Finally…a visit to Rodia’s Towers, an homage to Marco Polo and a desire to be remembered

Sabato ‘Simon’ Rodia was a small man, only 4 foot 11 inches tall.  Somewhere inside him, however, was a goal to ‘do something big’ so he would be remembered, he said in an interview in late life.  He succeeded, although he may have doubted it for a while after he finished the amazing Towers in his back yard in Watts and then in 1958 moved away, never to return.

In another interview Rodia explained that the towers were inspired by Marco Polo’s ship. For whatever it is worth, Rodia was illiterate. He immigrated to the U.S. when young and never attended school, so it is unlikely he ever read the Polo book, but he was active in the Italian-American Society and was familiar with the great men of Italy.  The three tallest towers represent masts of Polo’s ship.  In one photo, below, you can see the ‘sail’; in another one the ‘helm’.

A few years later after his death at age 80 the small house on the property burned down and the City of Los Angeles issued a demolition order for Rodia’s work, but intervention by then-student-later-film-editor William Cartwright, his wife, Carol, and actor Nicholas King saved the massive sculpture.  They purchased the entire property from the neighbors who owned it.

Today, the Watts Towers are recognized as an American treasure, being listed in the National Register for Historic Places, but it is having to struggle these days to get enough funds from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department to support its operations.

Here are some photos I took on a hot, glaringly bright Sunday in late September.