Charlotte artist Jack Pentes built a career on child’s play

He brought the mythical land of Oz to life on a craggy Blue Ridge peak, invented the gerbil-tube ball pits that emit kid squeals in fast-food joints worldwide and planted fanciful whirligigs that spin to this day in Charlotte’s stoic legal district.

Jack Pentes, who died Saturday at age 83, made his mark as a master of enchantment. He founded Carolina Clowns, collected Mickey Mouse memorabilia and worked on his knees while designing the Land of Oz on Beech Mountain so he could see it from a kid’s perspective.

Charlotteans of a certain age may remember him as Bobo the Clown on “The Big Bill Ward” show in the early ’50s. One day Big Bill was doing a pitch for Hunter Farms Dairy and pointed to a tall glass of milk, promising his audience that Bobo would drink the whole thing.

“It had gone sour,” his son, Charlotte filmmaker Dorne Pentes, said Tuesday. “My dad got about half of it down, and then it all came back up. On live TV.”

Out of Georgia

Pentes, who is survived by his wife and two children, was born in Columbus, Ga. His father ran a Greek diner and got caught selling liquor by the drink without a license. He packed up the family and moved to Charlotte.

Pentes was a prolific artist by age 7, when he did a 20-foot mural. His mother engaged a European-trained classical artist to tutor him.

Pentes graduated from Charlotte Central High School in 1949, ending his formal education. He went to work as an artist and sign-maker.

After serving in the Army in the Korean War, he returned to Charlotte and opened a design firm in the days when no one had ever heard of such an enterprise. But work found him.

He painted 35 sets for productions in Ovens Auditorium before he ever saw a play on Broadway, and when he did, he was immediately struck by how huge the Ovens stage was compared with compact New York theaters. “I thought to myself, ‘Wow! How easy it would be to fill this space,’ ” he once recalled.

A peak project

In the mid-’60s, Pentes was hired to create a theme park based on “The Wizard of Oz” atop Beech Mountain. On his first visit to the site, he was struck by an orchard of gnarled apple trees miserable at the 5,506-foot elevation.

They instantly reminded him of the grumpy apple trees of Oz, though they did not fling fruit at strange girls they found impertinent. He snuggled the park into the terrain, and it was built with the sacrifice of only one tree.

On opening day, June 15, 1970, about 4,000 people turned out, and the attraction drew 400,000 the first year. Dorothy would lead visitors down a yellow brick road, doing skits and singing songs written by Charlotte composer Loonis McGlohan with the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion.

“It was this absolutely magical universe he created on top of that mountain,” his son said. “He knew what it needed to be the minute he saw it. He was a huge fan of the film when he was a kid.”

But the gas crisis and a flatlands attractions named Carowinds siphoned off visitors; the fantasy land closed in 1980.

Soft playgrounds

In the 1980s, Pentes’ firm came up with the concept of soft-play equipment that children could use without close supervision. His mini-playgrounds were quickly adopted by the booming fast-food industry, and his business grew by, well, leaps and bounds.

One customer was Charlotte Burger King franchisee Hugh Bigham, who wanted a playground to complement the colors, fixtures and 1950s theme of a new restaurant at South Boulevard and Marsh Road. Pentes came up with a Flash Gordon rocket ship, based on the 1950s comic strip, with a sliding board inside.

Ball pits were stuffed with up to 25,000 plastic balls. Pentes understood the interaction it would bring and made them soft.

“It was a natural thing to want to bop one off somebody’s bean,” Pentes said in a 1984 Observer interview. “When we provided the alternative – a target and a miniature basketball hoop – it cut the throw-the-ball-at-somebody syndrome in half.”

He kept moving

In 1986, Pentes created “Wind Sculpture,” which featured rotating fabric circles on West Trade Street in front of the federal courthouse. He wanted to bring color, movement and excitement to uptown, which in those days ached for all three. They still whirl today.

Until a period of declining health in recent years, Pentes stayed on the move – on Lake Wylie aboard his tugboat-like vessel and around town on his Royal Enfield motorcycle.

Pentes had a sidecar for the motorcycle and would take unsuspecting acquaintances for rides. Suddenly he would lean out and shift his weight to the left, making the sidecar come off the pavement and ride at a 45-degree angle. None ever forgot it.

This story was originally published February 10, 2015 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Charlotte artist Jack Pentes built a career on child’s play."