Inside the Milwaukee County Historical Society, bright lights illuminate letters that read “POP MKE.” Underneath the letters, a projector displays dozens of words including: cheese, Packers, Summerfest, Happy Days, Violent Femmes and more.
It’s the grand opening for an exhibit, “Homegrown: Wisconsin Pop Culture,” that showcases Wisconsin’s mark on entertainment.
On the second floor, glass cases house costumes worn by actors, like a smock with a Shotz Beer logo from "Laverne & Shirley" and Chris Farley’s sports jacket from the movie "Black Sheep." A framed platinum album by the band Garbage is displayed next to an interactive screen that lets guests select songs from local artists.
Attendees like Kevin Jensen of Germantown carefully examine each item on display.
"I enjoyed looking at the stuff that brought back the 'Happy Days' and 'Laverne & Shirley' — things that I was expecting," Jensen said. "I learned some new stuff about the musicians that have Wisconsin roots or Milwaukee roots. Didn’t know about Garbage and now I do so that was kind of fun. Now I’m just enjoying the sports aspect of it."
A silhouette of Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo stretching his arms out wide catches Jensen’s eye. Guests can walk up to the display and compare their wingspan to his. I told Jensen he nearly matched the 7'3" wingspan.
"Yeah, I don’t think they’re going to sign me," he laughed.
The exhibit is a collaboration between the Wisconsin and Milwaukee County historical societies. Ben Barbera is the executive director of the Milwaukee County Historical Society. We chatted at the exhibit, which he says was a couple years in the making.
What's the story behind the concept for the exhibit?
We had a lot of conversations about what to do for the exhibit and we really wanted something that was accessible to lots of people, that would be of interest to lots of people and that could really bring Milwaukee, but also the whole state together. Ultimately, we decided pop culture because it’s in its name — it’s popular. So everybody enjoys it and everybody’s going to get a little kick out of seeing something they recognize, maybe learning something they didn’t know about. It’s just a really cool, unifying exhibit.
What are some of the items that people would be familiar with and which ones do you think people would find surprising?
We’ve got platinum records up there from Butch Vig Studios in Madison. We have a dress from a cabaret singer named Hildegarde who was a huge star in the 1930s. We have costumes from TV shows. We got a script from "Happy Days." There’s just some really cool pop culture stuff in the collection.
How were the items selected?
It’s interesting. We thought “pop culture” and then we said OK let’s go into our collections and see what we have, what kind of cool things we have and then we’ll base the story around that. Everybody had a lot of sports memorabilia and sports are popular so there’s a heavy emphasis on sports – media, television, things like that. It was just really reflective of the collections of both the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Milwaukee County Historical Society.
Can you speak to how something breaks into popular culture? What is it about a thing, a person, a team that really breaks into the wider mainstream?
We had a lot of discussions about this and how to integrate that part into the exhibit. We were trying to decide is there a threshold of some sort, but every different theme, every different topic is a little bit different.
Barbera says it came down to what’s universally known — things everyone in Wisconsin would know, and that have some sort of broad appeal.
The exhibit at the Milwaukee County Historical Society is open to the public through March 22.
