LA Profiles - Rocket Man
by Elizabeth Schneider

Baron Margo        Photos's courtesy of Gallery of Functional Art.

If you thought you saw a rocket zooming past you on the road stop rubbing your eyes. It was just Baron Margo out for a drive. When he was 12, Margo began perfecting the task of turning his fantasy cars into drivable machines, so by the time he reached the permissible driving age of 16 he had "something up and running" on the roads. From his head to his hammer, so to speak, rarely does Margo ever sketch a design – either for his cars or his other creations.

Everything this man puts together is one of a kind. His converted garage workshop attached to his Echo Park home could easily be mistaken for a setting in a Jules Verne novel, complete with discarded computer components and pieces of brass, copper and aluminum from every machine imaginable, which are expertly converted into ships, animals, satellites, robots, tanks, creatures and, of course, cars. Wood, bones, glass, feathers, circuit boards and jewels adorn every object, bringing his inventions to life. Lift up the metal belly of the 8-foot robot to reveal a color TV remote control with cable and he tells the time. Everything has a dual function.

His "watch dogs," the bases of which are made from old shoe shine machines, feature a clock in the belly of the body. His rockets serve as lamps. Nothing is wasted.

His house, a labyrinth of odds and ends collected over 40 years, provides the perfect quarters for his contraptions since it is another of his creations. From the floors to the doors, it was crafted by his own hands. The fantasy dragsters, small and large robots, rockets and dragonflies blend in perfectly until you have to duck the satellite, with more than 100 lights, that hangs from the ceiling.

Like most of his pieces, they have a bit of Los Angeles history in them as well. "I was lucky enough to get three of the discarded lights that used to be around Echo Park Lake," Margo says of the base of one of the larger satellites. Most of the material used in his projects comes from scrap and metal yards from San Diego to Ontario, but recently people have begun to leave boxes of – for lack of a better word – stuff outside his gate.

One wall of the workshop displays his "space guns," all intricately
detailed, which made an appearance in "Men in Black." Featured in the recently released "Men in Black 2" will be one of his rocket cars.

What boggles him the most is that most people are surprised that his inventions function just as they are designed.

"They asked me how I got the car to the set," he says of the rocket car. "I told them I drove it. They were amazed that it actually worked." His garage is a gearhead’s fantasy come true, housing an old converted racing Porsche now retired from the streets.

"It was like driving a go-cart that goes 100 miles per hour," Margo says. Deemed too dangerous, it went back to the garage.

An old Triumph and a Jaguar sleeping beauty have also been tricked out to his specifications – hints of brass and aluminum detailing, knobs and buttons galore.

The hot rods built today, he says, are "too conventional." Because of the lack of creativity in the car scene, he no longer frequents the events featuring these menacing machines.

"If you’re going to build a hot rod, create your own body," he says. "Now, it’s just who can put the most money into the vehicle. It’s 2002 – they should be driving what I’m making."

At present he’s got three cars that he use to get around town, all bearing the much-needed permits of the California Highway Patrol.

His boat, a remarkable example of his imagination, has also been retired. Although it served him well several times, the last time he and a friend tried to make a run from Marina del Rey to Redondo Beach the craft took on too much water.

"We ended up having to get out and push the thing to the Marina," he says, laughing. Since he’s not the biggest fan of long swims, the boat is now proudly displayed in the back yard.

Often, in one of his rides, Margo gets mistaken for that other Los Angeles automobile lover, "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno.

As for the similarities between the two, a love of cars is where it ends.

"He buys and restores them," Margo says. "I build them."

The rocket cars – a one-seater outfitted with a motorcycle engine, and a two-seater, which uses a regular car engine – are not cheap. The price of the latter is $120,000.

Margo does rent out his works of art for films or commercials, and a lot of pieces have been sold to private collectors, but he has never really expressed an interest in selling "in volume," just creating.