Hollywood Trip Down Memory Lane : Museum Rolls Back the Clock on Rock

L.A. Times Archives

March 31, 1985 12 AM PT

From United Press International

The guitar that Stephen Stills used during a Buffalo Springfield tour hangs from the ceiling, an aisle away from a black and white shot of the Grateful Dead standing like sentries at nightfall on a stark Daly City street.

Buddy Holly’s baby pictures are neatly spread across a white partition, not far from a color shot of Mama Cass sprawled on a couch eating grapes.

And there’s the haunting photo Linda McCartney shot of John Lennon inside Abbey Road studios, the mixing board reflected in his dark glasses.

This, and more than 350 other pieces of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia are on display at the Museum of Rock Art in Hollywood.

Spans Four Decades

Museum director Paul Caruso said it’s a one-of-a-kind revolving exhibition of rock art spanning four decades--from Elvis Presley to Boy George.

“I’m the only one in the world who thought this up,” the bearded curator boasted as the tour began through the 7,500-square-foot showplace across the street from the Mann Chinese Theater.

Established five years ago, the museum was closed for 18 months while the previous museum building was earthquake-proofed, forcing him to find a new home, Caruso said.

He said last week’s grand opening attracted more than 2,000 people.

“We had to turn people away. The fire marshal closed us down around 9 p.m.,” Caruso said, wheeling through the rock ‘n’ roll memory lane he said took seven years to build. “We turned away 30 limos.”

1956 Photos of Elvis

Moving past a large poster of Hadda Brooks, the “Queen of Boogie,” Caruso excitedly pointed out a poster advertising a Hank Williams concert never held because Williams died on his way to the hall. Next to that is an unknown photographer’s pictures of Elvis Presley, taken in Tupelo, Miss. in 1956.

Caruso leads his visitors, who pay $4.50 for the ride, into the 1960s.

“Wait until you see this. It’ll blow your socks off,” Caruso says, leading the way through Dezo Hoffman’s 1964 snap shot of the Beatles, a surrealistic painting of Lennon by Peter Max, a poster of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a vintage ’63 shot of the Kingston Trio and a large 1968 color photo of the Doors staking out the original Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles.

Caruso is a fast-talking Bostonian who got his start with RKO General Pictures before getting into promotional work.

“I started with 12 Fillmore posters,” he said. “Now I got 15,000 posters and 300,000 negatives and transparencies.”

Most of Photos Donated

People don’t realize, Caruso continued, that thousands of pictures are taken for an album cover.

“And I go to that photographer and go into their archives. Most of this is donated.”

Other paraphernalia is obtained from other collectors, promoters or from the musicians themselves, Caruso said.

The original platinum and gold records made by Fleetwood Mac, Caruso said, were given to him personally by Mick Fleetwood. And the Stills guitar?

“I begged him on my knees for it,” Caruso replied.

The curator guesses he has about half a million dollars worth of rock history on the walls, but said there’s no way to know the real value of the collection.

“I think it’s priceless. He has things in there no one else has or has seen before,” said Richard E. Aaron, a photo editor for Rock magazine, whose work appears in the museum.

Last Buddy Holly Photos

Admiring several photo booth shots Holly purportedly took of himself before boarding the last plane flight of his life in 1959, Caruso said, “I could probably get $25,000 for that.

Caruso claimed it costs him $30,000 a year to insure the collection.