Stan the Muffler Man (Gone)
Birmingham, Alabama
Type: Classic
Arm position: Both palms turned up
Accessories: None
Birmingham Landmark
Though Birmingham's mighty furnaces are long cooled, the city still pays tribute to the old gods of productivity, with its towering statues of Vulcan the Iron Man, lightning-haired Miss Electra, and Lady Liberty.
Stan the Tire Man (or Muffler Man), not quite as tall or mythical, has been a local promotional presence dating back at least to the early 1960s (reports of his existence in the 1950s appear out of kilter with the timeline of Muffler Men manufacture). For decades the lantern-jawed giant stood on a business rooftop east of busy I-65 (damaged in a 1998 wind storm, then repaired). He loomed in a fenced commercial yard on the property of GCR, a truck tire company. By early 2021, the new owners of the property, Southern Tire, decided to retire Stan to private property south of Selma.
The White Glove Treatment
Stan was well maintained for many decades. An unexplained detail we'd noticed: aside from his non-standard "two palms up" configuration, Stan's hands and wrists were painted white, like a pair of gloves.
