(Community Matters 188) Mark Twain Live on Stage Plus a Summer Full of Local History Events

Returning to Community Matters, Michael Delaware from the Battle Creek Regional History Museum about a packed summer of living history, music, cars, and new exhibits. He also shares info about this year's Del Shannon Weekend - and what it takes behind the scenes to run programs, grow the collection, and keep renovating the museum. 

Episode Resources

Battle Creek Regional History Museum Website

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Former WBCK Morning Show host Richard Piet (2014-2017) returns to host Community Matters, an interview program focused on community leaders and newsmakers in and around Battle Creek. Community Matters is heard Saturdays, 8:00 AM Eastern on WBCK-FM (95.3) and anytime at battlecreekpodcast.com.

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Transcript

Welcome And Where To Listen

Richard Piet 0:01

This is Community Matters. We get with you on Saturdays at 95.3. We're also at Battle Creek Podcast.com. And you can now search where you get podcasts. It's a lot easier to hear on your device by searching Community Matters Calhoun County and follow us there. It's all a service of Lakeview Ford Lincoln. Back with us is Michael Delaware with an update from the Battle Creek Regional History Museum. Hello, Michael.

Michael Delaware 0:30

Hello, Richard. Thank you for having me on.

Richard Piet 0:33

Well, thanks for coming back. Uh it's uh looks like you're well prepared or getting there for uh the Del Shannon weekend, which we know about and we talked a little about last year. Kind of fun to get an update on that, which we'll do. You have some other things on the docket as well.

Monthly Local History Talks Lineup

Michael Delaware 0:51

Yeah, we have a lot of great events uh packed in this summer. We have Kurt Thornton is a local historian, and he's put together a monthly program for the museum, and he has a different topic that he brings to the table every month. And coming up on June 6th, he'll be talking about the history of the post tavern.

Richard Piet 1:12

Oh, yeah.

Michael Delaware 1:13

And then July 11th, which these are Saturday events, it'll be uh WK Kellogg sites in Battle Creek, and then August 2nd, there's a history of the Battle Creek Railroads. So those are all those are the next three months. He's got programs all the way through December, and if they want to find out more details about the other ones, they can check our website at uh bcrhm.org.

Mark Twain Reenactor Night At Museum

Michael Delaware 1:40

But one of the fun events that we have coming up on May 30th, I think, if people are going to enjoy, is we have Mark Twain coming to the museum. Reenactor John Daly is taking on the persona of Mark Twain, and he's presenting a program called Mark Twain's American West at the American Centennial. So, as you know, this year is the 250th anniversary of the United States coming up in July. We wanted to have some kind of a program that talked about some of the history of some of the earlier celebrations, and this was uh during Mark Twain's time when they celebrated the 100th anniversary of the United States. So he had some writings on that, so he's incorporating some of that. He's also talking about some of uh Mark Twain's fun experiences and uh writings about the American West. I don't know if you've ever read any of Twain's books about roughing it. Uh-huh. And uh yeah, that that is one of his uh iconic books about the American West. Uh, some of the other ones, uh Life on the Mississippi. Um, he talks a little bit a lot about the Mississippi River. So a lot of history uh that's going to be presented in that program, but a lot of wit and wisdom from the iconic author Mark Twain.

Richard Piet 2:58

Yeah, as we would well expect. That's right.

Michael Delaware 3:01

And that's happening on Saturday, May 30th. Tickets for that program are five dollars. You can find the link on the museum website at uh bcrhm.org, right on the front page. There's a link right there, and it's a 6 p.m. event, so it's an evening program. So come on out to the museum and have an evening with Mark Twain. And he dresses up like Mark Twain, and he's a big Mark Twain uh expert. So it's gonna be a lot of fun.

Richard Piet 3:30

I was just about to comment on that, the idea that uh someone uh who takes on the persona, this is a serious thing, and he'll be in that character the entire time, I would imagine.

