National World War II Museum rallies the troops, plus Tom Hanks, for premiere
Everyone from war veterans to movie luminaries are rallying today, Nov. 6, in New Orleans to inaugurate the expanded National World War II Museum, which has doubled in size and added a theater with a film experience that promises to plunge visitors into the wartime world, complete with (fake) falling snowflakes, seats that shudder as munitions explode and other special effects.
Among today’s attendees is Tom Hanks, executive producer and narrator of the 35-minute movie “Beyond All Boundaries” (photo above), which will screen at the museum’s new theater. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Patricia Clarkson, Neil Patrick Harris, Brad Pitt and many others.
Today’s events were sold out, museum spokeswoman Kacey Hill said. But there was still plenty of room on Saturday, dubbed “Family Fun Day,” when a range of free activities will be offered, she added. Here’s the 411:
Entry fees: Adults pay $16 for museum admission plus $9 to see the movie; a combined museum-movie adult ticket costs $20. Seniors, students, children and members of the military get discounts. A live performance, offered on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at the new Stage Door Canteen (see below), costs $30 for adults, or $70 for a dinner-show combo.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and — because this is the Big Easy, after all — Mardi Gras Day.
New attractions: The museum’s latest expansion and additions cost a total of $60 million. The Solomon Victory Theater, where the new “Beyond All Boundaries” film is shown, seats 250 people and boasts a 120-foot-wide screen. Besides special effects, the film uses archival footage, CGI animation and the words of combatants, journalists and others to tell the story of World War II. The Stage Door Canteen, decorated with retro touches such as photos of Clark Gable, Rita Hayworth and other entertainers from the era, is the setting for a live musical show called “Let Freedom Swing!” Finally, a restaurant called the American Sector offers comfort food such as meatloaf, house-made sodas and children’s meals served in vintage metal lunchboxes.
Contact: National World War II Museum, (504) 528-1944
— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor
Image: CGI-animated scene, with B-17 bombers, from the film “Beyond All Boundaries.” Credit: Courtesy of the National World War II Museum.
Photo gallery:
Grand opening of expanded National World War II Museum
2 Comments on “National World War II Museum rallies the troops, plus Tom Hanks, for premiere”
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November 11th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Visited this museum this summer. It was worth the schlep from the French Quarter.
Regarding veterans’ stories in the LA Times, here’s one about a WWII vet who was awarded the Silver Star 60 years after being nominated for it in France in 1944:
http://www.defendamerica.mil/profiles/may2004/pr052804b.html
Michel Thomas did not seek this recognition, but when the Los Angeles Times published a long profile of him in 2001, by former humor columnist Roy Rivenburg, that ridiculed Thomas and falsely portrayed him as a fraud, Thomas’s surviving wartime comrades rallied to his defense. They sent letters and affidavits on his behalf and John McCain and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney forwarded the material, along with archival research documents from the National Archives, to the Army’s Decorations Review Board.
On May 25, 2004, Thomas was the first veteran to be awarded a military medal at the new WWII Memorial, when WWII vets Bob Dole and Sen. John Warner pinned the Silver Star on him, at a moving ceremony attended by family, friends, and former WWII comrades.
Thomas, then 90, was born to a Jewish family in Poland in 1914. His parents and extended family were murdered by the Nazis in death camps. He spent most of WWII fighting in the French Resistance, then joined with US Army troops who had landed at Anzio and penetrated Vichy France. Fluent in more than ten languages, he later became a US Army Counter Intelligence Corps Agent, from 1945 to 1947. During the last days of the war, he rescued from destruction the entire membership card file of the Nazi Party, which had been sent to be pulped at a paper plant near Munich.
Bizarrely, the then-editor of the L.A. Times, John Carroll, stated publicly in February 2004 that he was “proud” of his paper’s profile of Thomas, which “had a little fun at his expense.” Carroll declined to have a reporter cover the award ceremony, though he was informed of it in advance.
When Thomas died in January 2005, reporter Roy Rivenburg posted an article on his personal web site renewing his allegations that Thomas was a phony who had fabricated or exaggerated his WWII experiences, including an approving link from a friendly blogger headlined, “That Lying Old Fraud Michel Thomas Is Dead.”
A story to contemplate on this day when we honor our nation’s veterans…
November 13th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Maybe Obama should go and revisit his WWII history. Maybe then he’ll question why he feels the need to go around the world apologizing for America coming to the world’s rescue, again and again and again — and sacrificing OUR men and women.