"Sometimes
Happenstance works better than the best laid plans."
If
you read our last newsletter you know I announced we were moving the Beat Museum
from Monterey to San Francisco. The time was simply right to do this.
I
scheduled the Grand Opening for Friday the 13th. The reason? I didn't get the
space until January 9th and as I was moving the entire Museum 120 miles up the
coast I knew I needed at least four days to get it all done. I wanted to have
the Grand Opening quickly as Carolyn Cassady had agreed to be our Guest of Honor
and she was flying home the following Monday.
And
the happy happenstance? Jack Kerouac's scroll of "On The Road" was being
unfurled at the San Francisco Public Library that very day!
So,
the San
Francisco Chronicle ran a magnificent article about our move
from Monterey to SF on Friday morning. This is what got it all rolling.
Click Here for the article:
Later
that day John Cassady and I attended the unfurling of the scroll at a press conference
at the library. Carolyn was there, as were John's sisters Cathy and Jami and also
Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
- Click
Here to view the pix fron the unfurling.
-
So,
while Jim Canary (Keeper of the Scroll) unrolled it in front of TV cameras and
newsmen I was approached by a reporter who had recognized my photo from that morning's
Chronicle. "I'm from the Associated Press," he said. I'd like to interview
you about your museum this afternoon.
We
met at three o'clock. When the interview was over I asked, "So this will
go out to a couple dozen papers tomorrow?" "Try a few hundred,"
he said.
Read the
Associated Press Article - Click
Here!
The
next day a reporter from Reuter's came by. "We're kind of like the Associated
Press,' he said, "but more of an international audience.Read the Reuters
Article - Click
Here!
Next
thing I know I'm getting phone calls from friends. "You're on Yahoo News,"
they said. Read the News
Article from Yahoo! - Click
Here!
Friday
alone I gave 7 interviews. Three TV stations, two radio
stations and two newspapers.
Now I'm down to only two a day.
It's
been quite the week as you might imagine. There were over a thousand people at
the Grand Opening Friday night. It was an amazing event! The
locals from North Beach turned out in droves. For four hours it was a constant
swirl of people, elbow to elbow, in and out the door. They
were spilled out to the street on to Grant Avenue. TV cameras recorded the event
and ran it on the local news.
Yessir,
folks, sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart.
The
Beat Museum San Francisco is on the map!
Click
Here to view pix from the Grand Opening!
To
Learn More about The Beat Museum gp to:
www.kerouac.com