Michael Delaware 3:42

Yeah, we had great success with having Abraham Lincoln last November, and so we decided that we wanted to search out some more reenactors, and I found out who could do Mark Twain. He has that he's done this program before, and it's uh came with rave reviews. So that's Mark Twain's American West at the American Centennial on Saturday, May 30th at 6 p.m. Bring out the kids, the family. It is going to be fun and entertaining, and tickets are just five dollars for the program.

Richard Piet 4:13

Man, uh, you can't beat that price. How do you guys do it? Uh, you know, we sit around uh hearing about how everything's more expensive. You're managing to do this at a very affordable rate.

Michael Delaware 4:25

Yeah, we're trying to keep it um as workable for everybody and keep the museum uh raising funds. We all these proceeds go to support the museum. Uh so all right.

Richard Piet 4:36

Uh, I'm reminded too, uh, hearing about this, I'm reminded of uh visiting Williamsburg, Virginia. If you ever go there, yeah, everybody's in character and they do not break.

Michael Delaware 4:47

Try most most definitely. And it's uh it is wonderful to have that kind of entertainment. We're trying to bring more of those types of programs to the museum. We may bring back Abraham Lincoln because there were so many people that said, Oh, I wish I'd known how great this was going to be. I would have told so-and-so and so-and-so. So we're gonna probably bring it, we'll probably bring Lincoln back later this year.

Richard Piet 5:12

Yeah, we clearly realize that uh these folks are taking on the persona, but they're so good at it that uh you have the experience, and that's what we're after. Man, yeah, yeah, exactly. So you also are uh busy with exhibits and things, and those things change at times too, don't they?

Michael Delaware 5:34

They

New Displays And Fresh Donations

Michael Delaware 5:35

do, and we've had um some amazing donations. We have this month, we have a fire department display set up, um, and we recently are getting a new dis donation on Friday, I think, of a fire uh box that was at an old vintage fire uh station here in Battle Creek. And rather than sell the item, the man decided to donate to the museum. So that will be on display probably this weekend, but we have a lot of fire department exhibits there set up. We have a first responders exhibit here in that's on display there for this month. We also have a brand new Kellogg truck that was donated. So we now have two different Kellogg trucks. We have the original red one that we had that we've we took out to uh Dell Shannon weekend last year, and we've um we have the green one now that we're we have to get it serviced so we can get it running because it's been parked in the garage for a number of years. But we're hoping to have that Kellogg truck uh out at the Dell Shannon weekend uh car show this year as well, alongside the other one. Um, and perhaps maybe we'll drive it in the parade this year at Christmas time, you know. So yeah, we'll see how that all plays out. But um it's a beautiful truck and it's on display inside uh our grand exhibit hall, which we're still in the process of renovating, but we do have displays up where people can walk through there and see some of the exhibits.

Richard Piet 7:03

That's terrific, and it is always exciting when a new acquisition happens like this. And I presume that there are things like this on your radar. You you know they're out there, and it'd be kind of nice to have this or that or that green truck. And um, you really have an enthusiasm for those things, and when the stars align, boy, here it comes.

Michael Delaware 7:28

You know, when I started working at the museum, I never dreamed we had the red truck, and I thought I never dreamed we'd get any other vehicles donated. And uh it's certainly great to have them on exhibit. And I I've been to the Michigan um history museum in Lansing, and I saw they have a lot of different vehicles, and I started becoming inspired myself, thinking, I hope we can get more those types of vehicles donated to the museum. I'd love to see us get a vintage taxicab, maybe you know, one of the Kalamazoo taxi cabs that were made. Oh, the checkers, yeah. Check the checker cabs, and then I'd love to see us maybe get a vintage uh ambulance or something like that. Uh, that would be unique in itself, you know.

Richard Piet 8:10

Okay, the word is out. So uh folks who might know, you know, it's funny you bring up Checker because I was scrolling, like many of us are prone to doing, and there was uh the vintage Los Angeles page, which somehow shows uh shows up on my feed. I have no idea why. Yeah, and there was a picture from the 60s, I think it was the 60s, maybe the 70s, and the house was of some relevance in the picture, but in the driveway was a checker cab.

