Bewitched Statue Unveiled in Salem

[Say_What]

This POS statue makes a mockery of the 1692 witchcraft hysteria victims. As one Salem resident said, "New heights of tacky".

<clips>

SALEM — The unveiling of the "Bewitched" statue yesterday was pure magic and even purer spectacle.

The very moment TV Land President Larry Jones pulled the blue cover off the 9-foot bronze statue of actress Elizabeth Montgomery, the late actress who played Samantha Stephens in the 1960s TV sitcom, there was a puff of white smoke. Then, as if on cue, rain fell from the dark skies.

A crowd estimated at 1,000 had braved unseasonably cold weather for just this moment, and many of them — including a large contingent of black-clad witches — cheered happily.

But minutes earlier, a window opened on an adjacent Essex Street building and a white banner unfurled with the word "SHAME," one of several displays from a small but determined contingent of protesters.

http://www.salemnews.com/

[Pacifist Patriot]

1. I saw that yesterday and my first reaction was...

"Oh good grief, we've now entered the age where tourist traps are based on television shows rather than historical markers. -- Oh wait, when did Disneyland open?"

:)

[Say_What]

4. Where on Essex Street is it? n/t

[Pacifist Patriot]

9. Oh I'm sorry. I meant I saw the article, not the statue.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Wait! That's Nicole Kidman!!!!!

:silly:

[DaveinMD]

3. Salem

has already become a touristy place. All the witch shops mock what really happened.

By the way, my wife is descendent of John Proctor, so this is personal.

[Say_What]

8. Back in April there was a meeting a friend of mine who owns a B&B

attended where the topic was about rebranding Salem. To get away from the hokey witch stuff and focus instead on Salem's Maritime and early American history, which would be so much more appropriate.

[DaveinMD]

13. that would be great

there are one our two museums that stay true to the history. It really could be a wonderful place.

[formerrepuke]

5. There is a somber memorial in Salem to the victims of religious hysteria

in 1692- it bears each of their names. There is no shortage of touristy kitsch to find in this lovely small town, but that memorial, adjacent to the old cemetery, brings it all home. One only hopes that people who visit Salem see this memorial... in addition to this new piece of pop-culture fluff.

[Say_What]

10. As is the Salem Witchcraft Victims' Memorial and Rebecca Nurse Farm in

Danvers. But I agree that the memorial in Salem with the names of the victims and their quotes is about the only thing in Salem that pays homage to the victims.

http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us:8080/tserve/eighteen/images/dasalem1.jpg

[paineinthearse]

6. "Then, as if on cue, rain fell from the dark skies."

It's not nice to mess with Mother Nature.

Hollywood, GO HOME!

[paineinthearse]

7. Nominated - let's get this "local" news onto the greatest page - nt

[TlalocW]

11. Later that same day...

A drunk Barbara Eden was caught trying to set fire to the statue. Police reports indicated a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit, and Ms. Eden reportedly chanting, "Yes, Master," over and over again.

TlalocW

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

12. This is more about TV Land's marketing than about Salem tourism

although Salem doesn't escape responsibility for this tackiness.

In Chicago last year, TV Land put up a bronze statue of Bob Newhart in front of the Michigan Avenue building shown in the credits of his first TV show. I like Bob Newhart but there are plenty of Chicagoans who deserve their own statue. At least the city eventually moved it to Navy Pier.

TV Land has also installed a statue of Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden character at the NYC Port Authority Bus Terminal, and another of Andy and Opie - Andy Griffith and little Ronnie Howard - in a Raleigh NC park.

Given the number of old TV shows, TV Land can keep this up indefinitely....

[TayTay]

14. At least they paid to clean up the little park

they put the statue in. Geez, I remember when the Bewitched cast were in Salem in 1970 to film. That was a huge event. At least they actually set foot in Salem once.

[Say_What]

15. LOL This guy AND his dog had an opinion...

Richard Trask, leading authority on the Salem witch-hunt of 1692, and Danvers town archivist, also had an opinion that's running on the Viewpoint page, which I can't find online.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Day two of 'Bewitched': Life goes on

..."I was trying to be open-minded," said Ted Jendrysik, 35, who was walking his dog, "but, now that I see it, I almost feel it's kind of trite. It almost makes a joke of the whole history here and just feels out of place."

As he spoke, his brown greyhound, Tobey, stood patiently by his side. Glancing at the dog, Jendrysik said, "He thinks the same thing."

http://www.ecnnews.com/cgi-bin/05/snstory.pl?-sec-News+bewitched17

[paineinthearse]

16. This is what I thought you were going to say.....

Just couldn't find an image of a dog pissing on the bewitched statue.

[Say_What]

17. When I read it I was hoping they'd say "and then the dog pissed

on the statue". It would have been perfect!!! LOL Great pic
:evilgrin:

[paineinthearse]

18. I just figured out the timing of this publicity stunt

Was in Cambridge today, saw a sign on the side of a city bus advertising THE BETWITCHED MOVIE coming out June 24.

