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

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Date Posted: 09:23:24 09/20/03 Sat
Author: William
Subject: Re: General Memories of CMSI
In reply to: James Cimarusti 's message, "General Memories of CMSI" on 16:01:42 09/19/03 Fri

James -

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your memories of the California Museum of Science and Industry! It's been a wonderful, sentimental journey of mine attempting to assemble pieces of the old museum through an ongoing quest to locate memorabilia.

You definitely jogged my memory a bit with your recollections... especially the "tower of neon" and the "weather phones"! And, yes, that big blue "Wheel of Change" was always beckoning. My fondest memories are of the Natural Resources (basement) area, especally the redwood room.

I do hope you got a chance to see my CMSI postcard collection.

Best,
William

>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 -- James V. Cimarusti, 23:37:38 07/21/06 Fri