If you’ve ever met Big Head Fred, you were no doubt struck by his larger-than-life stature and personality— and perhaps wondered how he came to be.
In December 2021, the Olmsted Network (then the National Association for Olmsted Parks) was in the midst of Olmsted 200, a multi-year celebration of Frederick Law Olmsted’s 200th birthday in 2022. With the bicentennial year fast upon us, we began searching for a unique way to enliven our birthday events and stir up interest in Olmsted’s legacy of designing the American landscape.
The Washington Nationals’ Racing Presidents caught our eye along with their creator and long-time puppeteer Randy Carfagno. Calling his studio out of the blue, we had what we hoped was an easy question— could he turn artist David Lee Csicsko’s two-dimensional illustration of Olmsted into one of his signature Big Head designs?
Carfagno, whose work has been showcased around the world, accepted the challenge, and five months later, Big Head Fred made his debut at our Olmsted Birthday Gala in Central Park. Fred wowed the crowd, posing for pictures alongside Olmsted scholar Charles E. Beveridge, Martha Stewart and many more.
Since then, Fred has visited dozens of cities across the country including San Francisco, Milwaukee, Chicago, Hartford and Louisville. After two years of traveling, though, time on the road had taken its toll. He needed a “spa day” with his creator to address a number of physical concerns, not the least of which was a bent harness and deflated hair.
So, after our 2024 conference in the Hudson River Valley, we packed Big Head Fred up and headed down to Randy Carfagno Productions in the Garment District of Midtown Manhattan with two goals— to repair Fred and to learn more about Carfagno’s design process.
At first, the studio was overwhelming. Between boxes, props and costumes, artists worked to paint, sew and craft. It was difficult to focus with so many unique items all around us, but a recognizable emblem— a first version of Big Head Fred’s lapel flower— hung on the wall next to a picture of Bette Midler and splat of Nickelodeon slime. Fred was home.
Carfagno and his team greeted us, eager to be reunited with one of their biggest creations. Carfagno toured us through his small but mighty studio and assessed Fred’s damage before sitting down with us for an interview.
For Carfagno, his love of puppets began as a small boy when he used a rubber doll from Woolworths and a razor blade to create his first marionette. The rest is history. His now illustrious career has included apprenticeships with the famed Bil Baird and Jim Henson, a contract with Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, costume work for numerous Boadway shows and ballets and mascot work for sports teams like the Washington Nationals and the Miami Marlins.
The process can take months. In Fred’s case, it started by translating the two-dimensional illustration by Csicsko into a three-dimensional foil sculpture— a creative process that can be much harder than it seems.
“[Csicsko’s] design is really out there,” Carfagno explained as he discussed Fred’s unique shape and proportion. “It’s not a classic portrait. Visually, it’s really intriguing and really captured us.”
The team began by creating a model out of polymer clay before experimenting with a foam miniature. Then, finally, they scaled the miniature up to Fred’s larger-than-life size and covered him with fabric and paint.
Weighing in at over 30 pounds, the four-foot-tall head includes approximately 200 pieces of foam and over 25 yards of fabric. All of that required 14 hours of stitching and six hours of airbrushing and detailing.
Carfagno explained that a critical piece of the puzzle is the safety and comfort of the performer inside. This is an important element since “being” Fred is no easy task. Fred requires a tall and strong individual to wear him and two (if not three) handlers to dress him and guide him through crowds.
Once Fred was complete, Randy Carfagno Productions sent him to Cental Park for the first of many appearances. This was a full circle moment for Carfagno who knows the park well. He often takes visiting friends and musicians on tours of the park’s many tunnels, and he’s been capturing pictures of a particular staircase in the park for decades now, appreciating how it changes in different seasons and over time.
But Carfagno was honest. When asked about his knowledge of Olmsted, Carfagno confessed he had never heard of him before our inquiry: “I go to Central Park all the time, but I thought There’s a person who’s responsible for it? Of course there is!”
While some of Carfagno’s creations have travelled widely with sports teams or theater productions, he says our Fred has likely been to the most diverse collection of places, given his namesake’s widespread influence.
“Fred has turned out to be so much more successful and so much more popular than we could have ever hoped,” he said. “We put so much love and energy into him, and we want people to accept him and love him as much as we do.”
Additional photography by Mark Roessler. Big Head Fred production shots provided courtesy of Randy Carfagno Productions.
