Los Angeles' favorite cat seems to have nine lives.
The three-sided "Felix" automobile dealership sign near downtown that has survived earthquakes, fires, riots and recession escaped another close call Thursday as the city's Cultural Heritage Commission voted to declare it a historic-cultural monument.
Commissioners rejected recommendations by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and downtown-area City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who favor redevelopment of the South Figueroa Street corner where the cartoon cat figure has loomed large for half a century.
"It is literally a modern totem pole," said sign preservation advocate Jim Childs. "It really explains the evolution of the automobile and Los Angeles."
The Felix character was borrowed from the popular 1920s cartoon "Felix the Cat" by pioneering L.A. automobile dealer Winslow Felix, who opened Felix Chevrolet in 1922 at 12th Street and Grand Avenue. Felix was a friend of filmmaker Pat Sullivan, whose animation studio created the mischievous feline character.
The large neon sign depicting a Chevrolet logo crowned by the grinning cat was erected at Figueroa and Jefferson Boulevard when new dealership owner Nick Shammas relocated the Chevrolet franchise there in 1958.
These days the dealership sells Cadillacs as well as Chevrolets, although the glowing Felix Chevrolet sign commands the view of motorists on the nearby Harbor Freeway.
The surrounding Figueroa corridor, meanwhile, is undergoing a transformation as new loft and condo developments go up between USC and the Staples Center area.
Villaraigosa and Perry have supported Figueroa's upgrading and both urged Cultural Heritage commissioners to reject monument status for the sign and the showroom beneath it.
"This site offers a tremendous opportunity for the growth of the Figueroa corridor," mayoral aide Krista Williams-Phipps told panel members. She said dealership operator Darryl Holter has offered to donate the Felix sign to a museum.
Greg Fischer, a deputy to Perry, said the councilwoman feared that the landmark designation would stymie Holter if GM requires him to remodel the showroom and "possibly inhibit the further development of auto row" in the corridor.
Holter, son-in-law of Shammas, who died in 2003, said that there are no plans to demolish the showroom, which was built in 1920 and has been remodeled numerous times over the years. But he stressed that the dealership may face changes when Shammas' elderly widow dies.
