The Return of the Bronze Fonz

Happy days are here again. One of Milwaukee’s best-known sculptures is back, but it looks a little bit different.

The Bronze Fonz, first installed in 2008, was removed from his Milwaukee RiverWalk post just south of E. Wells St. on Feb. 1. Designed by Gerald P. Sawyer, the life-size sculpture of the “Happy Days” television character is a popular and once-controversial landmark.

“Locals noticed almost immediately he was gone,” said VISIT Milwaukee CEO Peggy Williams-Smith on Friday afternoon.

VISIT, which raised $75,000 in 2007 to create and install the sculpture, hired Vanguard Sculpture Services to restore the five-and-a-half-foot-tall sculpture.

“You might notice he looks a little bit different,” said Williams-Smith.

The new look is intended to make the sculpture easier to maintain. Fonzarelli’s trademark blue jeans and white t-shirt were previously painted on the sculpture and regularly degraded. Now the sculpture relies on the bronze structure and a patina layer to color Fonzie’s trademark leather jacket, blue jeans and undershirt.

“We removed multiple layers of paint, thoroughly cleaned the metal, and performed some minor repairs,” said Beth Sahagian, Vanguard co-owner. A two-stage, brown patina, a chemical compound, was added that will give the sculpture color and prevent water penetration.

The sculpture retains its same form, a depiction of actor Henry Winkler giving the Fonz’s trademark two thumbs up. Winkler portrayed Arthur Fonzarelli, a character defined by his effortless coolness, on “Happy Days” from 1973 to 1984. The series, along with spinoff “Laverne & Shirley,” was set in Milwaukee in the 1950s and 1960s, but was entirely filmed in California.

“People around the country, people around the world even, their perceptions about Milwaukee were established by sitcoms,” said Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson. He said those perceptions are now outdated and the city is far more diverse than portrayed. “It’s still great never the less to celebrate the return of Fonzie to the riverwalk.”

“The Fonz has really become a destination in itself,” said Milwaukee County Historical Society director and riverwalk board chair Mame McCully. She teased a new way coming this spring to engage with the art along the riverwalk.

“We look forward to seeing many more travelers snap a selfie and make a memory with the Bronze Fonz when visiting Milwaukee,” said Maria Van Hoorn, deputy secretary, Wisconsin Department of Tourism

“Whenever we travel anywhere in the world we remember that sense of place,” said Milwaukee Downtown CEO Beth Weirick.

Winkler himself was not in attendance at the event, but his signed nameplate was on display at the Newsroom Pub where a reception was held after the outdoor event. He was in attendance at the 2008 unveiling.

A sculpture isn’t the only modern legacy of the fictional character. The pejorative phrase “jumping the shark” is used as shorthand for a once popular creative venture that is desperately trying to generate new attention. Fonzarelli, on water skis, literally jumped a shark in a fifth-season episode.

No one made any jokes that the city hosting another Bronze Fonz press conference was jumping the shark, but there were plenty of references to Friday being a “happy day.”

Shortly after removing the white cloth covering the sculpture, Sahagian dropped a ribbon around his neck with the colors of the Ukraine flag.

Photos

Press Conference

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