ricgrass: Zippy In The Land Of Jersey Giants

The State of Non Sequitur Excesses of Consumerism

"Standing right beside American know-how is American eccentricity.
Surely, it deserves equal respect and acknowledgement."

In the early 1960's the International Fiberglass of Venice California began making large fiberglass molded sculptures of people as gimmicks for roadside advertising and attractions. The first was a 20 foot Paul Bunyon for a cafe on Rt 66 in Flagstaff Arizona. The owner reported that his sales had doubled after he installed the statue and before long International Fiberglass had hundreds of orders and began making other giant figures like vikings, pirates, Indians, and cowboys.


The First Roadside Giant Made By International Fiberglass

One of their more popular sculptures was a man that was designed to hold a auto tire or a muffler. He as sold to hundreds of auto tire and repair businesses. A woman version was also made. Also an Alfred-E-Newman like figure called Happy Half-Wit that was popular with Amusement Parks and Miniature Golf Courses. 300 figures that looked like service station attendants where made for Texaco Stations. By the 1970's, demand went down, as less people traveled the back roads of America and instead used the new Interstate Highway system. In 1974 production of these giants ceased.

1960's International Fiberglass Advertisements

Texaco Giants

They Also Made Esso Tigers and Sinclair Dinosaurs

About 200 of these iconic roadside behemoths remain. They're now all called "Muffler Men". They can be found in 42 US states , plus 5 in Canada, and one in both Mexico and Puerto Rico. Most are still on duty at various business, but some are in private collections. These figures have many followers and some people travel to seek them out.

There are 11 in New Jersey.

A Fiberglass Giant on RT 73 in Palmyra around 1970. He Might Be In Magnolia Now

On Bridgeton Pike in Upper Deerfield (his shield is in storage)

About the same time these sculptures reached their peak in numbers another iconic cultist figure was born in California.
Underground cartoonist Bill Griffith created Zippy The Pinhead, a comic strip that began in 1976 as a weekly feature and since 1986 has been a daily strip in hundreds of newspapers worldwide. Zippy the main character, spends much of his time traveling and commenting on interesting places and roadside attractions. He is attracted to the weird and likes classic diners. He is on a constant search for answers about his own and the American condition. But only finds nonsense.

He has the ability to speak to muffler men and women and other inanimate roadside beings and often seeks them out for answers and advice. New Jersey is a one of his favorite stomping grounds and he has visited most of the muffler men here.

From a Bill Griffith interview:
"I love to drive America's rural highways and backroads, out beyond the reach of Chuck E. Cheese. I love to escape the big city streets and the oppressive suburban grid, with its strip-malls and identical chain restaurants, on the alert for a random big duck, a giant bowling pin or a mammoth hot dog. But here's a warning for other thrill seekers: plan your road trip soon, because these idiosyncratic American icons are fading fast, replaced at a rapid rate in the wake of the disease-like spread of Starbucks, McDonald's, and Gap outlets. Like screwy sentinels, they stand proudly amid the encroaching Burger Kings and Taco Bells, waiting to revive our jaded, cynical eyes, a wacky army of towering Muffler Men, enormous donuts, massive chickens and goofy dinosaurs. What is it about these eccentric advertising figures, these outdoor "Giant Beings" that is so compelling?

They work on the viewer in the same way all sculpture does- as
art does. The intent of these humongous hucksters is no mystery. And they're much easier to understand than most modern "public sculpture" which rarely makes any attempt to connect on an easily relatable level with its audience. Giant Beings are there for a clear purpose, a quintessentially American purpose. They want to sell us something. But
because they are unique images, and not hammered over and over into our collective optic nerve like the Colonel's ubiquitous visage, we experience them context-free, devoid of association through print ads and endless TV commercials. Many fall into the "naïve art" category, their commercial message all but overwhelmed by their oddball strangeness. They have a real sense of place, an individuality, a weirdness. Appearing suddenly and unexpectedly, they rivet our attention, often taking on a surreal, dreamy quality and beckoning us to enter their other-worldly reality. They communicate their sales pitch in a kind of pre-literate way, like the street signs of a much earlier time, when a huge tooth might advertise a dentist's office, or a gigantic hammer might dangle before the neighborhood hardware store.

