Tony Sarg’s Sea Serpent in Nantucket 1937
This looks like it was made today for some big budget festival in the desert. If he were around today I’d camp with him. We need a new hoax! “giant snail attacks maybe? Glad to see the cacophony society was going strong way before we were here!
In the summer of 1937, Tony Sarg and several others promoted a hoax in Nantucket.
Sightings of a sea serpent were advertised… footprints were found… stories published…
Then, the serpent appeared on South Beach (now Washington Extension – not where it was intended to land!): it was one of Sarg’s Macy’s Day Parade balloons.
Tony Sarg (1880-1942) was an American puppeteer, illustrator, designer and painter. He is famous for creating balloons for the Macy department store parades and many illustrations for magazines. He owned a store in Nantucket, the Tony Sarg’s Curiosity Shop.
All of Nantucket must have visited. There are photos of this “sea-serpent” from many scrapbooks of the era.
