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May 31, 2006

Updated: How come 'Zippy' comic strip features Providence's giant rooster

Wednesday 12:15 p.m.
I emailed Bill Griffith, the creator of Zippy the Pinhead to ask how he came upon the Sollitto's chicken featured in yesterday's strip. Here's his reply:

Zippy visits "Real Places" almost every day---you can see where Zippy is on any day by going to"Zippy's Real Places"on the Zippy site:

http://www.zippythepinhead.com/pages/aarealday.html

Readers send me fotos of places for Zippy to visit all the time (I also do my own research)---if you look inside any strip, you'll usually see a "Tip to" someone in tiny lettering--that's the reader who sent the fotos I used as reference. There are more RI strips in the pipeline (Cranston and Providence).
-Bill Griffith

Tuesday 5:40 p.m.
Reader TW writes,

...In today's installment, Zippy the Pinhead (main link) visits a Providence landmark, the chicken statue with the "USA Love It Or Leave It" slogans...
 

Fellow R.I. blogger Bil Herron (A Cry for Help) wrote about the rooster (More Oversized Animals) Aug.12, 2004. Here's the top of it:

When I was younger, my Nana lived in South Providence off of Narragansett Boulevard and on Saturdays the whole family would get together there. My Papa (grandfather) owned a bar near Rhode Island hospital, and Nana would make sandwiches and meatballs for the bar, which would have to be delivered before lunch time. I always loved going with my mom to bring the Saturday haul up Allen’s Ave and over to the bar (my Papa would let me run behind the bar and choose a bag of chips or cheez doodles). One of the highlights of that trip was seeing the giant rooster outside Solitto’s Liquor store. It was at least four times my size at the time and strangely magical.

The Rooster is still there, brought outside every morning (except, a few years back when it was stolen. The police recovered the giant bird a few weeks later). Unfortunately, instead of just being a bizarre and memorable landmark, the Rooster now doubles as a jingoistic bulletin board...

And, from our archives, here's the rooster in 1999, part of a Day in the Life of Providence series, by Journal photographer Mary Murphy. Her original caption is below it.

"9:09 am -- Dominic Sollitto, proprietor of Sollitto's Liquors...enters the store after he and his employees brought the landmark rooster out for its day on the street. Sollitto bought the rooster at an auction 25 years ago when he took over the store from his ailing father. He didn't know anything about running a business so his brother suggested they buy the rooster and stick it in front of the store. The rooster, which weighs about 150 lbs., has had a colored past. Brown University students took it once and had it in their dorm until a postman informed Sollitto that he had seen it being taken into the dorm. A dean interceded and returned it. Johnson and Wales students ran off with it once, but guys in the bar across the street saw them running down Indiana Avenue. They chased the students, who dropped it. That's how the rooster got its crack. Sollitto says that people ask him if they can buy the rooster. He tells them, 'You can buy the store, not the chicken.' This morning when Sollitto and his three employees opened the doors to the store to take the rooster out, it took less than half a minute to angle it and haul it and place it on the sidewalk. They haul out the rooster every morning as they open the store."

Sollitto's is actually at 905 Narragansett Blvd in Providence (map), near where Allens Ave. turns into the Boulevard, if you'd like a closer look.

(Movable Type is doing strange things today, and normal code is behaving oddly. Sorry if this doesn't look quite right to you.)

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 12:15 PM | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Kevin Kienle on May 30, 2006 10:43 PM

Posted by: John on May 31, 2006 9:47 AM

Posted by: Kevin Kienle on September 23, 2006 2:46 PM

Posted by: Ty on December 4, 2006 3:06 PM

Posted by: Adam JWU Student on February 23, 2007 10:53 AM