This Belongs in a Museum

Exactly 45 years ago today, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He was only 39 years old. Today the site is part of a 4 acre complex of buildings that make up the National Civil Rights Museum. The motel is connected by underground tunnel to the Young and Morrow Buildings, where James Earl Ray initially confessed (and later recanted) to shooting King. Another component, Canipe’s Amusement Store, is next door to the rooming house where the alleged murder weapon (along with Ray’s fingerprints) was found. The museum traces the history of the Civil Rights Movement from the 17th century to the present day. A temporary exhibit called Freedom’s Sisters dedicated to African American women who fought for equality, like Ida B. Wells and Myrlie Evers-Williams, is now on display through the rest of 2013. Interesting to note the motel’s owner’s wife suffered a stroke hours after King’s assassination, and died 5 days later. I did not know that.

The Lorraine Motel in Memphis is the site of Martin Luther King’s assassination. Now part of a 4 acre complex of buildings that make up the National Civil Rights Museum, the motel is connected by underground tunnel to the Young and Morrow Buildings, where James Earl Ray initially confessed (and later recanted) to shooting King. Another component includes Canipe’s Amusement Store, which is next door to the rooming house where the alleged murder weapon, with Ray’s fingerprints, was found. The museum traces the history of the Civil Rights Movement from the 17th century to the present. Interesting to note that the motel’s owner’s wife suffered a stroke hours after King’s assassination, and died five days later.

I did not know that.

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Nothing is scarier than seeing Charley Pride (I mean Garry Shandling) at the Music Valley Wax Museum of the Stars in Nashville, Tennessee. Actually I take that back. I’ll stare at a million Charley wax figures any day over listening to his music.

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Well, that last post went down like a lead balloon. Or should I have said like a German joke? While I try to pick myself up from the floor, I’ll leave you with the “Creature of Sugar Float Road”. Visitors to Lebanon, Tennessee’s gazillion antique stores might notice this head in the window of Cuz’s Antique Store. It even comes with an antique store version of a museum text label, which says: “Is this an Alien? Ran over by car on Sugar Flat Rd. in Lebanon, TN. Jan 5th 1989 - Never Identified”

If you’re the curious type and actually go inside the store, there is a brochure that tells the whole story. I’ll do my best to summarize for you guys too lazy to click the link. Basically a couple tried to get it on in the town’s version of Lover’s Lane (because when you live in the South, there’s nothing better to do). They were actually having an affair, so as they sped away from their tryst, they ran over what they thought was a deer but it turned out to be this “thing”. Or what I like to call a “thing” of unknown origin that sits in an antique store so people will shop there.

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It’s been 34 years since Elvis left the building. But most of his stuff has never actually left the building if you know what I mean. Nope, not talking about Graceland here. At the Elvis Presley Museum & Gift in Pigeon Forge (closer to Knoxville than Memphis) the “world’s largest private collection of Elvis memorabilia” has been on display since the King’s demise. In 1971 Elvis took off his belt and gave it to museum founder Mike Moon (the belt now has a place of honor at the front of the museum) and a boy’s obsession with all things Elvis was born. It sounds like the King just gave away his used stuff instead of throwing it out in the trash like one of his royal subjects. I guess that’s good for the Elvis fan in all of us. Expect to find Elvis’s gold karate card, collection of firearms, safety-orange toilet seat cover, furry bathroom scale, jewelled lamp, Drug Enforcement Agency sweat suit, “Shazam” pimp hat (so named because a shocked Elvis uttered, “Shazam!” when he first saw it), “Taking Care of Business” 7 carat diamond ring, 1973 Lincoln Continental, colorful bedroom sheets and set of World Book Encyclopedias. Other Elvis museums have come and gone (yeah I’m talking to you Elvis-A-Rama Experience and Elvis Is Alive! Museum) but this one looks like it’s here to stay, at least until people figure out they’re paying money to see some dead guy’s sweaty sweat suit.

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As teenagers my one friend and I were a little bit strange (actually we still are) in that we came up with a monthly holiday known as “Stabbage Day” to celebrate her growing collection of stolen restaurant knives (mostly collected at the various ‘Golden’ establishments across Chicago). It was always on the eleventh, so ironically, years later September 11th became the ultimate in stabbage. We had psychic abilities, I guess. Anyway, I’m glad we never found ourselves in Sevierville, Tennessee, home of the National Knife Museum. That would’ve been too much. One visitor describes the place as a “museum inside a gift shop rather than a gift shop in a museum”, but don’t worry, lots and lots of knives are available for both viewing and purchase. And please, whatever you do…don’t bring the kids. Thanks.

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A kitschy dream comes true with the world’s only Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Besides the 20,000 salt and pepper shakers, the museum also has the world’s largest collection of peppermills. Good times. The objects on display are made of ceramic, wood, walnut shells, horns, eggs, rock, glass, metal, plastic, crystal…the list goes on and on. Did you know shaker production moved outside the United States starting in the 1930s - first to Japan, then China? You mean that cute vegetable-shaped shaker is not American? Get out! If you ever want to know why salt and pepper are on every restaurant and kitchen table, then read this book. And if you don’t care about salt and pepper, then sorry to bother you and have a nice day.

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(Image via Frank Reed)

Even though there are probably better teapot collections in more conventional places (Europe comes to mind), this one deserves a mention as it is one of the most random. The Teapot Museum in Trenton, Tennessee holds the world’s largest collection of Veilleuse-Theieres porcelain dating from 1750 to 1860. A gynecologist donated his 650 teapots to the city in the 1950s. Every spring there is a week-long teapot festival, which includes a parade and the lighting of the teapots.  

(via McKramer)

What’s more shocking? That the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum exists or that they have the word “International” in the name? Also, do those cars get free towing? So many questions…