(upbeat music) - [Tom] On this awesome edition of UTR, it's more museums and why you should see 'em.

We'll visit a house of music, historic Detroit and meet some awesome Arab Americans.

Heck, we'll even hear the call of the wild and visit an actual air zoo.

Get ready to explore the cool people, places and things that make Michigan's museums magnificent.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] A visit to the Stahls Auto Collection will take you back to a time when cars were more than just a way to get around.

A fantastic assortment of gas pumps, neon signs and automated music machines, dating back 150 years, that must be seen and heard.

Info at stahlsauto.com.

- We've been around the world but there's one place we keep coming back to.

And the more we explore, the more we realize, it's the place to be.

I'm Tom Daldin.

- I'm Jim Edelman.

- And this is.

- [Together] Under the Radar Michigan.

(upbeat music) - You know, I used to think that museums were stuffy places.

Well, heck yeah, they are.

They're stuffed with tons of fun, history, info and inspiration.

Why do you think we feature so many on UTR?

It's on purpose.

And our purpose on this show, is to show you even more.

Yep, Michigan is alive with museums of every endeavor.

From historic homes and art-filled spaces, to floating fortresses and even auto inspired places.

We have a museum for almost every interest.

So get ready to laugh and learn because we start things off in a place in Dearborn, that just might surprise you.

(upbeat music) Now, Ismael, earlier you were talking about the Arab American Museum.

That's a place I'd really like to check out.

- It's one of my favorite places.

And look, we're here right now.

- It's almost like we planned it.

(both laugh) - [Tom] Inside we met up with Devon Akmon, the Deputy Director of the museum.

- Well, the Arab American National Museum is the first and only museum of its kind in the nation.

There's 17,500 museums, we're the only one telling the Arab American experience.

Having said that, we're an ethno-specific museum, not an ethnocentric museum.

So while we're trying to tell the story of Arab Americans, we're actually celebrating the diversity of our country.

This gallery here, tells the stories of a lot of prominent Arab Americans who have made major contributions to American life.

- Yeah, watching the screens behind us, I had no idea that there's so many people that have done so much in America, were Arab Americans.

- Yeah, there's numerous stories.

Everything from, Ralph Nader to Kathy Najimy, Christa McAuliffe, the teacher on the Challenger.

- Yeah, I had no idea.

- Yeah, yeah.

So come on inside and we could take a look at some of this.

- Oh, cool, cool.

(upbeat music) So what's in the cabinet?

- Sure, so many of our exhibits here at the museum are hands-on and interactive.

These are particular exhibits known as, Did You Know?

And in this instance here, this is about Robert George.

He served under seven administrations, 50 years in the White House.

What do you think his job was?

- Seven presidents?

- Seven presidents.

- 50 years, he was the advisor to the president's advisor's advisor.

- Why don't you hit that button and we'll find out.

- Oh, yeah.

Oh my gosh, he was Santa Claus?

- Yeah, the official White House Santa Claus.

- For seven presidents.

- Seven presidents.

- That's fascinating.

He's not actually in here, is he?

- No, unfortunately he's not.

- I really enjoyed touring the Arab American Museum with Devon and I would highly recommend you check it out.

It's a beautiful place and there are eye-opening exhibits around every corner.

(upbeat music) You know, Traverse City is a great anytime town to come to.

No matter the season, you'll find great natural beauty, great history, great shopping and awesome eating.

And if that's not enough for you, here's one more reason why you need to come here.

Just east of downtown Traverse City is a destination that'll literally bring music to your ears.

Because that's what this place is all about.

Here at the Music House Museum, you'll find a super cool collection of restored antique musical instruments, early radios and righteously retro recordings, in a classically restored 1909 dairy barn and a 1905 grainery farmhouse.

You'll also discover the history, artistry and engineering of automated music.

Now to make sure I learn as much as I possibly can about these marvelous musical machines, I made an appointment with Becky Gagnon.

This is probably one of the most fascinating places I have ever set foot in.

You must love being here.

- I love being here.

And we call it a hidden gem of Williamsburg, Michigan.

- Not anymore because we've been here.

How did this whole collection start?

- It began with a man named, Dave Stiffler.

