A New Twist on New York: Entertainment Museums

Dec 22, 2011

Although renowned for its temples of high art such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City has two well-respected cultural institutions that operate relatively under the radar. Mostly locals and in-the-know out-of-towners frequent these establishments. They showcase not Picasso and Warhol, but nearly all the episodes of Jackie Gleason's "The Honeymooners," radio programs dating back to the 1920s, Elizabeth Taylor's wig from "Cleopatra" and interactive consoles where visitors can swap their voices for Jack Black's in "School of Rock."

The lobby at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City is reminiscent of Woody Allen's "Sleeper."

The Paley Center in Manhattan and the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, operate as New York's official repositories of popular culture, with each offering an entirely different but equally fascinating encounter with the past and present of television, film, radio and video.

Founded in 1975 by broadcasting pioneer William S. Paley and previously known as the Museum of Television and Radio, the Paley Center, renamed in 2007, is not a museum in the usual sense. With few exhibits, it functions primarily as an archive, with a database of more than 150,000 original television shows, commercials and radio programs. The archive spans almost 100 years of news, documentaries, children's programming, sports, comedy and variety shows, commercials and programs from more than 70 countries. Many of these shows can be found nowhere else.

Any visitor can access the archive by walking into a large room, sitting down at an old-fashioned library cubicle, donning headphones, and hunkering over a console to watch or listen to shows chosen from the database. Although the Paley Center is vigilant about capturing all the television and significant radio programs from the recent and not-too-distant past, its treasure-trove is its old material, the kind of shows that are not available in DVD packages.

From television's first golden era in the 1950s, there are "Keep It in the Family," the original pilot for "Father Knows Best," and an episode of the children's puppet show "Kukla, Fran and Ollie." A check of the radio catalog reveals, among other titles, "Adventures of the Thin Man" and "The Adventures of Superman" from the 1940s.

The most-requested television programs are "The Honeymooners," "I Love Lucy," "The Goldbergs," and "I Married Joan," starring Joan Davis and Jim Backus.

"We are not sure exactly why that show is so requested, but it is," said Mark Ekman, a manager at the Paley Center.

Also available are National Public Radio's broadcast on Sept. 11, 2011; live broadcasts of Al Jazeera; and once "lost" television shows such as Super Bowl III and performances by James Dean.

Beyond the archive, the Paley Center sponsors an ambitious agenda of live events. Recently, it hosted a panel of the "Saturday Night Live" writers as well as an evening with Arianna Huffington. The Paley Center hopes to develop a reputation as a place where industry leaders and the public can meet to discuss the creative side of the media as well as its role in society.

It's worth checking out the Paley Center's calendar listings ahead of time. Anyone with a passion or even just a curiosity about old television or radio shows will try to imagine some way to pitch a tent and camp out at the center. The archive can be addictive.

The Museum of the Moving Picture, with a space of nearly 100,000 square feet, houses more than 130,000 artifacts relating to film, television, video games, video artwork and digital imaging, making it the largest collection in the United States. At this facility, which opened in 1988, highbrow film study, fun interactive exhibits and fandom fetishes mash up into an exhilarating experience.

Since unveiling its $67 million renovation earlier this year, that exhilaration begins with the building itself. Grafted onto the original structure that was built in 1920 as part of Paramount Pictures' studio complex is a gigantic baby-blue aluminum "bubble" that surrounds the museum's three-story addition.

Once inside, the lobby appears to have taken its design cues from Woody Allen's classic film "Sleeper." Almost everything is white and luminous, from the floors and the angled ceiling to the stairs, chairs and tables. Only a few lines of blue neon offset the screenlike interior. That blue continues into the corridors and the 267-seat theater, where special movie screenings, guest appearances and panel discussions take place. The galleries contain the temporary exhibits, but in fact these gallery walls can become the projection screens for the exhibits themselves. As visitors roam the area, they sometimes appear to merge with a projected image or step out of i, in what can only be described as an immersive entertainment experience.

The old building houses the core collection of artifacts in an area called Behind the Screen. Here visitors can familiarize themselves with the gadgetry, gear and wizardry involved in producing, promoting, and presenting film, television and digital entertainment. These items include antique film cameras, modern-day moviemaking and television equipment, movie and television marketing ephemera, costumes and movie and television set props. Anyone who wants to see the makeup worn by the actresses on "Sex in the City" is in the right place.

Among the most popular attractions are the interactive stations where visitors watch classic movies and actually manipulate them by changing the voice in a movie scene to their own or substituting different background music. It's also possible to create a stop-motion animation film that can be e-mailed to friends.

WHEN YOU GO

Both the Paley Center for Media and the Museum for the Moving Image are easily accessible from Midtown Manhattan. The Paley Center (www.paleycenter.org) is located at 25 W. 52nd St. (between Fifth and Sixth avenues), which is pretty much the center of Manhattan and near many landmarks that include Columbus Circle and Rockefeller Center. You can get to the Paley Center by bus, subway or — if you are staying in Midtown — you can walk.

The Museum for the Moving Image (www.movingimage.us) is located at 36-01 35th Avenue (at 37th Street) in Astoria, N.Y. This sounds far away, but actually the museum is just over the Ed Koch-Queensboro Bridge from Midtown Manhattan. The easiest way to get there is by subway. From Midtown, take the E train to Queens Plaza. Change to the M (weekdays only) or R and proceed to Steinway Street. Use the 34th Avenue exit near the end of train. Walk south along Steinway Street and turn right on 35th Avenue. Proceed three blocks to the museum entrance just past 37th Street in the Queens neighborhood of Astoria. The trip takes about 20 minutes.

A plethora of hotels populate Midtown Manhattan, from the wildly expensive to the modest. A new hotel occupies the midpoint, the Hyatt Hotel 48 Lex, located at — as the name implies — the corner of 48th Street and Lexington Avenue. The rooms have a contemporary feel, luxurious bedding, modern, reasonably-sized baths and views of Lexington Avenue: www.hyatt48lex.com.

For dining, the National (www.thenationalnyc.com) at 557 Lexington Ave. (at 50th Street) offers a new twist on the old-school New York bistro environment and an unpretentious yet imaginative take on American classic dishes. Food Network Chef Geoffrey Zakarian has conjured up dishes such as Parsnip Risotto With Roasted Pear, Parmesan and Chive; Grilled Branzino With Cauliflower, Grapes, Endive and Lemon Gastrique; and an "Ugly Burger" with pickled jalapeno. I had a very good breakfast omelet at a reasonable price and liked the welcoming yet sophisticated vibe and the price point of the restaurant so much that I decided to try dinner: www.thebenjamin.com/thenational.

-Divina Infusino

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