Michael Delaware 8:44

I mean, the history behind checker cab I have found so fast, Sam. I mean, it was basically built in Kalamazoo, but they built those cars entirely every piece there in Kalamazoo. So it resembles no other automobile in terms of parts. The chassis was a much more robust chassis, and it became a favorite for taxi drivers because it took could handle the rough roads of New York City with all the potholes. And imagine how many how much mileage a taxi cab gets on. Well, those things, those checker cabs were so durable that they um they became the favorite of taxi drivers because they could outlast the other automobile manufacturers for residential cars, you know. So uh Checker had quite uh a product there that lasted until they eventually phased out in the 80s, but uh right, yeah.

Richard Piet 9:39

It's always wild to see those and be able to say, you know what? I live not far from where every single one of those was made, and that's really great. Well, and congratulations on the green truck because uh uh this is a huge uh feather in the cap for us. And wow, and you were aware of it before it came? I mean, how did that all?

Michael Delaware 10:03

I don't know. The story I heard is that uh um I I found out about after we received it, and I don't know that we had a whole lot of advanced notice. It was a it was a couple that was that had it in storage in their garage for a long time, and they made a decision to donate it to the museum, and it was something that happened rather rapidly once they made that decision.

Richard Piet 10:24

Yeah, it's in very good shape, it just hasn't been run in a few um several years, but it's um yeah, and that'll be a job for uh someone who knows how to make that happen, which I'm sure it will. Uh, it looks as though it's been well cared for.

Michael Delaware 10:40

It won't be as difficult as getting the red truck. We had to rebuild the engine on that one, uh, because that had only been like a movie prop out in LA or something. I see. Wow, or part of a theme park. So we had the whole engine rebuilt with uh taken apart and re-reput together by some uh talented volunteers, and they got that running. But we can't drive it out to Beg Park where the Dell Shannon car show is soup far, and the car, the truck, the red truck only drives at maximum, maybe 10 to 15 miles an hour. So we usually tow it out there. Uh and I don't know that we'll be driving the green one out. We may tow that one as well, um, and just drive it for parades and things like that.

Richard Piet 11:22

But um well, it would be a terrific thing to see whether you're at the museum or whether you're at the Del Shannon weekend and the car show. Speaking of which, that's coming up in June, as always, and you are full speed ahead with it.

Del Shannon Weekend Concert And Car Show

Michael Delaware 11:38

Absolutely. We have the Del Shannon Celebration Concert. It is uh it's not a reenactment, it's just a celebration of Del Shannon's music. And we have two great performing groups. We have Glad All Over, who's been with us for the past three years, and they do a lot of great 60s music, and they're gonna be working with performing uh uh Del Shannon songs again. And we have our opening artist, Rob Carter, who sings a lot of Motown, and he'll be incorporating a little bit of Motown hits from Battle Creek, some of the artists that came from Battle Creek, but he's also gonna surprise us with a few Del Shannon songs this year. Um, so that's something to look forward to. He's got quite a range, and um, we're gonna hopefully have twist his arm to get him to sing runaway for us this year. That'd be a lot of fun. Uh, and then the on Saturday, so that's happening on Friday night, June 26th. Uh, the tickets are very reasonable this year. We lowered them to $15 as a baseline. And then if you go on there and you're buying for a couple, you get a discount. If you're buying for a group of four, you get a further discount if you're buying for a group of 10. So you could go with a group of 10 people from your office and go to the concert for you know around 10 bucks each and just you know, buy a bundle, give them away at the office, give them away. We want to fill this audience with just people that love the the 60s and and 70s music, and it's just gonna be a lot of fun. It's an it's a celebration of music tying into Battle Creek history, and it's gonna be at the Kellogg Auditorium this year, okay. And it's Friday night, June 26th. Uh, concert starts at 7 p.m. And then on Saturday, it is the Dell Shannon Car Show and Arts and Craft Fair. We have the Beg Park all to ourselves that day, and we're gonna have a huge amount of cars coming in, like we did last year. We have a arts and crafts fair, uh, some DJ music playing, a lot of games that'll be happening. It's a good good event for the family to come on out and enjoy some good classic cars, good food. We got some great food vendors coming with their food trucks, and it's just gonna be a fabulous weekend. And then on Sunday, we're planning to do some sort of a history event. That is still in the work, but it'll be about the history of Battle Creek music. Love it. Um, I've been putting a I've done an annual PowerPoint slideshow, just showing people that some of the history. We'll probably update that and maybe bring in a few guests who are still working on our guest list for that. So we'll make more announcements on that um in the coming weeks.

