General Memories of CMSI -- Share your memories of the California Museum of Science & Industry

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Date Posted: 16:01:42 09/19/03 Fri
Author: James Cimarusti
Subject: General Memories of CMSI

As my mother worked across the street at USC, I visited CMSI alot with my sister. I remember all the stuff mentioned on the site also some of the neat exhibits in the Electricity area, especially a tower of neon that demonstrated energy conservation (I think). It had a prerecorded spiel and different parts of the neon tower would light up and animate. When the presentation was over, there was a bright blue neon that lit that said "PUSH" with a blue arrow pointing at a button on a stand in front of the box to start the presentation.(I wish I had this exhibit!) The Mathematica exhibit was one of my favorites and I am disappointed that it was not retained in the makeover. It looks like a lot of my favorite exhibits are no longer extant. Another was from a later remodel(around the time of the Olypics in the 80's-a remodel that did a good job of mixing the classic exhibits with newer ones) that included a microwave oven display. What was funny about it was that when you pulled on the microwave door handle, a speaker located right above you said "Do not open over door while food is cooking". (The door didn't actually open, but I thought it was neat that the museum incorporated that feature for curious kids). CBS also had a great exhibit upstairs that had some fun video trivia games on laserdisc and a station where you could animate your own movie by sliding multicolored shapes on a grid by photographing each step as you moved the shapes. I also liked the makeover in the Health Hall with the Diner and the physical workout that you got the results of by using a card that you put in every machine you tried and got your results when you were done by putting that same card in a machine which gave you a printout. (I think I have that printout someplace). There were also the old cameras displayed on the lower level and the old slides that animated. I seem to recall that a lot of exhibits in the Redwood Hall were inoperative-not that there were many but those that were there didn't work. I faintly remember the permanent snowman display and some of the other water displays. There was another display involving trying to beat a mouse thru a maze that was fun..I think I beat the computer mouse once but it was hard to do. I wish I'd paid more attention to the train but I didn't always have a dime on me when I went to the museum. The big blue wheel was also an eyecatching display. Also Bell Telephone had a neat display with the model of the earth with satellites floating above it, leading into the cool exhibit where you could play tic-tac-toe, test your hearing and listen to weather from all over the world on individual telephones. There was also a huge diorama of Los Angeles Harbor on one side and I think San Francisco Bay on the other which went through repeating cyles of day to night. There was also the Flight exhibit upstairs I remember mostly for the distincive script used in the display and the big red buttons to push. That's about all I can recall at the moment. I sure wish I'd thought of taking some pix of all those neat exhibits as a lot of my favorite designers were involved in their creation. I'm surprised the museum doesn't have an archive of their exhibits. I'm sure the best documented one is the "Mathematica" exhibit. Would be glad to hear from others reguarding these exhibits and more. This museum was such fun then!

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Replies:

Re: General Memories of CMSI -- William, 09:23:24 09/20/03 Sat
Re: General Memories of CMSI -- James V. Cimarusti, 23:37:38 07/21/06 Fri