American Giants
Remember Muffler Man
In the 1960s, there were thousands of fiberglass titans, called Muffler Men. These icons served as advertising beacons at retail locations throughout the country. However, over the next decade or two, the International Fiberglass Company of Venice, CA, stopped manufacturing the Muffler Men. Consequently, the existing number of Muffler Men slowly started to dwindle through neglect and intentional/unintentional destruction. Now, there are only a couple hundred Muffler Men left in the wild. In my original post, I showed off some of my early Muffler Men encounters captured in my travels…
Muffler Men to American Giants
I am not alone in my passion to pursue Muffler Men. Furthermore, many other American travelers (e.g. Goosebuster) make a habit of tracking down Muffler Men in their own travels. However, the passion of all Muffler Men fans pales in comparison to one man. That man would be Joel Baker. Joel started the movement to rename these icons to the more fitting name of the American Giants. Then, he pulled together the supporters and funding to create the American Giants Museum located in Atlanta, Illinois. The new museum celebrates the evolution and history of the American Giants.
Needless to say, a mere 6 hour commute was no barrier for Goosebuster and me to explore this brand new tribute to the American Giants.
In the Beginning…
The history of the American Giants does not merely begin with the current titans that I have shown you. Rather, as you learn at the museum, there were earlier marketing efforts that began the use of the oversized fiberglass giants to spread the corporate brand.
In 1959, the ESSO service stations used the marketing campaign of “put a tiger in your tank.” With this campaign, ESSO introduced the large fiberglass tigers at their service stations to help spread their brand. There tigers were the first national use of the fiberglass giant, marketing campaign. Sadly, few of these tigers remain in the wild. However, you can visit one in captivity at the American Giants museum.
Later, in the mid 1960s, the Texaco Petroleum company took up the fiberglass momentum and introduced the Texaco Big Friend campaign. These Big Friends represented the friendly service station attendants that drove the success of Texaco. Therefore, this very successful marketing campaign resulted in several hundred Big Friends located at stations across the USA. However, the campaign eventually came to an end. Then, for reasons unclear to me, the Texaco corporation tragically tracked down these Big Friends and destroyed most of them. But, do not lose all hope. About 6 of the Big Friends escaped this persecution. The Big Friend in the picture above (originally from Detroit) is one of the remaining 6 Big Friends now surviving at the museum.
.
Then Came the American Giants…
The success of the Esso Tiger and Texaco Big Friends led to other campaigns like Bob’s Big Boy and the Sinclair Dinosaur (i.e. CHALLENGE answers). But, my personal favorite/obsession is the American Giants (formerly Muffler Men). When you go to the American Giants Museum in Atlanta, IL, you will learn the complete history of these national treasures. Basically, these fiberglass constructs share many identical body parts. But, certain anatomical areas are changed to create several variations of the American Giants. Three of the more common variations are pictured at the top of the post: Cowboy, Bunyan and Brave. But, if you are going to hunt American Giants, you must know all six of the standard varieties. Big John is what I consider to be the “base model”…
The Big John with the hot dog is a noteworthy figure. Joel Baker was documenting this American Giant in Atlanta, IL. This visit led to Mr. Baker working with the folk in Atlanta to establish the museum. Anyway, in addition to the four most common variations that I have already mentioned, there are two more variations that are much more rare. During this blog mission, Goosebuster and I were able to encounter our first half wit and Uniroyal Gal.
The Half Wit is at the museum. You can see the concrete pads adjacent to him. In the near future, the museum will be adding 4 more Giants to keep Half Wit company. The Uniroyal Gal is named Vanna. She is a long time and much loved city landmark in Peoria, IL.
Wrap It Up
So, in summation, start with the basics if you want to hunt American Giants/Muffler Men across the country. First, you have to have a map. Here is the map that all the series Muffler Men hunters use…
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/map/theme/86
Second, before you start the hunt be sure that you can recognize all 6 of the basic variations of the American Giants/Muffler Men. That would be Big John, Bunyan, Cowboy, Brave, Half Wit, and the Uniroyal Gal. Lastly, if you want to jump start your knowledge and photographic collection, take a road trip to the American Giants Museum in Atlanta, Illinois.
https://www.americangiantsmuseum.com
Have a wonderful day. PT
I hope you have enjoyed reading “American Giants” on Traveling with PugsleyTonks
Here was my original post on Muffler Men https://travelingwithpt.com/i-give-you-muffler-man/
P.S. Just in case you are not sick of all our Muffler Men collection, here a few more of my favorites….
