"COMING TO THIS THEATRE SOON" as they say is our feature: THE MUSEUM OF HUMANITY. We're using the term humanity by popular demand. Over the eons a number of women have written in saying this would be better than "Man". Man is used a lot in the field "the study of Man", etc. This is understandable, so, humanity it is. That is getting pretty close to "groups of people", which is sociology, but we'll try humanity. This will be a lot of fun. If you have any museum news you want to share with folks around the world, let us know. No guarantees that we can run, and it might even show up in our WAS Newsletter or WAS Special Publications. You might have a paper you would like to publish. As usual, if you don't enclose a self-addressed, stamped, return envelope it will probably get stuck in limbo, if it can't be used. If you have some item you want to make sure gets run as is, and don't want us to squish and squash, you probably will want to go the ad route. See our rates on this site. Museums are one of our favorite subjects and tie in greatly with anthropology and archaeology. Our digitized museum will cover everything including the kitchen sink, just as our fields of interest. Your writer/editor got started in museums at a very early age - six years old. I was a little campus urchin at the University of Missouri "Mizzou". I went to grade school on campus at the lab school run by a great lady of education "Miss Jesse". Her father was the namesake for the big domed landmark building on campus. Every afternoon after school we kids would make the rounds all over campus. My favorite place was Prof Wrench's Museum of Anthropology in the basement of Switzler Hall then. I would always end up there. What a glorious place...full of stone axes, big flint hoes, etc. Then, in back was the lab where I put in many an hour when a Univ. student later on. Anyway, I became such a fixture there when a kid in the first and second grade, that Prof (everybody called him Prof) would just let me watch the museum while he went on errands around campus. I was docent, lab worker, temp director at the ripe old age of six and seven. What great fun. He would tell me what to do. Prof had no fear or hangups, and it was truly great. He was a character with his white goatee, long hair before long hair was fashionable on men, black beret, and black cape. He led cheers at the football games. This was when Mizzou's famous All-American Paul Christman was throwing touchdown passes to the Orf twins. At one time one of them worked for Dad in his loft studio near the Varsity Theatre when Dad was Dir., of Art for the Missouri Theatre chain in town. I was a member of the "Knot Hole Gang", and we got into ball games all season for just a few dollars. Then, when I was in the first grade, Dad set up the design dept. at Stephens College in town. He shared a little office with an English instructor, William Inge, who would go on to write "Light at the Top of the Stairs" and many more plays. I remember him well and high, cramped, book shelves bulging with papers, books and journals in the office. I also remember the legendary Maude Adams famous Peter Pan of Broadway who was head of the Stephens drama dept. She and I would often talk on campus. We would just stop on a sidewalk in the shade of giant oak trees and talk. She surely did like kids, for after all she was Peter Pan!! Lots of exciting things then in Columbia. Dad also did art for the Univ., and designed a famous Savitar "annual" (1939). Jane Froman from Columbia was singing. Susan Hayward would play her in the movie. Betty Grable would come visit her sister at a Sorority. The word spread fast "Betty Grable's in town!" One thing about Prof, all the students loved him, because he always stood up for students. Then, quite a few years later I got to be at his legendary campus retirement ceremony, where a horde of students migrated over to his home. Prof brought in the young archaeological dynamo Carl Chapman just before WW II. Carl was from Steelville, Missouri, and was doing some grad work at New Mexico. He had been a bombardier on a B-17 and forced to bail out (hurting his back severely) and ended up in a Nazi Stalag. Chapman was truly a live wire, and the Mo. Archaeological Society became famed far and wide. I helped put out newsletters in the ole' lab. We sorted them by state in boxes. We sent out more newsletters than any other society in the country, and M.U. led in archaeology in many ways. Prof would come visit us on summer digs. I remember him staying in my tent. He always brought a watermellon, - what a treat - and one time a big box of paperback adventure novels, which I devoured. I don't think Carl was too excited... not nerdy enough, ha. I loved Yankee Pasha and others, so, if you wonder why I do fiction now, Prof is probably part of the reason. I should mention that Dr. Brewton Berry, Head of the Sociology Department in those old days was really the "Father of Missouri Archaeology." Dad also was a friend of Walter Williams the great, old, newspaper icon who founded the first school of journalism in the