[ldoto]

Lombardo museum may broaden its scope

Mon, February 26, 2007

By KELLY PEDRO, SUN MEDIA



Guy Lombardo would share the spotlight with other musicians at the museum that bears his name as part of a proposed redevelopment of Wonderland Gardens.

City staff are recommending the community and protective services committee approve a plan that would recreate the Guy Lombardo Music Centre to focus on the musical heritage of the former Wonderland Gardens.

The recommendation goes before the committee today.

"Attendance in the current form (at the museum) has been quite low," said Ross Fair, the city's general manager of community services who oversees the museum's operation.

"Council is looking for a way to better organize and market the centre."

Last year, 1,401 people visited the Wonderland Road museum and attendance figures have never dropped below 1,000, said Douglas Flood, president of Friends of Lombardo, a not-for-profit volunteer-run operation.

Part of the city's plan is to include the Lombardo centre in redevelopment plans for Wonderland Gardens, razed by fire in 2005, Fair said.

The recreated centre would showcase the history of all performers during Wonderland Gardens' 80-year history, including Lombardo, a London native, in an effort to attract more visitors.

Using storyboards, audio and photographs, the centre could become an interpretative centre with self-guided audio tours, city staff said in a report. It would cost about $25,000.

Flood, whose personal collection represents about half the items on display, said he doesn't think visitors will like the new set-up.

"I don't really care for that type of an operation," he said. "To me, it's boring."

If approved, the new centre would be phased in over two years and reopen in the summer of 2008 -- without one key piece of Lombardo's collection.

The city plans to put Lombardo's speedboat, the Tempo VII, into storage -- a move Flood disagrees with.

Lombardo was a top speed- boat racer in the 1940s and '50s. He was U.S. national speedboat champion from 1946 to 1949 and scored his two biggest victories in the 1946 Gold Cup and 1948 Ford Memorial competitions in Detroit.

Lombardo was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2003.

Until the centre reopens in 2008, city staff said it will be business as usual at the museum until September 2007, when it will close while changes are made.

Part of the recommendation also gives the Friends of Lombardo a chance to submit a business plan within 90 days for the long-term management of the museum.

Flood said yesterday the Friends of Lombardo won't be submitting a business plan.

Lombardo and his band remain Canada's biggest-selling recording artists, with more than 300 million albums sold.

Lombardo died in 1977