New York Transit Museum

Empire Express by Raúl Colón 2001

8/7/2010, Saturday

MUSEUM: New York Transit Museum

TIME: 1 hr

COST: $5 each

At most museums, exhibits are behind velvet ropes or glass, out of reach, untouchable and completely off limits.  I remember visiting museums as a kid and being told, “put your hands in your pockets and keep them there.”  The hands-off attitude can make museums feel stifling, and sometimes even adults want to experience something with more than one of our five senses.  However, today we found a museum where visitors are welcome to touch everything, and exhibits are meant to be pushed, poked, sat on and messed with.  This is great for kids of course, but surprisingly today’s museum is not a kid’s museum.  It’s the New York Transit Museum.

The New York Transit Museum is run by the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), the public corporation with the monumental task of coordinating most public transit in and around New York City, including tunnels, bridges, buses, commuter railways and subways.  Considered the largest transportation provider in the Western hemisphere, the MTA has a ridership of 12 million people per day.  It seems inevitable that an operation this enormous would sprout a museum.  As is fitting for a museum run by the same operation as the subway, the New York Transit Museum is a bit worn in spots and could use a good cleaning, but it delivers a good product for a low price, and does it with a certain gritty New York panache. 

Entrance to New York Transit Museum

Right from the beginning you can tell that this is not your average museum.  The Transit Museum is located within a decommissioned subway station in Brooklyn Heights, and is thus entirely below ground.  The museum kept the traditional no frills entrance of a NY subway station, and two long flights of stairs lead down below the sidewalk into a tiled room with turnstiles, metal bars and an old token booth.  (One word of warning: at the moment, the stairs are the only entrance and this museum is not wheelchair accessible.  It looks like a difficult climb for strollers as well.) 

There are several levels to the old station, packed to the gills with exhibits that examine public transportation from all angles: historical, mechanical, nostalgic, and even artistic.  Much of the top level is taken up by a mock tunnel containing the exhibit “Steel, Stone, and Backbone,” with stories and fun facts on the building of New York City's 100 year-old subway system.  The tunnel is framed with burlap and rough wood beams, with wheelbarrows full of rocks to lift, so you can heft what early tunnelers were carrying.  The exhibit is full of pictures, films and stories of the people who built the old tunnels during the early 1900’s, detailing the backbreaking, dangerous work, particularly in the tunnels under the Harlem and East Rivers.   

This floor also has a fun section on turnstiles and fare collection with a large collection of historic turnstiles that you can actually push through.  This was one of our favorite sections of the museum and Paul and I jumped through the turnstiles with gusto, comparing the action of early turnstiles with modern ones.  The opposing wall has a display on the 50-year history of the NY subway token, displaying every token type ever used and why, with cool sidebars on “slugs” and other ways people beat the fare before the current electronic cards.

The next floor down focuses on surface transportation, with the exhibit “On the Streets: New York's Trolleys and Buses.”  This floor houses actual buses and a horse drawn trolley (sans horse), plus a recreation of an intersection with “Don’t Walk” signs, fire hydrants and parking meters.  Much of this floor was set up for children, and there were several having a good time driving and refueling the buses, but there were also exhibits for adults.  We marveled over the insanely detailed models of every trolley that ever ran in Brooklyn (over 50 models) built by Dr. George T.F. Rahilly, and enjoyed the story of Elizabeth Jennings Graham (1830 – 1901), an African-American schoolteacher who won a landmark legal decision determining that people of color could ride any public conveyance on New York City's streets, 100 years before Rosa Parks. 

Dr. George T.F. Rahilly Trolley and Bus Study Center

Catch a Ride, by Greg Ruth, 2010

One thing we veteran museum goers did not expect in a transit museum was art but, shockingly, this museum has an extensive art exhibit detailing the “Arts for Transit” program.  As part of a massive rehabilitation project launched in the 1980’s, the MTA installed over 215 pieces of art in subway and commuter rail stations, with another 70 in production.  The program sponsors many different kinds of art and artists, including a poster series, photography exhibits (called The Lightbox Project), Music Under New York, and tile mosaics worked into the subway walls themselves.  In celebration of the program’s 25th anniversary, the Transit Museum hosted several walls of posters and pictures of these colorful, often whimsical pieces of art, designed to amuse and inspire the NY commuter. (We wish the artists luck in this seemingly impossible endeavor.)  Paul loved this part of the museum, pointing out that not only did New York City build one of the worlds largest and most traveled subways, but it took the time and effort to make it beautiful, which says a lot about this city.

