‘Scary Lucy’ no more: Town reveals new Lucille Ball statue

Artist Carolyn Palmer was selected and spent nine months studying Ball, by watching re-runs of “I Love Lucy”.

CELERON, N.Y. (WIVB)- A new Lucille Ball statue was unveiled near Jamestown on Saturday to the applause of the large crowd that gathered. Palmer worked first with clay, then wax, then eventually the bronze for her final product. “She is 750 pounds and the pedestal is maybe another 750 pounds, so she’s not going anywhere!”

If Palmer had it in her all along I’m not really sure what happened with the first one, because that thing was ugly.

So far, it seems Celoron residents are happy, too. “I am relieved that the response has been positive”. It was a statue that was unveiled in her honor back in 2009. All that work was not done in vain. “Lucy was very liberating for me”.

“Scary Lucy” went viral in 2015 after one fan launched a Facebook group to advocate for the statue’s removal called “We Love Lucy!”

“Well, it’s been quite a ride”, Celoron Mayor Scott Schrecengost said as he kicked off the unveiling ceremony Saturday, also commemorating what would have been Ball’s 105th birthday. Celoron Mayor Scott Schrecengost revealed that the statue has become such a tourist attraction they chose to simply relocate the old statue to another spot in the park, according to the AP. The statue, created by the talented sculptor, Dave Poulin, is not meant to show Lucy when she was at her loveliest, but to show her when she purposefully was trying to look disgusted by the taste of the “health product” she was drinking down. “Get Rid of this Statue”.

Poulin offered to fix the statue but Schrecengost rejected the offer, deciding instead to solicit applications from artists for a new version. Even Poulin called it his “most unsettling sculpture”.

The town first erected a life-size bronze tribute by sculptor Dave Poulin in 2009, but it was soon dubbed “Scary Lucy” by townsfolk for its disgusting, toothy grin and vacant eyes.