world on campus. We kids would play in the hall just outside of his former office (he had passed away some years before), but we knew he was a very important person. The Sec'y of the then present dean of the J School would usher us outside - passing the stone lion landmarks that came from China! Anyway, journalism also soaked in my genetic code. Prof taught Ancient and Medieval History for years and years. Dad even had him in that class. Prof. admitted that he didn't have the field methodology skills, and that is why he wanted Chapman in the department. I recall on digs, Prof. just didn't like to take notes, and would always hand me his clipboard and notes to fill in data on some find. At Graham Cave, one of the great Missouri archaeology sites, he was happier running the infernally loud and dusty mechanical sifter out front. Dad later became a Museum Director at College of the Ozarks, and I helped him there for a while. So, I have museums in my blood, and we have got to have something about this interesting subject. Museums - and libraries one of our other interests - are having hard times with funds, interest, etc., so, we will plug these wonderful helps for mankind any way we can and invite others to join in. I also had classes with Dr. Sol Weinberg in the classics department at Mizzou. He and his wife Gladys, another well known archaeologist, would later have a classics museum and it's still there...The Museum of Art and Archaeology. Really outstanding classical things out here on the "frontier" as many folks out east think of us. Dr. Weinberg spent summers then excavating at Corinth. He was a good friend of Dame Kathleen Kenyon (had been one of the last excavators of Jericho) and wrote the introduction of the American version of her swell little book "Beginning in Archaeology," This came out when I was in a little class "Archaeological Methods" taught by Dr. Weinberg in his office, and I recall he was very excited about the book. More museum reminiscences. The old Museum of Anthropology on campus also lives on today at Mizzou. How great. And Dr. John Neihardt taught at that time. I met him every day on steps of Jesse Hall, and would often listen outside the door of his class on the second floor as he recited his epic poems as "The Mtn. Man". (you've heard of class sit-ins, well I was a stand-in along with the janitor and one or two other students who were fans). He had a very profound voice. Neihardt was the editor of the classic Black Elk Speaks. By the way, at one time he lived in Branson, near our office now. There's a big stone marking the house where he lived -now along busy hwy. 76 at a shopping ctr. atop the hill - and also a street is named after him. I recall going to the dedication of the monument. So much for archaeological nostalgia time. The ancient Greeks felt that when a culture could have a museum, whereby the citizens could stand back and look at their own culture, that they had finally arrived. Let's hope we never become too introverted, and can progress in civilized museum, library ways. Good museum excavations! Ron - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - WHEN THE "REAL KING" AND HIS WIFE VISITED COLUMBIA, MISSOURI It turns out that Columbia, Missouri is the real "Museum of Humanity." Before getting into dull dry museology, I thought of a great adventure I had when a kid in town. I was lucky. I had the run of most of the theatres in town since Dad was Art Director of the Missouri Theatre Chain. The Varsity, Hall, Missouri were the biggies, but Dad also knew Rex Barrett, who owned the Uptown. Rex would become the Mayor. I worked there selling popcorn when attending Mizzou. Tripod the town dog and Mizzou Mascot would come around for his popcorn snack each day. I recall selling Tammy Grimes popcorn when she attended Stephens. She later became a Broadway Star. But back to when I was a kid. Since I got to see just about every movie that hit town, I became a great movie fan and knew about all the stars. I was also a fanatic radio listener. I thought Charley McCarthy and Edgar Bergen were the greatest, and when they appeared live (or half that!) at the Hall, it made my day. Mom had a crush on Clark Gable, as did every woman in America. Dad just made a big joke about it. And once when he and crew made a giant head of Gable to put on the marquee of one of the theatres, he brought the head into Mom's bedroom, and when she woke up on her birthday, there was her idol!! But, she couldn't keep it. On the other side of the coin, Dad was ga ga over the singer Jane Froman from Columbia, but that's still another story. Anyway, one day, Mom and Dad wanted to go to the drug store. It was on Broadway St. north side, down toward the Mo Hotel. I was left in the car, while they went inside. I was about in the First Grade. With nothing to do, I was looking out the back window...when lo and behold the most amazing thing happened. A big, long, emerald green,town and country car, with shiny varnished wood on the sides, pulled in diagonally across the street in front of the Cooks Paint Store. To my