Catalina Museum Re-Opens with New Exhibit

The Catalina Island Museum Announces Re-Opening and New "Boys in Blue - Chicago Cubs and Spring Training on Catalina Island" Exhibit

After completing an extensive renovation of its entire museum, the Catalina Island Museum is pleased to announce it’s re-opening on Saturday, February 5th.  Located in Avalon’s historic Casino Building, the museum has updated its entire facility to include an expanded museum store, a viewing room for the presentation of films, a number of galleries dedicated to the history of Catalina Island and a new traveling exhibitions gallery. The traveling exhibitions gallery will feature temporary exhibitions that are often derived from either the Catalina Island Museum’s own extensive archive or the collections of other museums. 

The first exhibition in this space — "The Boys in Blue: the Chicago Cubs and Spring Training on Catalina Island"— also opened on February 5th.  Perhaps no professional sports team in America is more beloved than the Chicago Cubs. Affectionately nicknamed “The Boys in Blue” by their ever-loyal fans, the team’s owner, William Wrigley, Jr., executed a masterstroke when he first brought the Chicago Cubs to Catalina Island for spring training in 1921.  The move brought national attention to a vacation paradise Wrigley had owned since 1919. Nineteen Hall of Fame players trained with the Cubs on Catalina Island, including such legends of the diamond as Grover Cleveland Alexander, Dizzy Dean, Roger Hornsby, Joe McCarthy and Hack Wilson.  The presence of the team on the island was extensively documented, and this exhibition features a large collection of photographs, which not only document the Cubs’ many visits to the island but also lend a unique view into the history of Chicago Cubs baseball and Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The exhibition also chronicles the many pranks and practical jokes the Cubs played on one another, as well as the various personalities that descended on the island while the Cubs were training. Perhaps the best known of these personalities was a young radio announcer who followed the team to Santa Catalina before the 1936 and 1937 seasons. After conducting a successful Hollywood screen test during one visit to the island, Ronald “Dutch” Reagan eventually went on to become President of the United States.

The Catalina Island Museum is open 7 days a week from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.  For additional information please go to www.catalinamuseum.org.