The Geppi Entertainment Museum
Samantha and I visited the Geppi Entertainment Museum and we were both thoroughly disappointed. The first problem with the museum is that its in downtown Baltimore, where the only real option for parking is in a garage where you can easily pay $10 to $20 for merely two hours.
The next step is finding the museum. I went to college (undergrad) just outside of Baltimore, so I?m familiar with both the city and Camden Yards. When I saw the photos on the internet of the building where the museum is I wasn?t worried. I knew exactly where it was, yet when I got there all the signs said ?Sports Legends Museum.? I don’t mean just one sign, but like six or seven.
I was really confused and worried that the Geppi Museum had closed. Samantha and I ended up walking over to the Oriels-ticket box office and asked the guy there. He told us that the Geppi Museum was above the Sports Legends Museum and that we had to use the back door of the building and go up a flight of stairs to find it.
Walking into the Museum I was excited. We went up a flight of stairs and the walls were covered in cool posters and paintings. Then we entered and approached the ticket booth. At it was a security guard watching a bunch of monitors and a woman who looked really bored. Both acted surprised to see us.
After talking for a minute, I found out that even though it was 2p.m. we were the first visitors of the day. I told her that I had heard the museume wasn?t doing too well and she told me that ever since baseball season ended it?s been dead.
I asked if there was a chance the place would close and she told me that she was told that Steve Geppi strongly supports the idea of the museum and that employees were told their job was secure. She also said that Geppi leased the space for a set amount of time and would lose money if he broke the contract early. Of course I don?t know if any of this is true but it?s just what she told me.
Samantha and I made our way past the ticket counter and we weren?t sure where to go. We could go forward to a staircase that appeared to lead to a second floor (we went to it later and it was just a dead end) and then to the right or left. I turned around and went back to the counter and I asked the woman if she had a map or if we should start somewhere specific and she said ?no.?
We decided to turn right and the first room we saw was the comic book gallery. Being a comic reader, a poor comic reader, I was excited to see real issues of ?Fantastic Four? number 1, ?Amazing Fantasy? 15, ?Detective Comics? issue 1 and tons and tons of other rare/expensive comics for the first time. We walked into the room and it was just lined wall to wall with comics. It was so cool!
But then we started looking around and realized we didn?t know what we were looking at. There was a sign on the wall talking about the origin of comics dating back to cave drawings and another one explaining the four-color process, but that was it. There was nothing to explain why the hundreds of comics in the room were special.
You see at museums they put up signs/plaques that explain things. As a visitor, you really aren?t ever expected to read every plaque, but you scan them and when you see something interesting you normally stop and read it. So it was extremely frustrating to be standing in a room with strong comic history and not know why anything but a handful of comics were important. I mean ?Amazing Fantasy? #15 wasn?t even labeled as the first appearance of Spider-Man book. Underneath the comic was just its name and the year it was published.
If that wasn?t bad enough, every other room in the museum was the same way. Each room/gallery had glass cases and ?pop culture? items dating from a certain time period, but nothing was explained. So you would walk into a room, see interesting stuff on display and have no idea what it was or why it?s important.
I did pretty well in the 80?s room since I was born in ?82. Even Samantha recognized a Rainbow Brite and other toys from her childhood, but neither of us could appreciate the other galleries because we weren?t alive then and because there was nothing to explain things.
It’s odd because I remember reading interviews with Geppi in Maryland newspapers when the museum first opened and he spoke about education. He talked about maybe starting an education program and incorporating it into the museum. So it?s weird that there isn?t anything in the museum that educates or explains the items in it.
Samantha and I were disappointed with the whole venture. The place just has so much potential, but through poor execution and bad location it falls flat. Also, don’t forget I’m a comic reader and a fan of this stuff, so if the museum can’t keep my attention, how is it goign to appeal to the average day person?
Thank you!
