Arts & Collections

For more than fifty years, real estate mogul and cultural preservationist Michael A. Pollack has quietly built one of the most extraordinary private collections in America – now certified by Guinness World Records as the largest collection of advertising statues in the world.

Hidden inside his 31,000-square-foot Mesa, Arizona headquarters is a 7,000-square-foot museum packed with more than 141 rare Baranger animated displays and over 8,000 three-dimensional brand mascots, mechanical figures, and commercial artifacts. From the Jolly Green Giant to Bob’s Big Boy to a life-size Esso Tiger, Pollack’s museum is a time capsule of American advertising ingenuity and pop-culture storytelling – and he’s finally opening the vault to share the stories behind these iconic characters.

Kitsch

This one-of-a-kind collection of kitchy, funny, surprising, they-(literally!)-don’t-build-’em-like-that-anymore 3D advertisements – scenes, characters, and mascots, that light up, whirl, make noise and tell a story – comes from high-end holiday window displays, made to hawk everything from soda pop to cigarettes in stores across the USA. The story of the items is fabulous, as is the story of the man who scoured the country to save these rare pieces of Americana and commercial culture.

At the heart of Pollack’s museum is a rare Baranger display. From 1929 to 1959, Baranger Studio in South Pasadena crafted animated motion pieces that told whimsical stories – cowboys, romance, space travel, ocean adventures, even wedding rings. Jewellers rented these displays under contract and rotated them monthly in shop windows. With only about 30 of each type ever made, they circulated frequently and remained scarce. Today, many of these mechanical gems are preserved in Pollack’s collection. Also featured in the collection are –

• The Jolly Green Giant, still towering and leafy decades later.
• Bob’s Big Boy, grinning with his burger hoisted high.
• A life-size Hamm’s Beer Bear twirling on a motorcycle.
• The rare Bosch Battery Man, discovered hidden in a coffin in East Berlin.
• A Squirt Boy statue in his green shirt, frozen mid-slogan.
• A life-size Esso Tiger, once the king of gas station entrances.
• Old Crow bourbon’s wing-flapping, unicycle-pedaling mascot.
• Lipton Tea displays and a wooden Cutty Sark ship that once drew shoppers to grocers.
• More than 140 Baranger Studios animated displays, magical and historically priceless.
• A 19th-century German apothecary figurine telling a Pied Piper-like tale with cats and mice.

Neon Dreams

Pollack’s collection began over 50 years ago, when, at age twelve, he started buying and repairing electric beer signs at flea markets in San Jose, reselling them to antique stores for profit. By 23, his weekend hobby became a business after he discovered a warehouse holding more than 150 animated life-size advertising figures by the Paul Stanley Company.

Stanley, who launched his San Francisco business in the late 1940s, created oversized motion displays for brands like Pepsi, Hamm’s, Lone Star, and Burgie Brewery. Produced through the late 1960s, these elaborate figures were mechanically complex, highly thematic, and built to impress.

Since then, Pollack has travelled the globe, scoured California’s mountains, and even bought extra airplane seats to safely transport fragile artefacts home.

“I see myself as curator of this incredible history,” he said. “I’m proud that Guinness World Records recognised my collection. My goal was always to preserve these pieces for future generations—it never occurred to me I’d set a record. Each item is part of international advertising history.”

Pollack’s museum has earned global recognition: a Guinness World Records representative toured the collection and the Louvre exhibited photographs of his pieces. To safeguard them, the museum remains private, secured, and climate-controlled.

Occasionally, Pollack opens the space for charitable fundraisers, where guests experience the collection in full motion – the antique circus world springing to life with sound, light, and movement. For broader access, he offers a virtual tour online and displays select artefacts at Pollack Tempe Cinemas. He’s also in talks with major U.S. institutions to publicly showcase parts of the collection for the first time.

Looking ahead, a book may chronicle his most storied arteifacts. For now, boxes still arrive daily from around the globe – each one adding another fragment of advertising history.

About the Museum

Founded in 2000 alongside the Mesa headquarters of Michael A. Pollack Investments, the museum is home to the world’s largest collection of advertising memorabilia, with 141 Baranger displays and more than 8,000 three-dimensional pieces spanning from the late 1800s to the present. If you would like to see Michael Pollack’s Advertising Museum for yourself you can visit his online website at https://pollackmuseum.com.

Images Courtesy: Pollack Advertising Museum.

See also: Asprey Studio Announces Collection of Marvel Characters

previous

Asprey Studio Announces Collection of Marvel Characters