Sunday, December 29, 2013

The Museum of the Moving Image

The NYC Urban Sketchers met at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria yesterday. I wasn't sure it would be a good spot for sketching, but it ended up having more things to sketch than I expected...it was just different than sketching outdoors.

The museum has all sorts of old artifacts of anything related to movies or television.
I found an old projector. I should have copied down the date it was manufactured but I didn't think of it at the time. It was one of the older ones in the room.


In another room they had all sort of memorabilia from movies.

There was a reproduction of Yoda.

I am not a fan of horror movies but there was a razor glove from "Nightmare on Elm Street" as well as an oversized sweater from "A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Dream Master." In my sketch it doesn't look very oversized because I stuck it next to the glove which I made mighty big.

Another room had costumes, but my favorite room had all these toys, puppets, lunch boxes, games, and anything you could think of that went with some very early televisions shows. Some of the shows I hadn't thought about in years!

I sketched the Howdy Doody puppet c. 1955. I loved that show as a kid.

There were also some mutoscopes from 1899 which were movie viewers where you turned a crank and it flipped book inside to make the picture move like a movie.


At this point we left the museum and went to lunch. I sketched a few people at another table.


When we went back I headed for the same room. 
This time I sketched the Pebbles Flintstone doll, c. 1963.

They had a fun theater called the Jungle Theater. Right inside the entrance they had a fake candy counter. For some reason they had it decorated in Egyptian motif not a jungle motif. 
It was fun to sketch.

I think we all enjoyed sketching there and it was a good winter location.








7 comments:

  1. Wonderful sketches! What a fun place... I'd love to visit it sometime!

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  2. You certainly got a lot of sketching done on your visit Joan. Good idea being indoors this time of year - love your sketches.

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  3. What fun sketches! You've made me want to go to this place myself! I do not know when the Howdy Doody show ran but I don't think I ever saw it. I was born in 1959 though. We watched Garfield Goose, Ray Rayner, Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Mighty Mouse, Augie Dawgie...Remember those?

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  4. Joan! Great sketches! So very interesting and unusual! Love them all! Howdy Doody rocks!
    Happy New Year!
    Michael

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  5. Thanks, Tina. I was inspired by your museum sketches.

    Ann - It is strange to be indoors so much...at least for me. Thanks.

    Sherry - Thank you. You are a bit younger than me, so I remember those and the older shows too.

    Michael - Thanks. I should have sketched the Princess WinterSpring SummerFall puppet too.

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  6. I never knew that museum existed. It sounds like a fun place to go. I recognized Howdy right away. I loved that show too, but Mom wasn't very fond of it. Hey, I remember sending away for a Princess SummerFallWinterSpring cardboard puppet that I got for a bunch of Wonder Bread wrappers. And I remember those mutoscopes (didn't know what they were called) - they had one in Macy's (or was it Gimbels) in Jamaica. I always begged for a penny to see the movie. I guess that means I am very old. LOL! Looks like you had fun sketching those memories.

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  7. Thanks, Mickey! They had some fun stuff that really took you back in time. I do remember the mutoscope (I didn't know what it was called either) when we were kids, but I have no idea where it was located.

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