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October 19, 2001
The new, and final, date for the
unveiling is Friday 7 December. This date marks the
seventieth anniversary of Archie Leach's first contract in
Hollywood - thus it be said to be Cary Grant's birthday!
I understand that many of our American
friends may not wish to travel at the moment we invite all of the
Warbrides to the event. Anyone who wishes to come to
Bristol for the unveiling and/or the weekend, our travel
arrangements are being overseen by our good friend Derek Townsend
at Key Services who may be contacted on (44) 117 973 1313 e-mail -
derek.townsend@blueyonder.co.uk
On another point - we have had to
change the location for the statue. Unfortunately the new
position does not allow us to put in the range of landscaping we
had originally planned. Therefore we will not be able to
have a dedicated War Brides plaque. However, in two or three
years time we hope the statue will be moved to a dedicated site
that will allow us to do everything we had intended. Very
best wishes,
David September 6, 2001
The statue is nearing completion! Above is the latest photo of
the statue.
July 30, 2001
Unfortunately I have some bad news
for those war brides planning to come over in September.
The local council recently informed
us that there is a cast iron water main directly under the
chosen site. After failing to find an alternative site at
short notice we have reluctantly decided to postpone the unveiling
until this problem has been overcome. We will send
details of the new date as soon as possible but the most likely date
is Friday 7 December 2001, the seventieth anniversary of Archie
Leach's first contract with Paramount.
May I ask you to circulate this
information as soon as possible to your members and visitors to your
site.
Please pass on our apologies
to those people who have made travel arrangements, but as you
see we have no alternative. You will have noticed
that we have been very careful to make no definitive public
announcement on the unveiling date until everything was firmly
arranged for this very reason. However, if some people
wish to come over anyway over the first weekend in September we will
try to put on a tour for them of Cary's home town and show them
a good time.
Very best wishes
David
July 17, 2001
Situation report with
seven and a bit weeks to go... So far we have raised £46K of the £60K
needed to build the statue. We are confident that we will raise the
remainder of the required funds in time to unveil the statue on Friday
7 September. There are still a few unresolved issues about the
location of the statue. When these are sorted we will be able to 'go
live' and release official details of the Cary Fest.
We have initiated a new
group called 'The Friends of the Cary Grant Statue', for admirers who
wish to make a contribution towards the cost of the statue. May I ask
you for a list of Warbrides who have made a contribution so that we
can send them 'Friends' certificates when the are ready, i.e. when we
have a photo of the finished statue to go on them.
It would also be
helpful if you could publicize the Friends Initiative on your website.
All contributions should be sent to:
The Cary Grant Statue Campaign,
PO Box 197,
Westbury on Trym,
Bristol, BS9 2YN
England
Very best wishes
David
May 7, 2001
Things continue to go very well with
the Statue - Graham Ibbesson, the Sculptor, has been commissioned and
is now working hard on the Statue so more news as that develops.
Barbara Grant-Cohen visited us
recently and met Graham in order to make sure that she was happy
with the way the Statue is to look - she also visited the proposed
site in the middle of Bristol - again, she was very happy with
everything.
A huge thank you to everyone for the
cheque that we received recently - each and every one of you is a
STAR ! - the fundraising is going very well and everything is on track
for the Festival in September (7th-9th).
I will write again soon with more news
and, until then,
God Bless,
Dave
March 26, 2001
"I was wondering if
the Warbrides would be interested in contributing enough money
to "qualify" for a plaque which would go on the
base of the statue? - we are asking companies and groups of
people to give £1,000 for a small plaque which would be on
the area surrounding the statue" - David Showler
The Cary Grant E-Mail
Warbrides collected £1114.83 for the Cary
Grant Statue Campaign!! This was a worldwide effort of $ & £
collected from dozens of loyal Cary Grant fans from as far apart as
Hawaii and Scotland. Congratulations!!!
March 4, 2001
Dear Debbie
Please find attached two photos - one is a scale model of the
proposed statue and the other gives an impression of what it
will look like in position on the City Centre.
Don't worry about the look of the statue or its proportions at
the moment - the Maquette, as its called, is only meant to give
a representation of the final statue - Graham Ibbeson, the
Sculptor, would normally take about a month to prepare something
like this but because we were being hounded for more information
by the media he prepared one in a week.
The meeting with the City Council went really well and they have
no objections, in principle, to the site we have asked for so
more news on this as soon as I get it.
