Description:
Legendary “Pumpkin Man” Gordy Falk carved out a reputation for turning a Whitefish Bay neighborhood into the “Candy Cane Lane” of Halloween.
It started with a few pumpkins he carved into jack-o'-lanterns for his sister's kids in the mid-1970s, and later for friends and Halloween parties in Whitefish Bay.
Then came the 50 or so he crafted for a display at his home on Carlisle Avenue not long after.
By 1986, about 500 blazing orange cats, scary faces and cartoon caricatures covered his lawn and flat-roof garage and drew about 50,000 viewers, causing traffic jams and headaches for Whitefish Bay police.
Falk's a
Legendary “Pumpkin Man” Gordy Falk carved out a reputation for turning a Whitefish Bay neighborhood into the “Candy Cane Lane” of Halloween.
It started with a few pumpkins he carved into jack-o'-lanterns for his sister's kids in the mid-1970s, and later for friends and Halloween parties in Whitefish Bay.
Then came the 50 or so he crafted for a display at his home on Carlisle Avenue not long after.
By 1986, about 500 blazing orange cats, scary faces and cartoon caricatures covered his lawn and flat-roof garage and drew about 50,000 viewers, causing traffic jams and headaches for Whitefish Bay police.
Falk's annual display grew to about 1,000 jack-o'-lanterns annually and eventually had to be moved to Schoolhouse Park.
"He came out to do pumpkins for my kids and went crazy," his sister Kathleen Fisher said.
"He was using his God-given creativity."
A memorial Mass will be held Wednesday for the prolific pumpkin carver, who died Saturday in Phelps at 76 after a long battle with Parkinson’s.
During his tenure as "The Pied Piper of Halloween," Falk's carving creativity also sculpted smiles and expressions of wonder on the faces of a generation of youngsters, and indelible memories of his pumpkin-carving mastery.
“It was just, ‘Wow!,’” former Shorewood resident Liz Pomer recalled of the first time she gazed upon the legions of jack-o’-lanterns that seemed to set Schoolhouse Park afire.
“Today, a lot of people go over the top at Halloween," Pomer said. "But back then, It was an anomaly that would literally stop you in your tracks."
Falk grew up in Whitefish Bay, attended Marquette University High School and earned a bachelor's degree from Regis College in Denver.
After college, he served as a naval intelligence officer in Okinawa during the Vietnam War and worked as a sales rep for a castings manufacturer.
As a kid, he was constantly doodling.
As a college student, he earned money painting posters.
"He would draw these marvelous cartoon characters," Fisher remembered. "He was a genius when it came to creativity."
But it was Falk's deftness at whittling life into faceless gourds that sparked a growing following.
By the 1980s, he was churning out jack-o'-lanterns each autumn for friends, neighbors and their children.
"All children loved him," another sister, Barbara Falk, said. "He was indeed a Pied Piper."
By 1990, even the Los Angeles Times took notice of Falk, calling him perhaps "the world’s greatest living authority on pumpkin carving."
They also took note of his disarming, good-natured, almost irresistible mojo that drew folks into his ever-widening circle.
"You can’t help liking Falk," The Times' Patrick Mott wrote.
"In his ball cap and plaid flannel shirt, he looks — and speaks — like one of Garrison Keillor’s pals down at the Chatter Box Cafe."
Falk's cousin Mike McIntyre described him as, "always inclusive, smiling, with his very special smirk that gave quick notice to others (that) something special was about to happen."
Before Falk moved to northern Wisconsin in the mid-1990s, he had truly become "The Pumpkin Man," so much so his name could have been spelled G-O-U-R-D-Y.
His jack-o'-lantern displays had spread to venues throughout the metro area, including State Fair Park's "Ultimate Haunted Maze," and he had to contract farmers to procure his pumpkins.
"The volume and detail was extraordinary," Pomer's nephew Marco Herrera said, recalling one of Falk's creations that resembled Frankenstein's monster.
"The volume, the detail, but what was really extraordinary was that he did it all himself."
Falk took his creativity to Land O' Lakes and the Falk family compound.
At the compound, he built whatever needed building: a new dock, new decks and the unforgettable “Gord Board” pontoon boat, his sisters said.
“Everyone wanted to grow up to be Gordy,” Fisher said. "He was a bringer of joy."
Falk is survived by his daughters, Katherine MacIntosh and Mercedes Falk, sons Sands and Michael Falk, and his former wife, Katie Falk.
[Link removed - login to see]
... (more)
(less)
Tags: Veteran (2), Was Indeed A Pied Piper (1), The Pied Piper Of Halloween (1), Bringer Of Joy (1), G-O-U-R-D-Y (1), Special Smirk (1), Always Inclusive (1), Good-natured (1), Almost Irresistible Mojo (1), "the World’s Greatest Living Authority On Pumpkin Carving." (1), Naval Intelligence Officer (1), Was A Genius When It Came To Creativity (1), Parkinson’s (1), Parkinsons (1), Mr. Pumpkin (1), A Master Of Expression (1), Military Intelligence (1), Artists In The Military (1), Born 1943 (1), Artist (1)
My tags:
Add tags
Login
United States
