Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 19 March 2020
At Sing Sing, a museum going in down the hall from inmates

By MICHAEL HILL Rarer are those like the An-
OSSINING, N.Y. (AP) — Bust- gola Prison Museum, which
ing out of Sing Sing has is outside the front gate of
been a dream of inmates the maximum-security Loui-
since cell doors started siana State Penitentiary.
clanging shut along the Agreements are being fi-
Hudson River in the 1820s. nalized that would allow
Now there's a plan to usher the private group to begin
visitors inside the high walls renovations this summer
well known in the past to on the former powerhouse
gangsters, Hollywood stars that will house the museum.
and prisoners condemned Organizers plan to turn the
to the electric chair. building's locker room into
A museum just beyond a preview center by the
the maximum-security pris- end of this year.
on's watch towers is be- The $45 million plan is not a
ing planned with a unique state project, though New
feature: a 300-foot-long York has supported it with
(91 meters) corridor con- $3.3 million in grants.
necting to the roofless ruins While discussions with the
of the original 19th cen- state continue, the plan
tury cell block inside the is to open the museum in
walls. Museum-goers would 2025 with the secure cor-
stand at the site of the first In this Feb. 13, 2020 photo, concertina wire and vines line the stone walls of a former cell block at ridor from the powerhouse
cramped cells at this prison Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, N.Y. to the stone shell of the
"up the river" from New York Associated Press original cell block, accord-
City and learn about life in ing to interim museum ex-
the Big House. planning to open the Sing 45 feet, actually — to the sent to in "Analyze This." ecutive director Brent D.
"It's so much more than Sing Prison Museum in 2025. electric chair here, among The prison's unusual name Glass.
just barbed wire and stone Visitors will learn about in- them Cold War spies Julius is commonly attributed to a The hollowed-out building
walls," said Sean Pica, who carceration in America and Ethel Rosenberg. Native American phrase for used to house cells for 1,200
was released from the Sing and about a lockup that The prison's forbidding rep- "stone upon stone." men on six tiers and runs
Sing Correctional Facil- looms large culturally. utation was burnished by The idea for a museum here well longer than a football
ity in 2002. "For those of us Infamous inmates who Hollywood during its gold- has been kicking around for field.
that lived in these prisons have passed through the en age through gangster decades — complicated It was constructed by in-
to know that time will be gates 30 miles north of New flicks starring James Cag- by the fact that Sing Sing is mates who were dropped
captured, the history will York City include Charles ney and other big stars. This an active maximum-securi- off at the river landing in
be told, is exciting — for the "Lucky" Luciano and "Son is where Holly Golightly visits ty prison currently housing 1825 and ordered to mine
good and for the bad." of Sam" killer David Berkow- Sally Tomato in "Breakfast about 1,300 inmates. Mu- limestone from the hillside
Pica is a board member itz. There were 614 people at Tiffany's" and where Rob- seums at defunct prisons, for what would become
of the not-for-profit group who walked the last mile — ert DeNiro's character was like Alcatraz, are common. their prison. q

Basement cam connects 'Today' show's Savannah Guthrie

studio set up in the base- For media, perhaps most we are in different times,
ment of her suburban New surprising is how quickly the aren't we?"
York home and co-an- pandemic-induced adjust- From her basement, she
chored the network morn- ments stopped seeming conducted remote inter-
ing show remotely with unusual. views with Surgeon Gen-
Hoda Kotb. "I think it's a good mes- eral Dr. Jerome Adams and
Al Roker, stuck at home sage," said Libby Leist, the New York City Mayor Bill de
because a "Today" show show's executive producer. Blasio.
staffer he works with tested "We've been told by the Back at Rockefeller Cen-
positive for the coronavirus, government to stay indoors ter, the typical "Today" staff
delivered the weather from and I think it's important to has been cut in half, and is
his kitchen. Tom Costello re- abide by that." practicing social distanc-
ported on the virus' impact Guthrie's makeshift studio ing in the control room,
from his home office in had two big lights, a blue Leist said. The producer,
Maryland, an Emmy Award background, television who generally works out
on the shelf behind him. monitor and TelePrompter. of the control room, has in-
For most people, the coro- "Today" show staff mem- stead been holed up in her

This July 12, 2019 file photo shows co-host Savannah Guthrie on navirus causes only mild bers dropped the equip- office across the street. She
NBC's Today show in New York. or moderate symptoms, ment off and, playing it runs down the day's show
Associated Press such as fever and cough. safe, quickly left, leaving it with Guthrie and Kotb via
For some, especially older to Guthrie's husband to run Facetime.
By DAVID BAUDER phone for "Today" show adults and people with things. Basement cam will have to
AP Media Writer host Savannah Guthrie. existing health problems, it "I wasn't feeling my best," a work at least one more day
NEW YORK (AP) — Working Feeling too sick to come can cause more severe ill- raspy Guthrie told viewers. with Guthrie.
at home on Wednesday to NBC's Manhattan head- ness, including pneumonia. "A little sore throat, some "It did work pretty well,"
was a little more involved quarters yet well enough to The vast majority of people sniffles. I wouldn't have Leist said. "I think the audio
than a laptop and cell- work, she had a makeshift recover from the virus. thought anything of it, but could be fixed a little bit."q