Tale of Leon the Giraffe

So known is Leon that he is the site for our family to meet in an emergency if somehow our home is not safe. I feel as if he has been there forever, but of course I know that he has not. At one point, someone decided to sculpt him and put all 13 feet of him in the northeast corner of Central Park. But how and why?

Well, the internationally known sculptor Al Guibara presented Leon as a gift to the city in 1978, which is forever ago for some folks. He named the life-sized sculpture after his dad, who, according to “San Mateo, A Centennial History,” by Mitch Postel, owned a toy store on Fourth Avenue. One street over, on Third Avenue, Guibara also has a different sculpture, one of two enormously tall shoppers. He also has other sculptures throughout the city, including a tortoise on the Mills Medical Center campus. His sculptures are almost always bronze, though early newspaper accounts say Leon was made of both brass and copper. Lucky.

We here at the Daily Journal are also lucky because our summer correspondent Rachel McCrea spent a great deal of time down in the county’s Historical Association archives looking up information on all sorts of things she was working on and she also happened to round up a few articles on Leon’s origin story. The sculpture was apparently the brainchild of the mayor at the time, Jim Chalmers, who apparently jumped at the idea of Guibara doing something for the city and said, “Great! Super! A super giraffe! People will love it.”

Guibara apparently spent weeks at the San Francisco Zoo to get more of an idea of giraffes.

All the stories are from the now departed San Mateo Times. It seems the reporters and headline writers had a good time with this one, from highlighting the lively banter between Al and his dad Leon when the sculpture donation was launched, to the headline, “Flying Giraffe to Land in City Park,” when it was decided how it was to be installed in Central Park. The date of the installation was May 27, 1978, which means we just passed his 45th birthday and will be heading to his 50th birthday in 2028. Might be a reason to celebrate like they did on the date of installation with 100 kids and cake, candy and drinks. Each kid received a “Happy Birthday Leon” T-shirt as well. The cake was a 4-foot depiction of Leon. I’m sure Kathy can take care of something like that.

According to Times article of April 4, 1978, the sculpture was accepted by the city with the following verbiage included in the resolution that made Leon an official resident of Central Park: “Whereas San Mateo sculptor Albert Guibara has created a copper and brass giraffe sculpture of great artistic merit … and he desires to present said giraffe sculpture and plaque as a gift to the people of the city, this council accepts with gratitude, on behalf of the people of San Mateo, Albert Guibara’s gift of a giraffe sculpture.”

Just before the official acceptance, in March, a Times article by the eloquent Vera Graham stated, “the whole town can come and enjoy his smiling, glistening happiness-giving beauty. He’s going to share lots of secrets with the kids over the years.

“And he’ll have a big message for the grown folks: “Smile. Life can’t be that bad. Not while someone can create a Leon to make others happy.”

Now, more than 45 years later, I know how Leon came to be, and it is my wish that he remains for centuries more as a meeting place, a gathering place and a little piece of whimsy and joy.

Thanks Al.

Jon Mays is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Journal. He can be reached at jon@smdailyjournal.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @jonmays.