black cat crossed my path

Crossposted at Grammar.police

My earliest political memories revolve around “Bewitched.”  It was my favorite tv show back in the day, and I remember getting very upset when it would get pre-empted so that some boring old people could sit around desks and talk about some “Watergate" crap no one could possibly care about.  So it was with mixed feelings that I read in today’s Globe about plans for a statue of Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha to be erected in Salem, MA (check for registration):

. . . some in Salem are upset over plans by the TV Land cable network to honor the late Montgomery with a 9-foot bronze statue in a city infamous for its 17th century persecution of people feared to be witches. The statue would depict Montgomery sitting sidesaddle on a broom. It would stand in a downtown park at the corner of Essex and Washington streets.

''It's insensitive to what happened in 1692," said Jean Harrison, one of several Salem residents opposing the plan. ''She was a fictional witch, but the people who died were not witches."

True enough, but it seems to me that Salem long ago lost the battle of good taste in dealing with its past.  Especially in the fall, some of the tourist traps up there seem like they came out of the old SNL skit “Goth Talk.”  But it is worth noting that the intersection in question is pretty much in the heart of town, not exactly an inconspicuous location one could overlook.  And what about this?

The Samantha Stephens role, which is about to be reprised by Nicole Kidman in a ''Bewitched" movie, would join a cast of characters immortalized in bronze across America by TV Land, including Ralph Kramden, Andy and Opie Taylor, and Mary Richards. TV Land, which shows reruns of old television programs, calls the statues TV Land Landmarks.

Some critics oppose the statue on other grounds, saying the series was set in Westport, Conn.

First, this is just freaking weird.  How messed up must we be when a cable TV network is putting up statues across the country?  I mean, screw art used in ads – this is ads as art.  Pretty kitschy art, too – which is not to say all of the shows lacked value (though “Bewitched” did, I have to admit.)  And do you think Westport would let them put the statue there?  I doubt it.  The Mary Richards statue is located in downtown Minneapolis – I’ve seen it, actually, though I didn’t know the story behind it.  But hell, people liked that show.  The Ralph Kramden statue, on the other hand, was not placed in Brooklyn, where the character worked, but in front of the New York City Port Authority bus terminal.  To emerge from that dank hellhole – how sweet it is!  Whatever one think of the broader situation, it has to be taken as an intentional insult to put a statue of anyone in front of the Port Authority.  If I were related to Jackie Gleason, I’d be pissed and wouldn't forget it.

Comments

[J H]

The statue sends the wrong message, is planned for the wrong place in the wrong town. The witch trials in Salem in 1692 ended witch hunts in the US; they still went on in the UK. This 1500 lb bronze model of Elizabeth Montgomery, an advertizement for TV Land & the new Bewitched movie, should be put some where other than Salem. Westport CT where the series was set? or Kansas maybe?

[JL]

I don't disagree with you. As for where should the statue go, how about: why make it at all?