Uniroyal Gal statues are the female versions of Muffler Men and were produced by the same company. In the late 1990s, before the history of these statues was known, RoadsideAmerica.com began calling them “Uniroyal Gals”. That is what they are commonly called today.

These statues are 18 feet tall and weigh 230 pounds. In the 1960s, International Fiberglass made dozens of these statues for the Uniroyal Tire & Rubber Company. The “Miss Uniroyal” statue held a sign which read “Uniroyal Tire” in her upraised left hand. She wore a watch on her right wrist. Many people have conjectured that she was modeled after Jackie Kennedy, however, there is no evidence to support that. The statues came with a platform and trailer which made it easy to move them around to different gas stations.

A rare picture of the Uniroyal Gal in 1968 while in Urbana, IL Photo – Len Davidson

The Uniroyal promotion ended in the late 1960s and the statues were destroyed or sold to different businesses. International Fiberglass began marketing these statues with the new name of “Miss America”. In 1970, you could purchase one of these statues for $3,150. She came wearing a bikini but you could pay extra for the add-on skirt and blouse.

Two of these statues have been in Illinois since the late 1960s. The one in Peoria is still there and was featured in our American Giants Episode 4 video. The other statue which was in Mount Vernon was removed this week. Around 1970, the Mount Vernon statue was purchased from a gas station and installed at Stan the Tire Man. Stan Koziara, the owner, and Dale Lowery installed the statue next to the shop’s Paul Bunyan Muffler Man. The Paul Bunyan statue was later moved to the Stan the Tire Man in Salem, Illinois. In 2007, it was moved to Rocky Mount, NC.

In the 1970s, the Mount Vernon Uniroyal Gal wore a white blouse and red skirt. Her trailer was kept nearby but it was stolen at some point. In April 2015, it was announced that the store would be closing on June 1. Many people contacted Stan about the statue and made offers. In the end, it was Bruce Kennedy of Bell Plastics in Hayward, California that bought her on June 15. We recently covered Bruce’s statues in American Giants Episode 11 video. His Muffler Man collection consists of two Paul Bunyans, a Half Wit, and a Cowboy.

Bruce contacted me about his purchase of the Uniroyal Gal statue and asked if we could help take her down for shipment to California. This was something we hadn’t done before but we felt we knew what was involved. On the morning of June 19, we got to work. There were two support bars attached with bolts to her shoulders and four bolts on each foot. It took more than an hour to remove the rusted bolts. Then, we gently lowered her to the ground with a pulley system. The four of us then loaded her into the trailer.

The people of Mount Vernon and Southern Illinois have lost a rare piece of 1960s roadside Americana. It is always sad when one of these statues that has been standing at one place for so many years is relocated. However, the silver lining is that this Uniroyal Gal will be well taken care of, and displayed where many people can still enjoy her and see her with the other Muffler Men. Bruce plans to restore her and we are looking forward to seeing her again.

The Uniroyal Gal arrived in Hayward on September 2, 2015 and joined Bruce’s collection.

I want to thank Bruce Kennedy for his support of American Giants as well as the people at Stan the Tire Man who were very helpful and accommodating while we were up there taking her down. Also a big thank you to Debra Jane Seltzer for her help in editing this article and fact checking. 

It’s been awhile since I have worked on my progressive list of Muffler Men sightings, so lets pick up again with sighting #67 in upstate NY. The Bunyan Muffler Man at Magic Forest, was the last one I visited at the amusement park. Like the rest of the Muffler Men there, it is hard to say where he came from. While some of them can be traced back to the Danbury Fair, I have had no luck tracing his origins. He is the only Muffler Man located close enough to the fence, that you can get some good pictures if the park happens to be closed or you don’t want to pay for admission but still see a Muffler Man. 

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When Bob Prewitt made the first Muffler Man statue around 1962, he could not have imagined just how popular these statues would be and how many would be produced. Even today, 53 years later, there is still a big demand for these statues. However, the size and price of these statues might not be practical for most collectors of Americana. The statues are over 20 feet tall and sell for tens of thousands of dollars.

The first business to own a Muffler Man was the Lumberjack Café in Flagstaff, AZ. The statue was such a novelty and landmark for their business that a scaled-down souvenir version was made. These were sold at the restaurant and a former employee, who worked there in the 1960s, remembers them selling like hot cakes. It is not known what company produced these figures or how many were sold. Today, they are almost impossible to find.

