Why there’s a stuffed gorilla outside an Everett vacuum store

Looming large on the sidewalk is a shaggy gorilla and a 10-foot vacuum cleaner.

It’s the King Kong of Evergreen Way.

But this gorilla isn’t rampaging the city. He’s trying to clean it up.

The sidewalk duo are a roadside attraction at Clean City Vacuum, 6628 Evergreen Way, near Madison Street.

Ever wonder: What’s up with that?

The stuffed gorilla came with the store when Dale Silbaugh bought it a dozen years ago.

“It was, I thought, very tacky,” Silbaugh said. “So I had taken it into the back of the warehouse and I was going to trash it. Before I could do that, a little old lady driving by stopped and came in says, ‘Where’s the gorilla?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m throwing it away,’ and she says, ‘You can’t do that.’ I says, ‘Why not?’ She goes, ‘That’s how I know where I’m at on this street, is when I see that gorilla.’”

OK, maybe she had a point. Evergreen Way is a muddled strip of business after business and it’s easy to lose your bearings.

“So, he’s still here, even though I think he’s tacky,” Silbaugh said. “His name is Fred. An employee named him.”

He later got the giant vacuum from a Yakima store that went out of business so Fred would have company on those long stints on the sidewalk.

People often stop to take photos with their arms wrapped around Fred, who goes inside the shop after hours. Man and ape work the same hours. It’s only fair.

Fred has a cousin, GorVac, at a vacuum store in Redmond owned by Silbaugh’s sister.

GorVac (it stands for gorilla and vacuum) is dressed as a clown.

Seems a gorilla peddling vacuums isn’t some local quirk. A Google search turned up vacuum stores in Texas, Arkansas, Florida and Canada using this form of gorilla advertising.

And, yeah, most sport goofy outfits. The gorilla at Hillbilly Vac Shack in Canada wears a striped prison outfit.

Fred prefers the au naturel gorilla look. He dons a straw hat at times. That’s as fancy as he gets.

There are little vac critters at their feet: A vaca-gator. A rhino-vac. An vaca-lope. A pig-uum.

“People drop off their dead vacuums and we’ll recycle them,” Silbaugh said. “When we see one that has the shape of an animal or we can see an animal in it, we’ll take it apart and build an animal. Sometimes it takes three or four different vacuums to build a single animal.”

He got the idea from a vacuum store in Seattle. “They have little cars and trains and they have a Space Needle that they made out of old vacuums. I was taking a vacuum apart and I thought, man, if I cut that off it would look like antlers.”

Silbaugh isn’t just crafty. Saving vacuums is his way of saving the planet.

“Instead of throwing them in the trash, we take the motors out, the cords off and recycle the metal. We try to keep the dump free of old vacuums,” he said.

“We don’t just tear them apart. We fix them. A lot of people will throw a vacuum away and all it needs is a belt or the brush roll to be cleaned. It’s sad, but it’s life.”

Vacuums are his life. “I’ve never worked anywhere else.”

His dad owned a vacuum store. Continuing the family tradition, one of his sons now works with him. The other son is an accountant at an aerospace company.

Fred does PR.

Silbaugh’s glad he kept the tacky ape.

“People say, ‘Go to the vacuum store, the one with the gorilla.’”

Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown.

What’s up with that?

Ever see things around the county and wonder “What’s up with that?”

Sure you do! “What’s Up With That?” is a new weekly feature in Good Life on Tuesdays.

Send your suggestions to Andrea Brown: Email: abrown@heraldnet.com. Mail: P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206-0930. Post on the blog www.heraldnet.com/whatsup. Questions? Call 425-339-3443.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

The Moonlight Swing Orchestra will play classic sounds of the Big Band Era on April 21 in Everett. (submitted photo)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Relive the Big Band Era at the Port Gardner Music Society’s final concert of the season in Everett.

2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD (Honda)
2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD

Honda cedes big boy pickup trucks to the likes of Ford, Dodge… Continue reading

Would you want to give something as elaborate as this a name as mundane as “bread box”? A French Provincial piece practically demands the French name panetiere.
A panetiere isn’t your modern bread box. It’s a treasure of French culture

This elaborately carved French antique may be old, but it’s still capable of keeping its leavened contents perfectly fresh.

(Judy Newton / Great Plant Picks)
Great Plant Pick: Mouse plant

What: Arisarum proboscideum, also known as mouse plant, is an herbaceous woodland… Continue reading

Bright green Japanese maple leaves are illuminated by spring sunlight. (Getty Images)
Confessions of a ‘plantophile’: I’m a bit of a junky for Japanese maples

In fact, my addiction to these glorious, all-season specimens seems to be contagious. Fortunately, there’s no known cure.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Hyundai)
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited

The 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited is a sporty, all-electric, all-wheel drive sedan that will quickly win your heart.

The 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T hybrid’s face has the twin red lines signifying the brand’s focus on performance. (Dodge)
2024 Hornet R/T is first electrified performance vehicle from Dodge

The all-new compact SUV travels 32 miles on pure electric power, and up to 360 miles in hybrid mode.

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

Don’t blow a bundle on glass supposedly made by the Henry William Stiegel

Why? Faked signatures, reused molds and imitated styles can make it unclear who actually made any given piece of glass.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.