Urban Oasis, by Ann Schaumburger, 1997

The lowest floor of the museum is the “platform level” of the old station.  Nineteen antique subway cars line up on either side of the platform, including the first subway car ever built for NYC (called the R1), with wicker seats, hanging lamps and brass fixtures.  (Can you imagine how long that would last on a modern subway?)  All cars are open for exploration, and many have period advertising.  We particularly liked the very 50’s R11 train, with green interior, stainless steel trim and circular windows.  Stepping through the shiny doors and grabbing the white leather ceiling strap felt like a trip back in time. 
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Historic subway cars, from the exhibit "Moving the Millions." The R1 car is on the far left.

For an even better time travel experience (pun intended), the museum runs “Nostalgia Tours” a few times a year, taking its antique fleet of subway cars out for spins to popular spots.  Occasionally, the museum also gives tours of decommissioned subway stations like the old Brooklyn City Hall Station.  This posh 1904 subway station has chandeliers, leaded skylights and a vaulted Guastavino ceiling, but has been closed since 1945.

Brooklyn City Hall Station, built in 1904

In summary, the NY Transit Museum was larger, more varied and more exciting than we ever imagined a transit museum could be, and we both strongly recommend it.  This museum is popular with kids, particularly the bus and trolley section, but even adults will have a good time pushing century old turnstiles and sitting in (sometimes riding in) subway cars from nearly every decade of the 19th century.  We loved being able to physically interact with pieces of our history and it was great to marvel over 100 year old engineering projects that still look impossible today.

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Times Square Mural, by Roy Lichtenstein, 1994

Endurance, by Bascove 2007

Images in this post, from the top: Empire Express, by Raúl Colón, mixed-media on paper, 2001.  Poster text: "Raul Colon's mixed-media fantasy celebrates two New York City Icons: The Empire State Building's art deco pinnacle ringed by subways. MTA's network keeps New York City at the top of the world of commerce;"  New York City subway token, used from 1970-1980;  Entrance to the New York Transit Museum, in the old Court Street subway station;  Archival image of the building of subway tunnels, from the exhibit "Steel, Stone and Backbone;"  Historic turnstiles;  Street car in the exhibit "On the Streets: New York's Trolleys and Busses;" Dr. George T.F. Rahilly Trolley and Bus Study Center, featuring over 50 models of trolleys and work cars created by Dr. Rahilly, a trolley enthusiast;  Catch a Ride, by Greg Ruth, 2010.  Poster text: "In Greg Ruth's fantastical view of Midtown Manhattan, jumping rainbow fish have joined the MTA bus fleet, traveling upstream with the flow of traffic. But a commuting angler has snared the catch of the day -- the Fifth Avenue local bus;"  Part of Urban Oasis, by Ann Schaumburger, 1997.  A menagerie of animals and birds from the Central Park Zoo, rendered in glass mosaic, can be seen throughout the subway station;  Three antique subway cars from the exhibit "Moving the Millions; New York City's Subways from its Origins to the Present;"  The Brooklyn City Hall subway station, built in 1904, closed in 1945; Time Square Mural, by Roy Lichtenstein, 1994, porcelain enamel on steel.  This mural is 6 feet wide by 53 feet long and was given as a gift to the city by the well known artist Roy Lichtenstein, a native New Yorker.  The mural hangs at the main entrance of the Times Square subway station;  Endurance, by Bascove, oil pastel on D'Arches watercolor paper, 2007.  Poster text: "The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge links Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan. Bascove's painting uses vibrant colors in sinuous curves to capture the dynamic power in the bridge's massive structure."

