Old West History, New West Fun

“Bowery Buckaroos” is hardly a classic Western film, but it is a good example of the philosophy behind the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum--that learning about Western history should be informative and fun.

Thousands of people--many of them schoolchildren--file through the museum each week, and the films are just one way the museum’s education department differentiates between myths of the Old West and reality.

When Gene Autry and Monte Hale decided to exhibit memorabilia from their cowboy film days, they got together with their wives--both of whom had corporate administration experience--to come up with a plan.

“For us to undertake this, we all had to agree on basic philosophies,” said Joanne Hale, executive director of the museum, now in its second year. “It wouldn’t be worth our time or Gene’s (Autry) foundation dollars if it was not built with full cultural and educational facilities.”

Everyone also agreed that the museum had to be “visitor friendly.”

So while there is plenty to keep old cowboy-movie buffs in cowpoke heaven--such as film clips of B-movie heroes and a good collection of guns and holsters and clothing that belonged to Roy Rogers, Annie Oakley, Teddy Roosevelt and Wyatt Earp--the museum has an imaginative education department, whose classes, hands-on displays and lecture series give visitors a well-rounded look at the Old West, from the 16th-Century conquistadors to 20th-Century cowhands.

“Almost everything we do is to teach pride in one’s own culture and tolerance for others,” said Cynthia Harnisch, education department director.

The museum, a large, spacious building that still appears spanking new, has collections of artifacts and displays that reflect life for the pioneers. And the education programs that coincide with the exhibits explain even further the roles that different cultures played in shaping the West.

“Some children (who visit the museum) don’t realize there was anyone other than white cowboys,” said Cathy Burton, assistant director of education. That’s why exhibits and lectures describing the contributions of blacks, Asians, Spaniards and American Indians especially pique the interest of minority students.

“They were all part of the West then, just as they are now,” Burton said.

A recent special exhibit on women of the West brought in cowgirls who had ridden in Wild West shows, rodeos and as Hollywood stunt riders. Joanne Hale recalled that a group of junior high girls were amazed that there were women who made significant contributions.

“All of them said they never knew women played any role in the West, other than as mothers. . . ,” Hale said. “They never thought of women on horseback or in rodeos. . . . It gave a new dimension to their way of thinking.”

Monte Hale, a tall, affable man who still has a trace of a West Texas accent, occasionally greets visitors at the museum. “He’s our goodwill ambassador,” Joanne Hale said.

Hale, 70, was among the good guys of the B-Westerns in the ‘40s. He was instrumental in getting many of his old pals to donate artifacts to the museum.

“I know them all,” Hale said affectionately, as he walked among the exhibit cases that house his white hat, guns and holsters--and include a shirt donated by Chuck Connors (“The Rifleman”), Buffalo Bill’s saddle and a complete Lone Ranger outfit.

“They’ve all been very generous,” Hale added. “When they gave (their items)--and I’m one of them--it was like pulling teeth. It was very hard to give these things up. But they wanted to be part of the heritage and share all the stuff they had.”

The area devoted to movie cowboys is one of the most popular exhibits: A Western town has been re-created and clips from old Westerns are shown.

Not surprisingly, these Westerns are what first introduced international visitors to the Old West--giving them a somewhat distorted view of life in the western United States.

“It’s not true history,” Joanne Hale said, “but that’s what they learn when they learn about the West in movies and on TV.”

And that’s why, Hale said, the museum attempts to show all aspects of Western history.

So what do the Bowery Boys have to do with Western history anyway? Well, in “Bowery Buckaroos,” the city kids take up residence at a dude ranch, and dude ranch furniture is the subject of the museum’s temporary exhibit on display through mid-May. (The film screens today and Sunday in the museum theater.)

The furniture, made by Thomas Molesworth of Cody, Wyo., includes an easy chair with moose antlers, rawhide lamp shades and a piano made of pine and leather--dude-ranch stuff. That’s why Mary Ann Ruelas, who schedules films and lectures, chose films with dude-ranch themes. Coming up are Gene Autry’s 1939 “Blue Montana Skies” and Elvis Presley’s “Tickle Me.” Two films that will coincide with a summer exhibit on stagecoaches are “Stagecoach” with John Wayne and “Wells Fargo” with Joel McCrea.

This type of programming draws film buffs, Ruelas said, but it is also a good way to reinforce the theme in the special exhibits.

“We try to keep it lighthearted,” Ruelas said. Though the films are sometimes “a little obscure,” they all tie into the theme.

The fun part about the education department, Burton said, is that “we can take an interesting part of the museum and make it more accessible to the public.”

An example is the adult workshops. The first one had participants out on the museum lawn putting up a 26-foot tepee. In May, an atlatl workshop will teach the adventurous how to work the ancient dart thrower, traditionally used for hunting and fishing.

“People really do learn from these hands-on programs,” Burton said. “All these things help people understand their heritage or the heritage of the people around them.”

The lecture series is also popular with adults--the current one is “Caring for Your Family’s Treasures,” which teaches how to preserve or repair items such as old clothes and photographs.

During a recent three-month special exhibit, “Native Americans, Five Centuries of Changing View,” the museum featured lectures by American Indian actors on Hollywood images of Indians and held storytelling and dancing exhibitions by American Indian singers.

Alvino Siva, a full-blooded Cahuilla Indian who sang bird songs and danced during the exhibition, said the programs give American Indians an opportunity to tell a little about their heritage--something that has not been depicted to realistically on TV and film.

“A lot of people who were there didn’t know about the Cahuilla or the Indians from Northern and Central California just because we weren’t warlike,” Siva said. The Apaches, Sioux and others were always depicted in the movies, Siva said, because they were the ones who “hated the white man and put up a fight.”

Siva thinks the museum could offer an opportunity for visitors to learn about the American Indians, their customs and love and respect for the land rather than the common image that they were “just a thorn in the side” of the white settlers.

For children, docents pull out carts filled with hands-on materials to help the students better understand the exhibits.

“The kids really like them, but adults are crazy about them,” Ruelas said. “People are so used to hearing ‘don’t touch’ (at museums), that the hands-on (opportunities) are a lot more fun and a better way to learn.”

One cart is filled with 19th-Century toys, which coincides with the Western toy and comic book collection. The “Mountain Man” cart has a beaver pelt and a replica of a flintlock pistol children can handle. The Indian cart has rawhide and other leather-making items.

Coming up for Cinco de Mayo, the education department will bring in mariachis and folklorico dancers. Two films that will screen are “Juarez” (1939), with Bette Davis, and “Enamorada” (1949), a film with English subtitles.

What started as merely a dream for Gene Autry, an avid collector of Western artifacts for much of his life, has become a reality.

“Our (education) department has served 132,000 people,” Harnisch said. “That’s a heck of a good start for a new museum.”

But, Harnisch added, this is only the beginning.

* Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Griffith Park, 4700 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles. Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tours Tuesday-Saturday; (213) 667-2000. Admission: $4.75; students and seniors $3.50; children under 12, $2; Films: $1 with museum admission. Free to members.