Sheesh!

[TaleWgnDg]

19. Salem, Massachusetts is awash, dirty that is, in tacky glitz . . .

.
Salem, Massachusetts is awash -- dirty that is -- in tacky glitz. It ebbs and flows around the seasons, from a height (if you will) during Halloween (the entire month of October) and a low during the summer months of false witches, witchdom, and other cheap Hollywood glitz.

Salem does not need more -- a statue of actress Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens in "Bewitched" upon its city Green! All to hype a lame TV network entitled "TVland" and coincidentally with yet another new Hollywood movie of misinformation and glitz. Shame on Salem! And shame on Mayor Stanley J. Usovicz, Jr. and the Salem City Council for allowing this tacky, tasteless, inappropriate 9-foot Hollywood and television schlock to "enhance" the center of Salem.

Salem cannot continue to have, on the one hand, no industrial base to lower its unreasonably high real estate taxes, and on the other hand continue its "yellow brick road" to glitzy Hollywood schlock "witch" hype. One obviates the other. Hello? How stupid can these politicians of instant gratification get? This cheap schlock tourism will not contribute to lower Salem's already too high real estate taxes!

In addition, the glitz reduces the shine of Salem's rich colonial history. The tourism clashes. What wouldn't clash with gory pseudo-witches, bloody beheadings, and fake pirates?

Salem, Massachusetts should draw upon its rich and deep colonial history of glory. Salem was the key seaport in America during the 1700s and 1800s of merchant sea captains! Privateers abounded during our American Revolutionary War from Salem, Massachusetts. Salem Maritime, the first National Historic Site in the National Park System is along Salem's historic oceanfront. Americas first millionaires were home-grown in Salem. Some of their homes still survive and are on the National Register. Row after row of colonial homes, offices, and stores are preserved for research, curiosity, and historical and architectural purposes. From the Salem Athenaeum, the House of Seven Gables, Pioneer Village, East India Marine Society (the names are familiar), to the Custom House on Derby Street overlooking the (what else?) the wharf where international trading ships were unloading awaiting colonial custom's tariffs, and the list goes on and on.

Further, there's a new Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts dedicated to Salem's glorious sea merchants and sea-trade.

Whoa be it for Salem to continue to rely upon its tacky, schlocky, myopic Halloween-gory "witch" tourism. It can only continue to drive out profitable colonial tourism that would draw a wider real estate tax base, particularly since Salem's coal-fired electrical power plant is on the way out with its multi-million dollar real estate taxes paid to Salem. The plant is one of -- if not -- the sole remaining industry(ies) in Salem.

All of which reminds me of why I do not, would not, live in Salem. The Salem, Massachusetts of today -- unfortunately -- makes the cities of Danvers and Marblehead, Massachusetts, indeed, glad that they severed their regions (now separate cities) from Salem, Massachusetts years ago!

Disclaimer: The complained Halloween-type "witches" as portrayed in Salem's schlocky glitz of today are not those unfortunates accused of, and/or convicted of, being witches/wizards during the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692, nor does the tourist-trap "witch" glitz have anything to do with the http://www.religioustolerance.org/witchcra.htm">religion of wiccan.

______________________________________________

edited to add: Since the Salem Evening News changes its url contents on a daily basis the OP's url hyperlink does not bring up this matter. Therefore, I have pulled up an article in the online version of the UK_SundayHerald: http://www.sundayherald.com/50359

.

[TayTay]

20. This is all true

But there is something truly charming about Salem in October. There are the pretty trees changing color. The tourists who come to Salem hoping to bask in the fake history and find something meaningful in the tackiness of Essex Street. They are met by the booster table for the Salem High School Marching Band selling hot dogs and cold drinks in order to raise money for Band. I wonder if this was the kind of 'Gothic Salem Spookiness' thing they were looking for: cheery-looking Moms and Dads and band kids trying to relive them of a few bucks for a high school group. It's cognitive dissonance at it's finest.

I usually go to Salem during Haunted Happenings at least once, earlier in the month before it gets too crowded. We walk down Essex, hit the water front, then head back and have lunch at the Hawthorne Hotel. (Then go through the Commons and back up Essex to Chestnut Street.) It's still a great take.

[0rganism]

21. How about a statue of Thomas Danforth hanging a teenage girl?

That's what happened. No one made deals with the forces of darkness to fly on stupid fucking brooms across the moonlit sky, but some nasty old men did decide to kill dozens of innocent people for no good reason. Why the hell isn't that on a statue somewhere? Let's commemorate the real, and stop spending public moneys on bullshit that trivializes or legitimizes a cartoon version of the Puritan crimes.

[TayTay]

22. Ahm, Hathorne hanging an old woman

First they came for the poor who had always appeared odd and slightly indefensible to civil society. Then they came for the dissenters and then the old clergy who had sided with the dissenters in Church Meeting. Then the 'crying girls' cried out on the wife of the Governor of the colony.

End of witchcraft hysteria.

The young were the accusers. The old died.