Well, after much effort, Dan (Superunderdoggie) and I got inside the famed Mego Warehouse on Long Island. And yes, there is a mural. BUT…
At first and at second try, both Dan and I had been refused entrance to the property. I don’t think it was out of malice or anything, but rather just the general sense of security that companies have these days. It really is just a pretty simple, non-descript storage facility. But then again, it was the pretty simple, non-descript MEGO storage facility some 30 years ago. So we tried another route. I used some of media cred to try to talk some of the upper management into convincing the on-site management to let us in. After a bit of haggling, it was approved and today was the day.
The building-
Dan in the lobby. Now that paneling HAD to be left over from the Mego days!
Inside-
The manager of the place was pretty nice and walked us around. He seemed interested in the history of the property and asked us some questions regarding the warehouse and the adjacent building (now owned by a separate company). In fact, he told us the story about how a few years back, the floor began to collapse in a certain area. They weren’t sure why until they discovered a previously unknown (to them, anyway. They had but to sign on to the Mego Museum or buy Benjamin’s book and they would have known about the) underground tunnel. It had apparently been sealed off with cement before each property was sold separately. So the present owners just covered it up, reinforced it and forgot about it. There is a legend at the warehouse that there’s still a forklift in there. Dan and I, of course, were wondering if there were any other Mego artifacts. If only they would have allowed us to use a few, tiny sticks of dynamite.
You can see a bit of the depression and cracks in the ground. Its right beneath dock #14 that the tunnel still exists.
The two buildings they do own are now connected buy an additional cement room. When Mego owned the property they were two separate buildings with parking in between. We walked though to the rear building to find on the back two walls, about 40 yards long on one side and another 60-70 on the adjacent wall, a huge mural. Now the mural is covered by metal shelving units, stacked with various merchandise. You can’t see a lot of it, but you can see enough. I always pictured it to a be filled toys or at least the characters Mego had licensed. It is not. It is simple park setting, with lots of green grass and people strolling, sitting, jogging, etc. Mostly its just grass. The other odd thing was that it looked signed by someone called Meryl. The date attached was 1983-4. If this was, indeed, the artist signing his work, that would mean this mural was painted AFTER Mego.
Some of the Mural-
More of what you can see-
That made us wonder if this mural had or had not been the legendary one gracing the Mego warehouse back in the glorious “day.” The other question I had was where the legendary Mego mural was in the warehouse. I always thought it was in a lunch room. The manager, however, told us there are no water lines that far into the building. They wanted to add a bathroom back there but couldn’t. Had Mego used that area as a break room they would have surely had some sort of water supply. And if the new owners had decided to not use the water, they would have simply capped the pipes rather than go to the major hassle of taking them out.
All in all, there was absolutely no evidence that Mego ever housed these properties. We, of course, know it to be true, but there was even an old sign or pen. Dan even checked a few breaker boxes just to make sure none indicated the power to “Marty’s Office.” Not even the bathrooms contained any archeological finds. Still it was cool to walk around, thinking of the floor-to ceiling toys that once were stacked here.
Back on the Shelves-
So after seeing 2 of the 3 former Mego buildings and thinking this was not the mural of legend, Dan and I thought we needed to see the now separately owned building. The one to which the underground tunnel led. They, however, left their position to no uncertainties- no one but employees could enter. I doubt there would have been anything to prove that a once mighty toy company lived there, but we wanted to see while we there. Oh well. That part of the mystery lives on.
I do have more pictures, but am having my usual bouts of computer illiteracy. I'll keep trying and maybe Dan can post some of his.
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