Jul 27, 2007 3:06 pm US/Central
Bicycle Group Rides To Save Berwyn Car Spindle
Roadside Artwork Was Featured in 'Wayne's World'
BERWYN, Ill. (CBS) ―
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The 'Spindle' in Berwyn
CBS
A crowd of bicyclists on Friday plans to ride from downtown Chicago to Berwyn to protest the likely demolition of the stack of cars on a spike that was featured in the movie "Wayne's World."
The group Critical Mass hopes to get 2,000 participants to ride their bikes from Daley Plaza to the Cermak Plaza shopping center, about 14 miles away at Harlem Avenue and Cermak Road, where the roadside artwork, called "Spindle" is located.
The "Spindle" features eight classic cars on a giant spike. It is also known as the Eight Care Pileup or the Car Kabob, was built in 1989 and gradually became a tourist attraction.
It was featured with several other Chicago area landmarks in a scene in the 1992 movie "Wayne's World," in which Mike Myers' "Wayne" and Dana Carvey's "Garth" are supposed to be driving through Aurora and singing along to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."
But a developer wants to tear down the Spindle to make way for a new Walgreens drugstore.
The sculpture could be moved, but it would cost more than $300,000.
Critical Mass is one of several groups that have congregated on the Web in an effort to save the sculpture. The Berwyn Arts Council and other municipal groups have also supported keeping the Spindle up.
State Sen. Martin A. Sandoval (D-Chicago) has sponsored a Senate resolution to save the Spindle.
But Berwyn Mayor Michael O'Connor has expressed doubts that city residents would be willing to kick in tax dollars. "The Spindle has always been a controversial thing,'' he noted.
Spindle creator Dustin Shuler has called the dismantling "painful" and "a loss for Chicago."
"Personally, I would have moved the Walgreens (site) and left the Spindle where it is," said Shuler, speaking earlier this month from southern California.
The budget for the piece when it was built $75,000 and "we went over that,'' Shuler recalled. The foundation, he said, "is hellacious -- it's 30 feet into the ground.'"
O'Connor said earlier this month that ownership of the mall "is at odds with each other: Part wants to (move) it and part wants to take it down and junk it. So we have a little bit of a dilemma."
When then-mall owner David Bermant commissioned the work 18 years ago, an angry Berwyn resident said the sculpture would make the town "the laughingstock of the western suburbs," while a local elected official decried it as "more junk up our gazoos." Shuler, who came up with the idea by playing with toy cars, said of the design: "I just thought it was cool."
Today, the Spindle is touted in several travel guides, including one that lists it under "Road Cheese.''
O'Connor earlier this month lamented the rust and pigeon waste that pockmarks the cars but said "from a marketing standpoint, I like the Spindle."
The stars of "Wayne's World" were asked whether they might be interested in saving the Spindle.
Dana Carvey has not been reached for comment. A publicist for Myers e-mailed earlier this month, "Unfortunately, Mike is going to pass."
The Critical Mass ride is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at Daley Plaza.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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