A few years ago, Blue Ridge Models began selling Muffler Men model kits. These statues are available in two sizes: just over three inches tall and 12 inches tall. They come in Cowboy and Bunyan models, both requiring assembly and paint. These do-it-yourself statues are popular with model railroad builders and diorama makers. They appear to still be available on-line at a few hobby websites.

Recently, I became aware of some new Muffler Man figures, made in early 2015,  that very closely resembles the one sold by the Lumberjack Café back in the 1960s. Scott Farmer, self-described as a human 3-D printer, is a sculptor who has created a few of these figures which he sells at his website, Sculpture Island. Farmer discovered Muffler Men a few years ago and has spent many hours researching their history at roadsideamerica.com and watching our American Giants episodes. He has produced seven different versions of the Paul Bunyan statues, including replicas of the statues in   Elmsford NY, and Evergreen Park, IL Each statue is a hand painted resin cast of an original polymer clay sculpture. The statues are a little over 12 inches tall and come with either an axe or a muffler. These figures are the biggest and most elaborate pieces that he has made. You can purchase them through Scott’s stores at Etsy and eBay.

One of the most fascinating chapters in the Muffler Man story is the Texaco Big Friend. These statues were manufactured exclusively for the Texaco Oil Company. International Fiberglass made hundreds of these statues before Texaco ended the contract and had the mold destroyed. Nearly all of these statues were also destroyed. Sometime in late 1965 or early 1966, Steve Dashew, the owner of International Fiberglass, began negotiations with Texaco about the creation of a giant fiberglass Texaco service station attendant. At the time, Texaco wanted to promote its “Big Friend Service” which included a windshield cleaning, checking the oil, radiator, and battery and, most importantly, the courtesy of its employees. Texaco’s advertising campaign included television commercials and banners depicting its friendly service station attendant dressed in a dark green uniform with a white shirt, tie and hat. In the commercial, Texaco’s service station attendant was nearly 40 feet tall. The fiberglass statues were to be set up at service stations across the country to tie-in with the television campaign.

Texaco Big Friends lined up behind a Pushcart Tony statue

Texaco contracted with International Fiberglass to make 300 of the twenty two foot tall statues, with an option to order 2,700 more. Steve Dashew hired sculptor Sacha Schnittman to create the statue. Schnittman put a great deal of effort and detail into the design. Texaco got a late start in deploying the statues. All 300 of them were lined up and tied together in International Fiberglass back lot in Venice, CA before Texaco began picking them up. It’s not known how many of those statues actually left the factory before Texaco changed its mind about them. International Fiberglass sold a trailer and platform with each Big Friend statue to make it easy for area representatives to move and display them at different service stations. The statues sold for $5,000 each ($36,500 in today’s money). They began appearing at Texaco stations in September 1966. On September 29 of that year, Texaco service station owner, Peter Gregory of Victorville, CA, received his Big Friend statue. He planned to set up the statue the next day. However, during the night, vandals removed the statue’s four and a half foot tall head and its left hand. The story was covered in the local newspaper. The photo in the article shows the trailer that came with the statue. Peter was able to recover the head and hand. But, just four months later, the statue was toppled by high winds. Peter was unsure if the statue could be repaired and set up again. Peter was not the only Texaco service station owner to have difficulty with these statues. Many owners were concerned about the statues falling over in bad weather or windy conditions. The area service reps also didn’t like moving the statues around. By early 1967, Texaco realized the risk outweighed the benefit of these statues. The company ordered station owners to stop using the Big Friends and have them destroyed. Within a few short months, the giants had entirely disappeared. At that time, the statues had just been installed in California, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Iowa, Nevada, Arkansas and Florida. Only a few of the statues escaped the mass-destruction. The Big Friend in Portland, OR was damaged just before Texaco’s decision. It had been repaired at a fiberglass shop but was never picked up by the owner. This statue is now on display in Aloha, OR and is best-known for its giant rabbit head. The other known survivors include the Lumberjack in St. Marie, ID and the Robin Hood in Pahrump, NV. There is also a Big Friend head in a private collection in Chicago.
There is also a well-preserved statue in Arkansas which I was delighted to get to see in December. This Big Friend was turned over to Bud Ross of Clarksville, AR by his brother who owned the Texaco station where the statue was displayed. Bud kept the statue next to his pond at the back of his property for many years. Around 1990, he installed the statue at his used car lot in town. By 1997, the car lot had closed and the statue was gone. It was assumed this statue was just another Big Friend casualty.
However, with a tip from a visitor to my blog, I was thrilled to discover that the statue still exists and was able to track down its owner. Rob Harris, a petroliana collector in Arkansas, purchased the Big Friend years ago. Recently, he had the statue restored to its original colors. Rob plans to replicate the Texaco star logos on the statue’s hat, chest and arm in the near future. The statue is located on private property and stands between two vintage Texaco station signs.

