Wacky Campaign Promises
The Pail and Shovel Party Lives On
The UW campus was subject to a series of colorful pranks and wacky art installations at the end of the 1970s thanks to student government's infamous Pail and Shovel Party. Jim Mallon and Leon Varjian led the party named for one campaign promise to convert a portion of the UW budget into piles of pennies for students to collect by the shovel-full. While the party failed to follow through with their penny promise, they did fulfill a promise to bring wackiness to campus.
After being elected in 1979, they erected a gigantic replica of the Statue of Liberty's head and torch rising out of Lake Mendota. While the original was damaged, a new Lady was resurrected in 1980 and again in 2009 to greet the annual Winter Carnival guests.
Lady Liberty lives on today as a modern inflatable version with sporadic sightings during Madison winters.
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Pail and Shovel Party
1979 – Jim Mallon (left) and Leon Varjian (right) examine remains of the 1979 Phone Olympics event as part of Crazy Days.
Image courtesy of the UW-Madison Archives, #S00756.
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Construction of Lady Liberty
1979 – The work crew stops construction on the Lady Liberty sculpture for a short interview with the local news. Members of the Pail and Shovel Party built the statue in Music Hall before transporting it to frozen Lake Mendota.
Image courtesy of the UW-Madison Archives, #2018s00230.
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Lady Liberty's Funeral
1979 — Lady Liberty's funeral on Lake Mendota at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. To the right of the monument, by the wreath, are Pail and Shovel Vice President Jim Mallon (L) and President Leon Varjian (R). The original statue was torched by an unknown arsonist ten days after it had been constructed.
Image courtesy of the UW-Madison Archives, #23/15.
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The New Lady Liberty
2018 – The Wisconsin Hoofers resurrected Lady Liberty with an inflatable replica on Lake Mendota, debuted during Winter Carnival.
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WUD_Lady Liberty Display_SP_2.jpg
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Lady Liberty
2009 – Visitors to the Wisconsin Hoofers annual Winter Carnival are greeted by a replica of Lady Liberty on tLake Mendota. The statue was rescued from storage and reassembled in honor of the 30-year anniversary of its first appearance on the UW-Madison campus as part of the Pail and Shovel Party's college prank, fulfilling a campaign promise to bring wackiness to UW-Madison’s Wisconsin Student Association if they were voted into office.
Image courtesy of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bryce Richter