By: Mike Marino
The Roadhead's El Camino is gassed up and ready to kick asphalt in search of Roadhead Repositories of American icon's and American kitsch!! We'll unfold the old Rand McRoadhead, click our ruby reds and follow the Yellow Brick Road in Kansas to the museum of all things Oz!! To borrow a phrase from Dorothy herself, "there's no place like home", and if the state of Minnesota happens to be your home, then a plaid and proud Midwestern visit to a museum dedicated to a legendary canned lunchmeat is certainly in order at the World of SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota. However, before we open up a can of SPAM or drop a house on the wicked witch, our first stop will be Motown, USA and a trip to one of the world's most unusual museums.
MARVELOUS MARVINS MECHANICAL MUSEUM
Detroit, Motown, or simply The Motor City, has earned it's mechanized moniker over the years with the unleashing of everything from the Model T to the Muscle Car, thanks to Henry Ford and the other auto barons. As the nation hit the roads and became a motorized society, another Detroiter by the name of Thomas Edison. the King of Electricity, helped to mechanize and modernize the American home. Known as the Wizard of Menlo Park, it's time to pass the mechanized crown to Marvin Yagoda, the Pinball Wizard of Detroit and the proprietor of one of the worlds oddest repositories of mechancial devices, sideshow oddities, coin op games and sheer neon glitz....Marvelous Marvin's Mechanical Museum.
As you enter the museum it's like getting hit in the face with a neon pie in the face ala Soupy Sales, another Detroit icon. You are immediately surrounded by the flash of lights..the glow of neon...the sound of pinballs banging away in one of numerous vintage pinball games...look ma, no hands, maniacal mechanical banjo's playing their "Deliverance" like melodies to an invisible audience...planes fly overhead suspended from the ceiling and the gleeful sounds of kiddie car riders near the carousel drown out all possible quiet thought. It's colorful, it's loud, it's fantastic!! It's Liberace on the loose at the Monster Garage!!!
Marvin's is located in a small shopping mall just north of Detroit, not the locale you would imagine such a mecha-joint to be located, but once inside this freebie museum your transported to another world of side show freakery, animatons, and machinery from another time. Classic turn of the century nickelodeons where a well turned calf of some supple young woman enticed the male viewer to keep throwing in nickles, to the mechanical torture chamber where the Spanish Inquisition comes to life for a mere 50 cents. Whips and hot pokers shock the infidels into confession while you watch, and for another 50 cents you can activate the Electric Chair and watch the smoke emerge from the "killers" head while the chair itself rocks and rolls and the poor unfortunate victim screams in it's best Little Ceasar deaths agony!!
If that's not enough fun for you, then test your skills at numerous arcade games from Pacman to any number of vintage pinball games, then top it all off with a break at the cafe with table tops that resemble gas station signs and sit, relax and enjoy the mechanized chaos that surrounds you. Admission is free and you can't afford to miss this one on your visit to the Motor City. Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum is located in Farmington Hills just north of Detroit. Visit them on line at http://marvins3m.com for directions and hours of operation.
THE SPAM MUSEUM
What does a bomb throwing pig and the formerSoviet Red Army have in common? Simple! SPAM helped both them through WWII and you can find out all the details in America's spam-tastic SPAM MUSEUM in Austin, Minnesota. This is the Mother Church of Lunchmeat and a tribute to an American food icon that was created in 1937 by the Hormel Company. The SPAM museum is thousands of square feet of sheer kitsch and pop culture. Appropriately located at 1937 Spam Boulevard, it quite simply is a museum in a can!
George Hormel formed his meat processing empire in 1891. As the company grew in size and diversified it's product line, 1937 saw the introduction of something brand new. Meat in a can. It was originally called Hormels Spiced Ham but lacked the pizzazz they were looking for, so a contest was held to give it a new name, and voila!!.. SPAM entered the lexicon of pop culture and Americana.
During WWII American GI's not only had an Uncle Sam but also an Uncle Spam!! Thousands of can's of SPAM were sent oversea's to feed the troops and even the former Red Army feasted on this red, white and blue American concoction. Both Eisenhower and Kruschev praised the Hormel Company later for their participation in the war effort!! SPAM also helped out with the propaganda effort by launching Slammin' Spammy, The Bomb Throwing Pig as its war time symbol of freedom, victory and democracy!!
