
Visitors of all ages enjoy posing for pictures with The Simpsons. Photo courtesy of the Barker Character, Comic and Cartoon Museum
The gang’s all there: Shirley Temple, Popeye, Batman, the Simpsons and Betty Boop. Also, The Hulk, Barbie, Wall-E, Harry Potter, G.I. Joe, Charlie McCarthy and Howdy Doody. Visitors will also encounter Mickey and Minnie, the Three Stooges, the California Raisins, the Pillsbury Doughboy and too many other childhood characters, superheroes and legends to name.
From the moment you walk past the life-size statue of Po from the movie “Kung-Fu Panda” as you enter the Barker Character, Comic and Cartoon Museum in Cheshire, Conn., you’re in for a trip down memory lane — or a flashback to the beloved Saturday afternoon cartoons of your childhood. It’s a sure cure for cabin fever and a fun spring break outing for the entire family.
Nostalgia on steroids is a fitting way to describe the experience, sure to delight the young and the young-at-heart, whether 8 or 80.
“We’re pretty much like a nostalgia machine over here,” said museum docent Blake Bassett with a laugh. “We love to watch people’s expressions when they see a toy they remember from the ’30s or ’40s. They can often tell you exactly how it works.”
A common lament that usually follows, she said, is, “My mother threw mine away.”
Not so for museum owners Jerry and Stephen Barker. The 3,500-square-foot space includes the personal collection of their late parents, Gloria and Herbert Barker, who amassed about 80,000 items over more than four decades, including toys that their children had played with. A small number of items have also been donated by collectors.
Disney characters, famous actors, television shows, musicians, pop culture icons and marketing and sci-fi figures are represented through a dizzying assortment of toys, dolls, records, books, playing cards, rotary phones, comics, wagons, watches, games, lunch boxes, action figures — even animated films, posters and original artwork.
Elephant ramp walkers from 1873
The Barkers started their collection by visiting tag sales at a time before people realized that cast-off toys had an intrinsic value and interest for future generations. While the items were considered run-of-the-mill in their day, they are coveted collectibles today.
Two of the oldest toys in the collection prove that gravity works: They are the cast-iron elephant ramp walkers. Manufactured in 1873 by the Ives Toy Company in Bridgeport, Conn., they were the first automatons to be powered by gravity. One hundred and forty years later, they work as well as ever and lumber obligingly down even the slightest incline.
Barrett said what makes them even more interesting is that the Ives Company originally produced guns and ammunition during the Civil War, but once the war ended, they turned to toys. The ramp walkers, explained Barrett, are made from melted-down bullet casings.
“What a segue: weapons of war to children’s toys,” she mused.
Another item with an eye-opening history is an unopened tube of Mickey Mouse toothpaste from 1933.
“It was made with a special milk of magnesia flavor, and comes in a lead tube; they didn’t know the dangers” of lead toxicity back then, she said. At the time, lead was considered an inexpensive and easy metal to mold into toys.
Prizes, promotions and Betty Boop
Child stars of yesteryear are also represented here. Back in the day, Shirley Temple generated not just ticket sales, but a great deal of toys and associated items.
Prizes from old cereal boxes and promotions are a hot ticket as well. From 1934 to 1942, cobalt blue table settings, manufactured by the Hazel Atlas and U.S. Glass Companies, were given away as premiums for Wheaties and Bisquick, and are prized by today’s collectors.
Remember Betty Boop, Bimbo the dog and Koko the Clown? Betty, the feckless flapper who danced through life with her canine boyfriend Bimbo, first vamped her way into the public’s hearts as a sexy chanteuse in 1930 and continued to lift movie-goers’ hearts throughout the Great Depression with her song-filled adventures.
Among the most popular attractions with all ages are an 8-foot-tall statue of the Marvel superhero The Hulk, which served as a promotion for the 2008 movie of the same name; and life-size characters from The Simpsons. Both invite plenty of selfies and family photos.
“They only made about 200 Hulks,” noted Barrett.
Their value
beyond nostalgia
While all the museum items include price tags to give visitors an idea of their current value, none of the items are for sale. One of the most expensive items is a Popeye heavy-hitter toy valued at $14,000, said Barrett. The toy mimics the popular carnival game where people test their strength by wielding a hammer, causing a bell to ring if successful.
