The National World War II Museum recently announced it received a $5.5 million gift of charity from T.G. Solomon and his family, who helped found the Gulf States Theatres organization of movie theaters. Appropriately enough, as a result of the family’s donation to the museum’s capital expansion campaign, its theater will be named the Solomon Victory Theater.
Along with noting that the family’s theater background makes a perfect match for naming the museum’s theater after them, Dr Nick Mueller, museum president and CEO, said that Solomon’s have been great supporters of the museum.
"I first met T.G. in 1973, when I was a professor and, later, an administrator at the University of New Orleans," Mueller said. "He joined the board of trustees in the museum’s earliest days and immediately became an invaluable resource as we began to develop documentaries and cinematic treatments for our exhibition galleries."
A special 35-minute movie called Beyond All Boundaries will be featured at the Solomon Victory Theater. The film is a multi-dimensional and sensory experience and features Tom Hanks as the narrator. Hanks also served as the film’s executive producer, and a number of other notable stars – including Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon and Gary Sinise – have contributed to the project.
T.G. Solomon has also been involved over the five-year course of the film’s planning, and has traveled with Mueller in order to consult on its development.
The theater, which is located in New Orleans, will make its grand opening in November, and features a 120-foot-wide screen. In order to create the special effects featured in viewing Beyond All Boundaries, another large screen is set up in front of the main screen.
Along with the theater, the museum features a number of permanent exhibits spanning America’s involvement in World War II. The exhibits feature the events that lead up to America going to war, the effect of the conflict on people at home, and the planning and execution of D-Day.