His uncles’ foresight in the fields of music and computer science is legend...
...and his mother’s daring (and sexually nebulous) fashion statements during the 40’s were mesmerizing! 
But what did the young Mat Master Manuel really know of his father, Manuel Jose Ramone Sr.?
A towering fashionista before the term was even coined, Manuel Sr. was a free spirit…before that term was coined as well. In fact, the word “coin” hadn’t been coined when the "Godfather of Swimwear Design" drew his first bathing beauty in a two piece bathing garment. The realism he could create with a stubby carpenter's pencil and a scrap of paper was incredible...
(Pencil on bar napkin drawing courtesy Floria Morlat collection)
Short of funds, Manuel Senior turned to alternative materials to create his ladies' swim suits in the flesh. Mat Master Manuel’s mother was one of the many bathing beauties who modeled for his father’s earliest creative vision.
A torrid love affair between the two soon followed. Their marriage and subsequent family was somewhat of a charade…in part because his father would reseach designs during the spring equinox while wearing prison garb and drinking locally brewed beer.
Manuel Sr. left for Europe in search of a model worthy of his latest creations. A bit of a voyeur, Senior haunted coffee shops and wine bars in Paris until he found the perfect woman.
The young Brigitte Bardot was shy, but the raw material was there for Manuel Sr’s ideas to flourish. Inseparable, they moved in with one another in the south of France. Senior’s penchant for traditional Havana wiseguy garb depressed the style conscious beach bunny Brigitte…
But his fashion forward sensibility in beachwear made her an international sensation!
One piece suits were so square, it took a threesome to get Art Linkletter's interest.
Film deals were made and money was pouring in, but Senior’s financial acumen lagged behind his design prowess. Soon, he was enlisting bathing suit models to work in his counterfeiting operation to make ends meet.
He even made a stab at cross cultural design, trying in vain to stimulate a "sombrero/bikini look."
Things went further south when American actor Billy Mumy sued Manuel Sr. after having a massive coronary at age 10 while in the arms of Brigitte…
The real tragedy of the Manuel Sr/Bardot union was Brigitte's type-casting. No one was interested in seeing a sad, unattractive, bikini-less Bardot. It's a wonder she ever got another date!
But what of Mat Master Manuel? How did he react to a father so exciting and yet ruthlessly self absorbed? Those who know Manny best say his creation of a surf mat bearing the likeness of Pamela Anderson in a one piece suit is a statement of his rage and frustration!
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