DESIGN : He Lives!

THERE ARE THOSE who probably don’t remember Chicken Boy, some who have never even heard of him. But he was an L.A. landmark, a beacon standing atop the Chicken Boy Restaurant downtown on Broadway between 4th and 5th from September, 1969, until that fateful day in May, 1984, when the restaurant was boarded up.

At that point, Chicken Boy’s future looked bleak. To the rescue came graphic designer Amy Inouye of Future Studio. “It was either us or certain destruction,” she says. “We figured we could move him into the studio as a mascot, to keep us company while we worked. We had been betting on how tall he was--8 or 10 feet. To our great surprise, he was actually more like 22 feet tall. We hired some nice movers, a cherry picker and a flatbed and took possession.” Because of his enormousness, Chicken Boy ended up going into storage.

But his spirit lingers on, personified in “The Chicken Boy Catalog for a Perfect World.” Chicken Boy, Inouye says, symbolizes “someone who is different but dignified, who doesn’t fit in but still feels at home. He is the symbol of striving for perfection within your own limitations.”

This ideal has spawned a rash of Chicken Boy merchandise, from a tasteful bolo tie to Chicken Boy print boxer shorts to a Chicken Boy Starter Bucket (a reusable tin filled with classic Chicken Boy T-shirt, cloisonne pin, ballpoint pen, mechanical pencil, post card and “The True Story of Chicken Boy” booklet). The catalogue also features some of Chicken Boy’s favorite hard-to-find-elsewhere paraphernalia: a leopard-print computer cover (also available in C. B. print), bottle-cap earrings that frame the Mona Lisa and a fez for a small pet.

As the catalogue says: “This may be funny, but it’s not a joke.

“The Chicken Boy Catalog for a Perfect World” costs $1 and is available from Future Studio, P.O. Box 292000, Los Angeles 90029; (213) 660-0620.