20th Anniversary Gala, Phoenix Hill Tavern Moose Headed to Frazier, Beatles Ties to Kentucky, and More
Mark your calendars for April 12, 2024!
As part of our 20th anniversary celebration this year, we are delighted to unveil the first annual Frazier Museum gala: Night at the Museum: Celebrating 20 Years of the Frazier, presented by Fifth Third Bank.
Portrait of founder Owsley Brown Frazier by Robert Alexander Anderson, 2000. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
Join us for a night of elegance, heritage, and celebration as we mark a significant milestone in the Frazier History Museum’s remarkable journey in becoming an inspiring cultural destination in Kentucky. From the museum’s internationally recognized collection to its position in 2024 as the place Where the World Meets Kentucky, we are proud to bring the community together to honor the incredible legacy of our founder, Owsley Brown Frazier.
This gala is not just an event—it’s a museum takeover!
At 5:30 p.m., doors will open to Friends of Owsley and Sponsors for cocktail hour and music by Carly Johnson and Small Time Napoleon. At 6:30 p.m., Night at the Museum Party guests will arrive for food, drinks, music, and fun throughout the galleries while Friends of Owsley enjoy a seated dinner in the loft. At 9 p.m., we will take it up a notch for our Late Night Party guests with Tony and the Tan Lines in our Great Hall and a DJ-driven dance party under the stars in our Rooftop Garden. There will be swag, a silent auction featuring Bourbons that you just can’t find, and experiential encounters around every corner, sharing what is truly cool about Kentucky!
Tony and the Tan Lines. Credit: Tony and the Tan Lines.
Event registration begins online TODAY!
Our Friends of Owsley table tickets are sold out, but you can register now to purchase our Party Tickets ($200) and Late Night Party Tickets ($100) on March 1! Don’t miss your chance to secure your spot at this historic celebration! (Note that ticket prices cover the cost of food and drink. Tickets go on sale to Frazier Members on February 16.)
This milestone event wouldn’t be possible without the tremendous support of our sponsors and the dedication of our esteemed Friends of Owsley Host committee.
Night at the Museum: Celebrating 20 Years of the Frazier is presented by Fifth Third Bank. Credit: Fifth Third Bank.
Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Fifth Third Bank, along with confirmed sponsors: Brown Forman, Mariner Wealth Advisors, Churchill Downs, PNC Institutional Asset Management, Alltech, Heuser Health, Heaven Hill, Michter’s Distillery, JP Davis Partners, Doe Anderson, Lewis & Grant Auctions, the Voice Tribune, Buzzard’s Roost, Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co., Mary Dowling Whiskey Co., and Clayton & Crume.
Thank you to our Friends of Owsley Host Committee: Laura Frazier, Amelia Frazier Theobald, Cordt Huneke, Jim and Catherine Joy, Mac and Eileen Brown, Jackson Andrews, Cindy Carcione Mary Casey and Joe Perkowski, Walter T. Crutcher (Founding Board Member) and Cheryl T. Cooper, Bruce Farrer, Bobby Ferreri, Jesse and Elaine Flynn, Shawn and Vickie Yates Glisson, Larry Horn, Larry and Tracey Lowe, Mike and Katy Mackin, Joe Magliocco, John and Sara McCall, Matt and Elizabeth McCall, Ron and Deb Murphy, Penny Peavler, Mark and Heather Preston, John and Lee Receveur, Virginia Speed, Charles Stewart, William A. Stone, Lindy B. Street, Jim and Marianne Welch, Julie Wunderlin, and Nicole Yates.
Their commitment to preserving and promoting the Frazier Museum has been integral to our success, and we extend our deepest gratitude to each of them for their invaluable contributions.
Join us on April 12 in commemorating 20 years of the Frazier Museum, where every exhibition tells a story and every moment is a celebration of our shared history. We look forward to your presence at this inspiring evening, where the past and the present converge in a night of joy, reflection, and community.
Hayley Harlow Rankin
Sr. Manager of Fundraising
Frazier History Museum
This Week in the Museum
Phoenix Hill Tavern Moose Head Migrating to Frazier Museum
MOOSE CROSSING!
The Frazier is getting a legendary piece of Louisville history: the Phoenix Hill Tavern’s moose head!
Exterior sign at Phoenix Hill Tavern. Credit: Phoenix Hill Tavern.
Crowd enjoys a performance in the saloon. Credit: Phoenix Hill Tavern.
Moose head mounted in the saloon, c. May 2016. Credit: Phoenix Hill Tavern.
Opened in 1976 at the northwest corner of Baxter and Broadway, Phoenix Hill Tavern became a Louisville nightlife mainstay. It hosted performances by artists such as Tori Amos, Meat Loaf, and Blue Oyster Cult.
