ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JERRY ENGLER
Cynthia Blount, Marion Historical Museum director, recruited her parents, Jack and Ella Swain as volunteers to help with a continuing program of improvement and expansion at the museum.
Jack demonstrated a Hercules barber chair believed to be about 100 years old donated last week by Dennis Youk, who is president of the museum board.
Cynthia said she will research the age of the chair but part of its importance may be as complement to other exhibits. These include a photo of the Blondie Peterson Barbershop at opening in 1919 and his shirt signed at retirement by customers and friends in 1956.
There also is a wooden barber pole from the Al Holder shop that dates back to the 1800s.
A popular new exhibit, especially for touring groups of senior citizens, is a set of about 200 78-rpm records with the oldest discovered so far a 1908 rendition of piano-accordian duet “mean fox trot” titled “You’ll Find Old Dixieland in France.”
The seven boxes of records were donated by Don Wright, a former Marion resident who now lives at Hutchinson.
Cynthia ordered a record machine off the internet to play the records which include such old favorites as Vaughn Monroe, Guy Lombardo and Eddie Cantor.
The records are being cleaned and catalogued. The three volunteers also have worked on installing partial carpeting, case lighting and track lighting in the museum
