Route 66 & Chicken Boy

U.S. Route 66, established in 1926 as one of the original highways of the United States Highway System, ran from Chicago to downtown Los Angeles and later was extended to Santa Monica in 1936. Though promoted through the First International Transcontinental Foot Race and used during the Great Depression by families migrating from the Dust Bowl to California, it was primarily designed for automobiles and became both a major travel corridor and an attraction in its own right. Its path shifted several times in Los Angeles County, using roads such as Foothill Boulevard, Huntington Drive, and Colorado Boulevard; in Highland Park it first followed Pasadena Avenue, later North Figueroa Street, was briefly rerouted, then returned before the Arroyo Seco Parkway was added to its course in 1940. The highway inspired Bobby Troup's 1946 song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66," was truncated to Pasadena in 1964, and was decommissioned in 1985, though its Southern California route remains traceable on modern roads. Along roads it used, automobile-oriented businesses such as motor courts, drive-thru restaurants, and motels flourished, and eye-catching signs and oversized figures drew passing drivers. Chicken Boy, a large fiberglass figure made by Venice-based International Fiberglass in the tradition of "muffler men," originally stood from 1969 to 1984 above a Broadway restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, holding a bucket of fried chicken; after the restaurant closed, artist Amy Inouye acquired him and moved him in 2007 to Highland Park, where he became a widely recognized local landmark.

Los Angeles, California · United States