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CULTURE
[HISTORICAL RECORDS]
Face the Music History museum’s St. Louis Sound exhibit tells the story of the city’s music scene Written by
JENNA JONES
J
ane Bergman used to go to shows in Gaslight Square, an entertainment district in St. Louis in the 1950s and ’60s. She describes the belly dancers, the bands and moving from one room playing Russian music to the next playing classical music. Bergman recaps her memories as she stands in front of a Gaslight Square display in the St. Louis Sound exhibit at the Missouri History Museum. The exhibit explores various aspects of the music scene in St. Louis, with highlights of the city’s musical history from Tina Turner to radio shows to instruments to the Riverport riot. Andrew Wanko, a public historian at the museum, spent nearly four years crafting the exhibit with his team. “We essentially wanted it to be a well-crafted album,” Wanko explains. “You’ve got some greatest hits, some deeper cuts, some novelty tunes. We wanted that sort of richness of experience, rather than trying to cram every single St. Louis musician there ever was in.” Wanko says the museum wants to give people an introduction to St. Louis’ significance as a music city so viewers can go out and “sort of explore more on their own.” The exhibit couldn’t have covered every artist or band, and Wanko notes he had to leave out some of his favorite acts. Instead, he says that the museum is telling “the stories that we can tell really well, and just admit that there’s so much more.” “Which, that’s a really good problem to have,” he adds. As Wanko walks around the exhibit, he points to some of the 200 artifacts the museum has col-
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RIVERFRONT TIMES
The History Museum’s St. Louis Sound exhibit, focused on both the superstars of the city as well as the more underground artists and elements of the local music scene, will run through January 22, 2023. | PHUONG BUI
“We essentially wanted it to be a well-crafted album. You’ve got some greatest hits, some deeper cuts, some novelty tunes.” lected for St. Louis Sound, some owned and some borrowed. The museum begins with a look at how people have listened to music over the years, including record players, iPods and even the first recording on tinfoil, which may have St. Louis journalist Thomas Mason’s voice on it. But there’s more than just artifacts. Illustrations done by Chiara Andriole are prominent throughout the exhibit, serving as landmarks for different figures. There are millions of photos of
SEPTEMBER 29-OCTOBER 5, 2021
Tina Turner, Wanko explains, but only one grainy photo of ragtime singer Scott Joplin. Both were important to their genres and for their contributions to St. Louis’ music history, so the illustrations were used to put the artists on an equal playing field. “We use those illustrations as a way to kind of bring that older music to life and put it on par with some of the more recent stuff that has more visual material surrounding it,” Wanko says. Touring the exhibit, Bergman and her daughter Barbie Skinner stop often to take in the sights.
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There’s a dress that belonged to Turner, collections of radios dating from before the FM frequency band existed, the old Mississippi Nights sign and other pieces of St. Louis music history. Memories are scribbled into a notebook outside the Mississippi Nights sign as Wanko flips through the book, looking for his favorite page. “Right here, the first entry is my favorite,” Wanko says. “Rich and Mary Frame were the owners of Mississippi Nights, and the first entry we have is Mary Frame writing, ‘I met my husband here.’”
