Update:
MLH has created an exclusive design of AT&T & the Golden Boy – Click image for details
This Story Reads More Like a Missing Person’s Report
MISSING – Golden Boy – Last seen in Bedminster, but previously had spent time in Basking Ridge and New York City. Rumor has it that he’s in the Dallas metro area, but his head and arms have been severed. If seen, please notify his parents. But do you know the history of one of the most iconic statues in the world? Let us introduce you to the Spirit of Communications, also known as Golden Boy.
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The History of “Golden Boy”
Mother Evelyn Beatrice Longman is doing fine.
Golden Boy was born in 1914 in New York City. Commissioned in 1914, the welcoming corporate parents were Western Union. His 24 foot winged body was forged, weighing a whopping 32,000 pounds. He was born with two thunderbolts in his hands, symbols of speed and communication. Born out of forged bronze and covered with thousands of pieces of 14 karat gold leaf, he was pretty large for a newborn. His first home was atop the Western Union headquarters building at 60 Hudson Street in New York City. Golden Boy’s original name was the Genius of Telegraphy.
Stable Life for the First 60 years
His creator, Evelyn Beatrice Longman, completed Golden Boy in 1914 and watched as he was lifted to his first and only New York City home atop the Western Union Building at 60 Hudson Street. From that perch, Golden Boy quietly observed the city’s ever changing skyline for nearly 60 years, standing as a gleaming symbol of Western Union and its global reach. As the corporate landscape shifted and Western Union’s legacy moved into the orbit of AT&T, Golden Boy found himself caught in the middle of a very modern kind of custody dispute.
Golden Boy’s mother, Evelyn Beatrice Longman, who sculpted Golden Boy that she “birthed” finally in 1916.
What people didn’t know is that in addition to his watchful duties over the financial district, he also served as the official lightening rod for the building! It was also noted that during the 1930s and ’40s, Golden Boy appeared on every telephone directory sent to homes across the country.
1983 – Golden Boy Stops Watching over Manhattan
After standing as a Lower Manhattan landmark for 64 years, Golden Boy was removed in 1980. He was restored and reinstalled in 1983 in the lobby of AT&T’s new headquarters at Madison Avenue and 55th Street. As AT&T Chairman Charles L. Brown remarked at the time, with the pride of a parent, “He goes where we go.”
Golden Boy’s Mid-Life Crisis
Golden Boy’s official name changed over time, mirroring the shifting identity of AT&T itself. He was first known as the Genius of Telegraphy, a nod to the company’s roots in wired communication. After AT&T faced antitrust pressure under the Sherman Act and divested its ownership stake in Western Union, the statue’s name evolved to the Genius of Electricity, reflecting a broader vision of electrical communication. By the 1930s, as the company looked toward the future of global connectivity, Golden Boy took on the name most familiar today, the Spirit of Communication.
Then came the breakup of AT&T’s monopoly, a sweeping moment in American corporate history and a story all its own. As the Bell System was dismantled in the early 1980s, AT&T’s identity and footprint began to change. Golden Boy changed with it. In 1983, following restoration, he was installed in the lobby of AT&T’s new headquarters at 555 Madison Avenue, a modern Midtown address far removed from his longtime perch above Lower Manhattan. He remained there until 1992, quietly anchoring the company’s past to a rapidly changing future, before moving on once again as AT&T continued to reinvent itself.
Pulling down the lower Manhattan landmark, he was removed in 1980, restored and installed in 1983 in the lobby of AT&T’s new headquarters. The new headquarters, sometimes called the Chippendale Building was located at 550 Madison Avenue and 55th Street. ”He goes where we go,” said AT&T chairman, Charles L. Brown.
In the 2-year, $500,000 refurbishing, the surface of Golden Boy’s bronze was smoothed by glass peening, a process similar to sandblasting. A fine glass bead is used instead of sand. It took five men four days to peen the sculpture. More than 12,500 pieces of 23-carat gold leaf were applied to protect the bronze.
Anatomy Lore – Ouch!
