A museum dedicated to Arnold Schwarzenegger just opened in his native Austria, complete with a 20-foot-tall bronze of the Terminator-turned-Governator. From Lucille Ball to Liberace, see other stars’ shrines.
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Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a new museum in his native Austria, complete with a bronze statue of himself. Fans weathered harsh rain for four hours Friday in the village of Thal waiting for a glimpse of either the former Governator or the eight-foot bronze likeness of his 20-year-old self. The Austrian museum sounds like it provided a safe haven from negative attention for Schwarzenegger, avoiding any mention of his impending divorce, recently discovered affair, and illegitimate child with his family’s housekeeper.
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Lucy’s home! Hometown, that is—Lucille Ball was from Jamestown, N.Y., and that’s where you’ll find the Lucy-Desi Museum and the residents pulling out all the stops to honor TV’s favorite darling. Lucy would have been 100 this year, and the museum has the first four of her Emmys on view, as well as costumes and other memorabilia.
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Not surprising that an artist who relied so heavily on museums to build his mythical image has one of his own. But did you know that it’s in Pittsburgh? And that Warhol, always thought of as such a quintessential New Yorker, was from the Steel City? It is the largest museum in the U.S. dedicated to a single artist and has seven floors and 17 galleries. How to fill all that space? Good thing Warhol was the most commercial of the modern masters who changed the very idea of what a “masterpiece” is. “Works like his Shadow Paintings or the metal surfaces he peed on, let alone his Love Boat cameo, don’t register as unique works of genius, as his early works do. But that’s because Warhol had moved on to making un-unique art that tested what selling out might be about, in an America where selling more matters most,” our art critic Blake Gopnik wrote in a recent Newsweek article. The museum has 900 paintings, 2,000 works on paper, 4,000 photographs, and 77 sculptures. And that’s only a small portion of his gigantic output.
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“I’m going to Graceland, Graceland / Memphis, Tennessee / I’m going to Graceland,” Paul Simon sang, helpfully locating this American landmark. Graceland was home to the King, and it was opened to the public in 1982. It entered the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Music critic Albert Goldman said “nothing in the house is worth a dime” and says it looks like a brothel. “King Elvis’s obsession with royal red reaches an intensity that makes you gag,” he wrote. Another rock critic, Greil Marcus, calls it “tacky, garish, tasteless—words others translated as white trash.” But you only have to watch U2’s Rattle and Hum to see the spell Graceland holds on generations of rockers.
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Anyone hoping to find some Three Stooges memorabilia should look no further than the Stoogeum in Ambler, Pa. The 10,000-square-foot museum contains 100,000 pieces of “Stoogeabilia,” including Larry Fine’s Columbia Studios ID card, costumes from Snow White & The Three Stooges, and hundreds of rare photographs. The museum also has a research library, a film vault, and an 85-seat theater. No photography is permitted and there are no regular operating hours. Once a month, the museum features “open houses” during which fans can visit for free. Said museum owner Gary Lassin: “People sort of have to work to find me. I do want people to see it, but I want them to see it on my terms.”
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The Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum is located in Jupiter, Fla., where the actor has lived for much of his career. The museum features all kinds of memorabilia that Reynolds collected during his life, from baseballs signed by Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams to original letters from Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra. It is the largest celebrity museum in Florida, and it even offers acting and filmmaking classes.
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Yes, the ruby slippers are there, and there were actually six pairs of them. Tap them together and to home you’ll go, though home is not Kansas. The Judy Garland Museum at Grand Rapids, Minn.—Garland’s birthplace—is the place to find the world’s largest public collection of her memorabilia. There’s even a handcrafted carriage that was used in “The Merry Old Land of Oz” number in The Wizard of Oz.
Actor Jimmy Stewart grew up in Indiana, Pa., so it makes sense that the town would now be home to his museum. The museum occupies the entire third floor of the Indiana Free Library Building. It is filled with memorabilia from Stewart’s career, some of which was selected by Stewart himself. The museum also features a 1930s vintage movie theater, with sound and projection systems donated by Universal City Studios. A bronze statue of the actor, which was dedicated for his 75th birthday, stands in front of the library building.
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Founded in 1979, the Liberace Museum was inside the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. It consisted of two buildings: Building One held piano and car galleries, while Building Two featured costumes, jewelry, a recreation of Liberace’s bedroom, and an awards gallery. The museum supported the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts, a scholarship program. The museum shut down (PDF) in 2010, so that the foundation could focus more money on scholarships, but the memorabilia is being maintained for use in traveling exhibitions and future museums.
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