Hooray! It’s “Moose and Squirrel!”
In September of 1961, Los Angeles County Sheriff, Peter Pitchess, and actress Jayne Mansfield presided over the unveiling of a 15-foot-tall fiberglass statue of the cartoon characters Rocket (“Rocky”) J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose (with Rocky in Bullwinkle’s uplifted hand), on the Sunset Strip! Oh, and the statue spun on its base…! Although many landmarks and monuments in Los Angeles have fallen, this one remains! 
The publicity stunt plugged the debut of “The Bullwinkle Show” on NBC. The creator of the show, Jay Ward Productions, had obtained permits to close all but one lane of Sunset Boulevard and posted a sign to motorists that said, “Don’t complain or we’ll block this lane too.” TV Guide reported that the event drew “5,000 milling, screaming, caterwauling celebrants.” Invitees received “pairs of tickets to widely separated seats to accommodate Hollywood couples who weren’t on speaking terms” according to author Keith Scott in his history of Jay Ward Productions, “The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose.”
At the unveiling, several of the show’s writers placed their elbow prints in the cement (so they would not spill their martinis ), in a spoof of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Another spoof, across the street from the sculpture, is described in the L.A. Times article.
The statue of “Moose and Squirrel,” as Natasha would have described it, still stands at the same address, 8218 Sunset Boulevard, but it now sits in front of Hollywood Hounds, which offers grooming services and day care for dogs. Ward’s daughter, Tiffany, who runs Ward Productions, sold the property but retains rights to the statue. The current owner of the property says that the statue can stay until, and if, he decides to build on the site.
In that case, Tiffany has said that she would donate the sculpture to the Academy of Television Art and Sciences, in North Hollywood.
-Bill at
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