utter shock, out stepped the King Himself Clark Gable on the drivers side. And his wife Carole Lombard got out the passenger side. She wore a scarf tied under her chin. They then proceeded to go in the Paint Store. How incongruous can you get?! I went bananas. Now, here came Mom Nadine and Dad Steve out of the drug store. I was out of the car jumping up and down, and pointing across the street, and telling them Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were inside the Cooks Paint Store. They looked at me like "you poor little nut." Shaking their heads, "yeah, yeah," they got in the car over my pleadings to p l e a s e wait and see for themselves. I was frustrated beyond the beyond, totally crushed, that they would not believe me. I knew it was unbelievable, but it happened. The next day, I got my revenge big time, really big time. As the parents were reading the paper at breakfast, there was a little item. "Clark Gable and Carole Lombard visit Lombard's relatives who owned the Cooks Paint Store." Now, it was my parents turn to go into shock. Actually, I shouldn't use the term "parents," because I had already divorced them by this time. Both of them, who were big movie fans themselves missed their big chance. Dad may have been even more star struck than Mom, and am sure if he had realized what was going on, would have been across Broadway in a second. Somebody would have had to hold Mom up. But, that's the way it goes. It was exciting for me. I got to see the original "King" of America, Clark Gable, and his beautiful wife Carole a great movie star herself when they visited her relatives in Columbia. I should mehtion that at that time, everyone in America loved Carole Lombard about as much as Clark Gable. They were a great pair and at the height of their careers and truly helping America with the magic of the screen in the very middle of the Great Depression. Also, storm clouds were gathering in Europe. The couple were truly bright spots in a dreery time in America's history. And, then, not long thereafter, Carole was killed in a plane crash. The entire country was in shock. I don't know that Gable ever recovered from that tragedy. They were truly in love and a great couple, and the country loved them too. I also saw Shirley Temple in front of the Varsity Theatre eating a bag of popcorn. Again, I was in the 1st or 2nd grade in the Lab School on the Mo. campus. I went into some kind of zombie mode and just stared at her - along the curb (she was waiting for a car). She was older...not the cute little girl then, but wouldn't be long until the teens. She had a bandanna on her head tied in a knot on the front. She looked over at me, then, looked back out across the street, probably wondering about this little zombie kid just staring at her. I was so paralyzed that I couldn't just go over and ask her for her autograph. Again, the reader here would have to know about how great a star she was at that time...and as Gable and Lombard helping the country so much in those dark days of the depression. And, ole' Columbia sure didn't escape the depression. I don't know how Dad and Mom made it. I believe they were as the rest of America, absolute geniuses at getting by. I hope it never happens again, but if it does, there is much hope. And as mentioned earlier those storm clouds were gathering around the world. Dad had built a nice log cabin. Mom named the little dirt road in front of the home, "Vandiver Drive," after the Vandivers who lived up the road. The house was in a big field. We had a hired hand named "Royal," quite a character. Supposedly, he was of Russian Royalty and had escaped the Revolution. He had joined the U.S. Marines and fought in the south China Seas receiving bullet wounds in his stomach; he would show people these scars. Anyway, the Finnish were battling off the Russian aggressors at that time. I could by little metal soldiers of Finnish ski troops in their white camo outfits and on skis. So, Royal and I would play soldiers. He would proudly be the Russian forces and I would be Finnish. I should mention the Fins were very heroic and reports flowed in on the radio of the activities. Royal would prepare my sack lunch for school. He would go to all the trouble making Pigs in the Blanket...that reeked with strong curry powder. I just couldn't eat them, and almost starved to death on his powerfully spiced Russian food. Anyway, Royal showed me such things as how to throw the bayonet, and hunt rabbits with bayonets. And, earlier, when we lived in an apt. on College St., a German family, an exchange Professor, his wife and two boys also lived there. They were little, imported, toe-headed, brown shirts always ranting about Hitler and Naziism. The older one and I actually got in physical fights. So, I had to battle Nazis and Russians in Columbia. I was one of the first veterans! Believe me, I knew storm clouds were brewing. Ron - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - MUSEUM DAY IN U.S. - Sept. 29th many museums across the U.S. will open their doors free to the public. To see which museums are free, go to the Smithsonian website: www.smithsonian.com/museumdaycard. This item taddled from The Christian Science Monitor, Treeless Edition on the internet. