Judy Garland's childhood home someday might be a museum
"For the past year, local author and journalist Bonnie Domrose Stone has been talking to community groups to drum up interest in acquiring the house for a Garland museum - drawing tourists in with a yellow brick road leading from Lancaster Boulevard to the home's front yard."
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There was a pretty sad picture of it in the SF Chronicle, trash in the front yard and all. I can't find the picture.
I kinda wonder if even a film music museum would be enough to draw me to a city if there is not much else to bring me there.
Have you ever gone to a city to see JUST ONE thing (museum? building? world's largest cat hairballl?)
As time moves on, the great stars of the past tend to be pretty much forgotten by the new, younger generations of the public. They have their own stars and idols.
Even major stars of my day, like Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Betty Grable, Esther Williams, Alice Faye, June Allyson, Susan Hayward, Ray Milland, Van Johnson, Spencer Tracy and others, who either died or whose careers faded nearly 40-50 years ago are little thought of now. The video revolution has kept some "alive" longer than usual of course, but really, the interest in classic "old" material and the people who populated it (as evidenced even by sales of "Golden Age" scores right here on FSM) is very limited. I never thought I'd see that day---they were so important in my time.
But I later came to realize that this is nothing new. When I was 20, I hardly knew, if at all, who Ramon Novarro, Barbara Lamarr, Francis X. Bushman, Florence Vidor, Norma Talmadge, Antonio Moreno, Richard Barthelmess, Lew Cody, or many others, were. My friends didn't either.
Within the last several months, various sites on eBay have offered auctions of personal items from the lives of major former stars and icons like Mary Pickford, Glenn Ford, and Lana Turner. Though some get sold, there seems to be no mass exodus to buy these things.
Several weeks ago there was a large auction of Bob Hope memorabilia, which raised over $500,000 for veteran's charities. Hope WAS an icon who did survive a long time and so there was an interest in buying things relating to his personal life and career. But what was left unsaid in all the publicity was that the family had planned to open a large Bob Hope museum, with some of this material on display, but found no real grand-scale public interest.
Debbie Reynolds had a wonderful mini-museum in Las Vegas with fabulous and classic items, but eventually it closed, and she tried to re-locate to Hollywood, which wasn't interested, and then to Branson, Missouri, which, apparently is. There may be a pocket of middle-America old-time interest there for old Hollywood, so I hope she is successful. The British Film Institute (I believe) had what was reported to be a fascinating museum of film history in London, but that was eventually closed for lack of interest and funds. The Academy of MP Arts and Sciences (the Oscars) in Hollywood is continuing its plans for building a multi-million dollar museum. It is a logical step for them, and I wish them good luck, but it will take lots of subsidizing money each year to keep it alive. Will they continue to have those kinds of funds as The Oscar continues to lose some of its luster?
I have a gay friend who is now in his mid-forties. He appreciates, but does not have deep interest in Garland. His "icons" are outsize movie, television, and Broadway stars from the fifties-and-sixties and beyond, when he was growing up---particularly women like Julie Andrews, Ann-Margret, Debbie Reynolds, Carol Channing, and Angela Lansbury.
As for the pop icons and stars of today---enjoy them now. They will fade too.
Have you ever gone to a city to see JUST ONE thing (museum? building? world's largest cat hairballl?)
I went to Metropolis, Illinois, a town so small it should be renamed Smallville, to see the Superman Museum.
Brad Meltzer raised money to refurbish Jerry Siegel's childhood home and, when the family that lives in the house moves, the organization he created to raise the money gets first refusal on buying it. At that point it will probably be turned into a Jerry Siegel museum.
Have you ever gone to a city to see JUST ONE thing (museum? building? world's largest cat hairballl?)
I went to Metropolis, Illinois, a town so small it should be renamed Smallville, to see the Superman Museum.
Brad Meltzer raised money to refurbish Jerry Siegel's childhood home and, when the family that lives in the house moves, the organization he created to raise the money gets first refusal on buying it. At that point it will probably be turned into a Jerry Siegel museum.
It was just a trip there and not to nearby Something-or-Other? I guess someone who is very devoted to an interest would do that.
I guess I would go to something singly like that if it were a Guy Madison Shrine, or a) I were not flying there and b) it were something way-weird, like a Museum of Contraceptives.
The TV movie was excellent, with two remarkably good performers (Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis) playing Garland. Many recreated film moments were difficult to distinguish from the real things. It will be hard to top.
For the record, I was already gay, and born just a week after Garland died.
It took 50 years, but they finally made a theatrical film* about her.
