This week’s statue is Wimpy.
His full name is Wellington Wimpy but is referred to as Wimpy. Wimpy was introduced to the Popeye comic strips in 1931. His character was inspired by Segar’s manager at his first job at the Chester opera house. The manager was known as “Windy Bill” and he was known as a friendly man that loved tall tales and hamburgers.
Wimpy plays the role as Popeye’s friend, a “cheap man”, and self-center foil to Popeye. Hamburgers are Wimpy’s all-time favorite food ever. Even though Wimpy loves his hamburgers, he often steals them or pays very little for them. The people he steals from make them go into “mental breakdowns.”
A couple of fun facts about Wimpy is that Wimpy (along with Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto) was going to have a cameo for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but they could not get the rights to put them in the movie. Wimpy also has a restaurant in Osterville, Massachusetts called “ Wimpy’s Seafood Restaurant and Market”. He also has another restaurant called “Wimpy’s Hamburger Restaurant,” founded in Bloomington, Indiana which is currently closed. A character in the show Good Eats references Wimpy as a character called “J. Wellington Wimpy”. That character loves hamburgers and that episode is called “Daily Grind” in the section called “Perfect Burger.”
The Wimpy statue itself is located in the Chester Gazebo Park. Built in 2006, Wimpy’s statue was the first installment of a decades-long project to honor Elzie Crisler Segar, the creator of Popeye, with statues of his Sunday Funnies family. The statues, scattered along a “character trail” in town, aim to celebrate Segar’s hometown heritage. The Smith Family was among the sponsors of Wimpy’s statue, which is strategically placed in a small park that once housed the tavern where Bill would often enjoy his beloved hamburgers.