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - HOME MUSEUMS. Everyone has a home museum!!!! It may be in closets, in attics, basements or garages! And we all just keep adding "stuff"...and then have to have museum yard sales! Some family member may have a specific collection. They (we) can borrow tricks from the museologists/archaeologists/anthropologists/art historians to get this material organized. These collections can be cataloged - info all about each item - and copies placed outside of the home in safe places....just in case there is a disaster, Heaven forbid, but the collection will be saved on paper or plastic. Do you know how to do a catalog? When a student at Mizzou we cataloged artifacts from Graham Cave and elsewhere around the state in the basement of old Switzler Hall (oldest bldg. on campus). It was the location of the Museum of Anthropology at that time. We used steno pads with the line down the middle of the page. Draw outline of artifact on left side (with a center cut drawing). On the other side write the catalog code no., say, 23 TA 101 (Mo. the 23rd state), Taney Co., Site No. (can be some arbitray no) Tell all you know about it...color, type of material, where found, other notes, etc. Carl Chapman used to say, "You can't take enough notes." He knew all about the importance of notes, taking notes on little scraps of paper such as cigarette wrappers, etc. in a German prison camp in WWII. You can make your own form on the computer and scan and insert drawings or photos. This is all part of the scientific method that takes us out of cigar box and fruit jar, curio collecting, so you can share out in the flow of science. There is more; report writing, but getting scientifically organized is the beginning. Welcome to science!!!! Ron 01/11/08 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - MUSEUM CONSERVATION FOR THE HOME The rule of the conservator. Here's a great rule adhered to by all the top museum conservators in the world, and you can apply in your own home if you try to restore some item. Of course, if the item is very valuable, take it to some museum conservator to help you out. But, here is the rule. When you repair anything, as you commence doing very tasks, be sure that you or someone else, can someday get back into the project. Here's an example. If a museum conservator is restoring an ancient pot, he or she, will use a glue that is water-soluable, say, something like Elmers. Then, if some conservator of the future wants to re-do your pot, they can disolve the glue with water. You haven't used some permanent glue. Conservators who restore old paintings and frames use this same method. And, by the way, to help you out, you might want to reinforce and hold open places of the pot together with pipe-cleaners while you glue and dry. I have also been helped sometimes by putting the pot in a little sand box to hold pieces in place while glueing and drying. Hey, this is real museology! Have fun! Ron Entered Feb. 6, '07 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -WORLD'S GREATEST MUSEUM DOCENTS (GUIDES). They are the most fabulous, super, top of the crop, sharpest museum docents (guides) that I have ever seen. They are the women docents of the big Museo de Antropologia y Historia in Mexico City, D.F...the museum that is the pride of all of Mexico. They have satelite museums around the country, but this is the home base, the biggie. It is a beaut. Generally modern art doesn't do to much for me, but this musem, with much modern design changed my opinion. It is beautiful and well organized (more about this feature later). Right now I must tell you about the docents the best feature of the entire museum. They are spectacular. There are some private certified docents, but the museum docents are especially noteworthy. They dress like they were right out of 5th Ave. Remember, Mexico City is a big international city with the latest fashion and top stores. One of the guides wore a dark leather skirt with boots. They must study modelling, because their stances and movements are very sharp. And, they are also made up perfectly. Docent here has got to be one of the most top, envied jobs in the entire city. They take it seriously and are very knowledgeable. They know the Aztecs, Maya, Toltecs, Olmecs, the Spanish and much more backwards and forewards. I'm telling you they are sharp! Another sharp feature here, they have special handmade pointers...long batons made of dark mahogany, which is varnished or shellacked to a sparkle. The handle is rounded on the back end and then tapers out to the point. I got to examine one of these pointers closely in the office of the head public relations lady. I was waiting for her there while she took a siesta in some other "siesta place". She was going to give me a special tour down into the city beneath the city...the great world of the big physical anthropology lab, and much much