Fonzie gives a thumbs up to Milwaukee.

Bronze Fonz

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

A series of statues commemorating famous TV characters was an idea championed by cable channel TV Land, starting in 2000 with the erection of the Ralph Kramden figure outside the Port Authority bus terminal in New York City. However, by the time Milwaukee decided to honor The Fonz, TV Land had changed its marketing strategy and was no longer funding civic sitcom statuary.

So in 2007, local booster groups decided that they would raise the $85,000 themselves and "Bronze the Fonz." TV shirts and thumbs-up cookies were sold, and a public relations campaign began.

Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli was originally a bit player in the sitcom Happy Days, set in Milwaukee during the 1950s. The Fonz was a tough greaser hood, menacing if you crossed him. He originally wore a zip-up golf jacket, because network executives feared a leather jacket would make him look like a criminal. But Fonzie quickly became the show's star, and was given more airtime, more humanity, started wearing leather jackets, and eventually moved in with the main characters, The Cunningham Family. Happy Days ran from 1974-1984, and Fonzie's trademark thumbs-up gesture and catch-sound, "Aayyyy!" became a generation's lingua franca. One of his leather jackets made its way to the Smithsonian even before the show went off the air.

The statue was completed quickly in spite of its detractors, which included the city's Art Museum director, as well as two Milwaukee galleries that threatened to leave town rather than share it with The Fonz.

On August 19, 2008, along the downtown RiverWalk, Bronze Fonz was unveiled. Henry Winkler, who portrayed Fonzie, attended the unveiling, along with the two actresses who played Laverne and Shirley (a Happy Days spin-off also set in Milwaukee).

2017: Aaayy... I ain't jumpin' no shark.

The statue is life-size and shows the Fonz giving two thumbs up. Sculptor Gerald Sawyer made the the Fonz completely gold-tinted, like a giant Oscar statue, but the at the last minute the city asked for a black leather jacket, white t-shirt, and blue jeans. Bronze Fonz ended up with skin the color of C3PO. And the blue oxide didn't hold, so Fonzie had teal-colored jeans. Sawyer did manage to put the initials of Winkler and his wife in the veins in the hands, "like the David in Italy," according to a local news report.

When we visited, Bronze Fonz was attracting a steady stream of people waiting their turn to pose with him, even though the statue is not easy to see from the street. When you get up close, Bronze Fonz is smaller than you imagined he would be, but Winkler himself is just five-foot-six.

We are all for more TV character statues. They're fun, popular, and tourists recognize who they are and connect with them much better than they do to obscure civil war generals or letter carriers (the statue of Milwaukee letter carriers only two blocks from Fonzie had no visitors when we were there).

If we had one suggestion to make it would be to add a shark fin sculpture jutting from the river behind The Fonz. In a 1977 episode, Fonzie, still wearing his leather jacket, jumps over a shark while on water skis, and the phrase "jump the shark" has since become a universal term for any desperate attempt to reclaim former glory or television ratings.

In June 2017 sculptor Gerald Sawyer returned to his most famous creation and covered Fonzie's jeans with a coat of bright blue auto paint. It looked as if The Fonz was modeling vinyl pants from an early 1980s MTV video. So in March 2022 The Fonz was taken in for a makeover, stripped of his various added colors, and returned to his spot as a purely Bronz Fonz -- but with much darker bronze for his black hair, boots, and leather jacket.