“Memory wire?”
“Leo,” she said slowly, “that looks like the work of a guy named Russell P. Hogue. He was a special effects modeler for low-budget Florida films in the ’70s. Did props for The Creature of the Black Lagoon ride at Universal before it was even Universal. Then he vanished. Rumor was he got obsessed with ‘solar kinetics’—machines powered purely by sunlight and memory wire.” florida sun models two cat
I’m Leo. I run a small, semi-respectable vintage memorabilia blog called Sunburst Trails . My niche is failed Florida tourist attractions—the ones that opened with a press conference and a gator in a top hat, then closed three months later when the owner was arrested for running a meth lab out of the gift shop. So when I saw the listing—“Florida Sun Models Two Cat, mint condition, estate sale find”—I assumed it was a typo. Maybe a rare promotional photo from the old “Florida Sun” water ski show? Or a scale model of the infamous “Two Cat” roller coaster that never passed inspection? “Memory wire
The second object was a laminated index card. On it, typed in a font that screamed 1986 dot-matrix printer: Did props for The Creature of the Black
“I’m the blog guy.”
Step 1: Place model under direct sunlight. Step 2: Observe.