In honor of the Columbus Bicentennial the Columbus Clippers created a series of bobbleheads featuring not just athletes, but people who have influenced the history and culture of our state capital and give Columbus character. The first seven bobbleheads released since the beginning of the baseball season are: *Author James Thurber with his dog (released on April 5) *World War I Flying Ace Eddie Rickenbacker (released on April 29th) *Athlete and Coach Howard “Hopalong” Cassady (released on May 20) *Jack Hanna (released on June 10) *Race Car Driver Bobby Rahal (released on June 24) *Wendy’s Founder Dave Thomas with Wendy (released July 1) *Heavy Weight Boxing Champion James “Buster” Douglas (released on July 8) Yet to come are Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens on July 29 and Ohio State University football coach Woody Hayes on August 12. At OHS we have a soft spot for the Eddie Rickenbacker bobblehead because there are Rickenbacker items in the Society’s permanent collections, including photographs and a fragment of the airplane that he flew in World War I.
Elsie Janis, who entertained the troops during World War I and had a career on Broadway.
One of the best parts of a promotion like this, other than trying to collect them all, is thinking about who else you think could have been immortalized by a bobblehead. I’ve been giving it some thought, and here are my suggestions:
*Pilot Jerrie Mock, called the “Flying Housewife,” when she became the first woman to fly solo around the world in 1964.
*Entertainer Elsie Janis, known as the “Sweetheart of the Doughboys,” entertained U.S. troops in Europe during World War I. *Entrepreneur Jeni Britton Bauer who founded Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.
I learned about Jerrie Mock and Elsie Janis while processing and cataloging photograph collections in the Historical Society’s archives. We don’t have any museum objects or archival photographs for Jeni – yet.
Jerrie Mock’s airplane, “The Spirit of Columbus.”