Richard Piet 14:17

Well, a terrific idea. Uh first of all, the Del Shannon connection is terrific. And in our last conversation, we went into some detail about that, so you can find that at Battle Creekpodcast.com. But uh the car show part just lends itself really well to the whole vibe, doesn't it?

Michael Delaware 14:34

Yeah, it does, it does. You know, and he he was uh he loved classic cars himself, so he had an affinity for Lincolns and all kinds of different cars. And and his the Del Shannon families work closely with us. Uh Craig Westover is his son, and Craig and I talk regularly in the planning annually for the Del Shannon weekend, and everything gets approved by them. Uh, Craig is the the representative for the family. So he I send all the artwork and the graphics and um any decisions. Hey, what do you think about us doing this? And he'll either say yes or no, but most of the time he's he's got some great suggestions to even make it better, and very fun partnership we've had and enjoyed with the Del Shannon family for the past uh four years putting these programs together.

Richard Piet 15:19

Yeah, it it is uh one thing, of course, the the notion that this brings together people of like minds who have uh this um affinity for Del Shannon and and the history. But when you get the family to to participate and get excited about it too, that just that just makes you feel even better, doesn't it? It does. It does.

Michael Delaware 15:44

Yeah, it is a great, great fun weekend. It's one that we look forward to every year, and it's a big fundraiser for the museum. And that was the purpose of us putting Del Shannon weekend together. We're hopeful that at some point we have a permanent exhibit for Del Shannon's products and items from his life, you know, his clothing, his records, his uh artifacts. And they we do bring that exhibit in through the month uh when Del Shannon weekend is happening, where we'll be making announcements on that in the June newsletter about the Del Shannon display. Usually have some of his gold records on display at uh at the museum for a temporary exhibit for a few weeks during the month of Del Shannon. So it's gonna be a lot of fun.

Richard Piet 16:26

All right, that's uh June 26th through 28th, the Del Shannon weekend back in Battle Creek by way of the Battle Creek Regional History Museum and a fundraiser to help support the museum as well, as you heard Michael say. And those tickets are already available to be purchased, is that right?

Tickets Newsletters And Event Alerts

Michael Delaware 16:44

Yes, you can go to if you want to find the direct link, just go to bcrhm.org. You can also find us on Facebook. We have the uh check our events page on Battle Creek Regional History Museum on our page. And we also have the Battle Creek Regional History Museum group. And if you go to the museum website, if you sign up for the newsletter, you'll be on the list of when we make our we send out a newsletter once a month. Occasionally we'll send out an announcement in the middle of the month about something special happening, and that's what we have. Uh that's how we the best way to connect. But if you go right to the BCRHM homepage, we have all the events that I've talked about today right there, and there are links where you can pick up tickets and and reasonably so. They're all we we do our yeah, we do our ticketing platform through Humanitics. And uh once you've signed up for any buy any ticket from us, you're on the humanitics mailing list as well. And when we launch a new event, you'll get an email from announcement from Humanitics saying, Hey, we just launched this, and you can be the first one to get there, like when we bring in people like Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln and so forth.

Richard Piet 17:52

Yeah, that's a good place to be in, to get those alerts as soon as humanly possible.