AT&T feared offending mid-town shoppers, and due to the company’s new building, whose postmodern-notched roof, it was nicknamed the Chippendale Building, meant Golden Boy had to be moved to the lobby. A persistent Internet rumor says that officials, concerned that the male nude could now be viewed up close and eye level, ordered Golden Boy un-gendered.
Before Golden Boy was moved to a new indoor lobby, a persistent rumor stated that officials, concerned that the male nude could now be viewed up close and eye level, ordered Golden Boy neutered. It was noted that the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AT&T from 1972 to 1979, John de Butts made the executive decision.
Rumors exist that Golden Boy’s anatomy was compromised after coming down from the rooftops.
Scaffolding was put up around Golden Boy for almost a year. When Golden Boy was unveiled, he was much more modest in his proportions (or so they say). Without its cajones, AT&T’s fate was sealed. In 1984, the castrated corporate monopoly was also broken up, and its offspring, regional Bells, were set free.
Move to the Suburbs
Basking Ridge, New Jersey: 1992-2002
When AT&T was involved in a move to 32 Avenue of the Americas off Walker Street, there was no room for Golden Boy. The 27-story landmarked Art Deco skyscraper located in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City just wasn’t suitable. As the Bell System continued to restructure due to the breakup, Golden Boy was shipped off to the suburban AT&T Operations Center in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, in 1992.
A ceremony was held when the statue crossed state lines to come to the company’s operational headquarters in Basking Ridge, where it stood until 2002. Golden Boy was back outside.The showcase headquarters campus was the envy of the corporate world from the day it opened in November 1975. Its seven low-slung buildings, attached by tunnels and walkways, hugged the hills and blended in with the countryside.
Long before the breakup of AT&T’s monopoly, the company was already reinventing itself. In 1971, AT&T opened its massive new corporate headquarters campus in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, a clear signal that the company was looking beyond its urban roots toward a new kind of corporate future. Designed as a self contained, park like environment, the campus kept cars completely out of sight in a vast underground parking garage covering roughly 15 acres and accommodating nearly 3,900 vehicles. Above ground, the setting was intentionally quiet and landscaped, more suburban retreat than corporate office park.
Inside, the headquarters was just as ambitious. The main lobby featured rich purple carpeting, and the campus boasted a two story corporate cafeteria with wood burning fireplaces, an indoor waterfall that sent an enormous volume of water cascading every minute, and even a heliport. It was a showpiece, built to project confidence, permanence, and technological leadership.
Yet even as this new headquarters opened, the communications world was beginning to shift. New technologies were emerging that would eventually transform how people connected, from early digital systems to mobile communications. AT&T was preparing for that future, but the pace of change would soon accelerate. By the time instant messaging, cell phones, and cable television entered the picture, the company would find that transformation on this scale came with real risks, and not every bet would pay off.
AT&T sadly had to unload its bucolic corporate fortress in what analysts call the beginning of the end for the once mighty giant. The AT&T campus, sprawled over 200 acres of rolling hills in horse country of northern New Jersey, is on the block for more than $300 million. Ironically, after sitting vacant for years, the headquarters was snapped up by Verizon Wireless as their corporate headquarters.
A fascinating look at the Basking Ridge Fire Company’s training video taken at AT&T headquarters (VIDEO)
Was Golden Boy be Up for Sale?
For a brief moment, it certainly sounded that way. In January 2000, AT&T began quietly looking for a new home for Golden Boy and turned once again to New York City. The idea of bringing him back was warmly received. New York City Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern publicly embraced the possibility, saying he was working to identify a site that would meet AT&T’s approval. “New York welcomes Golden Boy,” Stern said at the time. “We would put him on a pedestal with the Statue of Liberty.”
That enthusiasm was short lived. Before a final site could be agreed upon, AT&T changed course, fueling rumors that Golden Boy might be headed elsewhere or even put up for sale. By 2004, speculation swirled that the statue was on the market. In reality, it never was.
The city proposed several possible locations. One was Golden Boy’s original rooftop home at 195 Broadway near Fulton Street, by then owned by developer Peter S. Kalikow. Another option was 346 Broadway near Worth Street, a city owned office tower that had once served as the headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company and previously featured a bronze eagle on its roof. Stern himself favored a different approach altogether, suggesting Golden Boy be placed at ground level, where the public could experience him up close and personal.
