BELLVILLE ― Outside the Buckeye Express Diner on Ohio 97, a giant statue billed as the “World’s Largest Bobblehead” has risen from the ashes, restored after lying in the weeds for 50 years.
The 35-foot-tall fiberglass statue known as Jacques looks like the twin to another famous Ohio landmark, “Handless Jacques” in Marblehead.
This Bellville chef is wearing a red coat and white pants and is holding two hamburgers. He is visible from Interstate 71, but driving up to the restaurant is the best way to see him.
More than 50 years ago, the statue stood tall at 118 Lexington Ave. in Mansfield. But it was taken down in the 1970s and had been neglected for half a century.
The bobblehead was erected this summer on July 1 by local manufacturer Terry Byrne, who brought Jacques back to life. That date was his father’s 99th birthday.
Friday, Byrne said erecting Jacque and pouring a concrete footer dominated his entire summer.
Statue’s head was off, inspiring bobblehead idea
Byrne said Buckeye Express Diner’s owner Tony Morris begged him not to paint the bobblehead’s coat blue, which was the statue’s original color. In light of the fact that the restaurateur loves everything OSU Buckeyes and the restaurant is in Buckeye country, so he painted it scarlet.
In September, Byrne discussed the statues at a celebration in Marblehead for the former Handless Jacques after that 32-foot-tall fiberglass landmark was fully restored, including getting a new pair of oversized hands.
Byrne said he was faced with the difficult challenge of restoring the Mansfield statue after it had been lying outdoors in pieces for about 50 years.
“Its head was off. It was in horrible shape,” Byrne told the Port Clinton News Herald, a sister paper of the News Journal.
The statue’s decapitated head inspired the idea to turn him into a bobblehead.
“Logistically, it was difficult. I called about 10 manufacturers looking for a spring. I probably had a lot of guys thinking I was crazy when I told them I was making the world’s largest bobblehead,” Byrne said. “Finally, SUHM Spring Works in Houston, Texas, made a custom spring.”
Byrne installed a rope attached to the Bellville statue’s head so kids can pull it and make it bobble, but if the wind is strong enough, the head moves on its own.
“Kids just love it. The feedback has been huge,” he said.
Friday, Byrne told the News Journal he still has some touchup work to do on Jacque.
1972 removal captured in News Journal photo
Terry Byrne’s father W. Michael Byrne saved the landmark statue in 1972. A photograph in the News Journal on July 30, 1972, showed Jacques being loaded onto a truck.
Friday he said his dad planned to use it for advertising but he never found the time to erect it.
“He had eight kids,” said Terry Byrne. Terry was No. 8.
A cutline in a photograph by photographer Ed Zirkle said, “The lofty, controversial figure that leaned in front of Jacques’ Restaurant on Lexington Ave., came down Saturday and now is resting at the Michael Bryne Manufacturing Company Inc. property. Byrne removed the 35-foot high, 5,000-pound statue yesterday ‘as an investment.’ The figure which was built in Indiana for about $10,000 took six hours to remove. Byrne and his son Brian, 17, took a breather on the giant sandwiches, which Big Jacque once held.”
The statue for many years laid in the weeds at Byrne Manufacturing, on Earthboring Road, off Cairns Road. Later, Terry Byrne moved it to a bean field at Ohio 97 and I-71 where it also laid on the ground.
Now, with the gargantuan bobblehead looming overhead, customers to the businesses along Ohio 97 Bellville exit at I-71 seem to enjoy stopping for photographs of Jacques and posing for selfies with the roadside landmark.
Lee Tasseff, president of Destination Mansfield, said the convention and visitor’s bureau that represents Mansfield and Richland County plans to market the new Jacques on Ohio 97 as a destination.
Marblehead twin now has giant hands
Mike Cahill of Florida did much of the restoration on the Marblehead statue.
He said the two statues originally were made for the same customer that owned two roast beef sandwich stores, one in Mansfield and the other in Marion.
“They were both taken down in the early 1970s. One stored in pieces in a field the other stood up in Marblehead where he deteriorated, as a silent sentinel for 50-plus years,” Cahill said in an email Friday from his home in Florida. After enduring Hurricane Ian, Cahill said he is busy volunteering with relief efforts.
Cahill’s biggest challenge restoring the Marblehead Jacques was finding a way to recreate the missing hands. He found the answer in George Richmond of Sandusky and his friend, Rick Hughes of Norwalk, owner of the custom fiberglass business Emerald FX. They built the oversized hands of wet sand and fiberglass.
“He’s a staple in Marblehead. People ask me about him all the time. They stop and sketch him or take photos with him,” Jamie Erfman, manager of the Mickey Mart next door to the field where Handless Jacques stands, told the News Herald. “He’s a landmark. I tell people we’re the station next to the tall man. I love that they’re restoring him,” the Port Clinton newspaper reported earlier.
Terry Byrne said the statues are said to be the two largest, fiberglass twins in existence in the world. He gives credit for the bobblehead idea to Cahill, whom he initially met in Florida.
Friday, Byrne was in Pine Island, Florida, attempting to find his boat, which he found upside down in his yard. His floating dock was located a mile down the road.
Byrne said many people probably thought his idea to erect Jacques was crazy, but he’s glad he did.
He said it’s brought a lot of interest in the area of Ohio 97 and I-71.
“I’m glad my dad saved it,” he said. “Things like this would be gone forever.”
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