Our Tuesday afternoon outing began in the plaza next to the museum entrance.
Here are some of the early arrivals.
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The Autry National Center
(formerly the Autry Museum of Western Heritage) is an appropriate place for
a Mass Comm 101 field trip. It compares the media version of the American
West with the actual West.
Our Tuesday afternoon outing began in the plaza next to the museum entrance. Here are some of the early arrivals.
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The museum does a particularly good job of putting
visitors into scenes from the Old West. This outdoor setting looks like
something out of a thousand Westerns, but in reality it is near the interchange
of the Golden State and Ventura Freeways.
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Even inside the museum are some places where, in
the photos at least, it seems like you are out in the Old West.
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The Autry does a good job of pointing out that the actual American West contained numerous ethnic communities that rarely were depicted in Western entertainment. This dragon is part of an exhibit on the Chinese community in Los Angeles.. |
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We looked at artifacts from the actual American West. It was hard to tell them from the movie props. |
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The Wild West featured more than its share of marginal characters. These latter-day desperados made their way into the jail exhibit on the museum's lower level. |