Cartoon Museum's Empire State Building Deal Falls Through

By: E&P Staff The National Cartoon Museum won't move to New York City's Empire State Building after all, according to an article today in The Advocate of Stamford, Conn.

Peter Malkin, who chairs the group that owns the Empire State Building, said he'd been saving space for the museum, rent-free, for more than a year. Malkin added that he had to put the space back on the market when he saw construction had not begun.

"We had signed a lease, and under the lease they were supposed to go in and create the space for the museum and do work by a certain date," Malkin told The Advocate's Brooke Springer. "They were not able to proceed with that, and we extended the date several times. But it was necessary finally to terminate the arrangement [and] go forward with a more traditional, commercial use of the space."

Museum founder Mort Walker, the "Beetle Bailey" creator who has a studio in Stamford, sees things differently. "They changed the deal on us," said the King Features Syndicate cartoonist. "They were going to sell our tickets when they sold tickets to the observation tower. We were going to split the ticket sales. They turned around and said they couldn't do it. They put our rent at $650,000. We found that too difficult, so our lease was canceled."

According to The Advocate, Walker had hoped to attract 700,000 of the 3.5 million people who visit the Empire State Building's observatory each year. He said the original deal was for the museum to occupy the space rent-free in exchange for half the proceeds of ticket sales, which he estimated would be $7 million.

The museum, which was supposed to open in the Empire State Building next year, was formerly called the International Museum of Cartoon Art. It began in Connecticut in 1974, moved to Rye Brook, N.Y., and then was situated in Boca Raton, Fla., for six years before closing in 2002. It has a collection of about 200,000 cartoons.

Walker said another location in New York City (which had granted the museum $1.8 million) is still a possibility. Also, a Stamford official has suggested the museum move to the vacant Old Town Hall in downtown Stamford.

The Advocate article was mentioned on Tom Spurgeon's ComicsReporter.com blog.