In the end, Golden Boy was never sold. What looked like a possible breakup was really another chapter in a long series of relocations shaped by corporate change, logistics, and symbolism.
Bedminster, New Jersey: 2002-2009
In 2002, CEO Michael Armstrong and his leadership relocated several miles away to a more modest and rudimentary building in Bedminster. Armstrong said he had pulled down and taken with him the towering 16 short tons (roughly 32,000 pounds) gilt statue. The move was just one more painful step in AT&T’s winding down from a colossus into a struggling company selling assets to stay alive.
AT&T restored and re-gilded Golden Boy once more before transporting the him via truck from Basking Ridge five miles down the road to the Land Lines headquarters in nearby Bedminster after selling off Golden Boy’s Basking Ridge home.
Golden Boy was strapped to a flatbed and sent down US Route 287 to the AT&T GNOC Center in Bedminster, New Jersey, after the Basking Ridge property was sold off. As Golden Boy might have said, “We deployed a risky strategy to spend $110 billion on cable companies. It drove us into the ground. We dumped everything but long distance, and then watched brutal price wars destroy the business, and that’s why I’m here in Bedminster.”
Take a tour of one of the most advanced digital network operations centers in the world. (Video)
Elder Years – Moved to Warmer Climates
In 2009, still standing 24 feet high, the gilded bronze statue now resides in the lobby of AT&T’s headquarters on Akard Street in Dallas, as a symbol of one of the nation’s most famous corporate names. Sadly, they severed off his head and his thunderbolt-holding arm during the journey, only to have a series of operations to restore him to his glory days (see video below).
Golden Boy came apart into six sections – the body, the two wings, the head, the neck, and the left arm, which holds the lightning bolts. The statue was dismantled, shipped to Dallas, and carefully reconstructed over two days.
I gilded the sculpture when I was working for C. Roussel Inc. when Golden Boy went from NYC to Basking ridge NJ. I did not gild it when it went to Bedminster NJ or when it moved to Dallas. However I did help with the re-gilding of the sphere that it was moved outdoor in Dallas, which was also coordinated by C. Roussel inc. I also know as a fact that the anatomy was not altered in any way.
Bill Gauthier – Gilded the Golden Boy
2019 – Game of Thrones briefly dethrones Golden Boy
In early 2019, Golden Boy quietly stepped aside from his longtime spot in the lobby of Whitacre Tower. In his place appeared a very different kind of symbol, the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones, part of a promotional moment that quickly caught public attention. AT&T explained the move through a spokesperson, saying that as part of the ongoing effort to bring the AT&T Discovery District to life, Golden Boy would be off his platform for several months while the lobby was remodeled. The company added that he was expected to return to campus in the second half of 2019.
Officially, it was about renovations. Unofficially, the timing was hard to ignore. For a brief moment, a throne made of swords replaced a figure that had symbolized American communications for more than a century. Whether coincidence or corporate theater, it was one more reminder that even icons sometimes have to make room for the moment.
What’s Next?
Over 100 years later Golden Boy has changed surprisingly little. The gold leafed bronze figure still stands 24 feet tall weighs about 16 tons and stretches a 12 foot wingspan across the space around him. He can still be disassembled into six major sections for transport just as he was designed to be more than a century ago. One notable update came with his most recent restoration when he was re gilded in 23 carat gold replacing the original 14 carat gold leaf. Despite the jokes and rumors over the years Golden Boy remains very much intact and unmistakable.
His latest chapter places him outdoors and firmly in the public eye as part of the AT&T Discovery District in downtown Dallas. Promoting the new plaza AT&T encouraged visitors to linger. There is plenty of green space to enjoy including shaded seating at The Grove and a perfect spot to snap a selfie with Golden Boy now a century old icon welcoming a new generation. That message came directly from an AT&T spokesperson as the statue prepared for its move into the heart of the project.
The timing however was not simple. Due to COVID 19 the opening of the Discovery District was delayed. In an emailed statement AT&T spokesperson Charles Bassett said the company was continuing to monitor the situation closely and would determine an appropriate time to reschedule in the near future. By that point AT&T had already been working on the redevelopment for more than three years transforming a once closed corporate campus into an open urban gathering place.
