Although I’ve been to Cumbria, England several times, I never got to visit the Laurel and Hardy Museum in Ulverston. In 1976, the mayor, Bill Cubin, found evidence that proved Stan Laurel (born Arthur Jefferson) was not born in North Shields as previously believed but in his grandparents’ house on...
Late last year I mentioned how much I wanted to go to the Busy Beaver Button Company here in Chicago. Well, last month during Obscura Day, a celebration of hidden wonders and unusual places in one’s hometown, I am happy to say I finally paid visit. Founded in 1995, the...
We wrap up “Tiny Museum Week” with the world’s only museum dedicated to the Victorian explorer, Sir Richard Burton. There’s just one catch - the museum is located in the loo of a private residence in St Ives, Cornwall in the UK. History buff Shanty Baba converted the 36 sq...
This blog has never been to Yemen before, and the only really interesting (as in ridiculously interesting) museum appears to be one dedicated to the country’s deposed leader, which officially opened earlier this year. Due to the Yemeni Revolution during the Arab Spring, Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to step...
On this day in 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, was stolen from the Louvre in Paris by a former employee who walked out of the museum with the painting in his jacket. ,The thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, claimed to have been motivated by his patriotism to Italy, to...
Heinz cans from the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in London
When 16 year old Robert Opie arrived home with a Munchies wrapper back in 1963, he declared that he would never throw away anything ever again. That’s true and then some. The Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising displays the history of consumption with over a hundred years of stuff...
Even though millions of Americans think chimney sweeps are still walking around the streets of London doing horrible Cockney accents like in Mary Poppins, believe it or not, this is not actually happening. Aaaannndd London does not have a Chimney Sweep Museum. But Vienna does. The Wiener Rauchfangkehrer Museum. Open...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELVIS PRESLEY! Although he’s been dead for nearly forty years, Elvis fans celebrate his birthday like he’s still around. (And who knows? Maybe he still is.) Besides the Elvis impersonators, the birthday celebration at Graceland and the endless musical tributes, Elvis is remembered all over the country in...
A few summers ago I took a road trip through Iowa and stopped at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson gave their last performances. Just after midnight on February 3, 1959 they crashed in a nearby cornfield during...
