A statue for CFCN's Buck Shot - petition

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A statue for CFCN's Buck Shot - petition

Postby albertaboy4life » Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:22 am

A petition has been launched to honour Buck Shot (Ron Barge) with a statue - http://www.thepetitionsite.com/364/061/ ... -a-statue/

CTV Calgary has a story posted at - http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=653797

Here's the Calgary Sun story -

Statue pitched for the legendary Buck Shot
By Shawn Logan, Calgary Sun
First posted: Tuesday, July 07, 2015 04:26 PM MDT | Updated: Tuesday, July 07, 2015 05:22 PM MDT

Beloved Calgary childrens' entertainer Buck Shot hanging up his cowboy hat

For 30 years, Ron “Buck Shot” Barge was welcomed into living rooms of kids around Calgary.

And despite being off the air for almost two decades, a group of nostalgic Calgarians want him to live on forever, and are calling for a permanent statue to be built in the children’s entertainer’s honour.

An online petition is calling to immortalize the former host of the Buck Shot Show, which one of its organizers said would almost certainly become a civic point of pride

“It would certainly be better than a giant blue ring in the middle of nowhere,” said Karen Durrie, referring to the city’s controversial $470,000 Travelling Light public art on the city’s north side.

“This guy has been in our living rooms for 30 years, we just thought it would be great to honour him.”

What began as a temporary replacement for another noon hour kid’s show on CFCN (now CTV) in 1967, Buck Shot and his constant puppet companion Benny the Bear stayed on the air until 1997, making it the longest running children’s television show in Canada.

Durrie, who said the notion was first raised from a Facebook group called I Love Calgary Now/Then Because..., said she’s hoping to get enough public support to spur a city-backed public art project or even fundraise for a statue if a proper space can be donated.

“There’s a lot of overwhelmingly warm memories of him out there,” said Durrie.

“This just happened to come up during the Stampede, and here’s one of our original cowboys.”

Buck Shot himself, now 78, made his annual rounds during the Stampede Parade last week, and as is always the case was mobbed by adoring fans.

“When I walk in the parade, so many people come out to get autographs and pictures,” he said.

“I love the attention — I’m a bit of a ham.”

Even so, a humble Barge admits the public push for a permanent memorial has left him somewhat speechless.

“I’m actually a little nervous about it,” he said.

“I never thought something like this might happen.

“I’m just amazed and honoured it’s even being suggested.”

Just three days after it was posted, the online petition had garnered more than 500 signatures, with Durrie hoping to gather 10,000 by mid-August.

The petition can be found on http://www.thepetitionsite.com

shawn.logan@sunmedia.ca

- http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/07/07/st ... -buckshot#
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Re: A statue for CFCN's Buck Shot - petition

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Fri Jul 10, 2015 11:57 am

For those who never spent much time in Calgary, Buckshot (Ron Barge), is an amazingly popular icon of childhood in that city on a level of JP Patches vis-a-vis Seattle; and Patches already has a statue there so, this should be a no-brainer.
Interesting side-fact. The long-time puppeteer for the show and the human half of the beloved sidekick Bennie the Bear is Jim Lewis who, throughout the 60's on through to present day, also played bass for a number of successful Alberta rock groups, some of their songs you have probably played on the radio.
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