As Milwaukee prepares to unveil the Bronz Fonz at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, we present some other Brew City bronze-ables.
After all, if we're going to bronze the Fonz, I wonder why we don't give some serious thought to bronzing these Milwaukee notables:
Dick Bacon. Sure, the late tan man is already immortalized on a coffee bag sticker at Alterra, but he was bronze in life, why not in death?
Charlotte Rae. Hey, she was on TV in the '70s and '80s, too. Who didn't love Mrs. Garrett on "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Facts of Life"?
Bernie Brewer. Alright, maybe it's premature since he's still active, but what about Barrel Man then?
The nice Bango. Anyone who yearns for the day when the NBA seemed like an interesting sport in which not every player appeared to have the same tough guy personality, yearns for the old Bango, so full of vim, so full of gemutlikeit and so adept at spinning that ball on his cloven hoof.
Violent Femmes. They're Milwaukee's real rock stars and if they're encased in bronze, they'd presumably get along. Well, at least they couldn't fight!
Gene Wilder. Let's face it, Wilder is the funniest guy we've given to the world. If we can bronze a "Happy Days" character, certainly there's room for the comedic genius from "Willie Wonka," "Blazing Saddles," Young Frankenstein" and, ahem, "Will & Grace."
OK, who am I forgetting? I'm sure you'll tell me using the talkback feature below.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