We hope to have more news on sponsorship from some of the big
companies we have approached this week so keep your fingers
crossed!
I have a meeting the Statue Committee later this week so if you
have any questions that need to be put to them please let me
know as soon as possible - I know that they are all amazed by
the efforts being made by the Warbrides to raise funds so any
update on your progress that I can report back would also be
appreciated.
Write soon and God Bless.
Dave
 February
23, 2001
Hi Debbie
Things are very definitely getting
busy here in Bristol !
We have a meeting with the Planning
Department of the City Council on Wednesday 28th February - they
will walk around the new City Centre with us and decide on the
most appropriate place for Cary's statue.
Keep your fingers crossed that they
give permission for it to go on the spot we have already picked
because it is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT - I will email you after the
meeting with more news.
Thank you for the questions -
answers are as follows:
The "plaques" are likely
to be engraved into the base on which the statue will stand. As
I mentioned before, the base will be a star shape and will add
the perfect finishing touch to the overall look of the
statue.
All of the local television stations
will be covering the Festival and Sony, who now own Columbia
Pictures, are currently considering helping as well
so this will almost certainly result in a video of the Festival
being produced and sold via the official website.
Just to let you know that I have just
completed my application to become a member of the Warbrides -
hope you will have me!.
Write soon and God Bless
Dave
February
18, 2001
Hi Debbie!
Thank you for your email.
Things are going very well with
the Statue Campaign - here's an update of recent events:
Bristol City Council is right
behind the idea of the Statue and has given permission for it
to be put up on the new City Centre - all we have to do now is
to agree on where.
There is a very obvious position
which looks onto both the Bristol Hippodrome and also the
Watershed Centre which is where films by performers such as
Cary are shown so this would be really appropriate.
We will be using a man call Graham
Ibbeson to make the statue - he is very well known in this
country for other work he has done in bronze. The statue of
Cary will be about 2 metres high and will stand on a
"star" plinth, he will be walking towards the
Hippodrome and will have a copy of a film script under one arm
(he will, of course, be wearing a double-breasted suit).
Graham has provided us with a
small scale model of the statue so that we can show people
what it will look like - there have been some photos taken of
this which I will send you as soon as possible.
The position is perfect as there
are circular steps leading up to it and the statue could be
well lit and the names of Cary's films could be engraved into
the steps etc.
The unveiling will take place at
the beginning of September and we are currently trying to
raise the rest of the money needed to make sure that the
statue goes ahead - we need to do this by the end of March to
be sure of hitting the September deadline so things are pretty
busy here as you can imagine.
Let me know more about the
Warbrides and how I go about joining ! - I was wondering if
the Warbrides would be interested in contributing enough money
to "qualify" for a plaque which would go on the
base of the statue? - we are asking companies and groups of
people to give £1,000 for a small plaque which would be on
the area surrounding the statue or £5,000 for one which
would actually be on the "star" plinth.
I will keep you up to date with
regular progress reports.
Write soon and God bless.
Dave
February
6, 2001
The unveiling of the Statue
will be the highlight of a three day Festival which will include
a showing of a number of his films and an exhibition of his life
and works.
Cary's widow and daughter
have very kindly agreed to come over to England in order to
attend the Festival and to unveil the Statue.
We have already received
quite a lot of sponsorship for the project from former friends
and business contacts of Cary's in the USA and we are now trying
to raise the final amounts needed from companies in Bristol and
then from public donations.
The Statue will be cast in bronze, will be 2 metres high and
will stand on a "star" base surrounded by small
stars detailing all of his films and leading ladies.
We would like to publicize the Festival and to also
offer fans the opportunity to support the fundraising efforts if
they would like to.
Souvenirs of the Festival
will be sold over the internet from a Cary Grant Festival
website which we are currently building and this will include
the opportunity to purchase a miniature of the Statue.
I would be really grateful
for any help you can give me - we particularly want to get in
contact with any American based fan clubs as I am sure there
would be a huge interest in the project.
Just as a matter of interest
- we are doing all of the work on the project on a voluntary
basis and will not be making any money whatsoever from the
Festival - any additional money raised will go towards a
Foundation in Cary's name at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
in order to help young Bristol actors and actresses make their
way through Drama School.
Thank you in advance for
your help.
Best Wishes
David Showler
The Cary Grant Statue Appeal -
Bristol
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