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Show Standard-Examiner 2E Sunday, December 26, 1993 Casino gambling available in Montreal Quayle museum shareshistory Boston Giobe Casino gambling is now available in Montreai. The Casino de Montrea 1 opened Center's displays show youth story of ‘local boy who made good’ By SHARON COHEN nirs: a dreamy-eyed yearbook photo, a high school letter sweater for golf (an ever-present passion) and an adolescent's poem to his dad. crgee he acts as if he has been disturbed, The Assoceted Press HUNTINGTON, Ind. — In the town where he spent much of his wonder years, Dan Quayle is not just a hero, he’s history. And that history has found a home. The Rust Valse? nthae settee timoe tee he ic a ac aes family-values-preaching, Murphy Brownbashing, malaprop-uttering 44th vice presi- heorful as a bird ...” There’s more: a law diploma partially chewed by Barnaby, the dog; a picture of said offender, a black Labrador: a Quayle & Quayle, husband-and-wife law shingle; the chair he stood on at Nick’s to announce his first congressional candidacy; the flotsam and jetsam — bumper stickers, buttons, tickets — of a 16-year political career, videos of dent of the United States has his own museum This, townsfolk say, is not a joke. “Quayle was well-respected except for the funny boys,” says Mayor Gene Snowden. “They made him look like little imp. ... Dan has lots of excellent qualities that were never realized.” speeches, and home movies. testament to those qualities, but curator Thomas Mehl says it offers much, much more “This man has a storyto tell and what bet- It is ensconced in a former Christian Scientist building at the corner of Warren and Tipton, across the way from the Presbyterian ‘Church that his family attended and the elementary school where young Dannyfirst learned to spell potato. Potatoe. Whatever. Quayle and his wife, Marilyn Tucker Quayle, a partner in an Indianapolis law firm, have purchased a home in Carmel, Ind. Quayle is chairman of the new Competitiveness Center at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank. He’s also made a seven-figure deal for his memoirs. He has pret that themselves.” Huntington, about 100 miles northeast of Indianapolis, already has paid tribute toits No. | son with a Quayle Run, Quayle subdivision, Quayle burger (at Nick’s Kitchen, his favorite diner) and Quayle trail, a 10-stop tour of former Quayle homes and haunts marked with plaques featuring a quail. When an exhibit of Quayle memorabilia in the public library drew more than 16,500 people over two years — some of them from as far as Israel and Kenya — the idea of a museum took root. Some call it a weed. “I suppose it would be little more interesting than an Ed }{cMahon museum,” jokes Harrison Ullmann, editor and columnist at NUVO., an alternative newsweekly in India- The Associated Press Dan Quayle “It’s the little man theory,” she said. “It’s the same reason (Harry) Truman is extremely popular now. They don’t come from the Eastern establishment, they aren't extremely wealthy. This is a common man of the Midwest who was vice president.” Though James Danforth Quayle was born into a world of privilege — his maternal grandfather, Eugene C. Pulliam, was a self-made millionaire who founded a publishing dynasty that included the Indianapolis Star and Indianapolis News — his family homes in Huntington were quite modest. napolis. “If it were a commercial venture, I don’t think Id invest in it.” But Huntington librarian Kathy Holst insists Quayle’s Everyman appeal will draw people who “come to see somebody who is very much like they are. They'll bring their ids and say, ‘Look, Johnny, if you work hard, YOUcan become vice president. This Photos of those homes, the family and letters along with other memorabilia depict a conventional, middle-class, Babbitt-like world of Jaycees and YMCAs. Among the Quayle-under-glass mementos: a 100-year-old family Bible that Quayle used to take his vice presidential oath and an assortment of Happy Days-era, circa 1960s souve- person came from a small town just like you did.” ” ruled out seeking any office except the presi- dency. Mehl, a graduate student, concedes some classmates chuckled when they heard about his new job as curator. He says the museum pokes funatitself, too. “If someone comes through and doesn’t see this, they'll say, ‘You're just trying to make him look good,’ ” Mehl said. “You're not going to put that past pecple. It’s part of histo- - “Besides, said Jean Nelson, director of the Dan Quayle Commemorative Foundation, the goal isn’t to sway minds. The museum just wants to tell Dan Quayle’s story. “His part in history is already assured,” she said. “We want to keep that history in Huntington. This is about a local boy who made good.” Theme park recreates China’s cultural landmarks KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Bik Fung Ng is having giggle fits over the little clay Buddha in the dormitory workshop. The Buddha's faceis utterly round, his smile jolly and childlike, and his belly a loaf of fat. “Look at this face! Isn't this gorgeous? Look at the little fat arms! He’s like a baby you want to pinch,” said Ng, who works for the Splendid China theme park near Orlando, Fla. The laughing Buddha is bound for a playground. Splendid China — scheduled to open Dec. 19 and is a joint venture between American Eastern International and China Travel Service, the government-sponsored travel agency — is a $100 million theme park featuring more than 60 small-scale replicas of China’s most famoushistorical and cultural landmarks — including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Lunan Stone Forest and the terra cotta army. It is morelike an outdoor museum than a theme park. There are no roller coasters or thrill ndes here. Touted as a 10,000-mile journey through 5,000 years of Chinese history and culture, Splendid China covers 76 acres and is designed to pique interest in China and encourage travel to see the real thing. “It’s to teach the world about Chinese culture, let everybody know about the history of what we inherit in China,” said Mao Feng De, speaking through an interpreter. Mao is a painter and art professor from Beijing. Chinese workers in conical straw hats began creating Florida’s Splendid China two years ago and have been finishing up since November. At Daily Bus Tours to the TATELINE & SILVER See Se FUN YET TOURS Pay $12 Receive $11 cash back $1.00 off W /Ad expires 1-31-94 i ter way to tell it?” he asked. “We're not here to propagandize his life. We're not here to brush all these jokes and these ... cartoons aside and say, “Here’s the real Dan Quayle.’ It's for people who tour the museum to inter- By SUSAN M. BARBIERI and slot machines. The collection of thousands of itemsis drawn from donations from Quayle himself, as well as family members and others, and from the National Archives. The Dan Quayle Center and Museum offers Krignt-Ridder Newspapers in October on what was the site of the French pavilion of Expo °67 World's Fair. The casino offers blackjack, roulette, baccarat, keno The casino, about five minutés from Montreal's downtown, expects to draw more than 5,000 visitors-a day and will be open daily from 1! a.m. to 3 a.m. For Americans, and particularly New Englanders. Montreal is the largest and closest city outside the United States to offer-al casino. the far end of the park, which opens Dec. 19, a worker carves the grass with a flat tool. Ceramic figures are then cemented to small platforms and spiked into the slash in the ground. The entrance to Splendid China is a street scene from the year 1200 in Suzhou, a city about 30 miles outside Shanghai. Thetiles, roofing and artwork of the Suzhou street scene were brought over from ihe real Suzhou, and the woodworking was done on-site by Chinese artisans with hammer and chisel. Theyrefuse to use electrical tools. “What you see here is tongue-in-groove, ancient Chinese construction. There isn’t a nail, a rivet, a screw — not even a peg. Everything fits like so. The strength of the structure 1s its own weight, perfectly balanced,” said Frank Langley, a spokesman for Splendid China. The real Great Wall of China is 2,500 years old and spans 4,200 miles. The Florida version is 6 months old and covers a half-mile. It winds sinuously along a grassy berm and stands about waist-high. While the original wall is made of 3-foot blocks, the Great Wall at Splendid China was made of 6.5 million 14-inch ceramic bricks — each laid by hand. At one spot, ceramic figures are shown building a section of the wall. Some workers bake bricks in little kilns, while others carry them to the wall on tiny poles slung over their shoulders. Others perch on delicate scaffolding. On the other side of the wall, an armyinvasion is perpetually in progress. “The horsemen and the spearmen are carrying the ladders up and trying to breach it. There are archers at the top,” Langley said. “Theturrets at the original wall were designed to hold up to 200 men. They kept cow dung up there. When it burned, it smoked — and that was how they communicated between the turrets.” Across the sidewalk is a miniature Mongolian community with colorful yurts and grazing livestock. There appears to be a festival in progress — ceramic wrestlers tussle in the turf, dancers spin, and a long table is set for a feast. Whenthe park opens, live Mongolian wrestling shows will be held at the amphitheater. Since the miniature Tiananmen Square and the entrance to the Forbidden City are set in imperial times, there is no tiny portrait of Mao Tse Tung. Langley gazes at the miniature and talks about the real Forbidden City. “It has 9,999 rooms. Nine is a sacred number to the Chinese,” he said. “Many emperors lived in the Forbidden City without leavingit their entire lives. In spite of its hugeness — 250 acres and almost 10,000 rooms — the emperor was the only male allowed to live within its walls.” The theme park has come under fire from a rights group that alleges the attraction is propaganda that glosses over China’s persecution of minorities and religious groups. The International Campaign for Tibet, a Washington-based Tibet monitoring and advo- cacy group, contends that the $100 million park offers a “misleading and highly sanitized portrayal of Tibetans and other peoples.” The group wants the park to removeits exhibits pertaining to Tibet, which China invaded in 1949. The park is located at 3000 Splendid China Bivd, Kissimmee, Fla., 12 miles southwest of Orlando on U.S. 192. Its hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Admission is NEW YEAR’S \TURN AROUND, Reservations by 1-5-94 in Feb. 13, 14, 15, 16 $105 $129 Single Reservations by 1-8-94 2 INC -800-87S-5825____} Orlando 2 Price Sale! meSCE diet Ss TGBae RECEIVE A SECOND TICKET ON THE SAME ieee PRICE. THAT’S JUST... ed ORLANDO PACKAGES FROM *25 Bahamas Creme. 3, 4 & 7 Night Packages Available TNLEAL 1-800-466-7747 OR YOUR LOCAL TRAVEL AGENT Ye $23.55 for adults, $13.90 for children. Airline immigration levy part of a growing travel-tax trend Knight-Ridder Newspapers Last week, airline passengers began to pay a $6 immigration inspection fee on all international tickets — a 20 percent increase over the previouslevel. Despite protests from the travel industry, the $1 in- crease was quietly approved by Congress and signed by President Clinton in late October as an amendment 10 an appropriations bill. While a $1 hike alone may seem insignificant, it’s part of a revenue-raising trend of adding fees and tax- es in manytravel sectors. In the last two years there have been dozens of cases of airports adding “user facility fees” of $3 per departure, of city and state governments adding surcharges of up to $7.50 per day to car rentals, and increases in hotel “bed taxes” earmarked for municipal projects. The immigration fee increase, expected to raise about $50 million a year, was sought by the White House to help cover the cost of the President’s immigration and political asylum reforms. the perm that’s in synch with nature. Comein for a hair cut and Systéme Biolage perm at onelow price. Call for your appointment tomorrow. Long hair slightly higher. Walk-ins welcome. 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