Aaaay! Milwaukee to Cast Fonz in Bronze

Milwaukee’s about to get way cooler. Thanks to private donations and teenagers who bought “Bronze the Fonz” T-shirts, the tourist bureau has raised $85,000 to erect a permanent bronze tribute to Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, the leather-jacketed biker in the Milwaukee-set '70s hit sitcom “Happy Days.” But the the local art community isn't impressed; one gallery is even said to be closing in protest.

That gallery’s owner called the statue a “monstrosity” that cements Wisconsin’s football-and-beer image, the Wisconsin Business Journal reports. Artists managed to grouse enough to get the city to reclassify the statue from “art” to “trinket.” But it’s not a trinket to Henry Winkler. “'What a phenomenal compliment," said the actor who immortalized the Fonz. "I don't take it lightly, that's for sure." (More Milwaukee stories.)