Hey, all you crazy cats and chicks!

Whilst sitting in the loft at VZD's tonight, Blogblah! wondered about the definition of the word 'kemp' as used on the hand-lettered signage across the street at Beck's Garage: "Hot Rods • Kemps • Motorcycles"

I didn't know it, either, but here it is, courtesy Kustom Kemps of America:

What is a Kemp? It’s a slang word used by teenagers in the late 50’s, and early 60’s to indicate a car or a truck. When you say Kustom Kemp, it means kustomized car or truck. So a kustom kemp can be any make, model or year vehicle, from 1903 to current year. The word "kemp" gained national recognition on a famous TV show called 77 Sunset Strip, where Edd “Kookie” Byrnes used it often, and in the little 25-cent Rod and Custom magazines.

I should mention for some of you –– maybe most of you –– that 77 Sunset Strip was a detective show produced by Warner Bros. back in the late fifties, when WB pretty much owned the detective and western genres on TV. Kookie was a sort of Fonzie-like character (although predating Fonzie by twenty years) who hung out with the detectives.

Here's more.

Kookie drove a T-bucket hot rod built by Norm Grabowski, and here's more on Grabowski and the car.