He and a couple of his associates were interested in automated mechanical musical instruments, so they started with a small collection in 1982, 1983.

And you can see it's grown since then.

- Now, these buildings are fascinating, just in and of themselves.

This was an old dairy.

- Farm.

Exactly.

The original barn was here in the 1870s, replaced by the new barn.

We are standing in the new barn and it dates to 1910.

- Well now this place is, it's beautiful.

I mean, I think I mentioned to you earlier, you could have a wedding in here.

And apparently you do have weddings in here.

- We do.

- Right.

But the way it's laid out, it's just, it's almost like you step back in time.

- Exactly.

Because our instruments date from the 1860s, to about 1930.

And they tell the history of automated mechanical musical instruments.

- Automated mechanical instruments have always fascinated me because the amount of and it was state of the art at the time but the amount of engineering and work that would go into some of these machines, to make them recreate what humans do.

- Right.

And you did have to have somewhat of a mechanical mind, in order to manufacture these instruments.

- [Tom] How many do you have here?

- I would say, probably a collection of about 20.

And we pick and choose on those 20 to play for our guests when they come through for a tour.

Now we've added to our collection, just recently, so we have some new music boxes.

- And this place is really much more than a museum, isn't it?

- Oh, absolutely.

- It's about education and the history of these machines.

- Correct.

And we have added to our evening programs, so that we not only have silent films but we have concerts and we have educational programs, spring and fall, for children in the area.

- Now, the giant piece that's upstairs.

They used to use those.

What do they call those?

- [Becky] That's a Mortier Dance Organ.

And it was built by the Mortier company, 1922, in Ypres, Belgium.

- And they would take those into giant dance halls and set those up and they would play.

- Correct.

And if you didn't have a band available, of course you always had the Mortier playing.

- And it is run by, there's books inside that the machine reads the music?

- [Becky] Correct.

And we also have, of course, digitized some of the music for preservation.

- Okay, now you have to tell me how you got that thing in here.

(Tom laughs) - Oh, all right.

Very interesting.

It comes apart in modules.

13 modules.

We used ropes and pulleys to get it up to the upper level and then we reassembled it.

- How do you maintain?

Some of these things are well over, century and a half, two centuries old.

How do you maintain them?

Nobody makes these parts anymore.

- No, they don't but we have a wonderful man on staff.

And we say, we can't have our museum without Glen.

Glen is our maintenance person.

He makes sure that all of our instruments are up and running.

If a belt breaks, he fixes that.

He also works on bellows.

Anything that we need Glen for, he's available to us.

- Well, after Becky gave me an awesome tour of the entire place, she sat me down at a piano that possessed the ghost of Gershwin.

And I heard a rhapsody, that blew my mind.

So what's the significance of this awesome looking piano?

- This is our Weber Duo Art reproducing system.

- Now, reproducing meaning?

- That it's going to be able to reproduce a composer's piece in its entirety.

And in the mid 20s, that really wasn't available until this instrument came along.

It captures the dynamics of a performance, the color, interpretation and phrasing of a piece of music.

- So how hard they hit the keys, all of that.

- All the stuff is incorporated in the instrument.

And you hear the performance the way the composer wanted you to hear his piece of music.

For example, George Gershwin went into a recording studio and recorded "Rhapsody in Blue".

And after that was done, the roll was cut so it could be played on the Weber Duo Art reproducing system.

- So it doesn't sound mechanical, like a lot of the player pianos.

It sounded like the actual artist playing.

- It is, exactly.

And you are exactly right, with a player piano, it's not generally the composer.

But with the Weber Duo Art reproducing system, it is the composer actually playing.

- I'd like to hear some Gershwin please.

- All right.

And I always like to start with the, so you can see the machine in motion.

And then we'll lift the lid, so you can see the magic of Gershwin.

- [Tom] Actually see the ghost of Gershwin.

- Correct.

- Look at the little bellows.

("Rhapsody in Blue") Sounds like a real human being.

- Yeah, very.

We're sitting on Gershwin's ghost.

- He's comfortable.

- [Becky] Very.

("Rhapsody in Blue") Oh, there he is.

The ghost of Gershwin.

