End Of The Road For The Rim Man
The Boston Globe
April 28, 2002
By Steven Rosenberg
They pulled down the Coca-Cola sign near the end of the Mass. Pike, almost took away Kenmore's Citgo sign, and in a few weeks, the Hollywood-like "Ellis the Rim Man" sign will fall victim to the blowtorch and demolition crane. But this time, there are no hordes of traditionalists tearing at the possibility of a Boston without it.
The 45-foot-high sign - practically a working-class icon in a yuppified area of town - has advertised the automotive accessory store at 1001 Commonwealth Avenue since its founder, Moe Ellis, bought the building in 1961. But last June, the Ellis family closed the doors on the Rim Man building one final time, accepting an offer of $4.2 million from the nonprofit Media and Technology Charter High School. The charter school is spending another $4.8 million to renovate the three-story brick and concrete structure, and will open its doors at the new site in September.
According to Bob Baldwin, the school's project manager, the sign's fate was sealed during community meetings with the Allston Civic Association, the Brighton-Allston Improvement Association, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
"Absolutely no one supported keeping the sign up. The number-one priority was that the sign come down," said Brighton's Richard Mulligan, former president of the Brighton-Allston Improvement Association. "We're just trying to clean up the neighborhood, and people don't feel that the billboards add anything to the community."
Baldwin said that the 10-person demolition crew will arrive in late May and will disassemble the triangular sign in sections. He anticipates it will take 10 days to remove all of the pieces. The sign and steel base will be taken down by a crane, placed on the building's roof, and cut into small pieces. "Then we'll bring it all down and throw [it] on a truck and take it away," said Baldwin.
The sign, which can be seen from the Mass. Pike, Cambridge Street, and throughout Brighton, rises up through the Boston skyline, its 25-foot-high white letters a testament to the attentive service the store provided. Like other prominent signs, it has been a landmark for giving directions.
It's also had its own brushes with fame. It was featured in the original 1968 "The Thomas Crown Affair," starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, and was also in the background of several "Spenser: For Hire" TV episodes.
Edward Ellis, who took on the mantle of president of the company after his father died, said the sign was built in 1920 for the Lincoln Motor Company, which occupied the building until 1940. From 1940 to 1960, the letters read "Home of the Bell Shops." Bell Shops - which later became Zayre's - moved to Natick in 1960, clearing the way for the Rim Man to move from 1027 to 1001 Commonwealth Ave.
Ellis said he has modernized the sign through the years, replacing the original wood version with metal panels. He said that when the sign was painted most recently, workers found bullet holes in the panels. "We're not sure if it was from the BU students or from the old State Police headquarters across the street." said Ellis.
"When the sign comes down, it really will be the end of an era," he said, reflecting on the Rim Man's 84-year history. During the 1970s and '80s, Ellis employed 35 full-time employees in the 40,000-square-foot building. It was a favorite haunt of several Boston athletes, including Celtics Bill Russell and Sam Jones, and former Red Sox first baseman George Scott. It also was a magnet, said Ellis, for wholesalers, students, and actors such as the late Sheldon Allman, who was the singing voice of the horse on the TV sitcom "Mr. Ed."
Jason Grossman, Ellis's nephew and the Rim Man's last general manager, plans to attend the demolition and take home a part of his family's history. "I'd like to get a piece of the sign," he noted. "I'll save it in my house."
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