A Ganado Goonies Halloween

By Michael Brooks

Staff Writer

    “I have the key to One-Eyed Willy.”

    If you are a fan of The Goonies, Ganado resident Donald Mamerow has the key to all of One-Eyed Willy’s treasure, and he is putting it on display on Halloween night.

    When the Mamerow kids watched The Goonies, an idea sparked.

    “My kids watched The Goonies and said they wished they could have all that gold in the treasure room, so I asked them if they wanted me to build it,” Mamerow said. “It started from there. When they’re young you can make some great memories.”

    Mamerow started working on the project in June, several months ago, but one piece mattered before he could go “all in.”

    “I said I couldn’t start the project if I couldn’t find the exact scales used in the movie,” Mamerow explained. “I found them on eBay: Italian, from 1890.”

    The scales were the centerpiece of Mamerow’s plan, but far from the total idea. He looked to replicate the entire scene of the treasure room discovery with Willy himself-in full dress from the movie, Willy’s chair, his crystal ball and gold chalices, and all of those gold coins.

    The scales, which were an elaborate booby-trap in The Goonies’ pirate ship, Mamerow balanced on top of Willy’s gold; while behind the scales sits the bones of Willy, again—a shot-for-shot replica from the movie.

    “That is a plastic Harvey Skeleton and it also came from eBay,” Mamerow said. “It looked nothing like this in the beginning. Teeth had to be pulled. I thought I bombed out because it didn’t look anything like what I wanted. So, I tried shoe polish to get the right look. I used a small sponge and slowly adding more because since shoe polish isn’t pain doesn’t dry. The more I used it, I could tell I was getting somewhere.”

    Willy’s jacket and ruffled shirt, with a scarf over his shoulder, are again a perfect match from the movie and a testament to how particular Mamerow was, down to the last detail.

    “The scarf is actually a childhood pillow case that got caught in my mother’s house fire. It is all yellow and charred.”

    On the shirt is a broach, a ruby encrusted with faux diamonds, that Mamerow could not locate...so he constructed one himself after several tries.

    Willy sits in a Gothic throne chair, and beside him is a movie poster because, as Mamerow pointed out, not all of the kids trick-or-treating will know about The Goonies. In front of Willy on the table, scattered amongst the scales and gold chalices, is a green crystal ball that gives off an eerie green glow when backlit by a candle.

    “I will be switching out the candle every hour or so to make sure the glow stays in that spot,” Mamerow said.

    Finishing off the display are around 2,000 Dutch chocolate gold coins spread out all over the table.

    “It took about two months to finish everything,” Mamerow said about the project. “Waiting for everything in the mail is what took the longest and sometimes something would come in and didn’t look right.”

    Mamerow ordered from all over the world with items coming from China, Bulgaria, New Zealand, Italy, and South America, plus several places in the United States.

    On Halloween night, Sunday, Oct. 31, Mamerow will have his display set up with One-Eyed Willy’s song from the movie playing on a continuous loop.

    Trick-or-treaters are encouraged to come see the exhibit and “booty-trap” a coin of their own at 412 Ash Dr. in Ganado.