Re: A History Of Santa's In Columbus! « Reply #10 on Sept 14, 2006, 7:18am »
Hi Ricky, and thanks for the info on the whereabouts of the 'Santa painting' of Tommy Warner. I guess I should start a list of 'Things to Do/See' the next time I visit Columbus.
Additionally, on 'that list' one MUST do the Visitor Center's tour of Columbus. Thanks should go out to Ricky and all the other volunteer guides for contributing their time and valuable insight to things 'Columbus.'
Re: A History Of Santa's In Columbus! « Reply #11 on Sept 14, 2006, 7:24am »
The painting of Tommy Warner (Santa), in City Hall, was done by a friend of mine. His name is David Williams. If you have seen the painting, you noticed that Tommy was not wearing the Santa suit. There was some controversy about this when David was submitting his early sketches. The Santa suit was draped over the back of the sleigh in the finished painting. Also....I don't think the children are Tommy's grandchildren. I'll try to find out for certain. There is also a wonderful little story about the bird being held in the hand of one of the children. It is actually a personal connection to David and a family tradition from his mother.
Re: A History Of Santa's In Columbus! « Reply #12 on Sept 14, 2006, 9:03am »
Quote:
The painting of Tommy Warner (Santa), in City Hall, was done by a friend of mine. His name is David Williams. If you have seen the painting, you noticed that Tommy was not wearing the Santa suit. There was some controversy about this when David was submitting his early sketches. The Santa suit was draped over the back of the sleigh in the finished painting. Also....I don't think the children are Tommy's grandchildren. I'll try to find out for certain. There is also a wonderful little story about the bird being held in the hand of one of the children. It is actually a personal connection to David and a family tradition from his mother.
Thanks so much, Rhonda, for the info on this painting. Indeed, I will forward the info to my 'source.' It might clear up some 'family notions about the children,' as Tommy Warner was married to my uncle's sister, Beth Hunt Warner. And my 'source' being my uncle and his wife, who currently reside in Franklin, IN. Would love to confirm that about the children, as well as, know the 'story' about the bird.
Joined: May 2005 Gender: Female Posts: 567 Location: Columbus
Re: A History Of Santa's In Columbus! « Reply #13 on Sept 14, 2006, 9:31am »
Reference Reply #6. Nanc, Actually I believe all the major department stores in Indianpolis had Santa's. I know one of my favorite memories is of going up to Indianapolis (which I think we did at least once a month to shop) around Christmas time and we would look in all the store windows at the displays of trains, toys, Santa's, etc. Columbus had some displays but none quite like they had in the big "city". Blocks, Ayers and Wassons were the largest stores as I recall. ( My very first credit card was from Ayers!)
Re: A History Of Santa's In Columbus! « Reply #14 on Sept 14, 2006, 7:34pm »
Slowly, but surely, and with the help of technology am getting additional information about Tommy Warner and his role as Santa. My uncle's wife sent me info that appeared in the Republic.
Preserving a memory of Santa
Portrait of Tommy Warner reminder of city's past
The timing couldn't have been better for today's ceremonial unveiling of a painting dedicated to Tommy Warner. That the 1 :30 p.m. event in the large meeting room of City Hall is taking place five days in advance of Christmas underlines the significance of the event.
The subject, a Columbus businessman who died in 1986, was best known most of his life for the role he assumed every December.
Warner was Columbus' Santa Claus.
There was some hard-to-define quality that somehow or other set Warner apart from so many others who have donned the familiar white and red outfit.
He didn't do it for the money that was given him for countless appearances at parties and business gatherings. He gave all that to the Cheer Fund.
Nor did he do it for the personal recognition. For the thousands of children he gave candy canes, the ones who climbed onto his lap at a Santa's House outside Irwin Union Bank, Tommy Warner was an unfamiliar name. He was just Santa to them.
Warner donned that suit made by his wife out of authentic materials every December simply because he loved being Santa and watching the expressions on the faces of children who still believed.
He is the second Columbus "personality" to be honored in this fashion. Last year at this time a painting of Jack the Bum, the legendary lifeguard of the old swimming hole, was unveiled in the large meeting room.
Although neither of these men would be described as "movers and shakers," they had about them qualities which endeared them to thousands of people.
They touched lives in the most basic of ways.
In essence they were remembered by so many, not so much for what they did but for who they were.
Their recognitions are the work of the River Rats, a group of Columbus volunteers who are most commonly associated with their environmental efforts in creating and preserving the natural beauty of Mill Race Park and its surrounding rivers.
In commissioning these portraits - and others to follow - the River Rats are actually extending their mission of preserving the city's treasures.
