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St. Petersburg museum opens with a boomer bang

Day-trippers, yeah. Florida International Museum draws Beatles fans to its new, more intimate space.

By MARY JANE PARK
Published October 12, 2005

	[Times photo: Dirk Shadd]
	Aimee Schneider, 54, of Dunedin gazes at photos of the Beatles. "I fell in love with them the minute they came out. I was one of the screaming girls," she said. At left, Brent Seiferd and Whitney Mills, both 23, came from Tampa.

ST. PETERSBURG - John would have been 65.

Hard to believe for the youngsters who were mesmerized by the mop-haired British quartet in the early 1960s. Some of those fans, well into middle age, visited the new incarnation of the Florida International Museum over the weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, there was Joe Braccio, playing John Lennon's tunes in a birthday tribute at the new museum, which now shares space with St. Petersburg College at 244 Second Ave. N. Lennon, born Oct. 9, 1940, was shot dead on Dec. 8, 1980.

The museum reopened Thursday with the exhibit "The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes." About 600 visitors attended over the weekend, executive director Kathy Oathout said.

Once housed in the old Maas Brothers Department Store on Second Street N, the museum closed in June to make way for demolition of that building.

The new quarters are smaller, about 8,500 square feet, with some movable walls that can be adjusted to accommodate new exhibitions. Three classrooms being used by the college are expected to become available for the museum as new construction is completed, allowing SPC to occupy floors above street level.

That will give the museum about 11,500 square feet of exhibition space, roughly the average required for most traveling shows affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, as is the Beatles exhibit.

"Diana, a Celebration," the last major show in the museum's previous headquarters in the old Maas Brothers department store, drew about 80,000 visitors during its run between February and May. There, the museum had roughly 70,000 square feet on the first floor, roughly 30,000 of it dedicated to exhibits.

The new gallery, Oathout said, "is very intimate."

"They're better defined now as to who they are, what they want and where they're going," said Annie Miller, who attended the grand opening party Friday. "I like the layout. I think it's more self-contained."

Miller, who is program manager of Eckerd College's Elderhostel program, often takes tour groups to the Florida International and other museums.

"The other museum was just so huge," she said. "A lot of wasted space, I thought. This seems more like a museum. I expect them to improve more and more because of that."

In large black and white photos hanging in the smaller space, John, Paul, George and Ringo are goofy young men playing in the surf off Miami Beach, kidding around on the set of the Ed Sullivan Show.

A film shows the Fab Four on Sullivan's Sunday night program in 1964, Sullivan wearing a Beatles wig and young women screaming.

"1964 - those girls are probably about 60 now," a museum visitor said to no one in particular Friday evening at the reopening festivities.

"The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes" runs through Jan. 7. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and active military, $7 for students 7-18, free for children 6 and under. Group rates are available. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Information 341-7901; www.floridamuseum.org

[Last modified October 12, 2005, 00:19:18]