Best Jack of All Trades
Gary Huggins, a.k.a. Big Jeter
Gary Huggins is a man with so many names that we hardly know what to call him. It is possible to talk to Jeter under several different guises without realizing that he is just one man, though if you point that out to him he's likely to get carried away, claiming to be Walt Bodine, Venus at A.T.C. and the brown statue of the guy eating a hamburger in front of McDonalds on the Plaza as well. As Big Jeter, he sings clever, parodic songs in the company of costumed cohorts. In addition to performing musical gigs, he hosts a monthly film screening at the Fine Arts Theatre in Mission, making A/V Club members swear never to reveal what they've seen. Huggins has, at his day job, expanded the collection of music and videos at the Kansas City Kansas Public Library, taking advantage of his position there to show original sixteen-millimeter prints of RKO films that a friend fished out of a Dumpster. A lot of people might choose to watch the scored movies privately among friends, but Jeter has a penchant for sharing things he enjoys. "I got tired of waiting for other people to do this sort of thing," he explains. As a result, Jeter's quirky brand of fun accounts for a big chunk of our offbeat cultural landscape.
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