For Golden Boy it was yet another relocation but also something new. For the first time in his long history he was no longer watching from above or standing inside a guarded lobby. Instead he was placed at ground level outdoors and accessible once again doing what he had always done best standing quietly while the world of communication changed around him.
“There’s plenty of green space for you to enjoy here. Feel free to work in the shade of The Grove (a treelined outdoor seating area), post a selfie with Golden Boy (our iconic, century-old statue).
AT&T spokesman referencing the Golden Boy Move to the new AT&T Plaza Project in downtown Dallas.
Lee Sandstead, who hosts the Travel Channel’s Art Attack, is enthusiastic, almost effusive. “This is absolutely a serious work of art, and it’s a masterpiece,” said Sandstead, an art historian. “It’s perhaps the most beautiful depiction of the male figure in American art.”
2026 Update – What’s Next for Golden Boy
As 2026 approaches, Golden Boy enters his second century still doing what he has always done best, standing watch as communications technology continues to evolve. Today, he remains a centerpiece of the AT&T Discovery District in downtown Dallas, where he greets visitors in an open public space rather than from a rooftop or behind corporate doors. In an era defined by fiber networks, wireless data, artificial intelligence, and cloud infrastructure, Golden Boy’s presence feels less like a relic and more like a reminder. Long before texts, streaming, and instant messaging, the idea of instant communication was bold enough to be cast in bronze and lifted skyward. In 2026, as the United States reflects on its own technological and civic milestones, Golden Boy stands as a rare surviving symbol of American corporate ambition that has managed to adapt rather than disappear.
Over more than 100 years, Golden Boy has been lifted, lowered, restored, and relocated at least five times, crossing cities and states as the companies around him changed. Few corporate symbols have traveled so far, or survived so many reinventions, while remaining instantly recognizable. In the end, Golden Boy’s story is not really about where he stands, but that he is still standing at all, quietly watching the next chapter of communication unfold.
Additional Information
The Spirit of Communications is currently out of view in the Whitacre Tower lobby of AT&T Headquarters. Whitacre Tower, also known as One AT&T Plaza, and formerly known as One Bell Plaza, is a 37-story high-rise in Downtown Dallas, located adjacent to the Akard Street Mall. See video below.
Take a look at Golden Boy’s home at the new Dallas attraction called “Discovery District – Click Here
Bill again
its not gilded in 23k its gilded in 23.75 karat gold also it was never gilded in 14 karat gold
14 karat gold is mostly silver 1. it would tarnish 2. its silver colored
I appreciate the love dedicated to this piece but its important to get the facts straight especially about the anatomy – that myth still bothers me its click bait
Thank you Bill Gauthier, you primary source you!
23.75k because getting absolutely pure gold is much more expensive? Or is there any on-purpose additive?
Thanks.
Thanks for sharing! I don’t remember ever hearing about the ‘Golden Boy’ statue. I worked for SWBT for 28 plus years before retiring in 2003, due to disability. I hope this iconic figure can be enjoyed for
next 100 years.
Think Golden Boy should be returned to NYC where he started out (or NJ) & definitely not Texas. A NY landmark of a once great Company.
Thank you for providing a great little history lesson on this guy. I used to walk by Golden Boy on a semi-regular basis. I worked for a New Jersey ad agency whose bread-and-butter client was AT&T. I would deliver documents and artwork to clients, and the Bedminster, NJ campus was one of the locations I would frequent.
Golden Boy will be with me forever. His likeness appears on the face of a watch I received from AT&T as a service anniversary gift. I have no recollection of how many years I had to work for AT&T to receive this gift.
What an insightful post! It’s fascinating to learn about the challenges AT&T’s Golden Boy faced throughout his life. The local history angle adds depth to the story, and it’s incredible how much perseverance he demonstrated. Thank you for shedding light on this often-overlooked figure!
The previous remark about 14K gold is inaccurate. Typically gold is alloyed with copper (not silver) which patinates more ready than it tarnishes. And of course gold itself is notoriously inert.