 Muffler
Man
RA ID#: 3023
Type: Bunyan
Town: Jersey City
State: New Jersey
Carpet-Clutching Muffler Man:Address: 220 Broadway, Jersey City, NJ [ Show Map] Directions: Wilson's Carpet and Furniture. Underneath the Pulaski Skyway, on US 1 just south of its intersection with Hwy 7/Newark Ave.
Arm position: 2 hands palm
up
Accessories: industrial
roll of green carpet
Note: Watch for the pink pants in
the store's truck lot.
After decades
of relative obscurity, Jersey City's carpet-holding Bunyan Muffler
Man has become a cultural icon of sorts. He always had his fans,
mostly half-hypnotized commuters passing on nearby elevated PATH
train tracks into New York City. But since 1998, he has been revered
as the big statue in the opening credits of HBO's The Sopranos.
This amazing Muffler Man has gone through two
transformations -- first as a lumberjack or Paul Bunyan, then forced
to hold a steel
roll
that looks like a green carpet in front of a carpet store. Set
into the carpet is an electronic sign board.
The statue moved along with the carpet store from its original location
on Hoboken Avenue to this busy and eternally shady spot under the
imposing steel arches of the Pulaski Skyway.
A mysterious pair of large pink
pants stand nearby, also owned by Wilson Carpet. It is rumored
that they are half-filled with concrete. We were once told
a homeless man was sleeping in the pants, but found
it hard to believe -- Jersey City has plenty of warmer and more comfortable
places to
nap.
Reported
Sightings | State
Tracking Chart
|
Carpet-clutching Muffler Man
Under
the Pulaski Skyway.
Mysterious Pink Pants.
Plywood
versions of the landmark have appeared on billboards on local highways.
|