Paley Center for Media

2/13/10, Saturday continued
MUSEUM: Paley Center for Media
TIME: 1.5 hr
COST: $10 each

Calling all couch potatoes, channel surfers, sofa sloths, remote hogs and television addicts.  Rejoice!  We have the perfect museum for you.  The Paley Center for Media is a museum devoted to collecting and preserving television, radio and other media (lots of TiVo).  There are no exhibits to see, no crowds to push through and we guarantee that you will get no exercise what so ever.  Just sign up for “library” time at the front desk, take the elevator to a quiet, dark room, sit down in a comfy chair in front of a nice large computer screen, and the museum docents will hand you the world’s most powerful remote control.  Nearly 150,000 programs covering almost 100 years of television and radio history await your viewing pleasure.  Sitcoms, comedies, variety shows, news, performing arts programs, documentaries, children's shows, sports, and even commercials are all available at the click of your mouse.  Watch the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debate, then switch to an episode of “Bonanza”.  Watch the 1991 Super Bowl, then find out who won the Bud Bowl for that year.  Look up Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video and compare it to the Beatles on the “Ed Sullivan Show”.  Or just sit back and watch a “Gilligan’s Island” episode and see what the Professor makes out of coconuts this time. 

This gem of a museum was founded as “The Museum of Television and Radio” as the brainchild of media mogul William S. Paley.  At the age of 26, Paley bought a group of bankrupt radio stations and eventually built the media empire that came to be known as CBS.  Broadcasting magazine summed up his place in the pantheon of the airwaves as: "Paley became to American broadcasting what Carnegie was to steel, Ford to automobiles, Luce to publishing, and Ruth to baseball."  Paley recognized early on that television and radio broadcasts are an ephemeral art.  Once a program is off the air, it’s quickly forgotten and easily lost.  Paley founded this museum in 1975 in order to preserve the media that he spent his life developing. 

I’ll admit that Paul and I were daunted by the selection at first.  I can have trouble deciding between our 400 channels.  Deciding between 150,000 is so much worse.  I started with some of the curated collections.  There was a collection with some of the major shows in science fiction, and I selected parts of my favorite “X Files” episodes.  A collection on police dramas caught my eye and I watched a section of the 1950’s noir “The Naked City”, a gritty black and white ancestor of “Law and Order”.  Paul checked out the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debate, watched an episode of “Red Dwarf”, then switched to an Edward R. Murrow historical documentary about Poland in 1958.  At some point we both found ourselves cruising through some of the major news broadcasts of the century.  I started watching the Challenger Disaster.  I got to the point just after the rocket exploded, and the camera focuses on the crowd, watching the austronauts’ families realize that their loved ones just exploded above their heads, and everyone begins to cry as debris starts splashing down in the ocean in front of them.  I started to cry at this tragic scene and I looked over at Paul to share the moment and saw that he was crying too.  However, he was watching “The Miracle on Ice,” a hockey game in the 1980 Winter Olympics.  (It's considered one of the greatest upsets in sports history.)  Later he attempted to preserve his sensitive guy image by claiming he chocked up while watching the Challenger Disaster earlier.  You can decide whether or not you believe him.

My favorite part of this experience was being able to look up the shows I watched in childhood.  I discovered episodes of “The Man From Uncle” that I used to watch with my grandfather.  That brought back some good memories of a very good man.  I also found episodes of my favorite childhood show, “The Muppets.”  I was hesitant to watch them at first, worried that reality would not live up to my very warm memories of the show.  However, I chose the episode with guest stars from the cast of “Star Wars” and watched in amazement as the Star Wars crew hijacks Swinetrek on “Pigs In Space”; Miss Piggy pretends to be a karate chopping Princess Leia; Chewbacca gets kidnapped by chickens; C3PO and R2D2's have a tap dancing solo to “You Are My Lucky Star"; and Mark Hamill dresses in an hideous argyle sweater and gargles a Gershwin tune with Angus McGonagle the Gargling Argyle Gargoyle.  Is that not the best half hour of television ever created?  Sheer genius.

Paul and I both agree that this museum was a lot of fun.  Initially, we were skeptical about the concept.  Paying to watch TV for a few hours did not sound like a good use of our time, but we both found it to be educational, often emotional and a very personal experience.  We highly recommend this museum if you’re ever in the area.

Images in this post, from the top: Nixon-Kennedy Debate, 1960; Naked City The Television Series, 1958-63; Challenger Disaster, 1986; Miracle on Ice, 1980; and Mark Hamill gargling Gershwin with Angus McGonagle the Gargling Argyle Gargoyle on the Muppet Show, 1980.

