Lucille Ball Fans Want Nightmarish Statue Banished From Memorial Park
A nightmarish, unflattering bronze statue of Lucille Ball in Celoron, New York, has been giving its residents the downright creeps since 2009. Now one dedicated Lucy fan is going to battle with the village to get rid of it.
The anonymous fan told Yahoo! News that the current statue is beyond repair and a new one, far more worthy of the comedy legend, should be erected in the Lucille Ball Memorial Park.
“I think it looks like a monster. That is just my opinion. When you see it at night, it is frightening.”
This anonymous fan and his compatriots in the fight against the comedienne’s bronze likeness have taken to Facebook since 2012 – the group’s rather straightforward name is “We Love Lucy! Get Rid of This Statue” – to bring the battle to Celoron’s doorstep, Headline News added.
No one is really arguing with this group that the statue is quite unsettling. But it’s not a simple matter of getting the original sculptor to fix it or hiring someone else to do a better job. Celoron’s mayor refuses to use taxpayer dollars to pay for a new one and is having a hard time getting the money elsewhere, he told the Post-Journal.
Trouble is, the man responsible for the sculpture of Lucille Ball, Dave Poulin, wont’ fix it for free, Mayor Scott Schrecengost said. He wants to charge the village up to $10,000, and a new sculptor could charge $5,000 to start from scratch. All efforts to fund the replacement statue through grants failed. A fund has been set up and some cash put aside, but the mayor is a bit frustrated the campaign.
“These people on Facebook need to realize that we’re all aware that (the statue) doesn’t look like (Lucille Ball) and needs to be fixed. We’re just working on getting the funds to do that.”
The bronze sculpture was commissioned by two Celoron residents and fans. Ball lived in the town for a time and is from nearby Jamestown, where a Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum & Center for Comedy holds a comedy festival every year.
That Poulin created an effigy that has so unsettled and enraged Lucille Ball fans is strange – he is an accomplished sculptor, with 100 bronze figures all over Jamestown, the country, and the world. But for her fans, those credentials bring little solace and the campaign continues.
“Lucille Ball was not only an amazing comedienne, but she was a stunning beauty. Her sense of humor only made her more beautiful. This statue looks nothing like the beautiful Lucy we all know. If for no other reason than that… the statue should go.”
[Photos Courtesy Facebook and Hulton Archive/Getty Images]