("Rhapsody in Blue") - And the magic of those fingers.

("Rhapsody in Blue") - Music truly is the universal language.

It connects all of us, knows no boundaries and lucky for us, has absolutely no idea what season it is.

So come by the Music House Museum in Traverse City, real soon.

You'll love it.

(upbeat music) Now as you all know, at UTR, we love history.

Because it reminds me of all the stuff I forgot to remember.

So with that thought in mind and before I forget it, I thought we'd start things off at the Detroit Historical Museum.

Hey, I remembered something.

Now how do you start this thing?

That doesn't sound good.

The Detroit Historical Museum is one of the best places you can go to learn about this great city.

For 83 years, this fascinating place has chronicled the life and times of this entire region.

And it's right here in Detroit and right here on Woodward Avenue, for you to explore.

Now, to make sure I remembered my history this time, I met up with senior curator, Joel Stone.

And he took me way back in Detroit time.

You know, usually museums are sleepy places but this place is anything but that.

It's so interactive and so colorful.

- Thanks, we have a lot of fun here.

- Is that your fault?

(both laugh) - Partly.

I can be blamed, yeah.

- Now we're doing a road trip special that's about Woodward Avenue.

We're like, starting in Detroit, we're gonna drive all the way out, you know, length of the road and see what we find.

- [Joel] Great stuff.

- [Tom] Now you've got a great history of Woodward.

There was actually a Judge Woodward?

- There was a judge Woodward, he was a character.

He was the first Supreme Court justice in Michigan, back when this was the territorial headquarters.

And after the big fire in 1805, he designed a plan for the city that was crazy.

And then he happened to name the main street, Woodward.

Because he claimed it went toward the woods.

- Right.

(Tom laughs) - I don't think they believed him then, we don't believe him now.

(both laugh) - But what's great about this museum also is, you can actually walk through history.

There's that entire street downstairs where you actually, tell me about that.

- The streets of old Detroit is probably our favorite crowd pleaser.

It's 1840, 1870 and 1900, in Detroit.

And you get to walk on the cobblestones, you get to walk on the old cedar streets.

People love it.

- Tell me about some of the other really cool exhibits you've got here.

- [Joel] We've got, well let's go chronologically.

If we go back to before the American Civil War and talk about the underground railroad.

Which was, Detroit played a huge part in that.

Our Doorway to Freedom exhibit, kinda walks you through the trip that an unfree person would've made, to get up to Detroit, to get over to Canada, where they were free.

We then have another exhibit about The Arsenal of Democracy, during World War II.

Detroit companies and the people of Detroit, made one third of all the stuff that the allies used during the war.

- [Tom] A third?

- [Joel] A third of all the stuff we used.

Helmets, if you saw a GI with a helmet on, chances were nine out of 10 it was made about a mile from here, up on East Grand Boulevard.

- Why do you think history is so important?

- History's important because I think when we look back, we get a sense of where we're going, as we go forward.

You know and Detroit being one of the oldest cities in North America, we've got a lotta history here.

So we've gone through economic cycles, just like we went through a recent one.

You know, it'll happen again, we know this, so, maybe if we learn from the last one, we can use that to get us through the next one.

- And you know what I love about history, it's the gift that keeps giving.

Because we keep making more.

- Oh, absolutely.

And the older we get, the better we are at it.

- We could be an exhibit.

(Joel laughs) Ready, let's do it, let's be an exhibit.

This place has awesome exhibit after exhibit.

And after spending some quality time here, I started to feel pretty proud about where I'm from.

The Detroit Historical Museum is a wayback building you should definitely build into your schedule.

Just do yourself a favor, try to remember not to forget it.

(upbeat music) Remember when you were a kid, your whole family would pile into the car and head off on one of those classic Michigan summer vacations.

And on the way up north, your parents would pull off of I-75, at exit 282 and take you to the Call of the Wild Museum.

Remember how much fun that was?

Well, guess what?

My mom never stopped.

But lucky for me, it's still here.

Boy, these lollipops last a long time.

And speaking of things that last a long time, Call of the Wild Museum has been creating fun and educational vacation memories, for more than 50 years now.

Talk about a blast from the past.

