Statues

The customers pour in daily at Noodle World in Alhambra, usually expecting nothing more than a heaping plate of Thai pad see-ew or a steaming bowl of Vietnamese pho. But on occasion, they react the way Martin Moreno did when entering the restaurant for the first time. "Oh my God, there's a Bob's Big Boy," the furniture seller said, staring at a statue of a boy in checkered overalls. "In an Asian restaurant?"

He's saddled up with his feet in the stirrups and his hands on the reins. After 24 years, is it time for John Wayne to ride out of Beverly Hills and into the sunset in Newport Beach? That question was weighing heavily -- about 6 tons in all -- at Wilshire Boulevard and Hamilton Drive on Thursday as word came that a landmark statue of the Duke might be uprooted and moved to Orange County.

The green patina gave the bronze statue of a gold miner a sense of antiquity, speaking to its 80 years of service in a small park in Mid-City Los Angeles. And then last week, a 22-month-old boy on his way home from day care noticed something awry in his daily routine. "No, no, no," he said from the back seat. His mother, Clara Magyar, turned to look. The 7-foot miner was gone.

The centerpiece for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the National Mall has drawn criticism from a federal arts panel, which says the proposed statue looks "confrontational" and resembles the head of a socialist state more than a civil rights leader. Models of the 28-foot-tall statue depict King emerging from a chunk of granite, his arms folded in front of his chest, his legs firmly rooted, an intense gaze on his face. But the U.S.

Just being great and retired doesn't guarantee a baseball player has the mettle for metal. Cal Ripken Jr. played in 2,632 consecutive games for the Baltimore Orioles, yet baseball's ironman has never been cast in bronze. Nor has legendary Dodgers left-hander Sandy Koufax, and that rankles San Diego freelance writer Howard Cole, whose edgy Dodgers-focused website, baseballsavvy.com, has been agitating for a Koufax statue for years. "To me, he's Los Angeles' sports hero.

A third statue was unveiled outside Staples Center on Monday, joining the likenesses of Magic Johnson and Wayne Gretzky, and you'll never guess who. Jerry West? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Chick Hearn? Think again. Think of an athlete who is not affiliated with any Staples Center team. Think of an athlete who competed in the building just once, where he was punched 284 times in a loss. Think of an athlete who is preparing for a Saturday night competition in which he will probably get pounded again.

Liberated from its shipping crates, the ancient statue drew a crowd of employees when it arrived in December 1987 at the J. Paul Getty Museum's antiquities conservation lab. The 7 1/2 -foot figure had a placid marble face and delicately carved limestone gown. It was thought to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Some who came to see it believed that the sculpture would become the greatest piece in the museum's antiquities collection. One man, however, saw trouble.

For a quarter-century, the wraithlike female figures have perched atop their corporate tower in this city's financial district, 12 shrouded statues posing a chilling existential riddle: Why no faces? From the street 23 floors below or from office windows surrounding the Philip Johnson-designed gothic high-rise, countless workers have wondered about the eerie caryatids known among local architects as the "corporate goddesses."

Elvis Presley fans will soon have a place in the islands to fondly remember why they couldn't help falling in love with the star of "Blue Hawaii." Wearing his signature flare-legged, big-collared, bejeweled and strategically snug ensemble, the King will appear in the form of a life-sized bronze statue marking the site of his historic 1973 concert "Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii." The statue will be unveiled in July in front of the Neal Blaisdell Center in Honolulu.