 Clare
B. Richardson1 ,
2 , 3,
4, 5,
6, 7,
8,
9, 10,
11, 12,
13, 14,
15, 16,
17, 18
| A most important call came from Peggy Janske,
formerly Peggy Parker, another classmate of President Clinton's class of '64 and
presently a co-owner of the Brick House Grill in downtown Hot Springs. She distinctly
remembered attending the event and it was a celebration of the clown sign out
front. She concurred with the 1953 date over the 1948 date George Bennett had
swayed me to believe in based on her reference to her age at the event. Her older
brother also remembered the event but I did not meet or talk with him. She vividly
remembers the bright shiny new sign and the vivid colors made her think it was
neon. Actually it was not, but did have a yellow light bulb in the hand of the
clown, which was the arm that moved up and down. Apparently the clown had spotlights
to light it up at night as she recalls the vivid colors of the clown visible at
night so much so and explains why she thought the sign was neon. She was the only
person to actually come forward until recently and recall attending the event.
With the exception of the year and the neon, she was indeed 100% right as the
celebration was shaping up around the animated mechanical clown out in front of
the Dairy Queen. A look back at the four Dairy Queen pictures do show the arm
in different poses so it did have a moving arm. |
|
Another big clue came from Wayne Truman whose parents Spencer and Effie, owned
the Red Lantern Restaurant just two doors east of the Dairy Queen on the other
side of the Bennett Apartments. The restaurant later was renamed "Home Plate."
Truman recalled owners of a local sign company talking about the money potential
of a newly created animated sign to be installed at Dairy Queen and if it was
adopted as a standard for all Dairy Queens nationwide, then there would be some
serious money to be made. Wayne also recalled that the clown mascots name was
"Curly" as in "Curly The Clown" to reflect the little swirl tip atop soft serve
ice cream as an icon of how soft the new product was compared to traditionally
hard scoops of ice cream. Wayne moved to the area in 1950 with his parents, so
also ruled out 1948 and thus agreed it must be 1953 but seemed like it should
be a little earlier than 1953, he recalled. The focus was now on the mechanical
sign itself. Truman also recalled the later rejection by Dairy Queen to the idea
of such a mechanical sign like "Curly The Clown" being a standard requirement
nationwide of all Dairy Queen's and his father was there to sympathize with the
local sign company businessmen about the disappointing news. |
|
I reported the feedback of these three main contributors back to John Lovett,
the Sentinel-Record reporter who turned out a second front page story along with
two more of the Dairy Queen photographs the following Sunday, October 19, 2003.
I felt bad for George Bennett but there was now too much proof that this was not
the grand opening nor 1948 and even close examination of my James K. Fox license
plate book proved the date could not be earlier than 1950. Lucille Chote produced
a 1951 yearbook that has a Dairy Queen advertisement with classmates in front
of that establishment and there was no mechanical clown installed at the time
the yearbook picture was taken (sometime before early 1951). Some of the pictures
show other newer cars in the background including 1950 cars. The year must indeed
be 1953. This is what I reported to Dairy Queen. The location was Hot Springs
Arkansas in 1953 and the probable reason for the event was to celebrate the installation
of the mechanical "Curly the Clown" I informed them. |
|
By the time the second front page article came out, I was back at home in Chino,
California and got twice the number of calls and e-mails at about 14 each. It
was clear a firestorm of interest had now developed about the old time pictures
and the information being uncovered was taking on a new story of its own. I kept
Janna Rider at Dairy Queen headquarters and John Lovett, the Hot Springs reporter
informed about the latest new details. Calls the second week were from people
like Harold Wallace II, who worked at National Animated Sign Company in Hot Springs
that actually built "Curly The Clown." In fact his older brother, J.D., cut out
the metal for the sign with tin snips often getting blisters on his gloved hands
while his other older brother, Arthur, spot-welded the metal pieces together.
Harold's job was to build the crates to box the finished product animated figures
and ship them. It now surfaced that NASCO (National Animated Sign Company) of
Hot Springs went on to make other characters besides the Dairy Queen "Curly."
They made all sorts of other lighted mechanical arm figurines such as cowboys,
cowgirls, busboys, carhops, majorettes, chefs, and cooks for both restaurants
and motels. Each was uniquely different by having different color hair or uniforms
and some were even made with an African-American face, I was told. In Hot Springs
alone there was a mechanical arm Chef at Coy's Restaurant when it was located
at the present site of the Howard Johnson's on the northwest corner of West Grand
and Central. The Como Motel on south Central Avenue featured some sort of bell-boy
I am told. NASCO was a spin off of the present neon sign business by Mr. Granville
Tuggle. The plaques found on the mechanical animations show they came in two styles
and mention Hot Springs and manufactured by NASCO and Tuggle Manufacturing Co.
Although Mr. Wallace's two older brothers have since passed on, Harold III was
also able to identify Bill Doyle as the second from the right in the photo with
the five men lined up together (and the Dairy Queen owner at that time, Ralph
Snyder, who is shown on the right in that same photo). He said Doyle was an airbrush
artist at night and would paint the vivid detail that brought the animated signs
to life. He also recalled that there was a one-wheel trailer used to haul these
signs all over the country for promotion and sales. |
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