rfmcdonald | [URBAN NOTE] On the Museum of Television in Toronto (Reply)

The Museum of Television at its new location at 64 Jefferson Avenue, founded by Moses Znaimer, has been getting some interesting coverage in the blogs. I'll have to go there.

blogTO:

Toronto's own visionary prophet of the airwaves Moses Znaimer re-opened his Museum of Television yesterday, and now welcomes all curious and card carrying fans of the medium to visit this weekend as the MZTV Museumof Television & Archive participates in the citywide Door's open program.

Not just content with pioneering and broadcasting his own unique brand of exalted content, Znaimer also digs the apparatus: his collection of vintage Television sets is a geeked-out heavenly shrine to the art of TV technology, from boxy postage stamp sized screens to hulking, Martian-like monstrosities on the likes of which our (great) grandparents witnessed the first human being walking on the moon.

The mandate of the MZTV Museum of Television and Archive is "to protect, preserve and promote the receiving instruments of television history", and with the largest collection of North American boob tubes dating from the 1920s to the 1970s on display, a stroll down the aisles of the MZTV museum is guaranteed to nuke your nostalgic synapses.

Torontoist:

You know you’ve entered the realm of Moses Znaimer when you catch sight of the sign at his Liberty Village base of operations: “ZoomerPlex.” Only Znaimer would shamelessly slap such a label on the Jefferson Avenue production complex. Given his current incarnation as champion of Baby Boomers, it’s not surprising that his shrine to the technology that shaped his target audience has been moved onto the premises.

“Since childhood,” a press release informs us, “Moses has been intellectually dedicated to the medium of TV and captivated by the beauty of the receivers themselves.” This dedication has manifested itself in numerous ways: the empire of channels (most of which now admittedly lack the flair, innovation, and bouts of preciousness of the Znaimer days) he built over the course of 30 years from the core of CityTV; the “Ten Commandments of Television According to Moses Znaimer” (hanging prominently in the “Z Commons”); and his large collection of vintage sets and television memorabilia.

The MZTV Museum of Television & Archive publicly debuted as a Royal Ontario Museum exhibit in 1995. Over its 20-year existence, the MZTV Museum has changed locations almost as frequently as viewers flip channels, leading to jokes at yesterday’s launch about its “re-re-reopening.” The content of the main exhibit hall will be familiar to anyone who visited MZTV’s earlier incarnations: the central cases contain thematic displays about the development of television technology—displays which, based on information contained in a 20-year-old booklet slipped into our press kit, are similar to ones from the original ROM presentation. Items lining the outer walls include the Felix the Cat doll used in RCA’s broadcasting tests during the late 1920s, Marilyn Monroe’s TV set, and the original Speakers Corner machine.