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Andonie museum

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if you ever get a chance, go by there and talk to Bud Johnson about the Pete Maravich days .. he's an incredibly interesting guy ..

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Back to the mural, though, I am not sure what I shall do with it now. Repainting it shall be a no go since I do not wish it to lose its originality.

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So keeping it in its current damaged shape is a better alternative?

Paintings are restored all the time. Granted, this one would have to be a bit more restored than usual, but restoring is always the better choice than making a replica of it.

That's almost as awesome as the guy who owned the old Southdowns Lounge. When he was 11, they were tearing down the sets of the old Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York, and he got a piece of a wall that had been signed by all 4 Beatles. He had a replica of it on display in the bar for years.

Olegreg -- I'm so glad you got the mural! I was afraid it was lost forever.

I have been going into the Bellemont the last two weekends in a row, and am going back tomorrow with Colleen from AbandonedBatonRouge. The other owner of the demo company, Charlie, took me on a tour on Mother's Day and we went looking for the mural and couldn't find it. There was a section that we couldn't get to because the roof was falling down and that sounds like exactly where it was. I have a suggestion for what to do with it:

The EBRP library has a Baton Rouge Collection on the 4th floor of the River Center branch, and they have a huuuge storage area full of old papers, magazines, city directories, scrapbooks, firemen's logs, and any other artifacts people want to donate for posterity's sake. Talk to Melissa Eastin and tell her Becky Ford sent you. She knows about what we're doing over at the Bellemont and I'm pretty sure she would be thrilled to have the mural!

I'm donating a large, old black and white photo that was in a rotten frame in the lobby, along with some other things that Pat and Charlie let me take. It has water and mold damage but she says they may be able to remove it. I don't know if they can fix the mural, but they would give it a loving, permanent home.

I did a huge set of pics that's up on Flickr if anyone is interested. Some of the places I took pics of on the 13th are already demolished. I was interviewed tonight by Rick Porche of WAFB about some of the historical research I've done on the hotel, along with just some general questions about what I thought about the state it was in, how cool it was at one time, etc.

He also told me that the Great Hall IS going to be demolished after all -- the original plan was to leave it. They're tossing around the idea of making it some kind of gated community. (Show of hands on who thinks that's a good idea??)

He also interviewed the Patrick and a couple who had worked at the hotel for about 15 years who were there yesterday sifting through the rubble, looking for some kind of mementos.

Pics on Flickr: LINK /

I have more to upload and Colleen will be making an update to ABR with hers after her trip into BR this weekend.

Again, kudos, olegreg! So glad that the mural is safe and sound (well, safe, anyway). ;)

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I really want to find out who had painted it and when

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Maybe you should ask Billy Cannon. He possibly knows something about it.

I found this blog from 2008 where someone took a bunch of pictures of it and there is one of the mural up

LINK

it looks like it was still in bad shape four years ago, but a lot better shape that in your pic

can't believe they just left this stuff in there to rot

my step-father was the General Manager there from '59 - to '79-'80. I was telling him about this thread and he said he actually has a photo of him standing in front of the mural with Billy Cannon and Charlie McClendon. It makes him so sad to see the Bellemont in such a sad state.