Southern California Public Radio produced a feature about Amy Inouye, who saved a fiberglass Chicken Boy figure from the top of a closed downtown Los Angeles restaurant and re-erected it on her studio on 5558 N. Figueroa St. (aka Route 66) in the Highland Park neighborhood of L.A.
From the article:
[S]he reached out to a small group of supporters, selling Chicken Boy t-shirts, lapel pins, and watches to an expanding network of curiosity hunters by mail. Slowly, a broad base of interest began to grow as the statue made appearances in columns in The San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire, on radio programs, and most frequently, in the Los Angeles Times’ “Only in L.A.” column.
Two decades later, Inouye, now a successful graphic designer, moved her studio to Figueroa Street in Highland Park, along historic Route 66. The historic setting and the flat roof of the building which houses her studio, she says, attracted her to the neighborhood.
Many meetings, permits, and bureaucratic hurdles later, Chicken Boy found a new home atop Future Studio in Highland Park. Towering above the historic neighborhood alongside a slew of iconic signage, Chicken Boy peers down on a new generation of curious passersby, living up to the motto Inouye coined for him decades ago: “Too tall to live, too weird to die.”
Appropriately enough, her studio can be found online at ChickenBoy.com.
A couple of comments …
1) Chicken Boy was on original Route 66 near its western terminus when on Broadway between 4th and 5th. So it moved from one 66 location to another.
2) Amy Inouye is a vibrant part of 66 in Highland Park and an active supporter of the Figueroa Street corridor. It was her efforts that led to the re-lighting of the Manning’s Coffee Shop sign and helped with the second re-lighting of the Highland Theater sign as well.