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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 10, 2009 20:25:08 GMT 12
The original winking eye from the wonderful huge Santa that adorns the Farmers/Whicoulls building in Queen Street, Auckland every year is up for bidding on TradeMe www.trademe.co.nz/Antiques-collectables/New-Zealand-Maori/auction-257834427.htmI have always thought that the huge Santa was a great thing for Auckland at this time of the year, it's a neat piece of tradition and really good that they still put it up despite the expense involved. I was however a little dismayed to see the politically correct nerks have forced the changes to him. His new mouth is ok but he's just not the same without the winking eye and beckoning finger. They were always a great thrill to see him moving like that when I was a kid. It reminds me of another now long gone traitional Santa that used to be a highlight every year in Cambridge. This one used to be in the window every Christmas at Haworths Department Store in the main street. It was an ingeneous contraption that went back to the 1940's, or perhaps even the 1930's and was made from a normal child's doll of the time, though you never really knew that as it was garbed in a full Santa suit, hat and beard, and it sat with it's back to you. It was on a stool and playing a pipe organ which really played Christmas music, and it used to move about as it played, which to me as a kid was fascinating. i don't know what ran it, electic motors, air, hydraulics or what, but it was apparently made by a local. Maybe Bruce or Stu or others will remember it? I wonder where it ended up after Howarths closed down. It should be in a musuem, or still entertaining people somewhere. |
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Post by John L on Dec 11, 2009 18:00:16 GMT 12
What! How could they...the winking eye and beckoning finger were drawcards when I was a kid...(many years ago.....)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 11, 2009 18:05:59 GMT 12
Exactly!
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Post by flyjoe180 on Dec 13, 2009 9:06:58 GMT 12
What was wrong with the winking eye and beckoning finger then?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 13, 2009 9:14:55 GMT 12
They seem to imply it made Santa look like a dirty old man, enticing kids into his lair. It's sickening how far these PC people go to stop everyday fun and enjoyment.
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Post by flyjoe180 on Dec 13, 2009 9:28:11 GMT 12
That's sad to hear. I remember the Santa vivdly, I never saw him as being seedy, scary or whatever the PC lot say children could see in him. You never see much of Ronald McDonald anymore, either. Has the burger clown also fallen foul of the PC brigade?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 13, 2009 10:10:43 GMT 12
Perhaps Ronald is too obese now to make appearances ;D
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Post by flyjoe180 on Dec 13, 2009 10:16:09 GMT 12
Or having heart bypasses ;D
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Post by corsair67 on Dec 13, 2009 11:07:39 GMT 12
Yet, NZ used to have one of the scariest looking Prime Ministers in the world - although, she's been hidden away in the UN now, with all the other scary, creepy people........
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Dec 13, 2009 16:48:32 GMT 12
It reminds me of another now long gone traitional Santa that used to be a highlight every year in Cambridge. This one used to be in the window every Christmas at Haworths Department Store in the main street. It was an ingeneous contraption that went back to the 1940's, or perhaps even the 1930's and was made from a normal child's doll of the time, though you never really knew that as it was garbed in a full Santa suit, hat and beard, and it sat with it's back to you. It was on a stool and playing a pipe organ which really played Christmas music, and it used to move about as it played, which to me as a kid was fascinating. i don't know what ran it, electic motors, air, hydraulics or what, but it was apparently made by a local. Maybe Bruce or Stu or others will remember it? I wonder where it ended up after Howarths closed down. It should be in a musuem, or still entertaining people somewhere. Talking about pipe organs and department stores; the world's biggest musical instrument is a gigantic pipe organ in a department store in Philadelphia. The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ occupies the Grand Court (a huge seven-story-high atrium) in Macy's Centre City department store. Formerly the Wanamaker Store, the organ was originally built at the beginning of the 20th century for a World Fair in St Louis and contained around 10,000 pipes. At the end of the fair, the instrument was purchased by John Wanamaker and moved to Philadelphia and installed into his new department store to entertain the shoppers. However, the new store was so massive (each of the seven floors — which are open to the Grand Court — is bigger than one of our rugby fields), that this massive organ was incapable of filling the store with sound. So John Wanamaker's son Rodman hired a team of organ builders, provided them with a huge workshop and instructed them to keep enlarging the instrument until he told them to stop. By the time Rodman Wanamaker eventually died twenty or so years later, the organ had increased in size to a massive 28,414 pipes, around a thousand bells & chimes and weighed somewhere in the order of 600 tons! Over the decades since, the organ gradually fell into disrepair, although it has always been playable, but not all of it has been functional. However, over the past fifteen years or so, a huge amount of money has been spent on restoring the grand court organ with the result that it is now in better condition than it has ever been, with ALL divisions of the instrument functioning again and it is still played every day entertaining the shoppers. The organ was last valued for insurance purposes about six years ago and a team of organ builders and consultants put a replacement value (what it would cost to build an identical instrument) of FIFTY MILLION US DOLLARS on the organ. Macy's employ three full-time organ builders to maintain the instrument, as well a store organist and two assistant organists to play it. www.wanamakerorgan.com |
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Post by lumpy on Dec 13, 2009 17:47:23 GMT 12
That's sad to hear. I remember the Santa vivdly, I never saw him as being seedy, scary or whatever the PC lot say children could see in him. You never see much of Ronald McDonald anymore, either. Has the burger clown also fallen foul of the PC brigade? Ronald was his usual cheerful , rollerskating self at our christmas parade this afternoon . Perhaps his just got picky where he goes  |
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