Minneapolis, Minnesota: Mary Tyler Moore Statue

Statue of an immortal 1970s TV moment stands at the spot where character Mary Richards tossed her hat skyward in the opening credits of Mary Tyler Moore's sitcom, set in Minneapolis.

On May 8, 2002, Minneapolis unveiled a life-size bronze statue of its most famous TV resident: Mary Richards of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. It was commissioned by the cable network TV Land, which at that time was erecting bronze statues to its most popular vintage rerun shows, including Bewitched (Salem, MA), Bob Newhart (Chicago, IL), and The Honeymooners (New York, NY).

The sculpture, by artist Gwendolyn Gillen, shows Mary during an immortal moment in the sitcom's opening credits where she stands in front of downtown Donaldson's department store and joyfully flings her hat into the air.

Mary was at the statue's dedication, but not Donaldson's; the building burned down during a Thanksgiving Day fire in 1982.

Inside the visitors center temporarily. They have a hat at the base of the statue to toss in the air for a photo. The employees are super nice and willing to take pictures for you!

This past summer, Minneapolis did something dumb: it abruptly removed its statue of Mary Tyler Moore to make way for some sidewalk construction. When the press asked where the statue had gone, the city said it would be in storage for two years. The outcry was instant, and the city realized it had made a big mistake. So on December 7th, Mary reappeared in a new spot, inside a downtown visitor center, two blocks from her old location. The city promised that the statue would be accessible every day (during Visitor Center hours) and that in 2017, when construction is complete, Mary would return to her old spot.

I wanted to see this forever, got there today and discovered it was "in storage" for next 2 yrs due to construction at the site....boo.