Cedar Point museum opens soon

SANDUSKY — David Kaman is ready to share his love of Cedar Point with the local community and with visiting tourists, too. Kaman, a Sandusky native who recently returned to the city, has collected thousands of Cedar Point memorabilia items. He'll be sharing some of them when the new Downtown Sandusky Cedar Point Historical Museum opens on Dec. 4 in space inside the Merry-Go-Round Museum, 301 Jackson St. Starting on that date, admission to the Merry-Go-Round Museum will include admission to the new museum Kaman founded. Kaman is the founder and executive director of the new museum. He put together the exhibits with the help of Candy Frankowski, a longtime Cedar Point employee, who retired as a director of park operations. She's now vice president of the museum's board. Her responsibilities, by the time she retired from the park, included admissions and a now-closed park museum. She helped Kaman set up the exhibits at the new museum, arranging exhibits and weeding out items that she felt didn't meet museum standards. Frankowski has a good eye for how the displays should look, Kaman said. "I put it in, and Candy arranged it," he said. The new museum is housed in the Parker Room of the Merry-Go-Round Museum in a space of about 1,000 square feet. It has 17 display cases Kaman bought for the museum, but additional items are mounted on the walls. Where it began On Thursday, as he escorted visitors enjoying a special preview of the new museum, Kaman explained that he began collecting items back in 1973, starting with Cedar Point postcards. He now has 2,000 postcards. He also has every park map issued to visitors since the 1960s, handwritten notes penned by former Cedar Fair CEO Dick Kinzel, Cedar Point shot glasses, Cedar Point banners, and on and on. The oldest item is an 1893 company ribbon, issued to Huber Manufacturing Co. employees attending a Cedar Point event on Aug. 12, 1893. "We have the mug that was used in the movie 'Tommy Boy,'" said Kaman, gesturing to a display of Cedar Point mugs. "Tommy Boy," a 1995 comedy set in Sandusky, stars Chris Farley and David Spade. While the museum's piece is not an actual screen-used prop, it is a "rare duplicate," Kaman said. Kaman became intensely interested in Cedar Point as a young person who worked all night, from 11:30 p.m. to 8 a.m., changing out light bulbs at the park. He discovered the park was beautiful at dawn. His interest didn't wane after he acquired a law degree and founded a law firm in Cleveland. He had three sons, and on weekends, "We'd go to garage sales, estate sales, antique stores" in search of Cedar Point items. As the collection grew, it expanded in Kaman's Bay Village home. "One son moved out, and his room became the Boeckling bedroom," he said. Kaman retired from his law firm, sold his home and moved back to Sandusky. He now lives downtown. By 2021, "I had all of this stuff, and I started thinking about it," Kaman said. Becoming a Cedar Point depository With the goal of helping Sandusky's downtown revival by providing another reason to come there, Kaman began looking at storefront space for a new museum. Eventually, he got connected with the Merry-Go-Round Museum. His agreement with the museum runs through 2025 with an option to renew in 2026. "I anticipate being here those two years," Kaman said. "It's only now we are starting to talk about marketing and the future." When Kaman decided to turn the collection into a museum, 100% of the items were pieces he'd acquired. He estimates that figure has now shrunk to 80%, as former Cedar Point officials and other collectors have stepped forward to aid the cause. For example, former Cedar Point general manager Dan Keller gave Kaman the phone number for "Safari Jane," Jane Tetzlaff. After a long, friendly conversation, she donated shirts she and "Jungle Larry" wore at their park attraction in the 1980s. "As the word is getting out, people are dropping things off," Kaman said. "Our hope is we become a depository for all things Cedar Point." As the museum already is a government-recognized nonprofit, people who drop off donations at the Merry-Go-Round Museum will get a receipt for their tax-deductible gift. Candy Frankowski started at Cedar Point in 1970 as a "stringer and stamper." She would stamp the hands of visitors and put a string on their wrists, showing that they were entitled to get on all the rides. She went to college, intending to become a teacher. But, apparently, she made a good impression while working at Cedar Point because Kinzel offered her a job. In 1975, she graduated from college, got a full-time job at Cedar Point and got married to Gary Frankowski, a young police officer she had met while working at Cedar Point. Plenty of other couples also met at Cedar Point. Kaman says he'd like to establish a registry for married people who met at the park. The new museum includes a green-haired mask Candy Frankowski wore as a screamster in 1997 when HalloWeekends began at Cedar Point. "I only did it a few nights," she said. "I had a full-time job." The new museum is not affiliated with or funded by Cedar Point or the park's parent company, Six Flags. Kaman hopes to cultivate a friendly relationship with the company, which perhaps in the future might be persuaded to donate or loan items to the museum. "They recently gave us permission to use the Cedar Point name, which we appreciate," he said.