THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605250183
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 145 lines
KEVIN GALLUP HAS been monkeying around with Hugh Mongous for two years now and the big gorilla is finally ready to make his debut at Ocean Breeze Fun Park on General Booth Boulevard.
Gallup, a graduate student in the Old Dominion University Art Department, was commissioned by park co-owner Michael F. Gelardi to build a replacement for another big ape by the same name - one that had been destroyed by fire in 1989.
The deal was: Gallup would fabricate from scratch another Hugh Mongous, a towering and fearsome fiberglass figure to stand astride the Ocean Breeze park entrance like his 65-foot-tall predecessor had for four years. It would be part of Gallup's college graduate course project. Gelardi, in turn, agreed to fork over $20,000 to the ODU art department in compensation.
In the end, the public would be treated once more to a view of a towering gorilla at the park entrance. On May 17 - a Friday - an E.T. Gresham Co. Inc. crane hoisted the new Hugh to his feet on the same pedestal occupied by his predecessor at the park entrance from 1985 to 1989.
There Hugh II stood last week, grinning sheepishly at the world as workmen and artisans refined his foam features with sanders, put a coat of fiberglass on his derriere and began painting him.
When completed, Hugh II will be wearing gigantic red swim shorts and sport a huge pair of sunglasses, through which park visitors will be able to see his squinty little eyes light up occasionally.
It will be a banner day for Gelardi, who back in 1995 - when Hugh was in the process of being remade - viewed the statue's return with great anticipation.
``When the (original) gorilla was up, he really became a landmark,'' Gelardi said at the time. ``Since then people have been calling up, wanting to know when he was going to be put back up.''
It all started when the original plastic simian was torched by an arsonist - a flaming arrow to the abdomen actually did him in - the story goes. Movers then lugged the charred corpse to the back of the park where the remains, or some of them anyway, still lie in the weeds.
Part of the original Hugh Mongous - who stood about 10 feet taller than his successor - was used by young Gallup to rebuild the new gorilla. Plastic foam that had given Hugh I his bulk was collected by Gallup to fill out the new Hugh. The process provided a sense of continuity to the rebuilding operation.
The original Hugh was sculpted by Demetrios Mavroudis, a Greek-born sculptor and former University of Virginia fine arts teacher in 1978 for a Richmond bank promotion. When it was no longer needed there, it was trucked to Virginia Beach to stand over the entrance of the General Booth Boulevard amusement park, then known as Jungle Falls, later Wild Water Rapids and now Ocean Breeze.
Gallup, a wiry man nearing 30 with a wisp of a goatee on his chin and a perpetual faraway look in his eyes, created the new Hugh from scratch.
He started with a 12-inch-high model that he fashioned from clay and captured in three-dimensional form on an ODU computer. From the computerized version, which resembled a wire mesh sculpture, Gallup formulated structural plans from which the 55-foot-tall figure would be erected. The basic form would be made from a webbing of welded rebar and reinforced by two weight-supporting steel I-beams that ran the length of his body.
First Gallup constructed the rebar shell of the gorilla's legs and feet at an off-campus art department studio in Norfolk. Then arms, torso and body were fashioned and assembled with a welder's torch at the Ocean Breeze property in Virginia Beach .
The process continued through cold winter and hot summer days, and Hugh II slowly took shape. Finally, Gallup reached a point where he began to add foam to the mesh figure and then began the tortuous process of shaping the foam with electric sanders and saws.
Early this spring, with Hugh II still lying on his back near the Ocean Breeze equipment shed, Gallup and Gelardi had a parting of the ways on the progress of the project. Gelardi wanted it finished soon. Gallup wanted out. So, new faces were brought in to complete the statue.
One was freelance artist Ernie Coulson of Virginia Beach, who in the last two weeks could be seen atop a scaffolding, sander in hand, face covered by safety goggles and protective mask, shaping Hugh II's light brown foam exterior. Another was welder Joe Merlino, who helped fasten Hugh II's feet to the metal base near the park entrance.
Putting the finishing touches on the big ape through the weekend was Dan Gay of Proglass, a Gloucester firm that had been used to coat many a Busch Gardens attraction with fiberglass and paint in years past. Proglass had been hired to coat Hugh II, first with fiberglass, then with a layer of black polyester. Painting followed, with Gay and his crew adding color to Hugh II's swim trunks, his sun glasses and his pearly teeth to highlight Hugh II's smile.
It's the smile that grates on Gallup's artistic senses. In his original plans, Hugh was snarling like any respectable Hollywood gorilla should.
``They stuck a stupid grin on its face,'' Gallup said. ``That's the only thing I disagreed with.''
Gallup takes great pride in his role as creator of the project - using his artistic, engineering and computer skills to create a project of this magnitude was a singular feat in his mind.
``Nobody has ever done this before,'' said Gallup, who is completing his thesis at ODU with a series of art projects to be displayed at a show in Philadelphia.
``There were so many obstacles along the way - with internal politics and stuff. Money dried up at one point and that stopped the process. I can at least say the process worked.''
Not everyone is happy to see the towering figure. It seems officials at the Virginia Marine Science Museum next door, now undergoing the last stages of a $35 million face lift, got wind of the gorilla project in its early stages and have been trying to convince Gelardi to hide Hugh discreetly behind the water slide so as not to blight an otherwise elegant museum project.
``This is the just type of thing we've been trying to get away from at the Oceanfront,'' said a museum official who asked not be quoted by name. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
THE APE TAKES SHAPE
Color cover photo by L. TODD SPENCER
File photo by PAUL A. AIKEN
Staff photos by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Hugh Mongous, standing 55 feet tall and back on his original base at
Ocean Breeze Fun Park, was awaiting a paint job when this picture
was taken. When completed, Hugh II will be sporting gigantic red
swim shorts and a huge pair of sunglasses.
Gallup's computerized version called for a snarl. It was replaced,
much to Gallup's chagrin, with a ``stupid grin on its face.''
Freelance artist Ernie Coulson and figerglass contrator Dan Gay
completed the project.
THROUGH THE YEARS
File photo by JIM JENNINGS
ABOVE: Bob Murray helps re-erect the original 65-foot-tall Hugh,
sculpted by Demetrios Mavroudis. It was trucked to the Beach from a
Richmond bank promotion that began in 1978.
BELOW: The original plastic simian was torched by an arsonist - a
flaming arrow to the abdomen actually did him in - the story goes.
Movers then lugged the charred corpse to the back of the park where
the remains, or some of them anyway, still lie in the weeds. Parts
of the original Hugh were used to form the new Hugh.
Kevin Gallup, a graduate student in the Old Dominion University Art
Department, was commissioned by park co-owner Michael F. Gelardi to
build the new Hugh. He started with a 12-inch-high model that he
fashioned from clay and captured in three-dimensional form on an ODU
computer. by CNB