Passaic County and Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music Present “Born to Run at 50” Exhibit at the Passaic County Arts Center in Hawthorne, NJ
The Arts Center (click to enlarge) is located at 675 Goffle Rd (off Rt.208):
I finally had time to go see this on March 18, but only after I put in a couple of grueling hours at two very difficult New Jersey institutions: The DMV (Division of Motor Vehicles) and a motor vehicle inspection station with a very long line of cars. (I had to put up with the first before I was eligible to “enjoy” the second).
I DID get to enjoy taking an unusual photo as my car was being driven to its endpoint (when was the last time you saw a 100-foot-long coupe with 8 wheels and multiple windshields?) Click to enlarge:
BTW – it just celebrated its 28th birthday and still hasn’t gotten to 30,000 miles yet (but it’s close). Added bonus: it passed inspection! I don’t have to go back now for 2 years! Yay!
Onward to Passaic County!
I had never been to this building before, but found it easily because my friend Eric Leefe used to live just down the street from it.
The house was built in 1810 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
The exhibit occupied the basement and the two floors above it. I met Isabella Costa – a museum specialist for the Passaic County Department of Cultural & Historic Affairs – who told me what was where and off I went.
After seeing some mildly-interesting items…
…I walked into a room and was very surprised by what I saw. I went back to get Isabella and told her that I wanted to show her some things!
Upstairs we went. This is where we stopped:
At that point, I was just a visitor who had given my name and nothing else. Then we went over to the picture on the left. I was about to point just below the pic of Bruce standing on the piano, but she had already made the connection when she saw “Photo credit: Bob Leafe”. Let’s just say that she was a bit surprised.
Then we walked over to the page on the right side and I told her that the top two photos were mine and I wasn’t sure about the bottom one (I‘ve since checked………it’s also mine).
I’ve got all the performance pictures on this wall! And all from the same New Year’s Eve show!
That was a pretty worthwhile ’77-into-’78 New Year’s Eve! Hard to believe that that event will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Isabella took these pictures with my phone:
Yeah – I deserved to lose a hand for that corny pose.
Time for a couple of items I hadn’t seen before that came with explanations (click the first one to enlarge):
But what’s that yellow item in the previous pic’s upper left-hand corner? It looks vaguely familiar…………..
It should look familiar. This was on the Capitol Theatre’s marquee during Bruce’s 3-night stand on the Darkness…. tour in 1978.
I’m guessing/hoping that those white streaks on either side of his head are just some odd reflections.
Here’s another reason it’s familiar:
The “Darkness” link (above) isn’t clickable because it’s part of the photo. However, this one IS: http://bobleafe.com/darkness/enter.html
If you’d like to check out the exhibit, it’s open to the public daily from 10am to 6pm EXCEPT Mondays and Tuesdays.
Admission is free.
Thanks for the preview. I’m going to see it soon.