An added bonus is that these paintings are the work of local artists. Jack the Bum was painted by Cathe Burris, and Tommy Warner by David Williams.
By showcasing them in the popular venue of City Hall, the community not only has a chance to remember the charming personalities of the past but to take pride in the abilities of its artists of the present.
David or Richard, if this, in any way infringes, the posting of the article from the Republic, we can delete it.
Re: A History Of Santa's In Columbus! « Reply #15 on Sept 15, 2006, 8:27am »
A second article, by Harry McCawley, from the Republic, about Tommy Warner, Columbus' Santa, and the painting by David Williams.
Portrait of Santa Tommy should ring a lot of bells
By Harry McCawley harry@therepublic.com
David Williams got his first real look at Tommy Warner's Santa Claus the other day. It was in an old home movie shot many years earlier by Dr. Al Henry.
"I already knew a lot about him," the Columbus artist said. "1' d read a lot of the newspaper clippings, seen the pictures in the scrapbook and talked to his wife and friends. Still when I saw him coming up the front walk of Dr. Henry's home in that film it almost felt like he was right there."
David's study of the late Columbus businessman who dressed up as Santa Claus for thousands of Columbus children had to do with the commission he was awarded by the River Rats to paint Tommy Warner.
That finished painting will be unveiled in a special ceremony in the large meeting room of Columbus City Hall at 1 :30 p.m. Wednesday.
David's pretty sure that he never encountered Tommy Warner's Santa in person. The 34-year-old Columbus artist grew up here, but in his youth Tommy would have been winding down his Santa.
But there were things in that home movie that brought Tommy to his mind. "He was carrying those Christmas bells in his right hand, and he was holding them in a way that I instantly recognized from the pictures in that scrapbook," he said. "There's just something mystical about those bells. I think they say a lot about the man."
Indeed those bells were Tommy's trademark. In the years that he played Santa from the late 1940s into the mid-'70s they were a constant presence, his way of announcing the arrival of Santa Claus instead of the stereotyped and loud "ho-ho-ho" which he believed would scare small children.
David's done quite a few paintings in his time. Several of them are on display at the Alley Frame Shop in Eastbrook Plaza, and he just completed a series of works for St. Peter's Lutheran Church.
Personal connection
However, he found himself more personally drawn into the subject of Tommy Warner than in many of his earlier efforts. "He was really an ordinary kind of guy, not somebody you'd think of as influential. I think you would pass him on the street and never think that this was the guy who was Santa Claus. I came to see him as someone who just liked to share things and not get anything in return."
That's how a lot of people remember Tommy through vignettes that speak only of a simple guy who really liked to play Santa Claus.
He is especially remembered around Irwin Union Bank where he was a regular presence during December.
The bank is one of the sponsors of the painting, and community relations director Beth Stroh had asked some of the senior employees to share some of their memories of "their" Santa. Barb Smitherman wrote back that "he used to bring pork rinds in at Christmas time, and he would be all dressed up in the Santa suit his wife had made for him. I remember it had white rabbit fur. In the summer he'd bring in vegetables in the back of his pickup truck. He was a wonderful man and a delightful Santa."
Joined: May 2005 Gender: Female Posts: 567 Location: Columbus
Re: A History Of Santa's In Columbus! « Reply #17 on Sept 15, 2006, 12:21pm »
Margo, I would suggest you call city hall and ask. I'll bet they would have no problem whatsoever putting you in touch with whomever and then you would know for sure. I can't see why anyone would object to you taking a picture of the painting. I have a friend who is an artist in Florida and someone is always taking pictures of her work which is hung in city hall there.
Joined: Aug 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 1,158 Location: Columbus, In
Re: A History Of Santa's In Columbus! « Reply #19 on Apr 14, 2007, 9:37pm »
George Faure, Margie's husband that plays the Jolly Old Elf at Westfield shopping mall in St Peters, Mo,a suburb of St. Louis. He has been doing this for nine years. He has quit a following in that area. One family had moved during the summer, so come Christmas they drove 200 miles to see George, the only Santa they had ever known.
![[Home]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/menu/home.gif)
![[Help]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/menu/help.gif)
![[Search]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/menu/search.gif)
![[Login]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/menu/login.gif)
![[Register]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/menu/register.gif)
![[Search This Thread]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/search2.gif)
![[Reply]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/buttons/reply.gif)
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/buttons/sendtopic.gif)
![[Print]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif)
Author![[avatar]](http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5885/nancyavatar.jpg){kind=avatar}
![[Quote]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/buttons/quote.gif)
Logged![[homepage]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/buttons/www_sm.gif)
![[avatar]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/avatars/smiley.gif)
![[msn]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/msn.gif)
![[image]](http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/5892/santaclauspm0.jpg)