The Region - News from Oct. 2, 1986

California Angels owner Gene Autry, the one-time singing cowboy, has been given preliminary approval to build a $27-million Western history museum on 13 acres in Griffith Park. The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a 50-year lease for a token $1 a year, and is expected to grant final approval next week. Autry plans to build a 140,000-square-foot building to house his and other collections of Western memorabilia worth $10 million. The museum, expected to open in June, 1988, will include collections of firearms, clothing, toys and games dating back to the Spanish conquistadors. It is also expected to contain paintings by Frederic Remington and Charles Russell, and a 10,000-piece collection from the Frontier Museum in Riverside County.