A new Twilight Zone exhibit opened this week at the Bundy Museum of History and Art in Binghamton, New York. And we all have just six months to check it out.
The items on display come from the personal collection of Mike Pipher, a collector who has amassed the world’s largest collection of Twilight Zone memorabilia and props. He has everything from press materials to old 16mm films to original props actually used in filming the episodes.
What makes Pipher so different from other collectors is that he’s not too precious about his archive. Visitors are encouraged to handle many of the items in the collection.
“We’re a hands-on museum. If they want to see the Twilight Zone board game, $US600 rare piece, we’ll pull it out and let them play the game. If they want to handle the props from the Twilight Zone, they can hold the cobra phone, or the old Ironsides bookends and feel them and read the note from the set designer,” Pipher told the local news station in Binghamton.
So… why upstate New York, and not a larger city? Because the creator of the Twilight Zone, Rod Serling, was born in Syracuse and grew up in Binghamton. Below, Rod Serling’s childhood home photographed in 2009 by the Associated Press.
It’s unclear where the artefacts will go after six months. But if you want to see this wonderful bounty be sure to add Binghamton, New York, to your holiday plans.