For the second year, Sibley Square is celebrating the season by bringing out a collection of animatronic elves and other holiday characters — but there’s even more, deep in the basement of the building, waiting to be brought back to life.
WXXI’s Noelle Evans takes us there in an audio-postcard. What follows is a transcript of the radio-broadcasted story.
EVANS: “Do you mind introducing yourself?”
GREENE: “Sure. My name’s Ken Greene, and I'm in charge of commercial development here at Sibley square."
EVANS: “What are we looking at right now?”
GREENE: “Right now, these are the animatronics that go back about 100 years. ... And next year we'll be introducing a train, or trains of sorts.”
EVANS: "Trains of sorts. What does that mean?”
GREENE: “I don't know, but what I do know is that art shouldn't be stale. It should evolve. And so ... this is different than last year ... and next year it will be better and different again.”
EVANS: “Are there things still in the basement that you're looking to bring out?”
GREENE: “There are...”
EVANS: “Could we see that?”
GREENE: “We can, sure.”
EVANS: “Okay, yeah.”
(keys clinking)
EVANS (cont’d): Oh! It's an old — wow, okay.” (cackles)
GREENE: “It’s an escalator that’s not escalating.”
(footsteps down escalator)
GREENE (cont’d): “Now, don't get scared.”
EVANS: “Okay.”
GREENE: “We're going to go to the graveyard. Be careful.”
EVANS: “When you say graveyard, what do you mean?”
GREENE: “You'll see.”
EVANS: “These are like — they look like a couple more animatronics.”
GREENE: “They are, but if you notice, some of them are just heads —”
EVANS: “Oh!”
GREENE: “— And some of them are missing arms. None of them work. And so maybe these will be fixed for next year. Some of them can’t stand up. ... And I don’t even know, like those things that are in front of us, those red and green things. I don't know what those were, but I'm thinking that that may have been a place where they put trains on.”
EVANS: “Hmm.”
GREENE: “And so maybe those will be developed for next year. I've got tons of things on those shelves over there haven't even gotten to yet. And so, you know, it's a, it's a never-ending process. ... There's too much going on, and there's too many artifacts, you know, to be able to play with.”
