{"id":105413,"date":"2015-04-06T05:50:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T05:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=105413"},"modified":"2015-04-06T06:23:08","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T06:23:08","slug":"fans-want-ugly-statue-of-tv-star-taken-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=105413","title":{"rendered":"Fans want &#8216;ugly&#8217; statue of TV star taken down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some fans of Lucille Ball want her statue removed from a park in her hometown, saying the &#8220;ugly&#8221; likeness does not do justice to the &#8220;I Love Lucy&#8221; star.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The life-size bronze statue in Celoron, New York, has been likened to Conway Twitty, the snake from &#8220;Beetlejuice&#8221; and actor Steve Buscemi, among other unflattering comparisons. Even Mayor Scott Schrecengost has gone on record saying he does not care for the statue, which shows the comic star holding a bottle of fictional nutrition elixir Vitameatavegamin.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And yet, it has been a tourist draw since 2009 for Celoron, the comedian&#8217;s birthplace, attracting visitors who pose with the statue for pictures.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Capture1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-105415\" src=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Capture1.jpg\" alt=\"Capture\" width=\"685\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Capture1.jpg 685w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Capture1-300x193.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 685px) 100vw, 685px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A resident of Jamestown, where Ball grew up, started the Facebook page in 2012 &#8220;We Love Lucy! Get Rid of this Statue,&#8221; seeking to get rid of the &#8220;ugly&#8221; statue. A story about the group on Yahoo! News this week spread through the internet, reviving debate over what to do with the statue.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The founder of the Facebook group would like to see the statue replaced with a new one outside a planned Comedy Hall of Fame in Jamestown, home to the Lucy-Desi Museum &amp; Center for Comedy and the annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival. The founder requested anonymity, saying the issue is &#8220;not about me; it&#8217;s about the statue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Lucille Ball was one of the most talented, beautiful, funny women who ever appeared on television; a pioneer, a giant of television. My only goal is to have a sculpture of her in Jamestown which does her justice,&#8221; the group&#8217;s founder told CNN.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;This statue in Celoron is not fixable. I love my hometown and I Love Lucy. Let&#8217;s get a new statue that is a real tribute to her memory as the Comedy Queen of Television.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Buffalo News columnist vouched for the sentiment, saying &#8220;its deranged grimace and jagged teeth inspire more dread than reverence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;No one here much likes the statue, and one look tells you why. It looks more like an extra from &#8216;The Walking Dead&#8217; than arguably the most famous comic actress of all time,&#8221; Colin Dabkowski wrote Saturday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Still, residents take pride in their claim to fame, &#8220;even if some of them privately wish that the statue commemorating her would be struck by lightning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The artist who created the statue did not respond to CNN&#8217;s request for comment. In a post this week, the Facebook group founder said the point was not to &#8220;disparage&#8221; the artist or his work. But, in this case, &#8220;this Lucy statue is just not up to his usual work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Schrecengost told the local Post-Journal that he reached out to the artist over the years about redoing statue.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;He finally came back and said he wanted $8,000 to $10,000 to do it. I&#8217;ve also reached out to several other sculptors in the region, and some said they would do it, but we&#8217;re still looking at about $5,000,&#8221; he told the newspaper.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;We&#8217;d like to work with the original sculptor and wish he would stand behind his work enough to step up and fix it for free.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8211;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Source: CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some fans of Lucille Ball want her statue removed from a park in her hometown, saying the &#8220;ugly&#8221; likeness does not do justice to the &#8220;I Love Lucy&#8221; star. The life-size bronze statue in Celoron, New York, has been likened to Conway Twitty, the snake from &#8220;Beetlejuice&#8221; and actor Steve Buscemi, among other unflattering comparisons. 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