FOR SIX DECADES, the most interesting visual landmark along the gritty, industrial stretch of 16th Street between Methodist Hospital and Stadium Lofts has been Mr. Bendo, a roughly 20-foot-tall fiberglass statue of a smiling (or perhaps grimacing?) bearded man standing outside Ralph’s Muffler & Brake Service. The big guy, whose outstretched left arm seems to offer a jaunty fist pump to passersby, recently made the news.
Only the news wasn’t good. In the middle of the night, a hit-and-run driver collided with the burly icon, taking out his left shoe, mangling his internal metal framework, and most humiliating, damaging his pants. The Ralph’s folks shored him up with emergency repairs before shipping him to Tennessee, where he’s being fitted with a new pair of trousers before being returned to his place of honor in front of the shop.
Why make such an effort to save a rickety, dated advertising gimmick? Because Mr. Bendo (named after a metal-bending machine in Ralph’s shop) is a heaping helping of nostalgia.
Like the mighty buffalo, giant fiberglass advertising statues, known as muffler men, were once found all over the United States. The first, which resembled Paul Bunyan, was manufactured in the 1960s in California. Some buyers replaced his ax with an item more germane to their line of roadside business, such as a tire or hot dog. Mr. Bendo is a prime example. Originally, he held an iron bar in his right hand to represent a custom tailpipe. When and how that bar disappeared is lost to time.
Mr. Bendo made his way to Indianapolis in 1965 when Ralph Potter bought the statue from a Texas business for $1,600. He’s been hanging around outside Ralph’s ever since. Indeed, his trip to Tennessee amounts to his first paid vacation.
