Did you know that there's a John Dillinger Museum? I didn't. Did you know it's in Indiana? I didn't. Did you know it's closer than the casinos? Almost certainly not.
There's a John Dillinger Museum in Hammond, just off I-80 at Kennedy Avenue, in the Indiana Welcome Center. Now, I didn't know Indiana had a welcome center, and I didn't know it
was still the municipality of Hammond over there.Either or both: most people don't know about the Dillinger museum -0r- most people dont' care -or- both. According to a NY Times story, the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority (ANOTHER thing we now know exists, how 'bout that? or it might be the Lake County Convention and Visitors Bureau, they get credit for owning the museum, in case anyone really cares) bought this Dillinger collection for about $400K from some guy's estate over by there in Crown Point, spent $600,000 more to turn the old museum into a new museum and VOILA! they grossed $10,000 from admission fees last year, when they were open.
That was $10,000 before operating costs. Aggressive local government in action. Spend a million to bring in almost nothing. Pret-ty shrewd investment spending.
That phrase back there "last year, when they were open" is an eyebrow raiser. There's some distant relative of the late bank robber who has taken the mission of protecting the Dillinger name. Yes, ladies and germs, protecting the Dillinger name...and licensing it and presumably making a scheckel or two for his noble efforts. Noble efforts, as they are the result of a promise he says that he made to his grandmother, who was a half sister to Dillinger.
So this chap saw the museum, saw his dear distant and long departed relative being villified as having murdered an Indiana police officer back in 1934, a crime of which Mr. Dillinger was never convicted, Mr. Dillinger having been highly shot to an extremely dead condition outside the Biograph Theatre in Chicago before there was an opportunity to migrate the accusation from "alleged" to "hell, yeah", and back to the relative, he presumably being outraged at having great-half-uncle Johnny D inaccurately portrayed --and with the ongoing mission to be true to his promise to his granny-- cranked out a lawsuit.
The result? The museum, a rollicking enterprise that brought in ten grand in admissions revenue for an entire year, settled with this chap for -get this- $375,000 PLUS $1,500 A MONTH until the year 2034, at which time great-half-uncle Johnny's image is no longer protected by law, and therefore of much less value, or harder to protect, depending on which side of the money you're on.
By the way, the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority is funded by a tax on the casinos.
So if we follow the thread, beginning years back,
- the casinos took a bunch of corrupt land,
- invested a ton of dough in order open their monuments to sin (yes, I have sinned...and we made $400 last time we went sinning over there),
- they get highly taxed (why not?),
- a part of the tax revenue (in this case a million bucks) goes to this local visitors bureau that puts up a museum that nobody goes to,
- that gets sued and pays out $375,000 and $1,500 per month for the next 25 years (that's about $450,000 and I'm not interested enough to figure out the present value) to this promise keeper guy.
The museum website is http://www.dillingermuseum.com/info.html
Better than the new museum website, look at this old description of the original museum from Roadside America, a fine publication that keeps track of stuff like "World's Largest Ball of Twine" and stuff like that http://www.roadsideamerica.com/news/15291
By the way, if you use the Skyway to go sinning, you won't be anywhere near the Museum That Is At Least A Million And A Half in The Hole, aka The John Dillinger Museum, Hammond, Indiana, USA.
You pick who the real criminal is.
No comments:
Post a Comment