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Friday evening, January 27, 2012, the Mooneyes Company held a banquet to open the new Mooneyes exhibit, “Moon: Six Decades of a Hot Rodding EYE-con”, at the Auto Club Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. The new exhibit features an extensive array of rare photographs, vehicles, and other Moon memorabilia and also provides insight into the life of Dean Moon, Moon Equipment Co. and the worldwide attention Mooneyes continues to gain thanks to new guardians Shige Suganuma and Chico Kodama.
(from Wikipedia) Dean Moon (May 1, 1927 - June 4, 1987), raised since childhood in the Norwalk (Santa Fe Springs) area of southern California, he founded MOON Speed Equipment business (c.1950) and continued to improve the quality and safety of speed and racing products his entire life. He is one of the original founding members that created SEMA in 1963. Dean passed on in 1987. MOON Equipment stopped momentarily after his wife died. In the early 90s, Shige Suganuma, a long time MOONEYES Dealer from Japan and close family friend of Moon, restarted the company as MOONEYES USA which continues to carry on the traditions of Dean Moon today. Mooneyes are one of the world’s most recognized logos right up there with the Nike Swish and Apple’s apple.
This event drew hundreds of guests and many motorsports legends. Greg Sharp & Chico Kodama MC’ed the event. Many legends like Louie Senter & Ed Iskenderian entertained the guests with the stories and myths from sixty years of Moon Equipment & Mooneyes. Some of the guests included; Dick and Beverly Martin, Dave Wallace Jr, Tom Schiltz from www.dragraceronline.com, Scotty and Mark Gosson from Hot Rod Deluxe magazine, Mark and Carter Lueck, Bert and Renee Luna, Gene Winfield and Rita Irban. Special guests from Mooneyes Japan were, Shunichi Kasai, Akihiko Kitamura, Yuji Ando, Yukihiro Tanaka, and Masahiro Kato. Guests from Japan were; Yoshiki Sakurai, Kyohei Sakurai, Nash Yoshii from Burnout magazine, Mr G (pinstriper), and Krazy Dotty, a lowbrow artist. Other special guests included; Louie Senter, Bob Leggio, Art and Shirley Goldstrom, Bob and Sharon Muravez, Pete Chapouris, Joe Scalzo, Doug Stokes, Dick Dixon, Mark Brazeau, Richard Gonsalves, Blackie Gejeian, Ed ‘The Camfather’ Iskenderian and many more.
The Mooneyes exhibit will be on display through January, 2013.
Thanks for the Show!
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