WORLD OF THE UNEXPLAINED MUSEUM BROCHURE
Cryptozoologist Robert Robinson shares with us a rare look at a vintage brochure for the "World of the Unexplained" museum formerly located in Gatlinburg Tennessee...
Yes that is a naked woman. To explain the Unexplained, it's a statue based on a witch named Monique Wilson. Thanks to this paragraph, this post will bring a whole new set of Googler's.
The museum was open from 1972 to 1985 and was owned by Ripley's (as in Believe It or Not). It was originally called the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic but the name was changed to give it wider appeal.
Here's a brochure for their San Francisco location that I grabbed from ebay...
Few things embody "creepy" like gritty 1970s unexplained phenomenon documentaries. Imagine the terror of walking into one.
UPDATE: Robert also shares this great postcard from the museum's witchcraft days...
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3 comments:
I have a small felt pennant for this place under its original name that I acquired on my visit there in either 1972 or '73. It's possible that it's out in the back seat of my truck right now (I was bringing home the bag full of pennants that were in the stairwell and downstairs hallway when you were here). If it's in with this batch, I'll scan it this weekend to add to the discussion.
I went in this museum in the early 80's with my sister while it was in Gatlinburg. The final scene had so much going on. I remember a big forest scene with a witch's coven, a crashed ufo, aliens and a few corpses. We got too scared to walk by it. We had already been inside for an hour. My dad finally got worried about us and they let him in to look for us. He was so mad to find us maybe 40 feet from the exit door. He wouldn't let us go through the Believe It or Not museum no matter how much we begged. Last time I was in Gatlinburg (2001)the lower level of the museum was a t-shirt store. The stairs to the upper level were still there. The guy running the store said the upper level was used for storage but was mostly empty. The layout for the museum was still there but of course all of the displays were gone. He wouldn't let us upstairs to take a peek.
Devlin- this would be a great place to have a pennant from. I hope you find it.
Dawn- thanks for sharing your awesome account! I'm sure I couldn't have stomached it as a kid either, but now I'd love to witness such an epic scene. I love the thought of this place leading up to such a crazy climax at the very end.
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