more. Anyway, waiting in her office gave me the opportunity to have a siesta myself. She had a dozen or so of these great pointer in a tall canister beside her desk. These pointers are well balanced, and, of course, in the hand of one of the sharp guides, giving just the right flourish (the ultimate swagger stick), this and all docent features put together, are truly a work of art. By the way the PR lady's office may just be the greatest, most beautiful office in the western hemisphere. One entire big wall was of glass panels looking out on the landscaped, architectured grounds, with exotic trees and plants. You felt as though you were part of nature of Central America...as in the prize-winning Thorncrown Chapel in the woods near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I have a hunch that Bill Gates would be envious of this office. More later about this museum. But, the highlights have to be the museum docents...works of art. And, yes, there was some archaeology on display also! Ha, Ha. Posted here Feb. 11, 2008 - Ron - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - MUSEUM ORGANIZATION AT THE BIG MUSEO IN MEXICO CITY. One of the first striking things I noticed when visiting the Museo de Antropologia y Historia in Mexico City, DF was the great organization of exhibits and sections. The minute the visitor steps in the front door he or she is led along in the best organized fashion that I have ever seen. Everything leads logically to something else. You work along from old to new. Your mind isn't working against a lot of static and disorganization and over complication. A tremendous amount of thought went into the organization of the museum. Most museums I have been in suddenly confront the visitor with dozens of exhibits and cases. The visitor doesn't know whether to go sideways, up, down or straight ahead...or just go home. He or she is suddenly confronted with the shotgun method of museum organization....and the poor visitor has to fight their way along. The dullness is so thick that they almost need a machete to cut their way through. And, where is the second floor, and should we go up there? And what's there. Yikes! Of course, they should have been lead effortlessly to the stairs or elevator. So, what we have in the big museum of Mexico City is great empathy for the visitor. They are actually thinking of the customer, and what they are selling is a fascinating story. And, to add variety to the visitors journey, there are big glass areas with doors every now and then that lead out to living exhibits outside. These are all emeshed in beautiful landscaping...a primitive farm with animals and people. In the Vera Cruz area, there is an outside exhibit with one of the giant Olmec heads sitting on a slight, flowing rise (very carefully designed). Every inch is a masterpiece. I have a watercolor I did of this Olmec head. Very mysterious. The head has African facial features and has puzzled many an anthropologist. By the way, the museum is very big on physical anthropology. Their physical anthropology dept. and lab in what I call the city beneath the city, has a big room that looks like the X-Ray department of a large city hospital. X-Rays are hanging on glass lighted viewers all around the walls. I got to meet all the physical anthropologists in their white lab coats. But back to organization. You just don't know how disorganized most museums are until you see this museum. Here is a little trick to help museum planners. Planning a museum is really like editing a manuscript. Everything should following logically down the line. The planner is really a museum editor. And, besides organizing he or she needs to throw in a touch of variety every now and then (like the living exhibits) to liven things up. Dad often told of the famous old art rule - "Variety within Unity." There should also be something attractive at the beginning (great outer architecture in the case of the Museo). And, at the end tie it all up with a good feeling. Again, in the case of the Museo, one goes out into fantastic Chapultepec Park, with hundreds of families eating and playing in colorful garments...bright reds, yellows, blues and blacks. It's an anthropological pinwheel, never to be forgotten. Ron - entered Mar. 2, 2008. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - COLUMBIA, MISSOURI IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION. Columbia truly is a "Museum of Humanity," a microcosm of cultural anthropology, "Life," in America...more special I believe than "Main Street." There are three colleges there - maybe more by now. But, there is a lot that revolves around college life. Also, Columbia was right on Hwy 40, a main route. Then, with all the theatres in town, it was a great stopover for the trans-continental vaudeville acts. This was exciting, and I got to observe closely - right in the middle of the fish bowl - since Dad was art/advertising director of the Missouri Theatre chain (I mentioned much of this earlier). I hung out back stage of the Varsity - what an observation point! Then, Dad taught art at Stephens. My