Happy Anniversary, Hoboken Museum; or, Who Got Drunk at the Party?

In 1986 two important things happened. First, the Mets won the World Series. Second, the Hoboken Historical Museum opened.

About Town loves the Museum. If you love Hoboken how could you not? It does a tremendous job of resurrecting the city's rich history. If you want to know about the Mile Square's heritage as an industrial hub, or as haven for immigrants, or about the birthplace of baseball or about the port that shipped millions of doughboys to war, visit the Museum.

We were very excited then to attend the Museum's special “GalaPalooza25” 25th anniversary party in the ballroom of the W Hotel on Friday night.

This was a fancy party. Three-hundred of Hoboken's most prominent people attended at $200 a ticket. The party was so fancy that early on About Town fretted to suave-suited realtor Padraic Gallagher about lacking enough snarky observations for a proper About Town article. We needed pep so badly that we almost asked Gallagher to squawk like Joe Pesci and redo the hit me scene from Raging Bull.

But then we remembered that the party had a four-hour open-bar. The Museum folks planned so much booze for the party that they got 25 local bars to invent entirely new cocktails. All About Town needed then was to wait until everybody got bombed and write down all the embarrassing things they said and did.

(About Town was sober the whole time too. We didn't buy a ticket, so we didn't drink anything. We did see everything though.)

We ran into former Mayor David Roberts and his wife Anna Roberts, and Councilmembers Peter Cunningham, Jennifer Giattino, Beth Mason and Tim Occhipinti. We saw former Councilmembers Mike Lenz and Tony Soares, Joe Mindak of hMAG, New York Times reporter and best-selling Bernie Madoff biographer Diana Henriques, Tom Greaney, Cindy Cray, former Freeholder Maurice Fitzgibbons, school board member Peter Biancamano, Mimi Kolko (a Museum trustee) and Laura Knittel of the Hoboken Public Library, Scott Delea (we liked his shoes), Cultural Affairs Director Geri Fallo and Armstead Johnson of the Jubilee Center. Curiously we spotted Anthony Romano talking to his opponent in Tuesday's election for freeholder, .

We asked a lot of people for their favorite thing about the museum. Dave Roberts cited exhibits like the one listing 100 “firsts” that happened in Hoboken (see the book written by Museum founder Jim Hans). Zabrina Stoffel said she enjoyed the House and Garden tours.

Mile Square Theatre artistic director Chris O'Connor said that the museum “really gives us a sense of pride about living in Hoboken.”

Former Museum trustee president Larry Henriques put things into perspective. “Hoboken has changed tremendously,” he said. “The only place that is captured is at the museum.”

Current trustee president Carol Losos, looking striking in a black Kentucky Derby style hat, said she was happy to see so many people come to support the Museum.

“My passion is the Museum, and to feel like I'm sharing it is tremendous,” she said.

Lots of the people at the party also praised The Barry Family, who are exactly like the Ramones except they build housing and don't play punk music. Thanks to the Barrys the Museum has a 100 year lease for its current home at the old Bethlehem Steel plant at 1301 Hudson Street for a dollar a year.

The Galapalooza also raised over $35,000 in a live auction. About Town swears several of those thousands are attributable to auctioneer (and Amanda's and Elysian Cafe owner) Eugene Flinn. We've seen Flinn run auctions before. It's pleasure watching him work. He's got the right cadence, knows when and how to raise the bidding and keeps the whole show moving.

After the auction the band Top Shelf featuring Tony nominated singer Josie DeGuzman performed. About Town rushed to the edge of the dance floor hoping to recognize people gettin' down. We saw thirty people and didn't recognize a single one. If you were dancing and noticed a weird guy with glasses and a notebook staring at you in disbelief, that was us.

Eventually we did see some familiar faces dancing, including Anthony Oland, Joyce Flinn and Ines Garcia-Keim. Gardiner boogied too. Lots of other people mingled in the hallway. The bar stayed open. We did this until the end of the party, at 11 p.m. 

So, congratulations to the Hoboken Historical Museum on its first 25 years. That's 25 years worth of great exhibits, great events, and making new memories while reclaiming old ones.

And surely, snarky or not, this article is one of the 25 best written about all that. But just who actually got drunk at the party? That's a totally different article.

Alan Skontra was a big dork who never went anywhere. Then he started writing the About Town column for Patch, and now he's everywhere. Have a hot tip on an event in Hoboken? Send an invitation, questions and comments too, to alanskontra@hotmail.com, and peep his tweets @alanskontra.