Standing next to this rare piece of roadside history was the high point for me of the three years I’ve spent documenting Muffler Man statues. It still amazes me that of the 300 Big Friends produced, only four survive. Perhaps there’s still another one out there somewhere. Special thanks to Rob Harris for letting me photograph his Texaco Big Friend. Also thanks to Harvey Marine and the Pahrump Valley Museum for letting me have access to their Texaco Big Friends. I also want to thank Terry Nelson for letting me use his historical photographs of the Texaco Big Friends in the 1960s. And as always, a big thank you to Debra Jane Seltzer for her help in editing. 

A Half Wit in Production at International Fiberglass – Terry Nelson

This Muffler Man at Magic Forest in Lake George, NY was originally installed in Danbury, CT.  When the Danbury Fair closed in 1981, Magic Forest bought this statue and a few others from the owners.  This statue has been modified a bit.  It has a painted beard and an Amish style hat.  These International Fiberglass statues were promoted as “Mortimer Snerds.”  However, they are more commonly called “Half Wits” since that’s the term RoadsideAmerica.com came up with before the history of these statues was unearthed.  It’s not known how many were produced but there are only about 15 left.  In addition to this one, there are four in New Jersey, three in Texas, one in Missouri, one in California and five in private collections.

Half Wit at Mortimer Snerd Golf in Lake of the Ozark’s, MO – Terry Nelson

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In addition to the clown described in this post, Magic Forest in Lake George, NY has 3 other Muffler Men.  The owner refers to this one as “Pecos Bill.” It is not known where this statue came from or how long it has been at Magic Forest.  Pecos Bill was heavily modified at some point.  His chaps, vest, beard, and large droopy hat are unique.  The owner said that the hat seems to sag a little lower each year.  This Muffler Man is one of 4 or 5 that have long sleeves.  I have not been able to determine if these sleeves were original or a later addition.

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Ray Carr from Cleveland’s WCSB 89.3 did another phone interview with me for his radio show on April 29, 2014.  We chatted about my latest roadtrip from Phoenix to San Francisco where the American Giants team got to see and shoot a number of Muffler Men.  One of the high points of the trip was the stop in Pahrump, NV to see the former Texaco Big Friend.  There are only a handful of these statues left.  I also spoke about my favorite stop on this trip which was in Hayward, CA where Bruce Kennedy has a collection of four Muffler Men.  I really appreciate Bruce’s taking time to share the stories behind each statue and letting us get some unique shots of each of them.

 As I did with my first interview with Ray Carr, I have added video footage to the audio so that listeners have visual references to what is being discussed.  Carr’s program features in-depth, live interviews with movers-and-shakers: politicians, journalists, athletes, and folks like me who are interested in Americana. He also features rare oldies music and comedy from the 1950s and 1960s. It was a pleasure to be on his show.

The high point of our West Coast trip was our stop in Hayward, CA at Bell Plastics.  The company’s owner, Bruce Kennedy, has been collecting Muffler Men for a few years now.  His first statue was “Big Mike,” a Muffler Man which has been in Hayward for a very long time. The statue was installed in the 1960’s on Mission Boulevard at the Morris Car Wash. Big Mike held a giant scrub brush at that location. When the Tyre Treads tire store moved in the building, the statue’s scrub brush was replaced with a muffler. The tire store closed in 2010 and the following year, Kennedy bough the statue and moved it to a temporary location. The public found out where it was stored and Kennedy had to hide the statue until the restoration was complete. When Big Mike was restored and delivered to Bell Plastics, he received a big welcome which included press coverage. Shortly after the statue was installed at its new home, Kennedy came in to work one morning and discovered a brand new axe wrapped in paper.  A note was attached to the axe that read “For Big Mike.”  Since the axe is a little too big to fit the statue’s hands, it is displayed in the company’s office.