Today as you enter the SPAM Museum your greeted by a smiling, waving can of SPAM with tennis shoes that looks like a Disney escapee and immediately your confronted with the Great Wall of SPAM, an imposing ediface of tin, it's comprised of over 3,300 cans of SPAM that would give the Great Wall of China a run for it's money. There are memorabilia and artifacts that document SPAMS spicy history from the early SPAM commmercials featuring George Burns and Gracie Allen to Monty Pyton routines about SPAM and even a must see "SPAM Ballet"!!
Not only are Hormel Homeruns on display here, but some real meaty bombs as well, including Hormel Dog Dessert in a tube and Wimpy Hamburgers in a can. Hormel ad products are featured to document the product look and feel and check out the Hormel Girls display. These were the heralders of Hormel products in the 1950's traveling the country as a good will troupe to whoop it up for their beloved SPAM. Finally, don't forget t6o check out the company newsletter, appropriately named "SQUEAL". There are lots of interactive attractions and even games and trivia, not to mention a gift shop that is drop dead all things SPAM!!
SPAM is a cultural icon that is firmly ingrained in the American experience. We eat it...we joke about it...in some parts of the world it is considered a Gourmet Food!! Hawaii has it's famed SPAM cookoff and we certainly can't be SPAMless in Seattle as that is the home of the SPAM Carving Contest. The museum is free and a must see when in Spamtown, USA. SPAM...The Other White Meat!!
THE WIZARD OF OZ MUSEUM
This is the part where I get to click my ruby red heels and become the Yellow Brick Roadhead as we head to Liberal, Kansas. Not only tornado alley, but also the fictional home of Dorothy Gale who got swept up in a technicolor dreamscape of little people, flying monkeys, evil witches, a good witch and of course, a Wizard. Not to mention her teaming up with a cowardly lion, a tin man and a scarecrow, or the Larry, Moe and Curly of a magical world of altered reality created by a bonk on the head. Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk!
In the books and the movie, you're never quite sure where in Kansas Dorothy is actually from, so the town of Liberal, Kansas down near the Oklahoma border decided to take control of the situation and proclaim Liberal as Dorothy Gale's Hometown..and why not!! Liberal is as good a place as any for a Wizard of Oz Museum complete with an annual Ozfest that packs them in like Munchkins!!
The Museum itself features a lifesize Dorothy Gale house and 5,000 square foot exhibit with primarily artifacts and memorabilia from the Wizard of Oz Movie. Madame Tusaud herself, would stand in amazement at the wax displays of the central characters that romped through Oz. As you travel the Yellow Brick Museum Road you'll see various scenes from the film set up in diarama fashion and the Wizard himself is a sight that will leave your mouth gaping wide open with phantom of the opera pipe organ reaching to the skies above. All the while, a local gingham clad "Dorothy" acts as docent and takes you on this magical tour and journey. All that's missing is Toto himself, or herself, whatever the case may be.
After your tour to this somewhat Haight Ashbury creation of a magical kingdom of flowers and Wizards, stop in the gift shop for anything Ozian from books and tapes to tee-shirts and figurines. The Wizard of Oz movie plays continously in the gift shop so if you find yourself humming the "Yellow Brick Road" later in the day, blame it on subliminal messages. Liberal, Kansas not only kidnapped Dorothy and Toto, but also holds the annual Ozfest that attracts the faithful from around the world and remaining cast members still attend every year, but fewer and fewer make it as the aging process takes it's toll on their numbers.
Art and culture are in the eye of the beholder and if the beholder happens to have an asphaltian sense of humour, than a can of lunchmeat can have as much beauty and meaning as the Venus de Milo, and besides Slammin' Spammy had two arms! America is full of museums of the "odd", from tributes to toilet's (yes, there is a toilet museum!) to the Museum of Showgirls. Roadhead America is truly a work of art and pop culture that should be sought out and enjoyed at all costs...so click your ruby reds and repeat the words of the Pinball Wizard...."there's no food like SPAM..there's no food like SPAM"!
Mike Marino is a freelance author of Travel and Pop Culture and author of the pop culture cult classic, The Roadhead Chronicles Book.
Contact him at: dharmabumroadie@yahoo.com