Grandmother Miller lived close to the Christian College campus (now Columbia College). My Mom and Bessie Mays were best friends. Slim Mays played clarinet in the pit orchestra of the Varsity. I recall Mom and I would go visit the Mays out east of town. Then lived in a log cabin. As if the depression wasn't enough of a disaster they had been hit by a tornado. Slim was on top of everybody trying to hold them down...and the cabin was moved some off the foundation. We just missed it, as we lived in a log cabin also on the little road Mom named "Vandiventer Road." (North of Hwy. 40). This sounds like Abe Lincoln's time with the cabins! Dad did a design job on ours and his drawing of it appeared in the paper. Nevertheless, it still looked pretty much like a log cabin. And incredibly cold in the winter..what with a high ceiling. Anyway, when visiting the Mays, the mothers would rake up a nickle and send their daughter Mary Francis and I up to a filling station/store on Hwy. 40, where we would buy a Mound candy bar. As you know, these are in two sections...but this wasn't for the two of us to divede...it was for the whole bunch! We would take it back where it was carefully cut in tiny sections so everyone would get a little bit. I recall the Mays had a garden, and one of the extra vegetables was wax beans - wax green beans. I remember eating those, and both families had a lot of beans - navy beans. Earlier, we had lived in a little house on a farm east of town. I remember vividly that the farmer gave us a sack of turnips..and that was a VERY big deal. As you may know, you can practically live on turnips. what with the greens and the bottoms. Beans and greens and cornbread will get you a long ways. As a neighbor later in life, Grandpa Millsap said, if you plant only one thing in your garden, plant only turnips. I recall Dad and Mom were excited when Dad was able to letter a few little produce and canned good signs for a grocery store up by the court house - just up from the Varsity on the corner. Things were really rough. This was just before Dad taught at Stephens, which helped much...but still wasn't the life of luxury. Making a living as an artist, is not easy in the best of times, but existing in the depression took miricale working. Fortunately, Mom and her Mom, Grandmother Gee Gee were big on prayer. I can't say enough for this help method. I know that many times this kept us from total panic. So, when I see humanist know- it -alls thumb their noses at Sunday School stuff, I think, what a bunch of morons. This was the days of Franklin D. Rossevelt and his fireside chats. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself.. I can't tell young people today about the importance of radio. This was our TV, and I was welded to it early on. The great shows and personalities helped get us thru the depression...Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Fibber McGee and Molly, (Paul Henning, who created the Beverly Hillbillies and spinoffs, wrote for Fibber McGee). I remember the voice of Kate Smith, strong, positive, singing patriotic songs and "When the Moon Came Over the Mtn." - just what we needed. And, besides the great music, humor, is a super medicine too. And people would rake up a few nickles and go to the theatres in town, and get a sack of popcorn and watch a vaudeville act...and listen to the live pit music. This music was more exciting, uplifting and electrifying than any I hear today. Many theatres today play digitized tracks, and it is not the same. So, there was good. Everybody was in the same boat. It was low budget time in Columbia. Students always have to grub, but they really had to grub during the depression. And, as usual they got jobs around town. Some helped Dad in his great art shop studio loft across the alley from the Varisity on the 2nd floor. He produced some great art there...wonderful one sheets for the lobbies, card art, banners, big heads of stars and more. He went beyond lettering, which of course, is an art (now lost with digitization) on to design. He wrote for Signs Mag. Even theatre art is a lost art today. Then, in the middle of the Depression, Dad showed his younger brother John how to letter and gave him a no. 8 sable...and he was on his way. His first job was doing ice cream cones and lettering on the window of Central Dairy one of the big student hangouts (just up from the Uptown Theatre). Dad and John one time had a little shop opposite Jesse Hall. They did a lot of silk screen work. They were considered pioneers in American silk screen. They had another shop a still another time somewhere over in the northwest part of town. They turned out signs of every shape and size. John and Ralph Corrigan worked together, and they even had a ukelele act playing on the local radio station. John would go on to found big Signs Inc. an outdoor advertising billboard co. in Kansas City. I recall when he took off for K.C. He had talked the bus driver into a free ticket and road on the luggage rack on top of the bus. Dad and I saw him off. He climbed up to the rack, and they were off.