 After restoring Big Mike, Kennedy was bitten by the Muffler Man bug.  He began prowling the internet for more of them.   He particularly wanted a Cowboy statue. He finally found one for sale in Kansas City, KS. This was one of the last Muffler Men statues made by International Fiberglass.  It was located at a gas station in Boonville, MO from at least 1972 until the late 1990s. It may have been originally installed at a Phillips 66 gas station but I haven’t found any evidence of this. During this time, the cowboy’s hat bore the letters “MU” indicating his support for the University of Missouri.

In 2000, the statue was sold at auction to David Disney for $9,800.  He planned to donate the statue to the Kansas City Children’s Museum.  That never happened and the statue languished in storage for 13 years until it was sold to Kennedy in 2013.  The statue was in bad shape when it arrived in Hayward.  However, it was completely restored and installed in front of Bell Plastics just a few months later.  The statue’s face has uncharacteristic airbrushed details.  Kennedy calls this statue “Big Don.”

Next, Kennedy acquired a Paul Bunyan style Muffler Man from Paramount, CA.  This statue is painted in the original colors with a red shirt and blue pants.  There is some damage to the statue’s shoulder and back which Kennedy plans to repair.  The statue came with a steel platform, as well as an axe and pickaxe. Kennedy has not restored this statue yet but it stands of the lot at Bell Plastics and goes by the name of “Fix-it”. 

Photo used with permission. Scott Phillips

Kennedy’s goal is to have one of each Muffler Man model.  Since he already had a Cowboy and two Paul Bunyans, he was thrilled to find a Half Wit model in Flint, MI for sale on eBay.  This statue was originally installed in the mid-1960s at the Poor Boy’s Pantry in Kansas City, MO.  In the early 1980s, it was repainted and given a Hawaiian shirt.  In 1997, the statue was purchased by Bob Perani and installed in Flint at the Dort Mall which he owned.  Kennedy bought the statue from the Perani family and plans to restore the statue.  He will restore it with the Hawaiian shirt paint job.  Kennedy has named the statue “Hollywood” since it briefly appeared in the 2008 movie “Semi Pro.”

My friend Neto and I spent six hours at Bell Plastics getting the histories of each statue from Kennedy.  He also allowed me to use his scissor lift to get close-up shots for my “American Giants” videos.  I plan to launch the second season of the series with footage of Kennedy’s collection.  We had a great time there and I can’t thank Bruce Kennedy enough for playing host and letting us document these statues. 

Special thanks to Debra Jane Seltzer for her editing help with this article. RoadsideArchitecture.com  

A few months ago, I found out that my job was sending me to a broadcasters’ convention in Las Vegas. I decided that this was a great opportunity to take a Muffler Man road trip. Neto and I made plans to fly first to Phoenix.  From there, we would pick up a one way car rental to San Jose and visit 14 Muffler Men along the way and ending with Bruce Kennedy’s collection of Muffler Men in Hayward.

Our first Muffler Man destination was in Prescott, AZ. This statue was first mentioned on RoadsideAmerica.com in 1998.  However, it has actually been in Prescott since the early 1970s. It was originally one of the dozens of cowboys built for Phillips 66 gas stations by International Fiberglass. The statue was moved around in the late 1960s for various Phillips 66 gas station Grand Openings in northern Arizona. When Phillips 66 ended the promotion, the statue was purchased in 1970 and installed in front of Big Johnson Realty.  The statue has been there since then.  When the city changed the level of the street, the statue was kept in place at the original height.  If it had been raised, it would have been in violation of the city’s sign ordinances.  In the summer of 2013, a new business moved into the building next to the statue.  Gamers Trading Post added a few Magic: The Gathering playing cards to the statue’s right hand.

