Sundays with Von Dutch - Tapa blanda

california (in the 1950's) was the birthplace of the Hot Roding and Custom car scene. a dude 9remebre we're talking west coast) who went by the name of Von Dutch was the king of pinstriping and flame paint jobs, but by 1970 had dissapeared form the scene. Tom Nolan, a journalist from the los angeles Times, tracked down Von Dutch to his home in Calabasas, California, and photographer richard karl Koch was commissoned to spend foru Sundays with the man taking pictures for the newspapers colour supplement. By then Von dutch had turned his attentions to making guns and working on motors for steve McQueen...an odd ball kind of book using the phoots taen in 1970 about a man just doing his thing...Now I have a copy I am definatly keeping it! Four Star rating!!!! --Vintage Roadscene.

If the name Kenneth 'Von Dutch' Howard dosen't ring any bells with you, that's probably because you're not a serious follower of the American Hot Rod scene. rest assured, however, that in the 1950's and early Sixties, 'Von Dutch' was one of the world's most reveared hot rod creators and the fatehr of modern pinstriping. Yet for awhole decade 'Von Dutch' dissapeared from view, described as missing in action from the scene he'd helped to create in the first place. So it was that Richard Karl Koch got to know 'Von Dutch' on four consecutive Sundays in 1970, visiting his California home to photograph this automotive legend for a cover story for the Los Angeles Times Sunday supplememnt. And it is this fascinating collection of photographs that has now created Sundays With Von Dutch. The photogrpahy is superb, evocative of its era and wonderfully natural in every way, showing 'Von Dutch' working, relaxing, talking, and creating. And with captioning and text by Tony Thaacker providing the ideal backdrop, it's a gloriuos experience for any hot rod fan with a sense of history, a penchent for the unusuall and a love of the art. A genuinly unusual and intriguing book. --Classic Car Mart

I have to admit that this is one of the few books that I have thoroughly relished reviewing, and it will stay in my collection for many years to come.....None of us will get to hang out with Von Dutch on a Sunday afternoon, but Koch s book might make you feel like you did. --American Car World

A famously crazed presence in the hot rod movement of the 1950s, rediscovered in the 1980s when ’50s nostalgia swept pop culture, Kenneth “Von Dutch” Howard spent more than a decade essentially missing-in-action from the scene he’d helped to create and define. It was during that time—on four consecutive Sundays in 1970—that Richard Karl Koch visited Von Dutch in his Calabasas, California, home to photograph the father of modern pinstriping and soul of the hot rod movement for a cover story for the Los Angeles Times’ Sunday supplement, West magazine. Koch’s candid and colorful photographs from those shoots, the vast majority published here for the first time, provide a window on Von Dutch’s missing years.

 

Here we see the enigmatic icon in his many guises, from cantankerous genius to freewheeling goof, machining handgun parts in his famous workshop/bus, casually clowning with vehicles left at his home by his friend Steve McQueen (including the car Von Dutch built for McQueen’s 1969 film, The Reivers), and working at the pinstriping that sealed his fame. Accompanied by captions that bring to light further facets of this period of Von Dutch’s life and career, these photographs illustrate a little-known and largely fascinating chapter of hot rod history.