The Los Angeles River Cats "Drivers traveling north along Burbank-Glendale section of Golden State Freeway are greeted by an unusual sight - faces of five cats leering at them from across the Los Angeles River channel. Leo Limon painstakingly sketched various cat expressions on storm drain tension lids that open into the river. Normally closed, lids keep children from crawling around the underground pipes and tunnels. Photo is dated July 29, 1960. With help from the city, Leo hired youth from different high schools, working with them to paint over 30 feline faces. Cats were chosen because the storm drains themselves look like a cat’s face with the sealing hinges appearing as pointy ears and the doors themselves being a circular shape like a cat’s face." Source: LAPL I remember looking for these on my trips on the 5 freeway to visit my grandparents who lived in Glendale at the time. I noticed there were many different expressions painted with different colors. Some of the vegetation in the river began obscuring the cats. Graffiti was also beginning to deface them as well. After a while I stopped paying attention to them. I'm not sure whats happened with them in the last 30 years.
The Jalopy Journal