Our next Muffler Man stop was in Flagstaff to see the legendary Louie the Lumberjack. He was one of the first, if not the very first, Muffler Men ever made. Bob Prewitt of Prewitt Fiberglass in Lawndale, CA made the original Muffler Man statue for a customer in Sacramento.  When that deal fell through, he sold the statue to the Lumberjack Cafe on Route 66 in Flagstaff.  The statue was installed around 1964.  Shortly after this, Prewitt sold the lumberjack mold and some animal statue molds to International Fiberglass. In the late 1960s, the owners of the Lumberjack Café ordered a second Muffler Man from International Fiberglass.  The two statues remained at the restaurant until it closed in 1971, they were then donated to Northern Arizona University.  The older of the two statues stands outside Walkup Skydome.  The other statue is installed inside the building in the football field’s end zone.

Upon our arrival we looked the statues over carefully and noticed that they were made very differently. The original is all one piece while the second statue comes apart at the arms, head and waist.  The second statue also has the International Fiberglass stamp on its leg. Both statues have the original axes.  I hopped on top of a roll of football turf inside the dome for a photo to give a size comparison of how big these statues really are. Although it looks small standing in the end zone, Muffler Men are incredibly big.

We loaded up again and continued our trek north stopping in Pahrump, NV to see one of the last remaining Texaco Big Friends. I photographed this statue back in 2011 not realizing that his days were numbered. Sometime after Texaco
stopped using these statues, this one found its way from Las Vegas area to Pahrump.  Most of these Big Friends were scrapped but this statue was transformed into a green giant. The statue was installed on top of a sign at Valley Homes, a mobile home dealership. Things went well for many years until his owner got in trouble with the law and sadly ended up in prison. When I was there in 2011, I saw that the statue was still in place and in good shape other than a square hole in its back.  In 2012, the sign and statue were removed and carted off to the dump in an effort to clean up the town I suppose.  The statue’s sudden disappearance sparked interest in its history and what had become of it.  Journalists from the local newspapers discovered and published information about these statues which they found at RoadsideAmerica.com and my blog. The Pahrump Landfill started getting phone calls, including a few from me, about the statue and started to realize this was no ordinary statue.  Although the giant was badly damaged during its removal, the manager decided to hang onto it and for that he should have Muffler Man named after him or something.  Eventually he passed the statue on to the Pahrump Valley Museum for future restoration.  When Neto and I arrived we were told that the statue was still in storage but we got to take some photos of it.  The museum would like to restore the statue at some point which will require some effort and money due to it’s poor condition.  One of the statue’s arms and one of the hands has been ripped off.  The statue’s torso is torn in half.  The legs have also been detached and a shoe is missing.  Maybe one day, this statue will reappear as either a Texaco Big Friend or as the Valley Homes Giant once more.

Our next stop Muffler Man stop was more than 400 miles away in Merced, CA.  There, we saw a Service Man model that has seen better days. The Agriculture Museum next to the statue appears to have been closed for a while.  We then moved on to San Jose to see Babe the Muffler Man.  This statue was installed at Babe’s Muffler and Brake in the 1960s.  It was one of three identical statues purchased for this local chain of San Jose auto repair shops.  One of the statues was burned down in the early 1990s by a local gang. The other statue was removed because of a local sign ordinance. The torso, head and arms were attached to the roof of a car which was driven around town to advertise for the three shops until it fell into disrepair.

After San Jose, we headed to Hayward to see Bruce Kennedy’s collection of Muffler Men.  I’ll cover that stop in the next blog post.

I want to thank all the people along the way who took the time to talk to us and share their stories and history on the giants. Also special thanks to the Pahrump Museum for allowing us to go see the giant off site. Thanks to Debra Jane Seltzer for her help in editing. 

If you like giant fiberglass statues, then Magic Forest in Lake George, NY is the place for you. This fairy tale theme park has four Muffler Men and many other statues.  Magic Forest opened in 1963.  It features a 40 foot tall Uncle Sam statue which is the twin to the one in Ottawa Lake, MI.  There is also a Santa statue, an 11 foot tall Tire Salesman, a Caveman, and three modified A&W Root Beer Family statues.  All of these statues were produced by International Fiberglass which made the Muffler Men.

In addition, there are many statues that were produced by other fiberglass companies including an Archer, a couple of Astronauts, an Indian, a Caveman and a Cavewoman, several storybook characters, as well as various animals.  Many of Magic Forest’s statues, including at least one of the Muffler Men and the Uncle Sam, came from the Danbury Fair which was located in Danbury, CT and closed in 1982.

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