“Pop Culture with Character” - Geppi’s Entertainment Museum; Baltimore, Md.

For most Marylanders who live, work or visit the city of Baltimore, landmarks such as the Inner Harbor, Camden Yards and Fort McHenry are synonymous with the city in the same fashion as crab cakes or oysters. Recently, I stumbled upon a hidden treasure up above the floors of Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards while at an event this weekend.

Geppi's Entertainment Museum, atop the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards is unlike most museums you’ll ever see.

Let’s say, I was a kid again for the first time in a long time. With eyes wide open, and armed with just my memories and vivid imagination, I took a look at American history and a definition of Americana, not in words and pictures, but in advertisements, posters, comic books and toys. Unlike most museums that require you take an academic approach to what you see, Geppi’s Entertainment Museum is a place for anybody to relive their childhood, reminiscence on their past, and enjoy a lighter, brighter side of life. The museum is covered wall to wall with two floors of artifacts that compromise an impressive display that defines America's history and the culture from the birth of the country to the present day.

Interactive video displays are also scattered through the museum, thus you’re engrossed in an experience that will leave you impressed and with a smile on your face once you leave.

With displays to please anyone from the ages of eight to eighty, the museum is a labor of love and the brainchild of Steve Geppi, a Baltimore native, owner of Diamond Comics Distribution and Gemstone Publishing and minority owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

The inspiration for Steve Geppi in his creation of the museum comes from his love of collecting and pop culture itself. As a Marylander who’s been able to become a prominent member of the local Baltimore community, he decided to make his incredible vast collection of posters, art and artifacts available that he has collected throughout the last four decades for the public to celebrate and enjoy.

As you walk in the museum, you look at posters from “Gone in the Wind”, “The Ten Commandments”, “Superman”, “Batman”, “Howdy Doody”, and a thousand other things and wonder how one man can be lucky enough to collect all these artifacts. Tempered with great pride, enjoyment of his collection and his ability to share it with the world, Steve Geppi described his museum as an “educational journey”, and added, “in a time of war, uncertainty, and just with the stresses of the everyday world, my museum provides a way of people to escape their problems, re-live their childhood and perhaps learn something new.”

The museum recently opened in the fall of 2006 to rave reviews in the community; therefore, Mr. Geppi assures the public that the museum will continue to evolve through the rotation of some items, as well as the acquisition of more artifacts to keep the museum vibrant.

Although Geppi’s Entertainment Museum is in its infancy, with the assortment of items and artifacts that will captivate anyone, it will one day take on the iconography of various landmarks in Baltimore and will be a premier destination for not only pop culture, but for American history.

Museum Website: http://www.geppismuseum.com/