Chicken Boy

A Transplant’s Tale

Look up along North Figueroa Street in Highland Park and you’ll spot him: a bodybuilder’s torso topped with a rooster head, clutching a yellow bucket. This is Chicken Boy, perched 22 feet above the street on the Future Studio Gallery roof. His red shirt stands out against the sky, and his oversized eyes stare forward with the blank confidence of someone who knows he’s outlived the business he was built to promote.

The statue began life in the late 1960s atop a fried chicken restaurant near Grand Central Market. International Fiberglass Company in Venice built the body using their standard Muffler Man template, the same design that spawned dozens of giant Paul Bunyans across America. This one got custom modifications: a chicken head with comb, wattles, and beak, plus arms repositioned to grip a bucket instead of an axe. For twenty years, he advertised “the best chicken in town” to drivers passing through Downtown LA.

When the restaurant owner died in 1984, the statue faced demolition. Artist and designer Amy Inouye, who’d been captivated by Chicken Boy since arriving in LA, convinced the property owners to let her take him. What she didn’t anticipate was how difficult it would be to find him a new home. Museums declined. Public spaces passed. For the next 23 years, Chicken Boy sat disassembled in storage, head between his legs on a flatbed truck during the initial midnight move, then scattered across various garages and warehouses.

Back on His Perch

Inouye’s design firm moved into a Highland Park building in 2007, and its reinforced roof could support the statue’s weight. Community donations funded the restoration and installation. Chicken Boy went back up on October 13, 2007, this time along Historic Route 66, his new bucket empty yet his presence commanding the street below.

The 2010 Governor’s Historic Preservation Award from Arnold Schwarzenegger validated what locals already knew: this odd transplant had become part of LA’s identity. The Future Studio building now houses rotating art exhibits and the Chicken Boy Shop, which sells everything from vintage T-shirt designs to sock monkeys. A neon sign in the window lights up when the shop is open. At night, uplights illuminate the statue against the dark sky.

The Highland Park Icon

Highland Park has embraced its rooftop mascot. A sidewalk mosaic at Figueroa and Avenue 56 depicts both Chicken Boy and the nearby Highland Theatre. September 1 marks Chicken Boy Day. Route 66 travelers from around the world add the statue to their must-see lists.

The best time to photograph him is afternoon, when sunlight hits his northwest-facing side. The street offers clear sightlines from multiple angles. Parking requires patience (metered spots fill quickly in this busy corridor) yet you can see Chicken Boy from your car.

Inside the shop (open by appointment or during Second Saturday gallery nights), you’ll find Inouye’s personal chicken collection: snow globes, Elvis figures, lamps, and thousands of other items gifted by admirers over the years. No duplicates. The selection changes as new oddities arrive and vintage pieces find buyers.

Chicken Boy represents something that makes LA different: individuals who will cherish & save our strange landmarks. Not because they’re beautiful or historically significant in traditional terms, just because they’re weird and beloved and irreplaceable. A man with a chicken head holding an empty bucket has no business being a symbol of anything. That’s exactly why he works.

Chicken Boy: The Movie (1991)

Not sure if this movie will enhance your enjoyment of a visit to see Chicken Boy in person, but for interest’s sake if nothing else, here it is…