Ben Rogers, founder of Phoenix Hill Tavern and Jim Porter’s Good Time Emporium, shopped for eccentric wall art to furnish his bars. It’s believed Rogers was at a flea market in the early 1980s when he found the solid plaster, 150-pounds, 1960s-taxidemy moose head. He had it installed in the tavern’s saloon, where it remained on display until Phoenix Hill Tavern closed in 2015. When the Courier Journal’s Jeffrey Lee Puckett asked bargoers to share their favorite memories, David Jackman said: “Sitting under the moose head with my future wife on our first date, October 4, 1984, listening to the Bobby Lanz Band.”
In 2016, when Rogers auctioned off miscellanea from the two bars, Joe Kresovsky bought the moose. Kresovsky’s band Wicker Frog had performed regularly at Phoenix Hill, even opening for acts like Bret Michaels and Sister Hazel. Since acquiring it, Kresovsky has had the item on display in his home.
However, he’s about to leave Louisville—and he decided the moose ought to stay here in the community. When he put out a call for buyers on Facebook, he was flooded with responses: bars, restaurants, music venues, and nostalgics—between fifty and a hundred interested parties, he estimates. But after the Frazier’s senior director of engagement Casey Harden invited Kresovsky to tour the museum’s Cool Kentucky exhibition and show him where we’d put it—alongside the ear X-tacy sign and the Teddy Bear Lounge awning—he opted to donate the item to us. “Ultimately, I wanted it to go to you guys because I know you’ll take care of it, you’ll have it on display, and you’ll be around.”
I asked Dave Moody, a musician who frequently played Phoenix Hill, about the magic of the moose.
“The moose was like the fifth Beatle,” he said. “It was synonymous with good vibes. You wanted to make sure to rub the chin so that you had good juju going with the crowd.”
Dave shared with me an anecdote about the sort of unforgettable nights people had in that saloon.
On Halloween 2009, Dave got a call from a sixteen-year-old Miley Cyrus. At the time, Dave played bass for Miley’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus. Miley was in town that night to perform at Freedom Hall; meanwhile, Phoenix Hill Tavern was hosting its annual Lou-A-Vull’s Most Outrageous Halloween Costume Ball. During their set, Dave’s band, Jefferson TARC Bus, brought Miley and her entire entourage on stage to dance and sing “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.” The performance took place in the saloon, in front of the moose head.
Once the moose arrives and we install it in Cool Kentucky, we’ll let you Frazier Weekly readers know! And thank you, Joe Kresovsky, for your generous donation.
Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist
Curator’s Corner: Andrew Jackson Smith’s Heroism at Honey Hill, 1864
As part of our upcoming 120: Cool KY Counties exhibit, members of the Frazier team have been hard at work collecting stories from each of Kentucky’s 120 counties. As you might expect, these stories from all over the Commonwealth cover a variety of topics and introduce a diverse array of Kentuckians. I am proud to say that we were able to include the stories of African Americans from many different parts of the state. In honor of Black History Month, I would like to share with you one of my favorite stories that we have collected, this one from Western Kentucky.
Andrew Jackson Smith, 1865. Credit: State Library of Massachusetts.
Corporal Andrew Jackson Smith was awarded the Medal of Honor 137 years after his actions at the Battle of Honey Hill during the Civil War. Smith was born into slavery as the son of an enslaved woman and her enslaver. After the Civil War broke out, he escaped to join the Union Army in Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky. Smith made his way south during General William Sherman’s March to the Sea. When the Union color-bearer was killed at the Battle of Honey Hill on November 30, 1864, Smith took up the responsibility. During the Civil War, the color-bearer was always a target because they marched in front of advancing troops. By taking up the regimental colors, Smith sacrificed his safety to save the morale of his fellow soldiers. Smith survived the war and later passed away in 1935 in Livingston County. President Bill Clinton presented his family with the Medal of Honor in 2001 during a ceremony at the White House.
This is just one example of the types of stories that will be a part of our new 120: Cool KY Counties exhibit—and of the types of African American stories that are on display in our permanent and temporary exhibitions every day. I hope this February you can take some time to visit the Frazier as a starting point for learning more about Black history.
Amanda Briede
Sr. Curator of Exhibitions
Frazier Program to Feature Organizers of 1964 March on Frankfort
Bridging the Divide: March on Frankfort: The 60th Anniversary graphic. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
What a chance to hear from the people who were there. This is living history: what they felt, heard, and saw. What were their hopes as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led that march in Frankfort back in 1964? It came at a tumultuous time of struggle with racial equity, and Kentucky didn’t appear ready to support a law banning discrimination in public accommodations. This is your chance to hear from those who marched and helped organize the gathering of about 10,000 people. The Frazier is partnering with the Louisville Metro Office of Equity and the Courier Journal for this special free program on February 22. Registration is required; click here to reserve your seat and learn more about who will be joining us.
