Lizzie Borden Society Forum

August 4th has been announced as the opening date for the "True Story of Lizzie Borden" attraction in Salem. The operator-curator of the museum, Leonard Pickel, has given an interview to the local papers this morning. The museum promises to offer an interactive experience using forensics and background history to aid the visitor in making up their mind on whodunnit. It will be interesting to see how the property will fit into the Salem venue.
http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_s ... 00848.html

Well, if Fall River won't do it, it oughta be somewhere in Massachusetts!

Thought the article was interesting. It seems kind of wild that the museum is in Salem. Fall River should get a Lizzie museum. After all, Lizzie does belong to them.

Oh, I agree it should be in Fall River, and I understand the mayor is unhappy "His gal" is featured in Salem. Thing is, nobody was successful in making a full-fledged Lizzie Museum happen in Fall River, as far as I know, who has tried? The house is a museum in some ways, mostly re-creating the two crime scenes and presenting the house and Borden family, and of course all of us doing the tours there incorporate as much of the background and trial and aftermath as we can in the allotted time. The day tours are geared toward imparting the details of the case in a concise manner, with a good number of visual displays. Although the bed and breakfast aspect is the focus from 4 p.m. to 10 a.m the next day, there is a 2 hour house tour which is quite comprehensive and often discussions afterward continue into the wee hours. Sort of like spending the night in a museum of sorts!

The historical society has the one room and the incredible display of trial items, but all in all, the wonderful bits of the case are scattered among several venues instead of one large museum devoted solely to the Borden Case and Lizzie. It will be very interesting to see how the Salem museum fares and how well history is portrayed. I have a sense that the desire to do a good presentation while at the same time making it financially a success is there.

In the end it is always about- money, and if you build a good thing- they should come. I am sure we all wish for quality and a serious approach and would be dismayed at a carnival shock-horror approach. Sadly, the guts and gore scream theme does make money. Can educational and entertaining exist together?- sure, in the hands of a creative and talented
design team. I plan to go have a look at this very soon.

I've been *away* for a week- Shell you now have Four links after your post in your *signature*? Is that a new Blog- am I seeing right?

Yes, it is a new blog indeed. I have enjoyed reading New England Bites for a long time, which is a mom-daughter team food review blog about eateries all over New England. My friend Lefty, over at View from Battleship Cove discussed doing a FR food blog back in January. I eat out once or twice every week in FR, usually on the weekend, and I love to write about food, (I once did a newspaper column for a Dallas-area paper), so Fall River Eats was launched last week and will post a weekly food review on an FR eatery. Yes, it's a tough job but I will manage to chew my way through it somehow

I remember that it mentions in Rebello about an idea for a Lizzie museum in Fall River, but it was rejected. I think it was before 92 second street became a B and B.

When I read about it, I couldn't help but wonder what a Lizzie museum could have in it considering, that the FRHS has many of the artfacts in their display.

Maybe pictures, wax figures and reproductions of some of the rooms

The current Salem museum is supposed to be interactive, and has eight specified areas concentrating on various aspects which include a mock-up of the trial docket, a space devoted to photos and info on each family member, the crime scene, forensics, etc. and at the end of viewing all of this material, the visitor uses all of this to come to some conclusions. It should be interesting to see how the interactive spaces work. Period furnishings and displays are to be part of the exhibit area. I suspect this should be a good venue, based on the number of tourist who pack into Salem year-round. Salem has diversified into paranormal-ghostie stuff, haunted hearse tours, (the Boston Strangler was incarcerated there for a time), witches, executions, -and murders. So the crowd which goes to experience these sorts of things will also be drawn to Lizzie's story. A large percentage of visitors to #92 are on their way to Salem the next day, or have just come back from Salem, so the selection of this venue was probably well-considered in the planning.

Personally, I think the person who opened a Lizzie Borden Museum is a maggot, eating up another city's history. Why not make Lizzie really famous...a Lizzie Borden Museum in Times Square, NYC. It makes about as much sense. It also keeps the case away from scholarship and in the realm of sensationalism. They'll be bringing out all the Borden witch stories soon...there goes Lizzie on a broomstick!

Are there Borden witch stories Cynthia?

Maggot? Well, that is one way of looking at it. Yes, I am disappointed that Fall River did not get it- although Lizzie is kind of a mixed bag in the city. Some of the older generation don't much like the attention to this one aspect of the city's history. Generally speaking, yes, famous or infamous people tend to be immortalized in or near their hometown, but there are plenty of Wild West Museums, Sports Museums, theme exhibits, wax museums, etc. where these nationally-know individuals find a place for a wider audience outside their home sphere.

I have had some connection with the traveling Titanic exhibits over the years, and originally we had hoped to have one large exhibit in New York or Southampton or Belfast- the three cities which have a relationship to the ship. Instead, the exhibits were broken into smaller collections and they travel- bringing the story to the masses in locations set up to accommodate tourism, are easy to fly into, and which also offer other attractions to justify the tourist dollar.

My one hope is that the Salem exhibit will be very upscale and well done. If that is the case, then I have no hard feelings toward the developper of the concept. Keeping history alive can be an expensive and creative process. It is unfortunate that the city of Fall River never put together the right people to make this happen in their own home town. With the fascination with the case far exceeding the boundaries of Fall River, it was inevitable that one day somebody was going to come along and tell Lizzie's story in another venue. My jury is out on this thing until I see this place.

Cynthia, you have treated me in the past to your interesting "schoolyard" story of Lizzie's legend from growing up in New Bedford. So I was wondering if there was any "Borden witch" stories, for real- or maybe that is a euphemism for those Pearson-style rumors?
We do read in places that kids were scared to cross her lawn and stuff...

I have an idea. Lets make a Comic Strip. We can call it,

Lizzie The Teenage Witch

As far I as I know we have no authentic witches in our family. Now I know a few individuals that would qualify as a "wicked witch" in 2008 terms.I believe the reason the museum was put in Salem was to profit from the Elizabeth Montgomery "Bewitched" statue that has been placed there. By all accounts it has been a very big draw for the city. It is a shame Fall River didn't capitalize on the idea . Anyone who knows Fall River and it's leaders can understand. Now we must do our best to uphold Lizzie's standards of excellence,job well done,and promote the House.

Salem may be debuting its Lizzie museum Monday, but I very much doubt it will take anything away from the expected Fall River focus on August 4th. People who are really interested in the case and Lizzie and what happened on the day always make the pilgimage to Second Street. Time will tell whether or not Salem was a good risk. I think the quality of the attraction is going to be very important. Initially people will go to see what is there. If the new place fails to deliver, word of mouth will soon get the news out. I don't get the impression that Salem was chosen to slight FR - it's about property availability, financial backing, local support, tourist destination potential, etc. I also read the Salem concern had to overcome a few local obstacles there and some still have grave reservations about Lizzie in Salem.
If the Salem attraction is first class, visitors will really want to come visit the crime scene, and so many other Lizzie-related sites still viewable. Sort of like a good appetizer followed by the Main Course! Peanut butter and jelly, ham and eggs, Lizzie and Fall River- nothing will change that.