Thought I remembered the croquet mallet idea from my childhood, and I did! … Here it is printed in a 1960s issue of “Aluminum Light,” a magazine for metalworkers:
“The citizens of East St. Louis, Illinois, across the river from St. Louis and the giant 600-foot-high metal arch, are jealous. Recently they decided to get even: they’re going to build a huge man with a croquet mallet.”
Might want to see what their plans were and how they were intending to fund the project in the pre-Kickstarter/pre-Internet era. What could possibly go awry?
Along the lines of what I was gonna say… it’s a cool idea, but small contributions from Kickstarter et al. wouldn’t be enough. Need some big investors, and who better than corporate sponsors? Of course, it’s gonna have to be called something like the Taco Bell Guy Holding a Croquet Mallet™, and have the guy in a sombrero, or the Verizon Guy Holding a Croquet Mallet™, also holding a cellphone to his ear with his other hand, or the Olive Garden Guy Holding a Croquet Mallet™, and he dispenses free bread sticks, et cetera.
Well that is cool! It certainly precedes my formation of the idea. I can’t pinpoint when I first thought of this but I think it would have to be fairly late in the 60s at a minimum.
First, thank you kunilou, it helps a lot to get those actual views.
LSLGuy, I’m thinking that perspective tricks really don’t do the job. Simply photoshopping some images together would provide the same effect. I think a photo taken with a smaller statue will look like an obvious visual trick, and the effect will only be apparent from a small viewing area.
I’m encouraged by Ulf’s find. I had always imagined this would be sight that has to be seen from a plane approach St. Louis in order to appreciate it. It doesn’t have to be in E. St. Louis, I thought the river flowing between the man and the arch would be a good touch, but I don’t even know if there would be a water hazard in croquet, I’ve only ever played the game in backyards. A location west of the river could work just as well. The size of a statue in proportion is incredible, but makes the effort all the more interesting. I think the Gibson Girl picture I posted earlier would make a more stable structure that could just be a skin on over an internal super-structure, I believe that’s the way the Statue of Liberty is constructed. The space inside the super-structure could be utilized in many ways, including a stadium for the Rams, huge shopping malls, and offices. And it would teach those guys in Dubai not to mess with the US of A when it comes to making the biggest things.
I suppose this will take considerable thought and research. I appreciate all those who are contributing. The path from dream to reality can be long and rough, but often worth taking even when the destination is not reached.
Please disabuse yourself of that idea immediately. The municipal powers in St. Louis will NOT allow a structure 3x-4x the height of the Arch to be built anywhere inside of the city limits, no matter how many corporate sponsors you bring with you. Take a look at the panoramic view of downtown St. Louis.
Bear in mind, the New Madrid fault is over due for a dance party, so that should affect the design - you need to make sure that the statue is reasonably earthquake resistant. The existing wicket statue on the west side of the river is a fairly stable design already; your man(woman)-shaped one is of greater concern.
Also: are you planning on having it a usable thing where people can climb up inside (a la Statue of Liberty), or just a statue for pigeons to redecorate.
I never really thought St. Louis or anyone in the whole state of Missouri would cooperate. I didn’t really expect the state of Illinois to be that cooperative either (I wasn’t even positive East St. Louis was in Illinois). While Missouri might be all “No way we’re going to mess up our beautiful city no matter how much money it brings in”, it’s possible Illinois will be all “Money? Did you say money? We can talk about this.”
