UPDATE: Rocky joins Bullwinkle! See Dan Morin’s photo below.
Bullwinkle is hanging out at West Hollywood City Hall, at least temporarily.
Bullwinkle is one of the figures in the famous sculpture more formally known as Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose . He was moved into the lobby of City Hall after quietly undergoing a restoration. In a couple of months both Rocky and Bullwinkle will be moved to the edge of a city parking lot at 8775 Sunset Blvd. near Sherbourne Drive.
The sculpture unexpectedly disappeared in July 2013. Alison Martino, whose Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page chronicles the history of the Sunset Strip, sounded the alarm there and in an article in Los Angeles magazine titled “Vintage Los Angeles: The Moose is Loose!” Eventually it was revealed that DreamWorks Studios and Twentieth Century Fox had funded a restoration of the sculpture as part of an exhibit at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. It reappeared on Oct. 9, 2014, inside the glass atrium of The Paley Center.
The West Hollywood City Council last year accepted the statue as a gift and agree to fund its permanent installation in WeHo. The statue was donated to the city by DreamWorks and Twentieth Century Fox and by the family of Jay Ward, whose Jay Ward Productions produced the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
In a post on Vintage Los Angeles on Saturday, Martino recalled meeting Ricardo Scozzari, who restored the sculpture. “I tracked down the brilliant restoration genius who put our friends back together and lovingly restored them,” she said. “THEY ARE BASICALLY BULLET PROOF NOW! And it wasn’t easy! The statue was falling apart when it was removed from its iconic location on the morning of July 22, 2013. Meet the man who rescued our local landmark! Ricardo Scozzari!”
“I restored the statue twice,” said Scozzari. “Once on the Sunset Strip and the final time as you see it now. It was a fun project. Bullwinkle had ‘open heart surgery’ — literally. I had to open his chest to strengthen his internal structure. Oh the pictures I have. He looks just like he did back in 1961. Same number of strips on his bathing suit and everything.”
This work of art deserves better placement than a corner of a parking lot! While Plummer Park gets abstract metal (crap imho) as art, I believe Rocky and Bullwinkle would be perfect for in front of the park! Right in front of the building on Santa Monica Boulevard, they would get a lot of attention and it would be a 1000% better than any art they have placed there in the past.
Hey Disco Dan! That’s me in the photo and I dropped by during the statue’s four hour installation to take photos. Rocky was laying down next to Bullwinkle at the time. But the moose and squirrel were completed and reunited later that day and they look fantastic!
– Alison
Where’s Rocky? The picture in WeHo City Hall lobby does not show him.
Yay! So glad it’s back in its rightful place! Love this!
This is great! So glad it’s back in it’s rightful place!
GREAT! I work at 8721 Sunset so we will be neighbors. Love that statue!!!!!
How sweet. I love “true Hollywood stories” like this. This Bullwinkle was a costar of Mae West & Raquel Welch in “Myra Breckenridge” in 1970. Welcome back to The Creative City Mr. B.