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

2/6/10; Saturday (continued)  

MUSEUM: Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum

TIME: 1.5 hr

COST: $35 for both (with 2 for 1 coupon)

          + $15 for 2 booklets and 2 photos made into fridge magnets

Pauline here: Normally Paul “ghost writes” on our blog; i.e. we discuss the museum together and I try to capture both viewpoints and experiences when I write. However, Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum hit close to Paul’s interest in side shows (perhaps I should say obsession), and he wished to write this one on his own, so what follows is Paul’s first solo entry to the blog. I should also mention that Paul went through the museum as if he were a carnival barker and recruited several marks, ahem, I mean people, to pose for our blog with programs in front of their faces next to the wax celebrities. Thank you to all of you who were gracious enough to help us out. (No, Paul, I don’t mean gullible.)

 

Paul here: Our trip to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum on 42nd street in Times Square was different than any other museum we had been to previously. Firstly, it was the first museum located off the museum mile. Hence it was one of first “non-mansion” museums, which in itself was quite different. The building was gaudily lit up, as a museum in the “Great White Way” should be. (That’s “Times Square” to non-New Yorkers.) The second main difference is that Madame Tussaud’s origins were in the sideshow tradition and not as a cultural repository, and is designed to make money. Hence, the museum is a for-profit venture. A single admission is $35.00, making it one of the most expensive museums in the city. We looked online and found a 2-for-1 coupon, which we decided to use.  

The sideshow origins of this wax museum are pretty pervasive. The sideshows of old were intended to separate the punters from their money as quickly as possible. Tussaud’s still adheres to this mentality, by offering little services throughout the museum. They offer a “program” for $5.00 that I would not recommend purchasing. There are snack bars on almost every floor, and one could get “professional” photos taken with Johnny Depp, the Obamas, and various other people of note. All of them are available for purchase at the end of the tour as photos, key chains, and refrigerator magnets. We had our photo taken with Johnny Depp holding Oscars, which we had made into magnets. We could have also chosen President Obama, Superman or the Incredible Hulk. Not that you had to buy anything. One of the really cool things they allow you to do is to take you own photos throughout the museum.

We forgot our camera, but luckily, we had my cell phone, which has a pretty nice camera. The Museum is laid out over several different floors. The tour starts at the top of the building and you descend to the bottom floor. There are stairs, but whole thing is handicapped accessible, so it is not too taxing on people who have trouble moving. Each floor has several differently themed rooms. There was a “hall of stars” with movie celebrities, a rap-themed room, a nightclub with famous singers, a historical section with people like Napolean Bonaparte and Abraham Lincoln, a karaoke room where you could be judged by American Idol judges, a “hall of honor” with the Dalai Lama and Pope John Paul II, an “Americana” through the decades of the 1900s, and a sports-themed room. There was also a “scare room” where you walked through a near dark maze and people jumped out at you. This had no wax figures in it, and while we were there, very few people hiding to scare us, so I would probably put this down as a “non-room”.

In each room were the wax figurines. These are truly remarkable. They, in general, are pretty realistic, right down to the armpit hair. These ranged from Napoleon to Ru Paul, and included a lot of different stars in between. Some of them, like Julia Roberts, were instantly recognizable. We had trouble identifying some of them, but Pauline and I are not pop culture junkies. Some of the ones we had trouble were due to the stillness of the figures. Selma Hayek and Lou Reed were good examples of this. Both are notable for their animated looks, so when they were perfectly still, it was strange. Other choices were just weird. These included putting FDR in a wheelchair- something he never liked to be shown in a public setting, putting Princess Diana next to the Dali Lama and Albert Einstein in the Hall of Honor, and an apparent obsession with Al Roker.

One of the most “offensive” things we saw was hockey legend Wayne Gretzky decked out in a NY Ranger’s jersey, instead of his Edmonton Oilers jersey. I understand that this is New York, and he technically was a Ranger, but he should be remembered for when he was the Great One in Edmonton. Pele’, who played for the NY Cosmos in the short lived NASL, was shown in his Brazil uniform, and not as a Cosmo. But that is a quibble that we hockey fans can debate about. Also, a lot of the people were thinner than I thought they were/are in real life. But in reality, it was a lot of fun to spend a couple of hours wandering through the galleries and having some harmless fun hanging.  

Images in this post, from the top: the Dalai Lama with friends; Patrick Stewart with friend; Marylin Monroe, Jackie Kennedy and friend; Julie Roberts and friend; Neil Armstrong and Johnny Cash; and Pele'.