Much Amused About Odd Things
Saul Rubin knows way too much about this subject. He spent years compiling a book called Offbeat Museums, a nationwide guide to collections of the unusual. He visited The Early Show to let us in some of his findings.
When you think of museums, what comes to mind? The Louvre? The Guggenheim? The Getty? Yes, those will always draw a crowd, but around the country, museums are popping up offering (depending on your point of view) either much-needed information or way too much information on things like:
cockroaches, plumbing, rabbits, shoes and bananas.
Do people really want to see enormous collections of banana memorabilia or bunnies (the animal kind)? Apparently they do, according to Rubin, who has compiled a whole collection of the strange and unusual in a book called Offbeat Museums..
The following is a list of them by state:
California
International Banana Club® and Museum
The Bunny Museum
The Pez Museum
The Mini Cake Museum
The Museum of Death
The Museum of Jurassic Technology
Exotic World/Burlesque Hall of Fame
Colorado
The Nikola Tesla Museum of Science and Industry
Connecticut
The Barnum Museum
The Children's Garbage Museum of Southwest Connecticut
The Menczer Museum of Medicine and Dentistry
Nut Museum
Florida
Tragedy in U.S. History Museum
Illinois
Grandpa Moses' Traveling Museum
International Museum of Surgical Science
The Time Museum
Iowa
The National Farm Toy Museum
Kansas
Kansas Barbed Wire Museum
The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum
Louisiana
New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum
Massachusetts
American Sanitary Plumbing Museum
Maryland
The Great Blacks in Wax Museum
Havre de Grace Decoy Museum
The Museum of Menstruation
The National Cryptologic Museum
The National Museum of Dentistry
Minnesota
The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
Missouri
Glore Psychiatric Museum
Leila's Hair Museum
Nevada
The Liberace Museum
New Mexico
American International Rattlesnake Museum
The International UFO Museum & Research Center
The National Atomic Museum
UFO Enigma Museum
North Carolina
The Country Doctor Museum
Marvin Johnson's Gourd Museum
Ohio
Warther Carvings
Oklahoma
National Lighter Museum
Oregon
Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum
Pennsylvania
Mister Ed's Elephant Museum
The Mütter Museum
The Shoe Museum
South Dakota
The Shrine to Music Museum
Soukup & Thomas International Balloon & Airship Museum
Texas
American Funeral Service Museum
Barney Smith Toilet Seat Art Museum
Cockroach Hall of Fame
The U.S. Border Patrol Museum
Washington
The Squished Penny Museum
Don Brown Rosary Collection
Wisconsin
Hamburger Hall of Fame
Houdini Historical Center
Madison Museum of Bathroom Tissue
Spinning Top Exploratory Museum
Find out more, visit Santa Monica Press Web site.