Since the museum opened in 1997, the Barker family has welcomed visitors from around the corner and around the world. The collection, which spans the years from 1873 to the 2020s, stimulates discussion among the generations in a way that few museums can. Every generation will find favorite toys; historians can savor an unusual glimpse into styles and trends of the past.
In addition, the Barkers were dedicated to preserving America’s rich cartoon heritage, and founded the largest retail animation and entertainment art gallery in the world, Barker Animation Art Gallery.
Barker Animation had its Grand Opening in West Hartford, Conn., in 1993; and in 1994, operations moved to the Barker complex in Cheshire, Conn.
The gallery maintains a collection of vintage and current artwork from artists in the fields of animation and pop culture. To give this artwork more exposure, Gloria and Herb opened an additional gallery at The Tanger outlets at Foxwoods in 2016.
If you decide to visit
The Barker Character, Comic and Cartoon Museum is at 1188 Highland Ave. in Cheshire, and is open by appointment only (call 203-272-2357). Face masks are mandatory.
Each visitor to the museum receives a self-guided tour booklet, and while there can peruse the vast collection of animation art, fine arts and collectibles available for purchase in the gallery next door.
Visitors can also enjoy a scavenger hunt, and stroll the grounds and pose for pictures with life-sized cartoon character cut-outs.
“You get the whole museum to yourself for the entire hour, for a more personal, interactive experience,” said Barrett.
Fans of fine art filed into the Sharon Historical Society’s gallery on Saturday, March 15, for the opening reception of student works from the Northlight Art Center in Amenia, New York.
Northlight was founded in Sharon by Pieter Lefferts in 2010 and later moved to Amenia. This is the 14th year of the annual student exhibit.
“It’s an invitation for people who may never have thought that they might be included in an art exhibit,” said Lefferts about the show that includes 34 works created by a dozen artists. Lefferts added that visitors will see a range of abilities and individual expression.
“I like to draw out innate expression,” Lefferts said. Lefferts said there were 34 pieces as he had hung them all the day before.
Several works on display were inspired by local subjects. For example, Kathleen Kulig’s “Grand Dame of the Orchard” depicts an actual old apple tree found at a friend’s home.
“I’ve actually picked apples from that tree,” Kulig said.
Kathleen Kulig with her “Grand Dame of the Orchard” painting.Leila Hawken
Artist Cathleen Halloran’s acrylic on paper painting titled “Eleven Eleven” is a loving remembrance of her dog, Maddie, whose death was imminent as Halloran created the painting, an expression of her subject’s magnificent spirit.
Variety is evident in artists’ ages, mediums, experience and subject matter.
“It’s always a pleasure to see how the artists grow every year, a fascinating variety,” said Historical Society President Chris Robinson as he dished out the wine and other beverages in the reception area.
A portion of the proceeds will benefit the historical society, although not all works are for sale. The exhibit will be open until Friday, May 9, during historical society hours. For additional information, go to www.sharonhist.org.
Coinciding with the gallery show, the Sharon Historical Society’s current exhibit is worth a visit. Titled “Family Collections,” the exhibit shows collective Sharon memories found in the artifacts left by ancestors, remembered now in part by what they left behind. Each is a clue to the town’s historic past, spanning two centuries.
Tess Marks as Little Sally and Jackson Olson as Officer Lockstock in the Housatonic Musical Theatre Society production of "Urinetown."
Last week’s Housatonic Musical Theatre Society production of “Urinetown” featured strong performances and superb choreography.
The remodeled auditorium at Housatonic Valley Regional High School made a big difference as well. New seats were a welcome addition, and the increased technical capability meant that the show was flawless from a production point of view.
The difference was so noticeable that director Christiane Olson thanked the taxpayers of Region One for supporting the recent school improvements project in brief remarks before the start of the matinee performance Saturday, March 15.
Katelin Lopes and Andy Delgado were powerful as the star-crossed lovers Hope Cladwell and Bobby Strong.
Jackson Olson got a lot of laughs with his deadpan take on Officer Lockstock, often in tandem with Tess Marks’ wide-eyed Little Sally.
The entire cast hit all the right buttons, not the easiest thing to do with a show that contains multiple layers of satire.
