This Rembrandt Films release from 1957 titled “The Towers” is produced by Antonio M. Vellani and directed and photographed by William Hale. The film tells the story of Simon Rodia and the impressive structure that he built in the Watts enclave adjacent to Los Angeles, known as the “Watts Towers”. Sabato (“Simon” or “Sam”) Rodia (1879/1980 — 1965) was born and raised in Serino, Italy where he was exposed to a tradition of the festival season where large Gigli (wooden obelisks sometime measuring 25 meters in height) are carried in a procession. In 1895, aged fifteen, Rodia emigrated to the USA with his brother, and settled in Watts in 1920. Rodia began construction around his home in 1921. This grew into the Watts Towers (or Towers of Simon Rodia), an impressive collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics. Most are constructed from steel rebar and Rodia’s own concoction of a type of concrete, wrapped with wire mesh and embedded with pieces of salvaged porcelain, tile, glass and other items. Some parts of the property resemble a church or cathedral, and from at least one vantage point the site resembles a sailing ship. After Rodia’s death, the Towers were threatened with destruction but saved after surviving a structural integrity test; the Towers remain open to the public to this day and are a popular tourist attraction.

“The Towers” title banner (00:15). Watts Station built in 1904 in Watts, Los Angeles, California (00:22). Mobile homes (trailer houses) in the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles (00:39). A group of men gathered on the side of a street (00:51). Train tracks (00:59). A man picks up a piece from a broken cup on the tracks (01:06). The man is walking down the tracks and is revealed to be Sabato (“Simon” or “Sam”) Rodia, an Italian immigrant construction worker and tile mason (01:12). He walks off the tracks and strolls through Watts (01:23). He arrives at The Watts Towers (Towers of Simon Rodia), a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artist’s original residential property in Watts (01:42). Views of the Watts Towers (01:44). Footage of Rodia’s house (02:36). Photographs of a young Rodia and artwork hanging on the walls of his house (02:49). Views of Rodia working on wood outside his house (03:19). He sorts through his stock of broken tile and ceramic pieces found by him (03:39). Broken glass bottles (03:48). Rodia climbs up one of the towers carrying a bucket (04:02). View of the towers behind houses on residential streets (04:43). Footage of the neighboring houses to Rodia (05:03). Birds-eye-view into Rodia’s garden where he looks through his collection of glass, tiles, and ceramic pieces (05:19). Rodia is polishing a broken tile mosaic construction (05:50). View of one tower (06:16). Footage of Rodia sitting on the ground working with metal wires (06:32). He sits and looks across the train tracks and his neighborhood (06:58). The Watts Towers (07:04). Close-up of Simon Rodia (07:15). The Watts Towers (07:22). Rodia uses the train tracks to bend metal pieces by hand (07:39). A variety of hammers, other tools, and random finds (07:55). Rodia’s hands showing the result of decades of physical labor (08:09). Close-up footage of the towers’ wired construction and mosaic decorations (08:17). Footage of Rodia working on a mosaic wall (09:57), and working at his work bench while smoking a cigarette (10:21). Views of the high points of the towers against the backdrop of a blue sky (10:35). Close-up footage of the construction and details of the towers (10:48). Footage of the Watts Towers (11:02). Rodia’s signature consisting of an imprint of his tools and his initials (11:24). Simon Rodia (11:32). The imprint of his initials (11:48). Credits (11:57).

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