Logically enough, the opening show focuses on the Barrymores, America’s most prominent theatrical family.  Maurice Barrymore was the patriarch, a celebrated Victorian matinee idol and the great-grandfather of their current generation’s most celebrated star, Drew Barrymore.  Maurice lived in the Coytesville section for a time, and it was in Fort Lee that John Barrymore, the youngest of Maurice’s three children, first appeared on any public stage—at a fund-raiser for the local fire company. 

Our exhibit focuses on these children, John, Ethel and Lionel, whose careers stretched from Broadway to Hollywood, and who shot many of their earliest films within walking distance of what today is the new Barrymore Film Center.  The story of their fabulous career is told through stills and posters, film clips, theatrical props, and rare original artworks.

The Barrymores: The Royal Family of Fort Lee was always designed to be the new facility’s inaugural exhibit, and has been developed by our museum curator, Dr. Richard Koszarski.  Images and artifacts have come from Fort Lee’s own historic collections, as well as the Museum of Modern Art, The Players, the Shubert Archives, the Museum of the City of New York, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and a range of other public and private collections.  But turning this concept into a dynamic and innovative gallery exhibition has been the work of a talented design team whose members are well versed in both local history and the interpretation of moving image media.

Elizabeth Skrabonja is the team leader.  A fine artist and art historian, she is Curator at the Orangetown Historical Museum & Archives and Curator in Residence at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York.  She has designed exhibitions for a wide range of venues, including the Hudson Guild, Parsons School of Design, Stevens Institute of Technology, Museum of Food and Drink, and the Museum of Vodka in Warsaw, Poland.  She immerses herself completely in all of her design projects.  “Getting to know them, those Barrymores—they follow me into my dreams,” she admits.

Working with her as part of E.K. Skrabonja Exhibition Design are Sylvia Aisenstadt and Phyllis Schwitzer, both of whom have worked for many years in printing and graphic design, with a focus on not-for-profit and community based cultural institutions.  They translate the most complex design concepts into functional graphic renderings that will take advantage of every inch of the museum’s 1800 square feet of gallery space.  For Phyllis, the most interesting part of this project was her work on the extensive Barrymore Family Tree, a fifteen-foot wide graphic charting the relationships of sixty members of the Barrymore and Drew clans, from John Drew himself (1827-1862) to Drew Barrymore, and beyond.

Moving these plans from computer screens to the floor of the gallery calls on the skills of Wendell Walker, involved in all aspects of the Barrymore Film Center’s building operations and design.  Recently retired as Deputy Director for Operations, Exhibition and Design at the Museum of the Moving Image, Wendell’s extensive forty-year career in the non-profit and cultural sphere also includes stints at MOMA/P.S. 1, Sotheby’s, and the Grey Art Gallery.

DR. RICHARD KOSZARSKI, Museum Curator