Big Museum Upgrades On The Wish List

Richard Piet 17:58

You know, as you collaborate with your counterparts on the board and and in the museum, what's on the wish list? What do you really want to have happen in the future at the Battle Creek Regional History Museum?

Michael Delaware 18:15

Well, I mean, we'd love to be able to some of the larger projects. We have desire to put in a freight elevator in the back of the building so we can move items up and down between floors. At some point, we'd like to build an addition on the front and have it have a uh maybe a lobby and a passenger elevator out there. So those are like big expensive projects that you know that would be the long-term phases, they're probably phases four and five. Uh, we do have some fundraising going on for the freight elevator right now. We have a fund set aside for people that have donated for that project. But you know, those are expensive projects to put in. Um, but we do, you know, those are things that would be helpful for the museum. If we could open up the upper floors, then we could probably create a research library up there for people because we have quite uh an extensive library of books, but there's really no research rooms set up for people to come in and um set it up with indexing and everything at. So those are projects that our volunteers are working on. We have a great team of people that have spent the last several years organizing all of the donations that we had and the artifacts and and moving out the things that were really not historically relatable to Battle Creek, something that we wanted to keep. We either forward it to another museum or depending on what the permission is on what it was donated, we can sell the item and make funds for the museum. But it's all dependent on that. But those are what I'm aware of, I work primarily with the entertainment and and the marketing of the events and event planning.

Finding Performers When Plans Change

Michael Delaware 19:54

I'm always interested in people that are interested in performing. If you if people want to be a part of our live programs and and play a character from history for some of those programs, the more names I have available, um, the better. We just had a big uh live performance event called Phenomenal Woman. And I had to get somebody at the last minute because one of my stars got sick like a week before the program was strep throat. So we had to uh find uh I had to go down to the Athens theater to find a replacement for her. And I did I managed to find two girls, a mom and daughter team, and we brought them both up and just had them each do one of the roles that the lady was going to perform as. So that's how we work it out. But you know, in doing so, we're I'm always looking for people um that are interested in doing live performance because we could do a lot more of them if I have the pool of people to draw from that like to do performance on stage and and be creative with the writing of it, too. Maybe help research some of the history and put some of those programs together as well that we can, you know. But we'll have more big Christmas programs coming up in December, you know.

Richard Piet 20:59

Well, this gives us a behind-the-scenes view of what it takes to do these things. You just heard Michael describe what happens when a star can't do the show at the last minute. You know the saying the show must go on, so you found a way to do that. Hats off to everybody involved in that. So think about that. Maybe there's some folks whom you know that might fit that description and be available to perform for the Battle Creek Regional History Museum. You

Volunteering And Renovation Work

Richard Piet 21:31

could use volunteers in general, right?

Michael Delaware 21:34

Well, we always use uh on the lookout for volunteers. If somebody wants to come and ban a reception on weekends, we're looking for volunteers on weekends to do that. We're always looking for volunteers throughout the week that want to work in the collections department. And we have a volunteer link on our website. So if you go to the home page under support, you'll see a in the top column, you'll see become a volunteer. And Uh you can click on that link and fill out a form, and that goes right to the the ladies that will call you up and get you in down to the museum and get you working. Yeah. Uh so we're always doing cleanup, we're doing we're doing repairs. We're we have a renovation uh project ongoing with a renovation team. Uh we're currently working on the grand exhibit hall, trying to get the rest of that building at room done. And uh we're hoping to wrap that up later this year, you know. But it's it's coming along very nicely. The team is there every week working painting and putting up drywall and all kinds of things, you know.

Richard Piet 22:35

So all right. Hats off to all of them. And maybe you do want to be a part of that, as Michael says, bcrhm.org. Have a look at the website for more information.

Summer Preview And Farewell

Richard Piet 22:47

Well, congratulations on all that you've done since last we spoke, and uh looking forward to the summer of events, including the Del Shannon weekend, Michael. Well, thank you, Richard. Michael Delaware, Battle Creek Regional History Museum with us here on Community Matters.