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For the past six years the Statue of Liberty has been walking the
streets of Manhattan. And taking the occasional taxi. Her name is
Jennifer Stewart. She's 36 and got her start by winning a Statue of
Liberty look-alike contest in 1986, the statue's centennial year.
After that she practiced statuary only intermittently until she began
performing over the July 4, 1988, weekend in a Greenwich Village
restaurant.
One day when she tried walking through Washington
Square Park in costume after work, her cup got filled with donations
within one half-hour. A professional statue was born.
Now she appears as the statue about 150 times a
year, either on the street, at meetings or at private parties. She
had traveled to Bermuda, Hawaii, Singapore, Brazil, Philadelphia and
Washington, D.C. And she has been in one movie -- "Joe Versus the
Volcano," with Tom Hanks.
Other notable facts -- color of eyes:
gray-blue, usually; reflected green when in costume. Maximum time
in costume: 12 hours. Green stuff: theatrical makeup on a base of
sunscreen and foundation. Time required to put on green stuff: an
hour.
She has stories to tell. One of the best
concerns a day she got into a taxi in costume. "The driver
looked just like Buddha, but he didn't speak much English. I get
in the back and take off my crown and tell him I think he looks like
Buddha. He takes off his hat and turns around to me and says, 'I
am Buddha.' So here we were -- Buddha and the Statue of Liberty in
a taxi. Only in New York."
Photo ©
Greta Pratt for the New York Times |
