Dean Je;ries, creator,
designer, and builder of ;e
Monkeemobile and the Black
Beauty, is one of those larger
than life personalities you only
read about in magazines. And
that’s exactly the reason why
I was motoring into Hollywood,
nosing over to the exit for
Cahuenga Blvd. I was going to
put the iconic designer and
builder into our pages.
DEAN
A visit with the legendary
Dean Je;ries
BY BILL BENNETT
OF DESIGN
I was a tad starstruck. Je;ries was one of
the ’50s and ’60s most influential painters, pinstripers
and custom car demi-gods, and a contemporary of
other near-immortals like Von Dutch, Ed “Big Daddy”
Roth and George Barris. His dad was an auto mechanic
with a penchant for racing and hot rods, but a young
Dean wasn’t interested in his father’s profession — it
was too dirty. ;at didn’t mean Dean would ever stray
too far. During his time in the Army, Je;ries learned
the art of pinstriping while stationed in Europe,
picking up the craft from an old German whose
specialty was painting and striping custom furniture
and pianos.
When his hitch was over, Dean returned to Los
Angeles, and started hanging out with the most
notable practitioners of this newfound automotive
craze. He made friends with Kenneth Howard, known
to the world as “Von Dutch,” who helped him refine
his techniques for painting, lettering, and striping
motorcycles and cars. For a while he worked out of
George Barris’ shop in Lynwood, but when he and
Barris started to compete rather than complement
each other, he moved out and opened his own shop
in Hollywood, eventually settling into a location on
Cahuenga Blvd, adjacent to the Hollywood Freeway.
;at’s where I’d be meeting him. I was almost there.