Giant Beings don't try to assure us that we're all part of some big, happy consumer family through the use of focus group-tested "happy faces" or instantly identifiable logos.
Landmark status? Historical designation? Why not? American culture, after all, is pop culture. In Athens, they preserve the Parthenon for posterity; here we save "Lucy", a seaside hotel in the shape of a six-story elephant so that our own cultural "wonders" are there for generations of gawkers yet to come. Standing right beside American know-how is American eccentricity.
Surely, it deserves equal respect and acknowledgement.
By Bill Griffith

ROADSIDE MAGAZINE, issue #32 (2001)

Saving Lucy in 1970

Zippy has had several discussions with an oversized female now known as Nitro Girl at Webany's Tire in Hilltop, NJ

She had a complete transformation a few years ago and went from a plain-jane in a skirt and T-shirt to a super hero like uniform, in red, white and blue, complete with stars and fancy new boots. She was part of a order of girls that International Fiberglass fulfilled for the Uniroyal Tire Co several decades ago. It is said that when she first arrived on the Black Horse Pike, she wore nothing but a skimpy bikini and caused an uproar among some of the more sensitive local citizens. Perhaps influenced some suggestive comments or nicknames like "Doll" or "the Broad", she decided modesty was best for tire sale and she donned more appropriate attire.

A Few Years Ago Uniroyal Gal Was Renamed Nitro Girl After the Nitrogen Gas Werbany Puts In Their Tires. She Was Whitewashed With Primer Before the Transformation. Many Don't Know That She Wears a Bikini Under That Shirt and Skirt. (The center photo is another Uniroyal Gal as there is no known photo of the Hilltop giant in her bathing suit)

A while ago there was talk of a romance with the Trio Tire Muffler Man, but they did not seem to hit it off and he moved on to the other horse pike

Heartbroken, the Trio Tire Guy decided to try his luck on the White Horse Pike in Magnolia, NJ. He started out some 40 years ago at Allied Tire on Rt 73 on Palmyra, NJ and later moved to Trio Tire down the pike in Clementon. He hopes that the third time is the charm. He put his cap away and is now getting lots of looks with his bright pink pants and new suspenders.

Trio Tire(left) Allied Tire(right)

Zippy not only speaks with oversize people. He once found solace with a group of discarded icons that were placed on and around a patisserie of hot loaves. Later he stopped at a nearby diner for some breakfast.

There are only a handful of Half-Wit giants left, three in New Jersey. Mr Bill on Rt 73 is one them. He was originally marketed by IF Co (International Fiberglass)as "Mortimer Snerd" but looks somewhat like a country bumpkin, straw hatted version of Alfred E Newman. The IF Co was concerned that the image was a possible copy write infringement, so they changed the name of this product the "Happy Half-Wit". They really did not have to worry (What Me?) as this image has been used by several businesses and goes back to 1885. Mad Magazine stole the image themselves and made it famous again.


The Alfred E Newman Character Originated In An Advertisement For A 1885 Play (left). It Was Subsequently Used In Various Ads for Everything From Quack Medicines to Mincemeat to Auto Parts. The "Me Worry" Ad Is Dated 1930. Alfred's First Appearance In Mad Magazine Was In 1954


On The Boardwalk In Seaside Heights

At One Time There Were Three Muffler Men In Seaside Heights. This One Was Damaged By Hurricane Sandy And Was Eventually Sold and Now Stands In Oaks, Pa. The Whereabouts Of The Other One Is Unknown.

Zippy wanders thru the American landscape seeking substance and meaning, and this brought him to the feet of this nerd holding a hamburger sign in Winslow NJ. Mr Bill started his career at another sandwich shop in the 1970's - Tom's Famous Steaks and Hoagies on Rt 130 in Edgewater Park , NJ, and
moved here in the 1980's.

One of Zippy's favorite places is the Jersey Shore.

The Rt 66 of the East. The capital of weirdness.
From a lonely elephant in Margate, the do-wop neon of Wildwood, to giant a salt water taffy on LBI - Zippy has traveled up and down the coast on his never ending search for American peculiarity.

Zippy On The Atlantic City Boardwalk

Perhaps the most famous surviving giant in New Jersey is a pachyderm, not a human. One of three built by James Lafferty of Philadelphia during the 1880's. It was originally
as a real estate office and an observation tower. A few years later a similar one was built in South Cape May for the same purpose. The third one was almost double the size and built in Coney Island as a novelty attraction.

