For several decades Fred and Deanna have collected a variety of exciting pieces that anyone reading Garage Style Magazine can appreciate – jukeboxes are a massive element of their collection, but not so much those bubbly colorful ones from the 1950s and ’60s, but rather, the early ones from the late 1800s to early 1920s. Crafted of gorgeous woods and stunningly intricate designs, they are remarkable works of art. Their home is host to a full-scale movie theater right out of the golden era of films, complete with a gradient floor for the theater chairs, a popcorn machine, and decorative carpeting. One room is home to a succession of pinball machines and other games of skill, many from Coney Island. It might be possible to produce a feature in each issue of GSM for two years covering the various areas of their home. To say they live in a museum is the understatement of the decade. And their garage is no different.
“We’re not wealthy people, we were teachers, we’ve worked our entire lives and just enjoyed collecting and gathering these things during that time. They’re fun, and so much of it is lost to history,” said Fred.
Their car collection, known as the American Sports Car Collection, is home to some exceedingly rare cars like Hudson Italias, Thunderbirds, Nash Healeys, a Kaiser Darrin complete with sliding doors, a 1955 Corvette, a 1952 Woodill Willys Wildfire, a 1952 Muntz Jet, and a 1954 Maverick Sportster to name a few. Slightly hidden among the cars is a massive and exciting 1916 Berni band organ and peppering the walls is original automotive advertising and magazine entries among other fabulous items. Their garage, an extended room in their home, is peppered up with gorgeous stained glass, giving the room an extraordinarily unique look and feel. The cars reside on carpets, which sustains the busy, carnival atmosphere seen throughout the house.
“A lot of these cars get limited respect,” said Fred. “They are known for being very rare and coming from companies with storied pasts, but for the most part, they are stylized bodies and interiors atop very mundane chassis of mass produced cars. The Italias are sometimes neck and neck with better known Italian cars at shows, and the judges really go back and forth, but once the hoods go up, it’s over. The Hudson’s engine is so rudimentary, it really kind of disappoints people, I think.”
Fred bought his first Hudson in 1954, a 1949 Commodore Coupe. Since that car, he’s owned 37 Hudsons, and it was the Italias that he bought in the 1960s that got him into collecting unique, American sports cars and creating the museum. Today, they have two Italias.
Around the garage are glass retail display cases which hold various awards and sculptures for the many shows the Roth’s have attended. They overflow with content demonstrating how long they have been at the game of going to shows and enjoying the cars and people within the community. Other rare odds and ends appear here and there, such as an original Hudson tote bag, Concours paraphernalia, and lots of old literature documenting the various cars and manufacturing history.
“We bought this house around 1974 and it really lent itself to our collection and building on it. It was originally built by Louis Goebel who Jungleland,” he said. “The massive carport was used to store animal cages. The next owner, who we bought the house from, was an art collector who used the larger spaces to display his collection. When we first saw the house, I had ideas of where we could build on and park cars and so on. It’s been great.”
A single-car, tunnel-style garage opens from the outdoors and leads to the museum space. The carport allows very ample parking for daily drivers and guests. They took nearly 10 years to create the museum as they liked it and over 40 years to amass and restore the collection. Because they collected such rare and unique vehicles, the research was exorbitant, but because of the extensive diligence in finding out everything they could about the cars, they established themselves as remarkable authorities of these rare cars.
“Sometimes you go to a show and you’re telling the judge all about the car because they don’t know what it is,” he said. “So many people have seen these cars, but they have never been near one, they’ve maybe only seen pictures of them. It’s fun to talk to people about these cars and maybe plant a seed that makes them go out on their own and discover more about them.”
Spoken like a true teacher.