Rachel Platt
VP of Mission
Half-Off Admission Continues for Hometown Tourism Week, February 1–11
2024 Hometown Tourism graphic. Credit: Louisville Downtown Partnership.
Don’t forget that this is the Downtown Hometown Tourism Week! From February 1 to February 11, anyone with a valid Kentucky or Indiana ID, local college ID, or military ID can receive half-off regular admission tickets to participating Downtown venues.
Click here to see all the participating attractions and to purchase your tickets. Walk-ins are welcome, but pre-purchased admission is encouraged.
Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist
Museum Shop: LucKY Valentine Supplies Limited
LucKY Valentine bundle sold in the Frazier’s Museum Shop. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
Win Valentine’s Day with our exclusive LucKY Valentine bundle! Delivered nationwide for just $20, it features a horseshoe worn by a thoroughbred on a prestigious track, milk chocolate coins from Muth’s Candies—a local confectioner sweetening Louisville since 1921—and a personalized note from you. Act fast: supplies are limited!
A Brief History of the Beatles’ Ties to Kentucky, 1964–Present
The Beatles wave to fans upon arriving at Kennedy Airport in New York, February 7, 1964. Credit: United Press International.
Sixty years ago this week, music and culture changed profoundly when the Beatles stepped off a plane in New York City. On February 7, 1964, screaming fans thronged the band at the newly named Kennedy Airport. Two nights later, nearly 73 million people—almost half the population of America!—watched them perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. Their few years of touring never brought the band to Kentucky, but this first American tour did take them to Miami, Florida, where they famously met Kentuckian Cassius Clay. Clay would shock the world one week after the meeting with his first heavyweight title on February 25. That March 6, Clay would change his name to Muhammad Ali.
The Beatles have more connections to Kentucky beyond Ali, though. Not surprisingly, they have to do with music!
In Paul McCartney’s 2021 book The Lyrics, his ruminations on Muhlenberg County’s Everly Brothers led him to the declaration, “I just think they’re the greatest.” While Ali might take issue with that, it wasn’t bluster on McCartney’s part. John Lennon and Paul McCartney poured over American records, and they wore out copies of Everly Brothers recordings. Both Beatles would tell you there was not a bigger influence on their harmony singing than Phil and Don Everly. And they carried that influence for the rest of their careers. During the sessions for Let it Be, the eventual final Beatles album, they imitated the brothers while rehearsing the Everly-ish song “Two of Us,” even playfully calling each other “Phil” and “Don” during the sessions.
Kentucky connections don’t end there for Paul, however. The first release from his band Wings, titled Wild Life, included a cover of the Mickey and Sylvia song “Love is Strange.” Mickey Baker, the singer and guitar player of that R&B hit, was from Louisville. (Sylvia, by the way, would go on to be a hip hop pioneer, founding Sugar Hill Records.) And in the 1990s, McCartney recorded a concert for MTV Unplugged which included Bill Monroe’s song to his home state, “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”
But clearly, the Everly Brothers were most important to him—so much so that McCartney wrote a song for them to sing in 1984. “On the Wings of a Nightingale” became a late-career hit for the brothers from Kentucky, and McCartney played guitar on the track.
Mick Sullivan
Curator of Guest Experience
Bridging the Divide
ART FM / WXOX 97.1 Celebrates Eight Years on Louisville Airwaves
Voices. Friends, relatives, and lovers. Listen closely and you will hear them in your mind. The character, the inflection, the accent that no photograph can capture, no written text can carry. Voices command and compel us; they enter our hearts and they engage our minds. They say with us forever.
What can be more personal, more real, more memorable than someone’s voice? What can be more powerful? We can do so much with our voices. We can save lives, unite communities, and inspire masses. So powerful yet these same voices fall empty when they cannot be heard.
For over a decade, ART FM has been working to amplify the unique voices in our community. The voices that have not had access to the mainstream media on their own terms, in their own languages, celebrating their own traditions. It has been such an exciting journey to see what happens when PEOPLE—real people—your neighbors and friends—turn from consumers into producers. Fresh voices, new sounds, audio adventures are reigniting the airwaves and it is possible the Golden Age of Radio is still yet to come!
