Chicago's Popular Statues Will Soon Talk To You
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Starting today, Chicago's most famous statues will talk to you. More than 30 of the city's most famous statues and sculptures will tell their stories, with the help of celebrity voices.
The privately-funded project called Statue Stories Chicago enlisted help from Chicago actors, musicians, writers, and others -- including opera star Renée Fleming, actors David Schwimmer and Bob Newhart, and authors Sara Paretsky and Scott Turow.
The statues will speak to visitors when they swipe their smartphones on a panel. They'll then get a call back from the statue, telling the sculpture's story, and some of Chicago's history.
Newhart lent his voice to the statue of his character Bob Hartley, the psychologist from Newhart's self-titled 1970s sitcom. He invites visitors to sit on the bronze couch next to his statue at Navy Pier, so they can pour their hearts out.
"By the way, it's not as comfortable as it looks," Newhart says.
Other places where the technology will be installed include the Picasso at Daley Plaza; Millennium Park's Cloudgate, better known as The Bean; the bronze lions outside the Art Institute, and the Abraham Lincoln statue in Lincoln Park.
For more about the Statue Stories Chicago project, click here.