I just learned that Linny died a few months ago. Linny became famous by attending the Today Show almost daily for twenty years. He appeared in the crowd in the same place. I don’t know if Linny every profited from his adventures.
Here in my neck of the woods, we have a person who stands between the subway and sporting venues attempting to distribute Jesus pamphlets. He claims that God told him to do this. This human billboard dresses like a homeless person and his billboard has seen better days. I watched him once. Only about 10 people take his pamphlet and most discard it shortly thereafter.
Have others become famous for repeating and repeating a mundane (useless?) gesture nationally or regionally? I can think of Rollen Stewart, who used to hold up “John 3:16” signs at televised events.
Ronnie ‘Woo Woo’ Wickers
Ronnie “Woo Woo” Wickers is a longtime Chicago Cubs fan and local celebrity in the Chicago area. He is known to Wrigley Field visitors for his idiosyncratic cheers at baseball games, generally punctuated with an exclamatory “Woo!”
Here’s a couple examples, none more than 30 seconds long which is plenty: Ronnie Woo Woo - YouTube
Hilda Chester was an earlier, female, Brooklyn Dodgers version of “Woo Woo”. She rose to fame after switching to implements (a frying pan and ladle, later a cowbell) to make noise after a heart attack prevented her from yelling.
I’d never heard of Arthur Stace and “Eternity”. The story reminds me of an article than Spy magazine ran in the late 1980s showing that someone had scrawled the word “pray” on damn near every building in Manhattan.
There have always been people who want to be noticed one way or another. The trend for photo bombing is just the latest exemplar. Back in the 70s/80s we had a spate of streakers at sporting events, some of which actually became famous. Erica Roe being an excellent (in many ways) example.
In Milwaukee we have “Front Row Amy”. She’s notorious for being in the front row at every single Brewers game.
When she first started showing up the speculation was wild. She’s just there to marry one of the Brewers. She’s just trying to get on TV. What a slut with her giant fake boobs. etc.
Turns out she’s married with a bunch of kids and she just really likes baseball (and doesn’t mind the attention).
There’s also Front Row Andy, but he’s a guy and I think he stuffs his bra (he had Front Row Amy’s seat that day).
Moondog became famous for his viking outfit, which he wore as a blind street musician in the streets of NYC starting in 1942. It turned out his music was actually quite good, but it was the outfit that made him famous.
Same for Wild Man Fischer. He would go up to people and offer to sing them a song for a dime; Frank Zappa noticed and produced his album.
For fans, there was Karl Ehrhardt. Few knew his name, but he was known to Mets fans as “The Sign Man,” holding up signs to reflect the action on the field. He brought about 60 of his immense portfolio to the game, and any game footage from 1964-1981 will invariably include a shot of him holding up a sign.
Not sure if this is the same thing, but when I lived in Albuquerque there was a local “celebrity nudist.” He was very liberal and would campaign and preach regarding all issues – gun control, nuclear weapons, homelessness, you name it. But always in the nude. Or as nude as he could get away with at any given moment. And I see he’s still at it. I googled “Albuquerque” and “nudist,” and he pops up, so to speak.
