The Terrifying Story of How a Giant Santa Statue Took a Life in Texas

Over half a century ago, the city of Dallas, Texas once was the proud owner of the world's largest Santa statue (at the time). In 1953, a giant 85 foot metal & papier-machie Santa Claus stood (or rather sat) on the old Porter Chevrolet at the corner of 5500 E Mockingbird. The statue was created by the same man who made the Big Tex, Jack Bridges. He built a giant Santa Claus holding a Chevy car for the 1953 Christmas season.

While the statue is long gone at this point, there ARE photos of this giant Santa that still exist online.

However this giant statue had a tragic secret too...

A Texas man would fall to his death after climbing this giant Santa statue

The statue was only allowed to stay from November 15, 1952 to January 4 1954. During that time children & adults came to see the giant Santa would take photos with it. One man, Roy V Davis, wanted to climb the Santa to pose with it for a Christmas card on December 11, 1953. This was shortly after Roy was released from the hospital for heart problems.

After Roy climbed the Santa, he was able to post WITH the Santa. What happened afterwards no one knows for certain but the people who were there think that Roy might've had another heart attack... Roy would fall 36 feet to the pavement below to his death... Roy would be buried the next day at Restland Memorial Park. He was 47 years old.

The story actually had a surge of remembrance in 2010 on the Dallas Observer when someone found a photo of the same statue on eBay which lead to people looking deeper in the story and background of the Porter Chevrolet dealership. Today the location of the dealership is just an empty lot...

While the block of 5500 Mockingbird may look normal today, never forget the life that was lost on that fateful December day. R.I.P. Roy Vernon Davis.

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