Travel: Oh, to be famous

Oh, to be famous

From cowboys to taxidermists, every profession has its hall of fame, it seems.

By WILLIAM ECENBARGER

Fame has never been more common. Where once enshrinement was restricted to Cooperstown (Cy, Ty, Lou and the Babe) and Canton (Bronko, O.J. and Slingin' Sammy), today a pedestal or display case seems available to every Tom, Dick and Harry, with halls of fame dotting the nation like franchised muffler shops.

Since the most famous hall of fame opened in 1939 at Cooperstown, N.Y., the town where Abner Doubleday never invented a game of balls and strikes, nearly every sport has mimicked the idea. There are halls for football, basketball, hockey, tennis, boxing, horse racing, swimming, lacrosse, skiing, rollerskating, dog mushing, cowboys and cowgirls.

Professional wrestlers have at least 10 halls of fame.

There's a hall of fame for nearly every nonjock, too: businessmen, taxidermists, astronauts, insurance agents, exotic dancers , musicians, clowns, photographers, pickle-packers.

At least once a year, and sometimes more often, the names of "inductees" are announced for "enshrinement" in this or that hall. Obituaries now routinely mention one or more halls of fame in which the recently departed had been, well, immortalized.

There's a hall of fame within an hour's drive of nearly every large city. You can catch the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in Memphis, Tenn. Pilgrims also may get hooked on the National Fresh-Water Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, Wis. There's the Pickle-Packing Hall of Fame in St. Charles, Ill., and the Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. Visiting the National Weightlifting Hall of Fame in York, Pa., can be an uplifting experience.

The National Bowling Hall of Fame in St. Louis features a huge diorama of that famous kegler Martin Luther, who can also be found in the Christian Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, which is within field-goal range of the Football Hall of Fame (which has yet to admit Luther).

While you're in Ohio, you might want to check out the Accountants Hall of Fame, which has been a fixture on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus since 1950, on the fourth floor of the business school.

What's that? You say there are no famous accountants, only infamous ones? To be sure, this hall holds no blurry photos of accountants in action, old-timers in green eyeshades leaning over huge adding machines, poised to ring up the bottom line on a 1040. But there are portraits of regular accountants such as Victor Herman Stempf, who was famous for his quote, "Transactions precede accounting."

When the wanderlust kicks in and it's risque business you're seeking, you might want to drop in on the Burlesque Hall of Fame at Helendale, Calif., which honors such notables as Candy Barr, Tempest Storm, Chesty Morgan and Hope Diamond ("The Gem of Burlesque").

This hall was founded by former stripper Jennie ("Miss Forty-four and Plenty More") Lee, whose ashes sit on the fireplace mantel, along with a photograph of a topless woman that is signed "Breast Wishes."

Oklahoma is real hall-of-fame country. There's the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater and the American Indian Hall of Fame a few miles to the southwest. Oklahoma City has the Photographic Hall of Fame, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and the National Softball Hall of Fame, which admitted its first member (Harold 'Shifty" Gears) in 1957.

Don't confuse that hall with the United States Slo-Pitch Softball Hall of Fame in Petersburg, Va., whose treasures include the softball bat that former Vice President Dan Quayle carried to the Persian Gulf during the war.

At the Cowboy Hall of Fame, which overlooks the famous Chisholm Trail, there's a diorama of someone hanging from a tree outside Judge Roy Bean's office. Far from being the "hanging judge" who was a no-nonsense dispenser of frontier justice as portrayed on 1950s television, Bean was a petty chiseler. Of more import: This hall has a 16,000-piece barbed-wire collection.

Connoisseurs of immortality will want to make the trip to Southern Pines, N.C., home of the Taxidermy Hall of Fame.

If you're heading south, why not jump over to Petal, Miss., home of the International Checkers Hall of Fame? It has a library and a gallery fit for a king.

If you happen to be in Plano, Texas, you would be remiss not to crawl over to the Cockroach Hall of Fame, which features wonders such as Marilyn Monroach, Elvis Roachley, and Liberoachi, who is dressed in tails and seated at a roach-size piano.

It seems there's a hall of fame for everyone except Pete Rose. With few exceptions, these halls are uncrowded and inexpensive. Most of them have Web sites, and a somewhat comprehensive list can be found at www.hallsoffame.com/.

-- William Ecenbarger is a freelance writer living in Lancaster, Pa.