Cape May Real Estate Gimmick - Demolished Around 1900

Elephant Colossus in Coney Island. Used As A Observation Towers with Telescopes in the Eyes, a Hotel, a Concert Hall and Later a Brothel ( Elephant Club?) It Burnt Down in 1896. In 1889 a Roller Coaster Was Built Around It.

The Margate structure was originally called the "Elephant Bazaar". Many wrongly believe that it was once a hotel. Actually a large hotel was built next door. At different times it was a restaurant, a tavern and also rented as a summer cottage. The elephant was originally modeled after a male elephant but he never had a name. During the early part of the 20th century the owners decided to perform a sex change when it was named Lucy.

Zippy has visited Lucy on several occasions, likely drawn by her status as one of the oldest and most unique roadside attractions in America.

Lucy Was Never Actually A Hotel, But One Was Built Next Door And Called The Elephant Hotel

The Elephant Hotel Was Made From The Turkish Building At The 1876 Centennial Exposition In Philadelphia


Lucy At Her Original Location Two Blocks North

Another one of Zippy's favorite New Jersey shore locations is Do Wop City Wildwood.

What's Your Favorite Flavor?

While hanging around Wildwood, Zippy visited Menz's Restaurant on the Delsea Drive in Rio Grande. A South Jersey shrine to the odd. Weirdly decorated with Hundreds of Taxidermy animals and fish, including two headed and albino creatures plus all kinds of antiques and brick a brack everywhere mixed with the usual shore-like nautical stuff.
The owner Franklin Menz was a well known and liked personality who years earlier lost a leg as a result of an accident. He was known to greet his customers in his motorized wheelchair and offering lollipops to children if they promised to finish their meal. After he died in 1992 his family erected a larger than life statute of him outside. In this memorial, he was seated in a rocking chair looking out towards the highway, smoking a cigar.
Some years ago the rocking chair broke and Mr Menz was re-positioned in a chair on top of an air conditioning unit. His cigar was once stolen, but has been replaced with a larger one. The parking lot at this restaurant is also unique, made of a mix of seashells and reject melamine buttons from
an old button factory just down the road.

And what is a visit to New Jersey without a stop at a diner. It is said that Zippy can't pass a diner without going in. He has been to several in South Jersey - Angelos in Glassboro, Olgas, the Star View in Somerdale, the Club Diner in Belmawr, the 54 Diner in Buena, Mustache Bill's in Barnegat Light, the Tuckahoe Diner and the old Wildwood Diner.

Zippy Has Been Known To Pick Up Some Extra Money Working at Diners, Like Here at The Rt 54 in Buena

Mustache Bill's In Barnegat Light

Somerdale

Tuckahoe

Zippy's tour of the Jersey Shore continued with a stop on Ocean City and a chat with a Muffler Man Pirate. Then on to the Atlantic City boardwalk, before moving onto Long Beach Island, Ortley Beach, Asbury Park and then up to Jersey City to visit a carpet selling Muffler Man made famous in the opening credits of the Soprano's.

Zippy Chats With A Cowpoke in Atlantic City


A Muffler Man At A Miniature Golf Course, Atlantic City 1965. Some Say He Later Turned Up At A Tire Store On The Black Horse Pike in McKee City. Where Is He Now?

Beach Haven

Ortley Beach

Asbury Park

Jersey City

Heading South again Zippy made a stop near Great Adventure where Zippy's pal Griffy ( Bill Griffith) chatted with a half-wit, then on to Rt 130 in Delanco to visit a swimming hole turned mega church, to a White Tower in Mount Ephraim and to Broad Street in Woodbury to discuss foreign policy with a sidewalk soldier.

Rt 537 Jackson Township - At A Paintball and Halloween Attraction, They Have A Couple Of Extra Heads.

One Used as Dracula In The Fall. The Other As A Paintball Target

Then he headed down to Cowtown and the iconic car salesman turned cowboy It is believed that this statue was originally installed around 1967 at Sid Broughton Dodge in Wilmington, DE. At the dealership, the statue was known as "Marshall Sid", the dealership's mascot. This cowboy statue has a different head from the standard Cowboy models. International Fiberglass made a custom head modeled after Sid Broughton. The hat, belt, and gun were International Fiberglass stock accessories. These long sleeves also appear to have been custom. The statue was sold at an auction in 1975 and moved to its current location.