Sunday, January 03, 1999
Struggling rock hall hires 5th boss in five years
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — Its attendance falling, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum hopes yet another new director — one familiar with superhero feats — can resurrect the money-losing shrine.
Terry Stewart, 52, is a former top executive of Marvel Comics. He'll be the fifth director of the hall since it opened Sept. 1, 1995, at a cost of $97 million.
Mr. Stewart, who starts Monday, is a collector of rock 'n' roll memorabilia himself. He has 200,000 vinyl records, 5,000 compact discs, dozens of rare concert posters and 20 jukeboxes.
“I guess you could say I'm a fanatic,” Mr. Stewart said.
The museum said it lost $1.37 million as attendance fell from 867,000 in 1996 to 615,000 in 1997. The 1998 attendance was about 560,000. Mr. Stewart wants to push those numbers back up by luring return visitors with concerts, commemorations and more memorabilia.
He supports a proposal by Jann Wenner, the hall's co-vice chairman and Rolling Stone magazine publisher, to boost interest by building a rock library and archive center.
The tricky part will be coming up with new ways to market the museum without making it too commercial, Mr. Stewart said.
“We don't want to turn it into Disneyland or use theme restaurants,” he said.
That approach is markedly different from one he took while at Marvel Entertainment Group from 1989 to 1997. He oversaw the comic book company's entry into theme parks and developed Marvel-themed restaurants under a joint venture with Planet Hollywood.
The market for comic books took a nose dive in the early 1990s, eventually forcing Marvel to seek bankruptcy protection.
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