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Fair Saviors of the Chunkies
The World’s Fair/Whitney Museum sculptures at James A. Dever Elementary
A highlight of the 1964 World’s Fair, and something that enamored elementary teachers of Valley Stream School District 13 at the time, was the Chunky Candy Factory and its Sculpture Continuum, a playground of abstract sculptures that children could climb on and play with at the Fair.
When the Fair concluded in 1965, the district 13 teachers approached the Chunky Candy Company, expressing their interest in purchasing the sculptures. The school district ultimately bought them for $2,500. A District 13 school newsletter from 1966 reported the sculptures were originally purchased by Chunky Candy for $35,000, and that the molds to make them had been destroyed, leaving the Continuum to be the only one of its kind in the world.
According to William Stris, who has been on the Valley Stream 13 and Valley Stream Central High District Board of Education for 33 years, the “Chunkies” as the sculptures are affectionately known, were then placed in front of the Willow Road School, but proceeded to live a controversial life.
“I got elected to the school board in 1982, and as years went by, there was neighbor near the Willow Road school that the kids didn’t like,” said Stris. “So, the kids would sometimes pickup the giraffe sculpture and put it on that guy’s lawn.” The homeowner would become infuriated each time it occurred, and would come to the board meetings screaming, Stris said. “He wanted us to get rid of them, and parents, it turned out, wanted to have them removed too because they were old.”
Rather than dispose of them, Stris tried to get the Chunkies placed in the courtyard at Valley Stream North High School, but that didn’t come to fruition either, and the sculptures were soon put in storage.
In 2008, Stris became school board president for the third time, and used his influence to convince the board to install a time capsule, something he had wanted to do since the turn of the century. He used the time capsule ceremony as an excuse to bring the sculptures out of storage and into the public eye.
According to Stris, district assistant superintendent Meredith Brosman had a contact at a local yacht club that restored the five sculptures, and left one unfinished to show the extent of the renovations.
