Greetings from a gator: Raise a camera before reptile’s mouth and SNAP!
Published 9:37 pm Wednesday, August 22, 2018
The new doorkeeper at the Museum of the Gulf Coast may frighten as many patrons as he lures.
The 14-foot, 1-ton concrete alligator was inspired by the image of the reptile that adorns artist Robert Rauschenberg’s celebrated poster for the 1998 Port Arthur Centennial, a print of which hangs in the Robert Rauschenberg Gallery inside the museum.
He’s painted black, as Rauschenberg’s is, with red eyes, red mouth and white teeth. He’ll greet patrons in the parking lot, where he was placed Wednesday, squarely in front of the entrance, after delivery from D&D Ornamental Concrete in Napoleonville, Louisiana.
A small gathering of museum staff and a handful of museum friends awaited the delivery, sometimes standing under the high summer sun. Among those waiting was Bill Worsham, whose family — they include wife Carolyn, sons Bill and Brad and daughter Kimberly — contributed the money to buy the alligator as a gift. D&D owners Michael and Patricia DeBois, who’ve been in business since 1986, say the alligators are among their most popular and among their more expensive concrete animals at $1,200 for non-profit customers.
Worsham and Tom Neal, museum director, had been shopping around for several months for a piece — the alligator idea came from Worsham, a fan of the Port Arthur native and artist, Rauschenberg — that would serve for photo opportunities at the museum. Worsham, who retired as athletic director at Lamar State College Port Arthur a decade ago, said he was inspired by other faux animals that serve as icons at public places — including a concrete bear at a national park in the Canadian Rockies and a full-size moose at a convention and visitors bureau in British Columbia.
Neal found the alligator he wanted at Fezzo’s Seafood, Steakhouse and Oyster Bar near Lafayette, Louisiana. Folks there directed him to D&D Ornamental Concrete, which once appeared in a 1999 Wall Street Journal article, “The Virgin Mary Business Booms at D&D Ornamental.” It said D&D’s business was driven not by concrete gators but by the Blessed Virgin, whose statues, some life-size, represented about 70 percent of its sales.
Worsham and Neal made sure their gator lined up well with the museum’s entry and awning, which bears the words, “Museum of the Gulf Coast.” With the gator’s mouth gaping away from the door, they reckoned, photos would be taken with the museum’s name in the background.
Callie Summerlin, director of sales and marketing for the Port Arthur Convention & Visitors Bureau, said that was smart thinking. She said the gator would be promoted in C&VB literature, especially on social media, and would someday take its place alongside the Janis Joplin marker and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine as “must see” places to stop in this city.
The life-size reptile, she said would give “patrons a sense of place about the habitat and wildlife in the area.”
Worsham, who has served as a volunteer docent at the museum for a couple of years, said he’s sure children will be drawn to the gator.
“It’s exciting for us and hopefully will be exciting for the community,” he said, snapping a photo. “It’s more than we imagined.”