From: indigo nights
For comment.
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Commercial interruption
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Small appears to be selling bits of Smithsonian to top bidder
MICHAEL KILIAN
September 6, 2001
WASHINGTON -- Amelia Earhart never munched a Big Mac.
This is sublimely evident from the willowy photo of her to be found at the Smithsonian Institution here. More about that later. But first, let us turn to our primary subject today, Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small.
A former mortgage company suit, Small took over the world's largest museum and research complex in January 2000 as the first non-academic and first corporate CEO type ever to head the gigantic, sprawling Institution.
Next week, the Smithsonian's august Board of Regents, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Vice President Richard Cheney, will be holding their next big meeting, and the main subject under discussion is expected to be Small.
We won't know this for sure, because Smithsonian Regents meetings are for some reason always held in secret, even though the Smithsonian's $494 million budget is paid for by us U.S. taxpayers. But according to sources within the Smithsonian, Cheney has been somewhat peeved with Small over the bad press he's been getting and will be wanting to chat with him on a few topics.
The most controversial
The three most recent Smithsonian secretaries -- S. Dillon Ripley, Robert McCormick Adams and I. Michael Heyman -- almost never got in the news and when they did, it was usually about some new ornithology exhibit or an exciting archeological dig out in East Nebuchadnezzar. Small has been in the public print as much as John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson were.
There's not space to list all the controversies that have arisen in his year-and-eight-month tenure, but they include furors over his trying to close down a world-famous wildlife research center and artifact restoration center, an investigation into his possibly illegal private collection of endangered species African artifacts, and complaints that he is trying to suppress scientific and scholarly research while transforming the venerable Smithsonian into a sort of "Six Flags Over Knowledge" theme park.
Large segments of the Smithsonian staff have risen in open revolt and bombarded the Regents and members of Congress with letters demanding that Small's appointment be reconsidered.
"In abandoning academia to bring in a businessman of Mr. Small's temperament to run the institution, the Regents of the Smithsonian made an unfortunate choice," wrote National Museum of Natural History scientist Storrs Olson, who called Small "the most reviled and detested administrator in the institution's history."
Clearly, the Regents brought Small in because the Smithsonian needs more dough, and they thought he might have access to some. The physical plant is falling apart in many places, and he's eliminating 200 jobs to save money. The National Portrait Gallery closed down for a major renovation and the director isn't sure when it will reopen because they haven't found the money to complete the job.
Small is bringing in the bucks -- private fat-cat donations -- in record amounts, but, as he himself noted, it's mostly earmarked for special purposes.
Self-serving donors
Self-made multimillionaire Catherine B. Reynolds gave Small $38 million --not to hire back employees or finish the Portrait Gallery but to create a Horatio Algeresque "Hall of Achievement" in the National Museum of American History. Under the agreement, Reynolds, who would control the nominations of honorees, has suggested Martha Stewart, Steven Spielberg, Sam Donaldson and (according to some reports) herself.
Small also took $80 million from California developer Kenneth Behring, whose name now adorns the National American History Museum, of which $20 million is to go for, yes, the creation of second Horatio Algeresque hall honoring American achievers.
And, in return for $10 million from General Motors, Small is naming the American History Museum's new permanent transportation exhibition the "General Motors Hall of Transportation" (wonder how many Ford Model T's they'll have on display).
Small has been raising money for his own expenses, creating a special "gift fund" that he's used to charter a private biz jet for $14,509 when he missed his commercial plane on the way back from Texas, $22,350 in office lighting, $16,867 in wall hangings, and $8,140 in valances and brass fixtures. A similar fund is providing the Regents with a $30,000 conference table.
My personal beef is that it was announced last week that Small is closing the National Air and Space Museum's Flight Line restaurant, where I took my kids for years and years, and replacing it with (gads) a combination McDonald's, Boston Market and Donato's Pizza.
All those big, shiny fast-food corporate logos, just down from Amelia Earhart's Lockheed and Charles Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis."
Soon, no doubt, to be renamed "the TWA Spirit of St. Louis."
Copyright (c) 2001, Chicago Tribune
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