This "Charlie Chaplin" puppet is the creation of John Manders. John is the National Transit Studios resident children's book illustrator. Now John of course had help with this guy. He drew up the plans for the puppet and created the skeleton. But other transit artists, Carol McDonald and Joann Wheeler created his head, hands and feet. Help with the puppet wasn't limited to just the Transit artists. The Giant unicycle was created by Bill Kapp and Charlie's clothes were made by Ecclesiastical Threads. And of course the puppet wouldn't have gone anywhere without the crew who helped Charlie take part in the Oil Heritage Parade. Charlie started out pedaling his bike, but by the time he reached the end of the parade (where I was) he needed a little help getting across the finish line.
Usually the Transit Artists paint a car for the parade but this year they took a different approach. (A very clever one I think.) The reason being is that 2014 has been designated as "The Year of Charlie Chaplin." Many activities are planned around Chaplin for the year, culminating in the First night activities on New Year's Eve. For more information visit Oil City Special Events and download a copy of Chaplin Calendar events.
The reason Chaplin has been adopted as a theme is because he supposedly signed his first movie contract in Oil City.
This "Charlie" will be making more than one appearance. He may be seen in upcoming Graffiti Gallery shows and will be present at the Halloween party at the end of October.
I have Charlie Chaplin's Biography on my Kindle. Guess it's time to read it....... may lead to some Charlie "inspired" jewelry. (Mini-bot is telling me to get to it!)
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