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Surprise plot twist at the film museum |
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Wednesday, 17 October 2007 |
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By Jon Klusmire
Register Staff 10-11-2007
In a bit of an unanticipated plot twist, the first and only paid director of the Beverly and Jim Rogers Museum of Lone Pine Film History has left the post because the museum’s major benefactors have decided to no longer pay the director’s salary.
Jim Rogers, owner of Sunbelt Communications and the man whose name graces the museum, recently informed the museum’s board of directors that his company will no longer be paying director Claiborne Mitchell’s salary. Rogers told the board of his decision before the Lone Pine Film Festival last weekend, but there was no public announcement of the move until after the festival.
Thanks to a large, dedicated and knowledgeable cadre of volunteers, the departure of Mitchell will not hamper the museum’s day-to-day operations. No plans have been made yet concerning future staffing levels at the museum.
Technically, Mitchell was an employee of Sunbelt Communications, Rogers’ media business which includes 15 small- and medium-market television stations throughout the west, from LasVegas to Cheyenne, Wyo., to Helena, Mont.
“I couldn’t tell you why” Rogers made the decision to no longer fund the museum director position, said Chris Langley, the executive director of the museum and the Inyo County film commissioner. “He didn’t share that with me.”
Langley and other community leaders and volunteers have consistently praised Mitchell’s work and leadership that helped get the new museum up and running. As the director, Mitchell was responsible for the daily operation of the museum, overseeing the volunteer work corps, marketing and media relations, and also working to create exhibits from the museum’s extensive collection.
Upon hearing the news that she would no longer be paid to be the museum director, the museum’s volunteer board was “sad,” he added. “We’ll really miss her.”
The unexpected move definitely caught the board off guard. Langley said the board knew that “at some point” Rogers and the board wanted the museum to be more self-sustaining financially and that Rogers would not be paying the director’s salary indefinitely. The goal was for the museum and its programs and enterprises to be able to generate enough money to fund a staff position. “We weren’t expecting the funding to stop now,” added Langley.
Rogers was in Lone Pine last weekend for the film festival, “and he seemed very, very happy with the museum,” Langley said. “He likes the way it looks” inside and outside, and “I told him ‘Claiborne did it,’” especially the new, specific exhibits on display to go with this year’s film festival.
The board “has no specific plan to do anything differently” regarding the ongoing operation of the museum, Langley said. “We’ll keep operating the way we are now.” Some board members might step in and take on some of the “hands-on” tasks that Mitchell performed as museum director, and Langley said that, as the executive director, he would likely be spending more time in the museum himself.
The bookstore has a manager, he noted, and there are “a whole bunch of volunteers” who donate time, energy and talent to the museum. As time goes on, Langley said the board will continue to assess the staffing needs at the museum.
The museum officially opened in June 2006 after an extended fundraising effort and a transitionary stage where a modular building served as the precursor to the current building.
Rogers, who was all smiles during the past film festival, told a radio interviewer that he and his wife had been coming to Lone Pine for years, enjoyed the film festival and were happy to be able to be part of the development of the museum.
Rogers supplied the seed money and set the fund-raising bar for the community to get the museum started. He offered to donate $1 million for the museum building if the community could raise the roughly $240,000 to buy the parcel of land for the facility from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
That fundraising goal was met and LADWP and the non-profit museum group completed the complicated land deal. That deal actually involved LADWP first “selling” the land to Inyo County. The inter-governmental land sale allowed the deal to move faster, and then the county was able to turn the land over to the museum.
Then came the building, which in its short life has become a landmark at the south end of Lone Pine.
The distinctive exterior has been an eye-catcher from the start, with its old-fashioned movie marquee on the front of the building facing U.S. 395. Murals about Lone Pine’s film history decorate the exterior walls.
Inside, a stagecoach and the bookstore greet visitors, and a movie theater screens classics on a regular basis. The exhibit space in the back provides separate rooms for specific exhibits, some of the old automobiles that were in films shot in Lone Pine, and room to keep on display an interesting mix of memorabilia, props, artifacts, photos and posters from movies shot in the area.
The museum started showing movies to both celebrate films shot in Inyo County and Lone Pine, and to provide a bit of entertainment for the community.
The museum’s latest venture has been as a book publisher. It has published two film history books, one on the movies made from Zane Grey’s books, and a history of film written by Langley.
The book-publishing effort could earn the museum some extra money, but its primary goal is to promote more scholarship and research into the history of the film business.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 12 December 2007 )
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