It won't be long now before "Handless" Jacques can wave to passerby with his newly made fiberglass hands!
The 1960s-era 30-foot fiberglass statue of a mustached maître d' has stood just to the east of the Mickey Mart gas station on Route 163 in Lakeside Marblehead for about 50 years.
Once upon a time, Jacques and his twin "Pierre" had hands, and stood outside of a small chain of roast beef restaurants in both Marion and Mansfield, Ohio.
After the restaurants closed and the friendly giants were out of a gig, Jacques was moved to Marblehead, where he has stood since about 1972.
`(The hands as of August 2022)
Now Jacques is getting a fresh new look!
The project is a collaboration between Mike Cahill, a former Marblehead builder, and the Greater Port Clinton Area Arts Council. Fundraising is underway to restore him.
Dawning his pencil mustache and paper hat, Jacques was once also holding a tray of food, but somewhere along the line it was lost. Now the new hands will be giving a thumbs up and the other will be extended out to shake your hand.
The hands are formed in sand first, then a layer of fiberglass is applied. After that the hand is flipped over and sculpted again in sand and fiberglassed again. Then the sand is rinsed out and the hands are finished!
This project will be completed in several phases throughout the course of the next few years.
Since the spring of 2022, scaffolding has been built around Jacques and work has begun on renovations from top to bottom and the addition of hands to this local icon.
For now, work will resume on Jacques after Labor Day until the snow starts to fly and then again in the spring. What is needed now is donations, volunteers and plenty of positive energy!
The hope is that Jacques can be restored to his former glory and become a friendly face to greet the millions of people who travel to the Marblehead peninsula each year.
Volunteers can email Cahill at restorejacques.cros.net. If you're interested in donating to the cause, make a tax-deductible donation to the GPCAAC paypal account.
If you're not comfortable donating online, please send a check to GPCAAC at P.O. Box 66, Port Clinton, OH 43452. Please designate in the memo line that you want the money to be reserved for Jacques restoration.
OTHER JACQUES NEWS:
After news broke that Marblehead's big guy would be given new coattails, a fresh layer of fiberglass and new hands, people from all across the country have weighed in on their memories of this iconic piece of large scale art.
He's become quite the viral sensation, with more than 25,000 people viewing the posts on the GPCAAC Facebook page and in local newspapers and publications.
Jacques has also become a YouTube star, being featured on the "Just a Quick Detour" page!
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