MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Eighty-seven years ago, a local artist perpetrated a spectacular prank on the residents of Nantucket, the Massachusetts island. The artist, Tony Sarg, was big in his day. Edgar B. Herwick III of member station GBH was on Nantucket yesterday for a re-creation of the monstrous hoax.
EDGAR B HERWICK III, BYLINE: In the summer of 1937, artist, entrepreneur and notorious prankster Tony Sarg took his penchant for high jinks to grand new heights with a long con of sorts that began weeks before the main event.
DARIN JOHNSON: He met up with two of his fisherman friends who he coaxed into going to the newspaper and telling the newspaper that there was a sea monster spotted out in the water.
HERWICK: That's Darin Johnson, CEO of the American Theater for Puppetry Arts and Sarg scholar. Later, these so-called firsthand accounts were augmented in the press with photos of enormous reptilian footprints on a South Shore beach, whipping the townsfolk into a frenzy.
JOHNSON: And then, on August 19, they blew up this giant balloon and floated it out in the water, and it became this huge national media sensation.
HERWICK: And it was a monster balloon - a 125-foot green monster named Morton. Parade balloons may be Sarg's greatest legacy. After all, he designed the very first ones for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in 1927. But he's also considered by some the father of modern American puppetry.
MICHAEL HARRISON: You know, if somebody mentions Walt Disney, we've all heard of Walt Disney. And it's kind of a surprise that Tony Sarg doesn't have the same name recognition.
HERWICK: Michael Harrison is the chief curator and research chair at the Nantucket Historical Association.
HARRISON: He was everywhere in the 1920s and '30s. He was at World's Fairs, doing original marionette performance. He experimented with early animation, actually before Walt Disney did.
HERWICK: It's that all-too-forgotten legacy that inspired the historical association to dub this the Summer of Sarg on the island. And yesterday was its centerpiece, Sarg Community Day.
(SOUNDBITE OF BALLOON BEING INFLATED)
HERWICK: A team of parade balloon professionals and volunteers were on the scene at 7 a.m., unrolling, inflating and securing a spot in the sun for a slightly more modern take on Morton.
(SOUNDBITE OF NAIL BEING HAMMERED)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Vocalizing) Ah.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Vocalizing) Ah.
HERWICK: Morton's impressive detail certainly captured Bo Lenihan's attention.
BO LENIHAN: Big eyes, big nose, some horns. There's a yellow belly.
HERWICK: Ken and Eliza Ansen spotted him from a distance and had to come in for a closer look.
KEN ANSEN: We were surprised to see the friendly sea monster on the way to the beach.
HERWICK: They were among the more than a thousand who frolicked in the sea air, enjoying a daylong celebration that, fittingly, included a puppet show.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Do you think that shark wants to bite my flippers?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: I'm fairly certain it does - (shouting) oh.
HERWICK: But the undeniable star of the day was Morton, a clear hit with the young, like Grant Casey...
GRANT CASEY: His teeth are pointer than I thought for a balloon.
HERWICK: ...And the young at heart, like Mike and Judith Wodinski.
MIKE WODINSKI: We know some of the people who were here back in the '30s and had their pictures taken.
JUDITH WODINSKI: And we'll use it in our Christmas card.
HERWICK: Bill Smith, the artist who designed and created this 21st-century Morton, said that was the goal.
BILL SMITH: That's what Sarg lived for - fun.
HERWICK: And who among us couldn't use a little more of that right now?
For NPR News, I'm Edgar B. Herwick III in Nantucket.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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