1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:24,800 The 2 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:31,600 holidays in downtown Manitowoc sparkle shimmer and shine. It's officially ever 3 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:39,960 gleamed season. This all started in 2015. A man gave birth to an idea and that 4 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:45,720 man is over here. His name is Steve Sier. Steve Sier is a hometown boy who put 5 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:51,120 these retro Christmas trees back in the spotlight. This year I got seven trees 6 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:56,400 over at maritime. Sometimes I might have up to a dozen. At the historic 7 00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:01,920 shooty building there is a high shine collector showcase. Every branch tells 8 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:06,800 a story about the city and the vintage aluminum blow. There's probably more 9 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:13,080 trees in this space than any other. I set up a four foot, a six foot and a 10 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:18,160 seven foot pink that are right behind me. The story always was there was only one 11 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:24,160 pink tree made for every 10,000 trees. Resurrecting these shiny gems became a 12 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:30,800 quest for Steve. In this the aluminum tree capital of the world. I would go 13 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:36,560 from store to store kind of and just cold call them. Just talk to them about the 14 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:41,520 aluminum trees and what they thought about maybe doing a show where we put 15 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:48,640 the trees in the windows. Nice holiday. Cathy Carl owns a store in the city's 16 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:56,880 historic district and is described as the heart and hustle of downtown. He came 17 00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:02,560 into my store and I thought he was crazy. He's been here three times today already. 18 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:08,000 I knew nothing about them except that they were silver and made a manatua. 19 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:12,560 I said well dude if you want to do all the work I don't really care. We were looking for a holiday 20 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:21,840 event so we tried it. In 2015 Steve's mid-century dreamscape became reality with the show 21 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:29,760 Evergleeves on eight. It got started because I collected a lot of trees over a number of years. 22 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:37,440 How many trees? Well I've got over 200 trees. Steve was the guardian of the globe making sure 23 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:44,320 everything twinkled. This is pretty personal for me. Every night I would get in the car 24 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:52,560 and drive through downtown to make sure all the trees were behaving themselves. They were all lit. 25 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:58,240 The show looked good. They didn't have any problems. That's the nice tree with the color wheel on it. 26 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:04,640 Words spread and other collectors wanted to share the nostalgia. All of a sudden the community 27 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:13,360 embraced it, embraced the whole idea. At the library an enchanted Evergleean forest 28 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:19,280 displaying some of the rarest of the rare. That's one gals collection of 50 trees. 29 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:26,400 That is an exceptional collection. Vintage treasures radiating a metallic glow. 30 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:31,120 And then we also have the 14 footer there that nobody knew even existed. 31 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:38,400 My god that is that that's amazing. 14 feet. 32 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:47,040 Today the non-profit Manitowoc Aluminum Kitchmuss Incorporated runs the show with tours paying 33 00:03:47,040 --> 00:03:55,200 tribute to the trees and local companies that created the sparkle. That was very different than 34 00:03:55,200 --> 00:04:02,160 anything anybody had ever seen for Christmas in 1958. That was like a space-aged metal. That 35 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:09,360 was something new and exciting. We start in November and we don't take down until January. 36 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:18,480 We have over 150 trees. We have 40 locations. You either love these trees or you hate these trees. 37 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:24,480 Love them or load them. Aluminum Specialty made its mark on pop culture 38 00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:30,160 when they began manufacturing these trees in the late 50s and other local companies followed. 39 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:34,080 They had the market. They were bigger. They were the big dog. 40 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:42,720 It's prettiness in a box and they sold for cheaper than five bucks up to maybe 25 bucks. 41 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:50,640 The meteoric rise of the Evergleean era was a fleeting fad. Within a decade the cool factor 42 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:58,160 began to feel cold. I'm fascinated by the history of it. Now more than 65 years later 43 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:05,280 history is repeating itself. Everything old is cool again. They have become really popular. 44 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:10,720 You know they made a few million trees so there's enough of them out there to create a 45 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:18,400 collector base. The iconic space age silhouettes are back and collectors can't get enough. 46 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:26,480 Well I did just get one this year. I think I have maybe 25 maybe but don't tell my husband. 47 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:35,600 There's a lot of money chasing trees now. Rare colored Evergleean trees are the crown jewels 48 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:42,400 commanding fierce competition and higher prices. You had the gold and the green and the pink. 49 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:47,680 The pink being the most rare was the last one which was kind of outside of the box. 50 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:56,480 It was a tree called a blue frost. That is a clean spectacular tree. The aluminum is still 51 00:05:56,480 --> 00:06:06,400 nice and shiny. A tree in that condition is not always easy to find. I think the last one that was 52 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:12,240 on eBay sold for over ten thousand dollars. We have some pretty valuable trees in these windows. 53 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:18,480 For more than a decade these iridescent trees have sparkled downtown. 54 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:24,880 Look at how beautiful that is Steve. All the beautiful lights. They're coming to see the trees 55 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:32,560 but they're also experiencing downtown Manitowoc. Turning a simple hometown tribute into a 56 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:39,360 collective celebration that is uniquely Manitowoc. If it wasn't my hometown I wouldn't have done it. 57 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:46,320 Made all the difference in the world.