6 Bay Area pop icons worthy of public art

A lot of problematic statues have been in the news lately, so I was encouraged to hear about a new statue getting a positive reaction in its community.

Henderson, Minn., is known to many Prince fans as a location for his 1984 film, “Purple Rain.” On June 28, a statue of the Purple One by Moises Suriel was installed in a garden beneath a mural depicting the musician. The tribute also includes a plaque, a bench decorated with doves and appropriately purple flowers.

Artistically, it may not be suited for the de Young sculpture garden, but it demonstrates a sincere community affection for the singer, who died in 2016 at age 57. The $40,000 statue was paid for by the Prince Legacy Henderson Project, a group headed by retired cinematographer Joel King, who worked on Prince’s “Graffiti Bridge” movie.

King’s communitydriven project got me thinking about the local pop culture we might consider honoring in the Bay Area. At present, people of color, women and other minorities are vastly underrepresented in our public commemorations. There can and should be larger conversations about civic heroes, activists and marginalized populations getting their due in official public works, but inspired by King’s project, I want to focus on popculture subjects special to the region and its residents. Here are a few ideas: Disco light installation honoring Sylvester: The Black, queer, fabulously extra disco queen looked and sounded like no one else when he burst onto the music scene in the 1970s. Sylvester called San Francisco home and frequently performed at events including the Castro Street Fair. At nightfall, a disco ball at Castro and Market streets could cast its swirling light on Harvey Milk Plaza for a dance party to his hit “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).” Disappearing mural of Kim Novak: Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” is considered one of the greatest films of all time, but one of the movie’s most famous San Francisco locations, the deteriorated

Victorian mansion used as the Hotel McKittrick, was torn down and replaced by the Sacred Heart soccer field. In homage to the film’s leading lady, I propose a mural of Novak about to enter where the mansion once stood at Gough and Eddy streets. What would be even better is if, like her character in the film, it could also mysteriously “disappear” when the sun shifts in a certain direction. As a noted artist herself, maybe Novak can also design the mural. A twirling Cockette installation: The Cockettes were the wildest drag troupe on any coast in the early ’70s, and their influence is still being felt in theater, art, fashion and queer culture today. A lightweight sculpture of a Cockette that moves as the wind blows at the site of the sincedemolished Palace Theater where they performed would be a fitting celebration of the group whose shows were equally freewheeling. An animatronic Carol Channing: Performer Carol Channing grew up in San Francisco before starring in musicals like “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Hello, Dolly!” on Broadway. It’s impossible to imagine the animated, highenergy Channing as a motionless statue, so commissioning an animatronic Carol to bellow “Helloooooo” on Geary Street in the city’s theater district feels much more true to the diva.

Bruce Lee sound installation: Even though martial arts film star Bruce Lee was raised in Hong Kong, he was born in San Francisco, which allows the city to claim a little part of his story. An installation of Lee’s signature fighting sounds (kicks, punches, the verbalizations he’d make on impact) echoing through a Chinatown alley would be so much cooler than just a plaque commemorating the location of his birth.

“Princess Diaries” street mural: Disney’s 2001 film “The Princess Diaries” looks like a makeover movie, but it’s really about a female leader ( Julie Andrews) grooming the next generation of women in power (Anne Hathaway, the title princess.)

One of the film’s most memorable scenes involves Andrews knighting a San Francisco police officer and tour bus driver after a car crash, exiting the scene with the line, “Goodbye, trolley people,” which would be the centerpiece of a street mural at the intersection of Broadway and Taylor Street depicting the movie moment.

Tony Bravo’s column appears Mondays in Datebook. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TonyBravoSF