Boy, are you guys in for a treat! Guess what I just got in the mail? Highbrows, Hillbillies and Hellfire: Public Entertainment in Atlanta, 1880-1930, by Steve Goodson. I’m excited to get to the part about dime museums so maybe I can get some ideas for a little dime museum of my own. I think I am going to try to buy the Rose Mansion, that brick Victorian house on Peachtree across from Crawford Long, and open the dime museum there. Then I could also eat chicken, waffles, or game pie whenever I felt like it, on account of its proximity to Gladys Knight Chicken & Waffles and the Shakespeare Tavern.
Would you guys pay a dime to see my treasures and some sort of hastily assembled freak show, with acts like “The Terrifying Girl Who Loses Her Temper All Too Quickly” and “The Well-Mannered Gentleman With The Astounding Ability To Prepare Over One Hundred Delicious Dishes With Only Mexicorn And Mayonnaise” and “Thomas Wheatley”?
Wait, according to my calculations, 10 cents in 1869 (the heyday of Atlanta’s dime museum scene) is equal to $1.60 today. Well, there goes my business model.
Tags: dime museum, rose mansion, thomas wheatley
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