The unveiling of the new statue is just one of many Lucille Ball celebrations in store for the comedy queen’s 105th birthday, including TV marathons and a festival in her hometown.
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She could hardly do worse than Dave Poulin, whose 2009 version was so thoroughly panned as looking nothing like the comic actress that a Facebook campaign was launched previous year with the name “We Love Lucy!”.
Palmer unanimously won a national competition consisting of over 65 sculptors to create the new Lucy statue. Everyone joined in to sing the theme song to “I Love Lucy” and “Happy Birthday” to Ball, mobbing the sculpture and artist for a stream of selfies and portraits that stretched well into the afternoon.
The Lucille Ball Comedy Festival is going on now in Jamestown, NY.
Three years later, the story of the growing number of fans joining the call for a new statue went viral, prompting Celoron Mayor Scott Schrecengost to organize a committee to find another sculptor to make a new statue.
There’s a new Lucy in town.
However, the old statue is likely to stay put as it has become a unique tourist attraction in the “I Love Lucy” star’s home.
The tribute has been nine months in the making.
“You have to feel the person you’re sculpting or else it doesn’t come true”, she said, going on to note how hard it is to produce a three-dimensional version of such a famous face that everyone agrees is accurate.
Palmer made sure Lucy had two-and-a-half inches of heels and hair to keep her true to life. “I feel that I embodied a proud Lucy that’s confident”.
“Overall, I just really, really hope that I please the town of Celoron, please Lucy’s family and all her fans”.
Palmer’s past projects include sculptures of Pope Francis, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Orville and Wilbur Wright, and Thomas Jefferson. His offer to redo the piece for free was declined.
Yahoo reports that the anonymous man behind the page says he’s a ‘big fan of Lucy’s’.
In her own words: “She was a stunning woman”. Her sense of humor only made her more attractive, ‘ he told the site.
“Even though the other statue is called “Scary Lucy” or ‘Ugly Lucy, ‘ whatever the people want to call it, it’s still artwork and not all artwork is handsome”.
If Palmer had it in her all along I’m not really sure what happened with the first one, because that thing was ugly.
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‘I think it looks like a monster. ‘When you see it at night, it is frightening’. And speaking of statues, Ball even posed as a statue in a classic I Love Lucy episode, “The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue”.
