
that follow most legends. He let me ask any question
I wanted (Im fairly nosey) under one condition:
I buy him a shot of tequila after every answer.
I remember asking Von Dutch what it was like to
be him. He replied, "Who me? Its Great! I live
like a king. Hell, I'm worldly famous!" As he
was saying this, I was thinking of his old worn
down trailer home.
He somehow sensed this and mummbled, "and now
I'm dieing like a dog." I think I got in one more
question before he went off on a tangent. In the
bar that we were in there was one of those life
sized wooden statues sitting on a stool. He insisted
that it was the most beautiful woman in the world
and that I treat her with the utmost of respect.
When he would go off on tangents he would leave
our world and enter his. He would carry on conversations
with this statue, order it a drink, ask it about
its life, etc... I asked him many more questions
that day and heard many more stories. I watched
him do things that can only be described as psychotic.
His answers to my questions and his conversation
with the statue made me realize how lonely he
was. Here was a guy that was known all over the
world but still found himself living in a trailer
home. He was a very misunderstood and sick man.
-the end
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