In December 2023, the FCC opened a Low Power FM (LPFM) application window and over 1,300 nonprofit organizations across the country applied for these noncommercial licenses. Many of these will be granted in the coming months and all across the country new community radio stations will spring to life! Listen for them and support these nonprofits when you can. In the world of advancing AI and media consolidation, these freeform community radio stations stand out as bunkers of personalities, beacons of democracy.
Here in Louisville, you are lucky to have three LPFM radio stations over the airwaves: our station WXOX 97.1 FM, XtendSound’s 100.9 FM, and Forward Radio’s WFMP 106. 5 FM. On these stations listeners enjoy locally made music, timely commentary on local events, and a variety of broadcasts with local relevance. Because these stations are volunteer powered, you never know who or what you might hear. This adventure in listening is such a relief from the over-programmed, overplayed material on so many FM stations. If you have not tried LPFM radio yet, I recommend you give it a listen . . . but be careful, you might fall in love!
From left, River Lotus Lion Dance Troupe members Simmi Tran, Danny Tran, Ashley Phan, Christina Tran, and Alan Tran pose in the WXOX studio. Credit: WXOX.
This year marks EIGHT YEARS of community broadcasting on WXOX 97.1 FM. We invite you to celebrate with us at our downtown studio, 515 West Breckinridge Street, on Saturday, February 10, beginning at 8 p.m. Because this date coincides with the dawning of the YEAR OF THE DRAGON, guests are encouraged to WEAR RED for good luck in the New Year. The River Lotus Lion Dance troupe will stop by to glorify the grand reopening of our recently renovated studio. We hope you will, too!
Musical performances including CYPHR DVN, Jakey T. Jackson, and a host of ART FM DJs will be broadcast live on the FM dial! Bring your family and friends: this is a free, all ages event! If you cannot join us there, be sure to tune us in on WXOX 97.1 FM or worldwide on artxfm.com.
Sharon M. Scott
Co-Founder & General Manager, ART FM/WXOX 97.1 FM
Guest Contributor
History All Around Us
20th Anniversary Photo: Dragons Mascot Throws First Pitch, 2007
The Frazier’s Dragons mascot throws out the first pitch at a Louisville Bats game versus the Ottawa Lynx at Slugger Field, May 9, 2007. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
As WXOX celebrates the Chinese zodiac’s Year of the Dragon—a special year for 1988 babies like Steph Curry, Rihanna, and yours truly—we at the Frazier Museum look back at Dragons, an exhibition on display here from June 2 to September 4, 2007. “This is a chance for knights and maidens across the Kentuckiana region to hone their dragon communication abilities, learn appropriate dragon decorum, and become immersed in dragon culture and lore,” the original news release said.
In other words, Dracarys!
Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist
Super Bowl LVIII Preview
Welp, despite my best wishes, this year Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens’ Super Bowl hopes have been dashed to “Night’s Plutonian shore.” The Kansas City Chiefs donned “the Red Masque of Death,” plaguing Jackson and the Ravens to a gutting loss in the 2024 AFC Championship game. So, alas, that Cool Kentucky connection is now, as The Raven would say, “Nevermore.”
Afterwards, I had hoped another contingency would materialize: the Detroit Lions beating the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game. In that scenario I would have been able to expound on the Kentucky connections of one of the Lions’ team captains: Jalen Reeves-Maybin, son of former U of L basketball star Marques Maybin.
Unfortunately for Reeves-Maybin, the Lions, and their long-suffering fan base, Detroit choked away a commanding 24-7 halftime lead, losing to the Niners, 34-31. So that Kentucky tie died a quick death, too. The only remaining player with any Kentucky ties left is former Kentucky Wildcats safety Mike Edwards. He will start at free safety for the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII.
So, with the Kentucky ties exhausted, I thought it would be fun to play a little game of what I would call Frazier History Numerology. Since 2024 marks the Frazier’s 20th anniversary, the number 20 figures prominently in a couple of ways in Super Bowl LVIII:
If the Chiefs win Super Bowl LVIII, it would be the first time in 20 seasons that a franchise has repeated as Super Bowl Champion. The last time that happened was during the 2004 NFL season, when the New England Patriots repeated as World Champions by beating the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX.
Since Usher is the headline performer for the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show, it’s interesting to note that his hit single “Yeah”—which we’ll likely hear on Sunday—is now 20 years old: it was released January 27, 2004.
Can we get a “Yeah” for Simon Meiners and Hayley Harlow Rankin for alerting us to that factoid?
Anywho, kickoff for Super Bowl LVIII is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. this Sunday on CBS. (I must hold my nose when I say this, but I’ve got the Chiefs winning straight up, by 4. Yuck!)
Brian West
Teaching Artist and Raiders Fan
