WWII comes alive
By: By KAT BERGERON
Published: Fri, 11/06 @ 11:22PM
NEW ORLEANS — Stephen Ambrose’s “love song to democracy,” as the American historian likened The National World War II Museum, has new sound effects and sensory perceptions so real you are thrust into the beating heart of World War II.
Beginning this weekend at the 9-year-old museum founded by Ambrose, visitors seated in the new Solomon Victory Theatre will dodge a flak attack on U.S. B-17 bombers flying over Nazi Germany and feel the rumble of Tiger tanks in Kassarine Pass.
They will smell a Japanese city burn, experience snow drifting into a bloodied forest during the Battle of the Bulge and be startled by the flash of the atomic bomb.
These emotional, visceral and seemingly impossible experiences happen in the museum’s newest cinematic story-telling, aptly named “Beyond All Boundaries” and described as 4-D multi-sensory immersion.
“‘Movie’ doesn’t even begin to define the full scope of this experience.” said museum president and CEO Gordon “Nick” Mueller, Ambrose’s longtime friend and museum co-founder.
“America is the hero of the story and we wanted people to understand both the high points and the low points of war.”
Narration for “Beyond” is by another Ambrose friend, actor Tom Hanks, with whom he’d worked on “Saving Private Ryan” and “Band of Brothers,” the latter based on one of his popular history books.
Hanks, Mickey Rooney, Tom Brokaw and 4,000 others are expected at the museum through the weekend for the grand opening of the theater and two other new venues, a live Stage Door Canteen and an innovative Chef John Besh restaurant called The American Sector.
Friday’s invitation-only event included Hanks, 350 WWII veterans and a flyover of military jets. The opening continues today and includes a block party and Sunday retrospective on Ambrose’s widely acclaimed works. This newest phase is part of the museum’s $300 million expansion.
The original $25 million museum in the warehouse district was first called The National D-Day Museum but that changed when the U.S. Congress in 2003 approved a wider-reaching WWII designation.
Ambrose had died the previous year. At the funeral on the Mississippi Coast, where Ambrose and his wife had a second home in Bay St. Louis, Mueller mentioned to Hanks his concept for an innovative production to portray the epic scale of WWII to younger audiences.
Five years later, with Hanks as executive producer and with the combined imaginations and expertise of an internationally recognized list of credits, “Beyond” is premiering. The theater is 70,000 square feet, seats 250 and has 27 speakers and a 120-foot curved screen.
Among life-sized pop-ups in front of the screen are Dragons Teeth tank traps, a POW tower and a B-17 nose cone. The sensory aspects, such as smoke and snow, add the fourth dimension.
“Beyond” bridges the memories of those who sacrificed on the homefront or fought in WWII and later generations who might not grasp the intensity of the war that changed the world.
The production is film, props, special effects and heart-gripping, first-person memories of soldiers and journalists, including Ernie Pyle. Hundreds of archival photographs and film clips combine with the special effects.
“This film’s job is to connect people with the most important event of the 20th century in a very personal way,” said Huge Ambrose, son of the historian and a “Beyond” historical consultant.
“It’s not a documentary or overview of the war but a way of interpreting people and events that still resonate in our collective national dialog, then presenting it in a way that a young person can understand and an older person can appreciate.”
The younger Ambrose now lives in Helena, Mont., and is married to Andrea Loricano of Bay St. Louis. The museum’s progress is closely followed by Coast veterans, many of whom make monetary and archival donations.
The museum was located in New Orleans because of its connection to Andrew Higgins, whose amphibious landing boats were credited by Dwight D. Eisenhower for winning the war. On that note, the opening included the unveiling of a painting by George Rodrigue, of “Blue Dog” fame, that places Eisenhower and Higgins together in a local setting.
The new venues, located in a building across from the original building, further tell the story of the war and home fronts.
The New Orleans Stage Door Canteen is a live show that harkens to the canteens that provided free entertainment for U.S. and allied troops. Angela Landsbury, Bing Crosby, Joan Crawford and others volunteered to perform and dance. For this canteen, the fictitious Baker Sisters sing and dance to familiar WWII tunes.
By bringing a name like Besh, a premiere Louisiana chef, the museum hopes to reinvigorate the warehouse district. Besh, a Gulf War veteran, has fashioned at The American Sector a casual American food and drink menu that pays tribute to the WWII homefront but has Besh’s creativity in presentation and local flavor.
@Nyx.CommentBody@