When it comes to old school family vacation cool, Call of the Wild is a fur-filled flashback, that will take you back to a time when your family wagon was your primary portal to adventure.

I didn't wanna wander into the wild alone, so I arranged a personal tour with the museum's number one woman, Janis Vollmer.

So your father and your mom started this place way back in the 50s?

- They did.

They opened a place in 1957, south of here, down by Frederick.

And then in the early 60s, things changed a lot, they moved up here, opened in 1965.

- Really?

How many former fauna are in this place?

- [Janis] There are about 150 mounted animals in here.

- And these are the original, you said, displays, that are up front here.

- These four are ones that were here in 1965.

The timber wolf, the doe and two fawns.

There's turkeys and elk that are original.

- I love this whole effect, how you're like, going through this cavern and then seeing these, what are these called, dioramas?

- They're dioramas or displays.

And they have mounted animals and then each one has a hand-painted background.

And we try to make natural settings, so they look like they're really out in the wild.

- [Tom] What's it like for you to carry on this family tradition?

- [Janis] I love it.

It's really nice.

My brother worked with my dad and my sister worked here.

They have both retired.

But now I work here with my daughter, my husband and some other family members.

And it really is special.

- What I love about this is, I didn't realize how educational this experience is.

It's not just for entertainment, it's a great place to bring children or anybody and teach them about nature.

- [Janis] That's right.

- And I love the fact that you've got that, you can actually, with these horns, there's little speakers.

- [Narrator] Listen to the sound of the great horned owl.

(owl hoots) - And then you can actually hear the great horned owl.

That's awesome.

Now, not all the animals in here are indigenous to Michigan.

Correct?

- That's true.

Most are but we do have some animals, they're all North American but there are a few that don't live in Michigan.

One is the Alaskan brown bear and we also have a polar bear.

And of course, neither one of those live in Michigan.

- [Tom] But perhaps they vacationed here, so, that's okay.

- [Janis] That would be nice.

- Again, I have to apologize, I've been driving by this place for years and years and never stopped.

And now I feel bad because it's such an extraordinary place.

So, thanks for your patience.

(Tom laughs) For waiting for me for 50 years but, it really is a great place.

- Thank you Tom, we're glad you're finally here.

(Janis laughs) - This retro animal roundup, really is a fun place to take the entire family.

But just remember, there's no need to feed these exhibits.

That is of course unless you come upon the endangered and elusive TV show host exhibit, he'll eat anything.

That's right, we're in Portage, Michigan, just south of Kalamazoo, at a zoo that shows you things that once flew.

(Tom laughs) Don't worry, that'll make sense in just a minute.

If you're looking for a great place to take the whole family, where you can experience all the fantastic flying machines made by man, this place is like no other.

They call it the Air Zoo.

And it's literally the entire history of flight and space exploration, in one giant indoor interactive adventure.

Now we were here a decade ago in our very first show.

But this place is so cool, it's worth multiple meanders.

Besides, I'm sure a lot's changed over the years.

So to find out exactly what, I took off for some talk time with Air Zoo President and CEO, Troy Thrash.

Troy, I've been singing the praises of this place for a full decade now.

To the point where I'm hoarse.

So I'm gonna let you do some singing.

You can go ahead and start.

Do a number for me.

- Well, thank you, it's been seven and a half years for me and I will tell you, every day I walk into the Air Zoo, I discover something new, I learn a new fact.

And I am inspired, just, how we are able to educate our community.

We started with five airplanes, all named after animals, hence the term, Air Zoo.

Like a flying tiger and a warhawk and a wildcat.

And we've grown from those humble beginnings, to now over 200,000 square feet of artifacts, exhibits.

We have over 100 rare and unique aircraft and spacecraft.

From World War I fighters, all the way up to the worlds only SR-71D Blackbird.

- Plus, what I love about this place is, it's just not just airplanes and jets, you do aerospace, you do the history of space exploration.

- We do, we have a big space area, where we talk primarily about rocketry.

From, Robert Goddard and Tsiolkovsky, the early fathers of modern rocketry.

All the way to the incredible exploration we're doing right now.

We have, now, over 100, hands-on, interactive, education programs for kids from three years old, to 99 years old, in fact.

