Carl Romanelli is an
American sculptor noted for his many outdoor sculptures of famous people. Romanelli was born and raised in
Los Angeles, California. He is a seventh-generation sculptor, and his family is so well known in
Italy that a museum there is dedicated to his family's sculptural works.
Romanelli designed artware in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. For a time, he created artwork for the
Works Project Administration. Lamps, plates and pottery designed by him were issued by
Maddux of California Maddux is an English surname. It is a variant of Maddox. Notable people with the surname include:
*Don Maddux (born 1940), American politician from Ohio
*Greg Maddux (born 1966), American baseball pitcher and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, ...
,
Incolay Studios Metroluxas well as
Metlox Pottery
Metlox Pottery, strictly speaking Metlox Manufacturing Company, was a manufacturer of ceramic housewares, located at 1200 Morningside Drive, Manhattan Beach, California. The pottery factory closed in 1989.
History
Metlox Pottery was founded in ...
of California in Manhattan Beach. At Metlox, he designed (holds Patent) various glassware and pottery. In the 1960s and 1970s, he turned toward life-size statues of people, many of them designed to be displayed outdoors. Among his more notable public works are a statue of
St. Michael
Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...
outside St. Michael's Church in Los Angeles; a statue of
St. Vincent de Paul in Los Angeles; and a modern art piece outside Temple Shaarei Tikvah in
Arcadia, California
Arcadia is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located about northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. It contains a series of adjacent parks consisting of th ...
. He also designed (but did not execute) the
Joseph Scott statue outside the Stanley Mosk Courthouse building of the Los Angeles Superior Court.
His most famous work is a likeness of
Elvis Presley outside the
Las Vegas Hilton hotel. The statue was dedicated on September 8, 1978, and stood outside the property in a glass case for 28 years. In 2005, the statue was placed in storage while the facility underwent renovation. It was placed back on public display in 2006 in a courtyard inside the hotel. At one point, the statue was insured for a sizeable $1.5 million. Romanelli also was the sculptor for the Al Jolson Memorial Shrine at Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
References
*Chipman, Jack. ''Collector's Encyclopedia of California Pottery.'' Paducah, Ky.: Collector Books, 1991.
*Gibbs, Carl. ''Collector's Encyclopedia of Metlox Potteries: Identification and Values.'' Paducah, Ky.: Collector Books, 1995.
External links
"The Helmsman," a park sculpture in Los Angeles, CaliforniaAccessed August 23, 2007.
Accessed August 23, 2007.
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American people of Italian descent
Artists from Los Angeles
Sculptors from California
{{US-sculptor-stub