The David Mann/Roth Studios El Forastero “New Years Party” Painting
In 2018, we acquired the original “El Forastero New Years Party” painting by David Mann, which was marketed by Roth Studios. The painting depicts the El Forastero MC New Years Eve 1967 party, which took place in a mining cave on the south side of Kansas City, Missouri, and is a romanticized memory of the celebration. There were no bikes in the cave that night due to the cold weather and snow. Members instead arrived in Skip Taylor’s blue bus, which is featured in the upper left of the painting as well as in the video below. Skip can be seen in the lower center of the painting wearing a German military helmet with Polock Joe in his sidecar.
A local blues band was hired and can be seen in the top center. On the left, Peg Leg Dave is depicted on the red panhead. Directly above him is Graycat beside his bike notable for the devil’s pitchfork sissy bar. Near the fire is a shirtless African American man: Sam Barnes who co-founded the Missouri charter. Toward the center left is Fat Frank wearing black polka dots on white and passed-out of the cave floor.
In the lower right corner is Tom “Fudge” Fugle. Tom’s rocker, reads “MO” (Missouri) which is a mistake, made by Mann, as Tom, who co-founded the club, was from Iowa. Tom’s co-founder, Tiny Brower, is in the center of the painting with a black beard. There are several names of EFMC members painted on a pillar toward the right. A few are less obvious, including: Dan Jungroth, who co-founded EFMC MN; Turk, who co-founded EFMC Wichita.
Dave Mann, the artist, is depicted under the 1%er sign toward the right and dropping shotgun shells into the fire. His early moniker in EFMC was “El Kabong,” but it did not stick. It’s possible that the shotgun shells are a sly reference to Polock Joe’s exploding dynamite in the cave at the end of the party, which explains why everyone is running out in the film below. Mann signed the painting by cleverly disguising it to look as if his name was stitched onto the front of his colors.
The slideshow below contains detailed images of the painting.
Below are photos, digitally processed negatives, and 8mm video footage taken before, during, and after the actual New Years Party, 1967.
8mm Video Footage By Tom Fugle
Photographs by Tom Fugle
Here is an undated (1970s) photograph of the original El Forastero New Years Party painting on display, with several of the other original Mann/Roth paintings, all in their original frames.
In the late 1960s, a series of posters based on David Mann’s painting were printed and marketed by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s Roth Studios. The posters were inspired by infamous biker happenings, within the world of Outlaw MC’s, and are now collectors’ items. Every source seems to have a different count of how many posters were printed. According to Ed Roth’s son’s archive, there were twenty different posters made. In 2006, when RM Sotheby’s held the “Brucker Collection” auction at the Peterson Museum in Los Angeles, only eighteen posters made it to the auction block, all of which were sold to anonymous buyers.
The importance of these paintings was overshadowed by the hype of Von Dutch’s personal items, including his personal paint and pin striping box which sold for $310,000 (including buyer’s premium). I feel as if the Mann paintings sold for next to nothing, considering their historical impact, and would sell at auction for much more today. After a side by side comparison of the Roth Archive, and the Brucker Collection auction results, it appears as if a total of twenty-four posters were made and sold by David Mann/Roth Studios.
Bakersfield
Bike Heaven
Bike Wedding
Biker Rally
Blackboard Café
Booze Run
Born to Ride
Building a Bike
Dade County
El Forastero New Years Party
Eulogy aka Bike Zodiac
Gas Stop
Hollywood Run
Motorcycle Funeral
Outlaw Motorcycle Parade
Psychedelic Love Temple
Ride Hard – Fast
Ride Together, Die Together
Satan’s Slaves
Soul Sisters
Stopping Chicago Peace Demonstrators
Taste of Honey
Tecote Run
Tijuana Jail Break
Results From The 2006 Brucker Collection Auction
About David Mann
Mann, who has been called the Norman Rockwell of biker artists, studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and, by trade, was an architectural renderer. His art was essential to the overall look and feel of Easyriders Magazine, as he was their staff artist for 30 years. He passed away in 2004.
