CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The pandemic has inspired many home owners to step up their holiday-decorating game. One West Ridge resident’s latest efforts may defy description.
So, let James McCall explain his menagerie of 32 mannequins, which includes a Nativity scene with smartly dressed Wise Men.
The tableau decorates the small yard of his apartment building in the 2000 block of West Lunt.
“The Egyptians, when they drew themselves at the afterlife and things like that, they always wore their fineries,” McCall told WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller on Wednesday. “So, I dress all these mannequins in really nice trinkets and stuff because they represent us.”
“And life is the greatest gift,” McCall, 76, adds.
He started with two mannequins about six years ago. Besides the 32 figures in the yard currently, McCall said he has another 20 in his apartment.
McCall has been a designer, he said, since he was 11 and was one of the first performers at the old Baton Club. He said he first started working with mannequins while working at Sears in the 1960s.
He said he learned not to use plastic mannequins outdoors because they tend to bend in the wind.
“The heads fall off,” McCall said.
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