Part 2 of My Baby - Eddie Boros and the Tower of Toys

A fierce wind and rain storm, Monday night after the memorial, leaves the tower dangerously leaning into the garden. This accelerates the Parks Department’s plans to tear it down. I again interview the gardeners : Joanee Freedom, Pat Russell, Graywolf and William Hohauser. And we hear from gardeners: Barbara (Improvisational poetry), Steve Jones Daughs (drums) and Tim Young (a sad witness to the final fall of the tower). Plus we hear from various neighbors who were unhappy to see it go, and John, the single angry, vocal protester on the morning of the take-down.

Graywolf tells a great story about how the tower almost came down in an ice storm in 1994, and how Eddie got his friends from Sophie’s bar to save it.

Joanee gives more garden history, and shares her theory about the storm being Eddie’s Wind.

William shares some insight into how Eddie expressed his spirituality.

And Barbara Monoian from the Musee de Monoian gallery says that Eddie was the neighborhood’s “keeper of history.”

A couple of neighbors expressed glee within earshot that the “pile of junk” was finally gone, but no one was willing to go on camera to say it.
  • MariaNYC plus 1 year ago
    Well Michael I think it is fantastic you captured the final hours. The shots I have of the toys are merely remnants of what was left - all weathered down, decayed most of them gone. There are so many shots of toys I had not ever seen. Fantastic shots, how sad when they began to chop on it.
    I can't wait to see the saved toys footage.
  • GammaBlog 1 year ago
    I'm not sure about doing part three, Maria. I was going to center it around a proposed garden event to distribute the toys for charity. But as far as I can tell, that is not happening. And just piecing together the footage I have is a bit thin. Maybe something will happen on the anniversary next year. Thanks for your kind comments.
  • MariaNYC plus 1 year ago
    Distribute the toys to charity? They are weathered down that just wouldn't be safe... IMO If anything it would have been nice to place more of the objects throughout the garden, perhaps make a memory plot -- particularly the horses since he loved them so much.
    I saw a few objects from the tower around the garden which I got some on tape but I see the majority were gone. I was shocked to see also that as the tower was torn down the toys were not saved. Ironic, considering the tower of salvage art Eddie created was from discarded toys-saved.
    I hope you will consider placing a copy of your documentation at The Filmmakers Coop here in NY, I think there are a few films there already- on the tower and Eddie, yours would make a nice addition to the archive.
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  • GammaBlog 1 year ago
    It was more of an idea to auction off the tower toys and get new toys for needy kids.

    Do you have a link for the Filmmakers Coop? What format would they want?
  • MariaNYC plus 1 year ago
    Oh I see... well that makes sense.
    here is the coop link

    film-makerscoop.com/

    you join and become a member- it's an indi distribution coop - around for years.

    We should propose to the garden (when the weather gets warmer and they show events) to show our videos of the tower.
    I have several garden pieces I've been working on slowly... but here are some recent ones
    vimeo.com/2264213
    vimeo.com/2246491

    There are as I said, several other films done on him - it would be cool to show them all in a screening, mixing the films and the video.
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