(Tom laughs) - I'm in there.

(Tom laughs) And these, they really run the gamut of science, so it's not just aviation and space but it's chemistry, physics, biology, geology and they're all designed to bring what kids are learning about in the textbook, to life in a very different way.

It is so important for us to reach every child in this community, in this region and beyond.

And give them a chance to fall in love with math and science and engineering, with their hands, their minds and their hearts.

Because we wanna show them all of the great stories of these pilots, the mechanics, the designers, everyone who worked on these airplanes.

And we want them to know that they can do the same thing if they love this stuff.

- Again, that's what I love about this place.

You've got stuff that's been in outer space and you also have planes that have been at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

- That's right.

One of the new things here at the Air Zoo, is our original building has been turned, primarily into a restoration center.

Right now, we are restoring two World War II aircraft, that have been on the bottom of Lake Michigan for at least 65 years each.

An FM-2 Wildcat and one really cool one, an SBD Douglas Dauntless dive bomber, that served at Pearl Harbor during World War II and also fought in the Battle of the Coral Sea.

- Well, this is one of Michigan's great indoor treasures.

I mean, when it's cold out or for whatever reason, if you wanna come to a place, this is such a treasure.

And I think people realize that, so they get involved and they want it to continue and grow.

If you haven't been to the Air Zoo, come in from Michigan's great outdoors and discover some cool indoor stuff.

Quite honestly, I've been talking about this place since we first came here 10 years ago.

And I still can't say enough about it.

If you're looking for an aviation and space place, that's simply out of this world, check out the Air Zoo.

You'll take off for parts unknown and when you land, huh, you'll know all about 'em.

Bonus.

When it comes to describing this next place in Farmington Hills, I don't even know where to begin.

Welcome to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.

And if you think the name's crazy, wait till you see what's inside.

It's part amusement park, part arcade, part museum and completely insane.

It's an incredible collection of bizarre, classic, vintage, modern and one-of-a-kind arcade games that you can actually play.

Marvin Yagoda is the man responsible for all these clinking, blinking, clanking, clattering, contraptions.

Marvin, I'm a pretty wild and crazy guy and I've been to a lot of wild and crazy places but this place is the wildest place I've ever been to.

How did you start this?

- Well, maybe I'll give you my first quote.

It says, "Don't dream about what you wanna do, stay awake and do it".

Simple as that.

- Did you start as a kid collecting these machines?

- Well, I'm almost 75, so I've had a lotta time to do things.

- [Tom] You can totally tell that Marvin still has a great love and passion for his crazy cool mechanical collection.

- I like the beauty of the machines that were made and the mechanical things that are not very mechanical.

The combination of a coin operated and just, you know, one thing led to another and I became involved and studied this hobby, started with a few slot machines and pinballs and there we are right now.

- [Tom] You are marvelous.

You can come in five times, you'll never see all the stuff.

- No, every time my eyes go in a different direction and I see something different.

- Well, we call that.

- I just saw the giant buffalo head, I hadn't seen that before.

- [Marvin] Well watch what it does.

You get him mad, he's a wild buffalo.

(Tom laughs) Okay, cut it, cut it.

We're ruining the atmosphere.

- How does it do that?

- It does it wonderfully.

- Okay, thank you.

(Tom laughs) This is a place where you can totally get carried away.

And as you might expect, I totally did.

(upbeat music) Boy, I could've stayed here all day, playing with this stuff.

And I even found a machine we could sure use over at UTR world headquarters.

No honey, I'm still at the game, I'm gonna be late.

(Tom laughs) So if you're looking for an experience that's uniquely Michigan, Marvin's Marvel's Mechanical Museum is mighty amazing.

Even more amazing than what I just said.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this private UTR museum tour.

Now, do yourself a favor and Google Museum tours near me and go out and see what you can see.

Who knows, you just might learn something.

Bonus.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] A visit to the Stahls Auto Collection will take you back to a time when cars were more than just a way to get around.

A fantastic assortment of gas pumps, neon signs and automated music machines, dating back 150 years, that must be seen and heard.

Info at stahlsauto.com.

(upbeat music) (gentle music)