L.A. Board Eagerly Lassos Autry Museum for City Park

A proposed $12-million Western heritage museum, named after singing cowboy Gene Autry, apparently found a home Tuesday when a Los Angeles City Council committee eagerly approved building the facility in Griffith Park.

Construction of the museum was unanimously approved by the Board of Referred Powers over the objection of the city Recreation and Parks Department.

The department contended that allowing the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in the park would be undesirable because it could lead to more requests for use of scarce urban parkland.

However, the board, made up of four council members, contended that the museum would enhance the public’s enjoyment of the park.

“We should get down on our hands and knees and thank God for Mr. Autry bringing this to Los Angeles,” said Councilman John Ferraro, a board member.

The Autry Foundation, created by Autry’s first wife, Ina Mae, who died in 1980, and now run by the former cowboy star’s current wife, Jackie, is proposing to build a 70,000- to 100,000-square-foot facility to house Western artifacts, including a recently acquired 10,000-piece collection from the Frontier Museum in Temecula in Riverside County.

The foundation has said that it will pay the entire cost involved in construction and operation of the museum.

Exhibits will include paintings, saddles and “more than 60 life-size wax figures of some of the West’s most famous characters,” including Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley and Wyatt Earp, plus the memorabilia from some of the best-known movie cowboys, including a large display on John Wayne and, of course, Gene Autry, said Joanne Hale, director of the proposed museum.

The site approved Tuesday is west of the Golden State Freeway and adjacent to the Los Angeles Zoo’s parking lot.

Objections in Burbank

The foundation had previously tried to build the museum on park land in Burbank but abandoned that proposal in the face of strong opposition by environmentalists and neighbors.

There was no public opposition at Tuesday’s meeting, and Los Angeles city officials welcomed the museum with open arms.

Councilman Joel Wachs, in whose district the museum would be located, disputed the Recreation and Parks Department argument that a museum is not compatible with park use. He pointed out that several museums are located in other urban parks, including Exposition Park near USC.

Ferraro added that the museum will attract “people from all over the world” to Los Angeles.

A spokesman for Mayor Tom Bradley said the mayor also supports building the museum in the park.

Needs Council Approval

The full council must approve the project. Chances for that appear good following Tuesday’s favorable recommendations by the board and by the councilman representing the district in which it would be located.

The Board of Referred Powers was asked to act on the matter by the city’s Recreation and Park Commission, which normally decides questions of park use. The board acts on matters that may pose a conflict of interest for a commissioner. In this case, the husband of commissioner Mary Nichols works for the law firm that represents the Autry Foundation.

Voting for the museum proposal were board members Dave Cunningham, Joan Milke Flores, Zev Yaroslavsky and Ferraro. Hal Bernson was absent.