‘Hollywood Costume’ sells 78,000 tickets at future Academy Museum site

“Hollywood Costume,” a multimedia exhibition at the site of the future Academy Museum, sold 78,000 tickets between its opening on Oct. 2 and its closing on Monday, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The pop-up show, an expanded version of an exhibition first organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2012, featured 150 costumes, including Marilyn Monroe’s dress from “The Seven Year Itch,” Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” and Darth Vader’s cape from “The Empire Strikes Back.”

Curated by costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis, “Hollywood Costume” drew a record 251,000 people over a 12-week period when it opened at the V&A in 2012, before going on to tour multiple cities in the United States.

In hosting the traveling show’s last stop, the academy hoped to spread awareness of its own future museum, which is set to open at the site of the Wilshire May Co. building at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in 2017.

“The academy wanted to create a sense of place where the future museum will be,” said Bill Kramer, managing director of the Academy Museum and External Affairs. “One of our major goals was to introduce the concept of the museum to an entirely new group of stakeholders.”

Kramer said the show drew a broad audience, from school groups to elder care homes, and enabled the Academy Museum to expand its database of potential visitors and donors five-fold.

“Many people made gifts to the museum campaign after visiting ‘Hollywood Costume,’ and we now have an expanded group of people who we will keep informed about the museum,” Kramer said.

The Academy Museum, which was designed by architect Renzo Piano, is scheduled to break ground in late spring or early summer, Kramer said.

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