Legendary bluesman B.B. King has gotten his own museum in Indianola, Mississippi, his home town. You may not have heard of Indianola, it is a tiny town of just over 12,000. But they rolled out the carpet for their favorite son with a $15 million dollar B.B. King and Delta Interpretative Center. B.B. said that he hopes the museum will be used to education the young and old about the origins of the blues. The 20,000 square foot museum is a mixture of the new (with touch screen interactivity) and the old (vinyl records and yellowed, faded recording contracts from years ago).
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King started his career in 1948 after he performed on a radio show in West Memphis, just across the Mississippi River from Memphis, the home of Beale Street. The 83 year old King still performs about 120 shows a year. Another King can also be found in the new museum as there are rare photos of Elvis Presley there. There is also King’s draft card and his beloved guitar, Lucille. Oh, and in case you ever wondered, the B.B. stand for King’s nickname of “Blues boy.”
With all the history that this museum holds, the $8 admission fee seems like a steal, but the museum will need at least 40,000 paying visitors each year to keep it afloat.
Which brings me to another story about a museum in financial trouble. Back in November 2007, Michele wrote a blog about the Elvis is Alive museum. The owner of the museum was retiring and looking to sell the museum and its entire collection of Elvis Presley memorabilia. The museum had been open in Wright City, Missouri for 17 years, but 81 year old Bill Beeny decided to put the for sale on eBay. He ended up selling it to Andy Key for $8,300. But, because Key is in the National Guard and will be away, he cannot continue to operate the museum.
He put the museum, which includes photographs, FBI files, and DNA reports that supposedly prove Elvis is still alive, on eBay for a minimum of $15,000 but got no takers. He reduced the price to $13,500, but still, no one was interested. Beeny has said he doesn’t want to buy it back, so now it looks like the Elvis is Alive museum will be dead.