Mary Tyler Moore Statue

On the corner of 7th Street and Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis stands a bronze statue of Mary Tyler Moore in the hat-throwing pose from the opening credits of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The statue was installed in 2002 and has become a reliable gathering point for visitors and locals who want a photograph in the city's most recognisable image.

The surrounding Nicollet Mall — a pedestrian-priority street running through the heart of downtown — has been a civic project of continuous renovation since the 1960s. The statue sits at approximately the midpoint of the mall, near Orchestra Hall, which hosts the Minnesota Orchestra season from September through June.

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A story
The Mary Tyler Moore Show ran from 1970 to 1977 and was set in Minneapolis, where Moore played a single woman in her 30s building a career in television news. At the time, the premise was considered risky — a woman protagonist without a husband or romantic storyline as the narrative centre. The show's opening sequence, in which Moore throws her tam o'shanter into the air on the corner of 7th Street and Nicollet Mall, became one of the iconic images of American television. The hat-throwing gesture is what the bronze statue captures.