Down near U.S.C. in Los Angeles, there's a car dealership known as Felix Chevrolet, although they also sell other makes there. Its lineage dates back to 1922 when an entrepreneur named Winslow Felix opened a car lot in downtown Los Angeles. Mr. Felix was a friend of Pat Sullivan, the entrepreneur whose studio made the Felix the Cat cartoons…and there are many stories about how he granted what was apparently permanent permission to use the cat as the dealership's mascot. One tale has Sullivan getting a free car out of the deal. Others have him getting new cars at dealer cost or less for the rest of his life. Sullivan lived in New York for most of this period so I'm not sure how that would have worked.
In any case, Winslow Felix had the name in perpetuity and the proprietors of Felix have received not one car or dime for over a half-century. A new Felix neon sign went up in 1958 when the dealership moved to its present location at Figueroa and Jefferson Boulevard…and it became something of a local landmark.
The business has gone through many hands and that area has changed a lot. There are developers who want it to change further. The current owners of Felix Chevrolet have no plans to close the place or even take down the sign…but the rumblings are there. So lately, folks who are out to preserve L.A. heritage have been rallying to protect Felix from any future threats to his survival. As this article in the L.A. Times notes, the city's Cultural Heritage Commission has just voted to declare it a historic-cultural monument.
That's not the final word but it's a defeat for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa…like he needs more bad news these days.
I love Felix and I love Los Angeles history…but I'm not sure this one's worth a fight. It's a nice looking sign but historic? Cultural? I don't know about this one.