Southwest Highway's Big Chief is Ready for His Makeover

Photos: Oak Lawn’s iconic Big Chief, said to be the world’s largest cigar store Indian, at 9630 Southwest Highway in front of Cardinal Liquor Barn. Business owner Najib “Jim” Shirazi points out repairs to the pedestal, and power washing under the chief’s skirt. The chief’s headdress.

He’s Oak Lawn’s most famous landmark, spirited away from a neighboring tobacconist. For more than three decades he’s scoured the Southwest Highway horizon clutching his bundle of cigars at three different locations.

Big Chief, as he’s come to be known by the locals, is said to be the world’s largest cigar store Indian, topping out at 26-and-a-half feet in front of Cardinal Liquor Barn, 9630 Southwest Highway, Oak Lawn.

On Wednesday, restoration work will begin on the massive Native American tribal chief , who will be getting a new paint job and undergoing repairs so that he may be around for many more moons on Southwest Highway.

Big Chief’s current papa and owner of Cardinal Liquor, Najib “Jim” Shirazi, fell in love with the giant Indian the first time he saw him on the roof of Cook County Cigar in 1996.

“I was mesmerized, I couldn’t take my eyes off him,” Shirazi said. “Little did I know then that I would one day own him.”

When Cook County Cigar went out of business in 1998, Shirazi offered to buy the owner’s inventory, provided he throw in the chief. By then Shirazi, a Kenyan-born, trained organic chemist had grown tired of the science field and was looking for a new challenge.

“I came to Chicago from England looking for a research job. I was teaching university in England, and then at Benedictine University [in Lisle] for almost a year,” Shirazi said. “My uncle, who was a doctor, bought [Cardinal Liquor Barn]. I worked for him for five years and I enjoyed it so much that I bought the store from him.”

Big Chief was lifted off the roof of Cook County Cigar and loaded on to a flatbed truck for his three-block ride down Southwest Highway, where he was resettled at the store’s original location. When the business outgrew the space, Shirazi bought the building next door. The chief was moved again in 2000, where Cardinal Liquor Barn has been ever since.

“I’ve probably spent $30,000 moving him,” Shirazi said. “A pad had to be built and embedded into the ground. It’s a lot of work.”

The chief was power washed on Monday to clean off the grime from Southwest Highway, including under his skirt, in preparation for Wednesday’s paint job. Repairs were also made to Big Chief’s pedestal.

“Most of the damage on the pad came from people standing on it over the years to take pictures,” Shirazi said.

Shirazi says the chief, who has a chapter dedicated to him in Roadside America, will be brightened by a new color scheme. The band on Big Chief’s headdress will be painted gold, with more detail added to the chief’s plumage. The pedestal will be painted Arizona mountain-red, and the chief’s buckskins will be a deeper, richer brown.

Harkening back to his days as a semi-pro cricket player in England, where Shirazi attended university, Big Chief’s blue belt and sash will be painted a snappy British-racing green.

“Big Chief hasn’t been painted in 15 years,” Shirazi said. “He’s due. I’m just surprised there aren’t more accidents with passing cars slowing down to see him.”

The tradition of using Indians to advertise tobacco shops dates back to 1617 in England, according to the Cigar Store Indian Statue Co., of Indianapolis. Small, carved wooden figures referred to as “Virginie men” were placed on countertops, depicting what British artists imagined Native Americans to look like from the Virginia tobacco flowing into Europe.

Professional carvers made most of England’s 17th century cigar store Indians, who fashioned the mythical figureheads on ship bows and masts. The idea made its way back across the pond to the United States. The cigar store Indian, like the striped barber’s pole and apothecary’s mortar and pestle, helped the illiterate urban masses, who could not read signs, identify specific businesses.

Bob Shaski, owner of Cook County Cigar, paid $14,000 to Creative Display Inc. of Sparta, WI, in 1980 to craft Big Chief from a 20-inch mold. The company also created the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame’s four-story “Shrine to Anglers,” featuring a giant musky in Hayward, WI.

After Big Chief, the world’s largest cigar store Indian was completed, Shirazi said that Shaski made the company “break the mold in front of him.”

Over the years, Shirazi has had many offers to sell the chief.

“A guy from Texas was here taking pictures with his wife. He asked if I was willing to sell the chief and I said absolutely not,” Shirazi said. “Other people have asked if I wanted to sell him, but this guy was serious. I wouldn’t even go there. Big Chief is staying in Oak Lawn.”

Shirazi invites residents to come by and watch Big Chief’s makeover, which is expected to start on Wednesday morning. Painting and restoration will take two or three days.