The orchestra, led by Tom Krupa, was rock solid.
And Amber Cameron’s choreography was seamless. The cast looked like they’d been dancing together all their lives.
Race Brook Lodge
Tucked away on Under Mountain Road in Sheffield, Massachusetts, The Stagecoach Tavern dates back to the mid-18th century and offers fine dining in an enchanted setting. It also serves as the portal into the Race Brook Lodge, which harbors unique spaces for entertainment, lodging and wellness.
Intimate outdoor gathering areas are illuminated by strings of lights. A cluster of mid-century bungalows can be rented by guests who come to spend the weekend and attend concerts and retreats, which typically take place in the barns farther back in the woods.
This magical vision springs from the mind of David Rothstein, who purchased the property in pieces between 1990 and 2000, a continuation of his idea to create a place where like-minded people can congregate to enjoy cultural happenings in an idyllic setting.
Before acquiring the Race Brook Lodge, Rothstein, now 90, managed The Music Inn in Lenox, Massachusetts, the premier outdoor music venue in the Berkshires during the 1970s, which he purchased with his former wife, Nancy Fitzpatrick, whose family owned the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge.
In its heyday from 1970 to 1979, The Music Inn featured a who’s who of iconic performers of the era like Ike & Tina Turner, B.B. King, James Taylor, Muddy Waters, The Byrds, Ravi Shankar, Joan Baez, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, The Eagles, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Cliff, Toots & The Maytals and The Allman Brothers.
“Music Inn was the last outpost of the counterculture, which had evolved as a result of the groundbreaking evolution of jazz as the first integrated music genre that ultimately paved the way for Rock ‘n Roll,” Rothstein said.
Race Brook barn at nightLety Marcos
This history goes even deeper. Prior to the Music Inn, the buildings were known as the Berkshire Music Barn, and featured performers like Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk and the Modern Jazz Quartet. The property also featured The Lenox School of Jazz, The Lenox Arts Center, Toad Hall Moviehouse, and The Great Riot Alley Memorial.
As a student of modernist architect Louis Khan, Rothstein absorbed Khan’s ideas of “open frame” or a space without barriers. It’s a concept he used at the Music Inn that carries on at Race Brook.
Race Brook’s music programmer, Alex Harvey recalls how he came to do a retreat with Qi Gong master Thomas Drodge and noticed a Louis Khan poster on the wall. He spent a morning and afternoon talking with Rothstein about art, performance and community in a way he’d been dreaming about for a long time.
“When I saw the poster, I asked David about it. He told me that he was one of Khan’s assistants, and he actually drafted some of the buildings I’d studied. So, before I knew he had the Music Inn, he was a superstar to me,” Harvey said.
Harvey also met the current proprietor Casey Fitzpatrick — David and Nancy’s son — and the two hit it off, realizing they shared a common interest in global music. Armed with a deep Rolodex, thanks to his many years as a performer and ethnomusicologist, Harvey soon began programming shows at Race Brook.
When booking, Harvey looks for artists who can offer something beyond the typical performance.
“We had Alash, who are one of the more renowned Tuvan throat singing ensembles,” Harvey said. “With their energy, they change the weather of the room. It’s a participatory feeling. I loved reading the reactions online; was it a concert or a ritual? That’s what we’re interested in.”
“We have Beausoleil coming up on April 5. When they start playing, you feel transported to a hooch house in Eunice, Louisiana. They create a sense of place, and that’s what really excites me,” he added.
Sunder Ashni singing at Dia de los Muertos.Lety Marcos
There are regularly scheduled programs, like Jazz brunches every Sunday, and at times Race Brook Lodge is open to other groups who book shows like the recent “Almost Spring Weekender” a DJ’d house party produced by Edo Moore.
Ideally, Harvey books fully immersive weekends with music, workshops, and enjoyment of the spaces, whether hiking nearby trails or inside the barns.
“One of my favorites is the Dia de los Muertos weekend which has an open mic to the dead,” Harvey said. “It’s art as a form of medicine and healing. It’s kind of like Brooklyn Academy of Music meets Esselin.”
For elevated musical and wellness experiences in an idyllic Berkshire setting, Race Brook Lodge offers something for everyone. See their site for information on all that they offer: rblodge.com