JACKIE Robinson - George Shuba Commemorative Statue, Dedicated July 17, 2021
Marc Mellon
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Dear Friends and Colleagues, I am so very proud to announce the Dedication of the Jackie Robinson-George Shuba statue. Kudos to the good folk in Youngstown, Ohio, who chose to honor their favorite son George Shuba, and the legendary athlete and advocate for equality and social justice, Jackie Robinson. George, who as a kid played integrated baseball in Youngstown, extended his hand in friendship and celebration to rookie teammate Jackie Robinson, who had just hit a three-run home run. |
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It was Jack Roosevelt Robinson’s first regular-season hit with the Brooklyn Dodger’s farm team, the Montreal Royals. The widely circulated images of the opening-day moment, now known as A Handshake For the Century heralded both the integration of professional baseball and the birth of the modern Civil Rights Movement. |
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Despite the gray day, a wonderfully diverse and enthusiastic crowd came together to celebrate this historic moment in sports and civil rights history. |
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I've spent over forty years creating bronze portrait busts and statues, while continuously exploring moments of joy and movement in the worlds of sports and dance. What I learned from working with elite dancers I redeploy in my sports work, and vice versa. It was important in creating a work that celebrates these athletes that I capture not just their likenesses, but the athletic body language and emotional content of the moment. Below, I share multiple views of the sculpture, as I would in showcasing my dance work. I love the dynamism that this bronze expresses in the round. It was also important to me to capture the natural quality and spontaneity of the direct smile between George and Jackie, and the fullness of the handshake. |
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The evening after the dedication, while I recovered in the hotel room, my wife took this great shot of the sculpture lit at night as conceived by architect Katie Spires. Brava, Katie! |
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Mayor Tito Brown was one of many Youngstownians celebrating the moment. The sculpture was presented as a gift to Youngstown as part of the dedication ceremony. |
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Project co-chair, Herb Washington, wearing his Oakland A's jersey, a former track and field star and Oakland A's base-stealer, inspired by Jackie throughout his career, is a successful McDonald's entrepreneur and serves on several corporate America boards. The McDonald's donation he brought to our project was instrumental in our successful launch. George Shuba, proud son of Mike Shuba traveled with his father over many years teaching school children about George's most cherished moment in the major leagues. When George finished his career with the Dodgers he went back to Youngstown and packed up his memorabilia, except for the photograph he owned of the handshake, which was hung on the wall next to his favorite chair. |
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A local newspaperman for over forty years, Ernie Brown, also championed our project as a co-chair. |
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I was honored to work with a dedicated team of Youngstown volunteers, and will be forever grateful for the confidence that they had in me and my team. Sincere thanks to the coast-to-coast donors who stepped up not just to fund the statue, but the permanent plaza created in Youngstown’s downtown. The Youngstown Foundation's major gift, and the game-changing gift from the Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation, deserve special recognition. |
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My involvement with this magical moment began with Dr. Lou Zona's strong recommendation to the committee that they seek my services. Lou, long-time visionary executive director and chief curator of the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, has known me and my work for some thirty years. Thank you Lou!! I would also like to give special thanks to my behind-the-scenes support throughout this close to two-year project. Firstly, my wife, fellow noted sculptor Babette Bloch and my daughters Julia and Rachel. Julia and Rachel, along with Rachel's boyfriend Nathan, spent many months living with us thru the pandemic.
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Special thanks to my mold-makers and plaster casters at Sculpture House Casting, Sal and Mike Perrotta and Sal Ruggiero, my engineer and enlarger Peter Kauzmann, and Bill Makky the owner of Bedi-Makky Art Foundry, poetically located in Brooklyn New York. Their old-world expertise ensured the success of our project. My publicist Jay Winuk was key to bringing us the extraordinary coverage that ESPN SportsCenter aired multiple times, along with the poignant coverage thru ESPN's The Undefeated. Personal thanks to Sean McManus, Chairman of CBS Sports, who shared my project pitch with his colleagues at CBS Sunday Morning. Their brilliant coverage caught the eye of the Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation and many others. Finally, I'd like to thanks America's legendary documentary filmmakers Ken Burns and Henry Louis Gates Jr. Ken's Baseball series and Jackie Robinson DVD's, and Dr. Gate's series of documentaries on the black experience in America helped inform my understanding of Jackie Robinson's import to our country's history. In particular, Gate's series on Reconstruction gave me necessary context in better understanding Jim Crow, the weight that Jackie Robinson bore, and the import of George Shuba's simple handshake gesture, imbued with the respect and dignity that the rookie athlete Jackie Robinson deserved. Marc Mellon
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