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We don't like the looks of this. In Middletown, NJ, reported on last month, an elaborate old-timey yet modern but not-a-mall town center will be going up soon. Maybe a good thing, maybe bad, but people sure can get emotional about a little extra traffic. The developer's soothing juggernaut of assurances has slowly but surely narcotized homeowner protests. We swear that some front yards once touting "NO Town Center" placards now read "Town Square - $3.7 million tax benefit." A man lurking behind the artist's concept display at a local Travel agency leapt out at the sound of our non-committal musings. "It's a GOOD idea," he said, staring at us as if we were troublemakers. He vanished before we could ask about The Clown.
It's ironic the Town Square folks are exploiting the hypnotic powers of The Clown to promote their development Gotterdammerung to community fence-sitters. But once the clown's usefulness is finished... he's finished. We know there is a good chance one morning we'll be making a beeline for the Dunkin' Donuts or the discount liquor store -- and the Circus will have left town. Look what happened to Seattle's Twin Teepees earlier this summer.
Throughout, the Clown handles himself well (though many say he isn't handling himself at all - it's an optical illusion).
He waits silently, shifty eyes darting between the Bulldozers of Progress and townspeople that would prefer he be replaced by a split-rail fence or historic barn. The Clown wags his red finger as if to warn: "Keep your eyes on the road dude -- don't be lookin' at me."
[RoadsideAmerica.com Team, 09/01/2001]Evil Food Circus Clown:- Address:
- 853 Hwy 35, Middletown, NJ
- Directions:
- Spirits Unlimited. On northbound Hwy 35 just south of the Kings Hwy intersection.
- Gardnerville, Nevada - Museum of the Fantastic
Anyone have information regarding the current status of "The Museum of the Fantastic"? Roadsideamerica.com reported its last location in Sisters Oregon.
Years ago I worked at a place called "Jones Fantastic Museum" located on the 3rd level of the Food Circus building in the Seattle Center, WA. This museum was created by Walt Jones (an avid collector of unusual items) in the early '50s. His growing collection and side show-type creations eventually proved too much for his residence, so he opened a museum on old highway 99 north of Lynnwood WA, on the top of the then nicknamed Gunnysack Hill. In the '60s he moved the museum to the Seattle Center. After his death in the '70s, his widow closed the museum and donated the contents to Children's Hospital in Seattle.
I have at times wondered what the hospital did with it until I ran across the descriptions of items such as "Olaf the Giant" and "Hitler is Alive" gag talking skull in the The Museum of the Fantastic Sisters Oregon. Walt had a P.T. Barnum side show streak in him and loved to pull one over on the public by never letting on what was real or just a hoax.
[B Ebel, 03/13/2004]World Famous Fantastic Museum:- Hours:
- June 2017: Museum closed.
- Status:
- Closed
Artist Claes Oldenburg (1929-2022) sculpted this old fashioned eraser. If you can't erase your debts before leaving Las Vegas, at least erase your guilt here!
Roadsideamerica.com Report...
- Address:
- W. Aria Pl., Las Vegas, NV
- Directions:
- West of Las Vegas Blvd S., south of Harmon Ave., in CityCenter, elevated pedestrian walk over W. Aria Pl.
3D outdoor wall mural painted by famous artist Eric Grohe of Seattle, WA. Mural depicts Lady Liberty cradling a soldier in her arms. Faces of veterans of all the wars are embellished in the painting. Located at 215 N Sandusky St (Rte 4) in downtown Bucyrus.
[Donna, 08/14/2013]The soldier is dead, and shrouded in an American flag. Nov. 2016: Photo added.
Liberty Remembers - 3D Mural:- Address:
- 215 N Sandusky St, Bucyrus, OH
- Directions:
- NW corner of Sandusky St. and Galen St.
- RA Rates:
- Worth a Detour
- Damascus, Oregon - Oregon's Centennial Candle
A 21-foot-tall cement pillar topped with a fake flame, an obscure totem that was postcard-worthy in 1959.
Roadsideamerica.com Report...
- Address:
- 20100 SE Hwy 212, Damascus, OR
- Directions:
- On the south side of OR-212, across from the Safeway, in front of the fire station.
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The Fantastic Museum, once in Redmond, then Sisters, is closed, with no info available on its whereabouts. April 2014: Jack D. Bell wrote to us reminiscing about the Highway 99 Jones Museum and also about Olaf the Giant: "the nine-foot visage of Olaf the Giant had been a fixture of the old Playland Amusement Park once located in North Seattle....this fine park was closed down in 1961 for various economic reasons...Olaf could be viewed laying in a glass case that was inside of a Playland exhibit called 'The Laugh Factory.' "