One might be available. For its 150th anniversary this year the Smithsonian Institution created a bell-ringing traveling exhibition that includes the hat Abraham Lincoln wore the night he was assassinated, Judy Garland's ruby dancing slippers, and a moon lander among 350 displays overall.
It opened in Los Angeles Feb. 9, moved to Kansas City, then New York City, will go to 12 cities in all and could be extended (maybe).
Bringing the show to Honolulu could be as tough as winning the Olympics for Atlanta. It will take big dollars in community support, maybe $2 million, which alone could be enough to keep it out of reach, plus a time extension beyond 1997 by the Smithsonian.
The advance cheerleader for the project is City Councilman Jon Yoshimura.
He, like me, thinks America has one of the most wonderful capital cities in the world in Washington, D.C., and wants as many people as possible to be exposed to it.
He got turned on as a college student at Georgetown University in 1972-73. He was so fascinated roaming the city that he didn't do well with his grades. Only later, and back home at the University of Hawaii, did he get his bachelor's and law degrees.
I grew up about 100 miles north of Washington, a greater distance in the 1930s than now, but not so great we didn't make a number of family visits to climb the Washington Monument, gaze in awe at Abraham Lincoln in his memorial hall chair, tour the capital, ramble through the Smithsonian and even take a small plane flight over the city.
It's a wonderful capital and getting better all the time. Putting some of its treasures on the road is a great idea, too.
Yoshimura has talked up his idea with the governor and mayor, business leaders, the Hawaii Visitors Bureau, hotel industry leaders and the convention center authority.
Bishop Museum's president, Donald Duckworth, has a Smithsonian background. He says the show would just about fill the new convention exhibition hall.
Duckworth would like to see it here, but says the Smithsonian looks on it as a fund-raiser for itself. It is selling corporate co-sponsorships entitling donors to space adjoining the Smithsonian's "greatest ever" traveling show. He doesn't know if the Smithsonian's price can be met from the local community in view of the intense competition for local cash.
Smithsonian regulations require the show to be admission-free, thus the need for corporate and host city support. Yoshimura would like to see the non-profit Bishop Museum as the project treasurer and local coordinator. He wonders if the price could be lowered by getting the Smithsonian an ongoing booking in Tokyo.
TO Yoshimura, it seems a great way to show the Hawaii public that the convention center near the entrance to Waikiki can serve all residents along with serving the travel industry primarily.
Yoshimura's background in TV news with Channel 2 helped him win election to the Council in 1994 in a crowded race that included then-state Sen. Tony Chang. He did a lot of walking through the mid-town district Gary Gill had vacated to run for mayor and thinks the people in his district would respond well to the Smithsonian traveling show.
Yoshimura got his law degree in 1993 and now has a part-time practice in personal injury law with the Ian Mattoch firm. His show-business instincts are surfacing, however, in his quest to bring the Smithsonian show here. It's a long, long shot that would be great for the community.