An Interactive Museum Where You Can Touch Exhibits Gets a Cameo on Broadway

At his core, Denny Daniel is a collector. He has amassed hundreds of antiques since the 1980s, sparking not only his curiosity, but he curiosity of others. One day, soon after he started building his collection, a neighbor and her son, Enoch, visited Daniel, in awe of the trinkets. Collectively, they couldn’t figure out how to put together a Thomas Edison recorder.

“Enoch was probably around 5, and you could see the wheels turning in his brain as he stared at it, and he said, ‘Why don’t you try doing it the other way around?’ ” Daniel told Straus News. “And us, being pretty positive and open-minded were like, Yeah, let’s listen to the 5-year-old. Can’t hurt. And it worked.”

Enoch was so proud of this, that it made Daniel realize how his antique collection could help preserve the sanctity of innovation.

In 2008, Daniel founded and curated the Museum of Interesting Things, an interactive traveling exhibition that uses antiques so that people can “learn from the past and innovate a better future.”

While the museum is based in New York, it prides itself on the mobility and versatility of its demonstrations, taking inventions to schools, universities, hospitals, parties, and more. The museum specializes in a range of subfields including Science, Math, Literature, Medical, Toys, Music, Household, and Photography, all of which coincide with New York City public-school curricula.

To accommodate specific interests, the museum also offers around 52 different themes so that audiences can have a tailored learning experience. “There’s so many themes. I think we have two more themes than America has states,” said Daniel.

For instance, “Can You Hear Me Now!” is a theme that includes artifacts instrumental in the history of communication. “Eureka!” involves artifacts that defined the Industrial Revolution and mechanical era.

“Eureka!” is Daniel’s favorite show, but it also happens to be the most popular because it offers a little bit of everything. According to Daniel, “Eureka!” is the show that schools and libraries will request around 80 percent of the time.

Daniel is a “tinkering” enthusiast, and encourages audiences to really interact with the antiques. This means learning arithmetic on a 1912 Monroe Calculator, examining a 1440 Printer’s Plate, or listening to one another’s heartbeats through an 1816 Wooden Stethoscope.

By giving people the opportunity to explore the original versions of modernized, everyday tools, Daniel hopes that people walk away with a restored appreciation for invention.

As much as the museum offers a unique opportunity to learn about history, Daniel told Straus News that interacting with audiences has been a learning opportunity for him as well.

“One person . . . was so excited by it a couple of weeks ago that she was like, ‘Do you have a TikTok?’ And I said, ‘Kinda, not really.’ She goes, ‘I want to make one for you, design it, and do your first TikTok and film it.’ I said okay, and she wouldn’t leave until it was completely set up.”

Daniel and the audience member worked together to create his TikTok portfolio, bridging his knowledge about antiques with her social media proficiency. They played with the fact that there are now 6,009 items, coming up with the idea to have an audience member from each show pick their favorite item to be featured in a TikTok until all 6,009 items are accounted for. Not only is this another interactive element; it will educate the public and increase the museum’s reach.

From schools to libraries to the NYC headquarters and now TikTok, Daniel has secured yet another platform—the Broadway stage. The museum’s very own Moviola, a 1924 device that allowed filmmakers to view film while editing, is on Broadway for George Clooney’s debut in Good Night, and Good Luck, a play about 20th-century media responsibility. This Moviola was also featured in Tim Burton’s first film, “Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure.”

“In my film career,” explained Daniel, “we did a lot of interviews in a studio, and this Moviola was in the hallway, and me being a silly kid from Queens said, ‘Whoa, I wish I had this for the museum,’ and my boss was like, ‘You could never afford this. Nobody would give it to you.’ She was a really cool boss, though, and I laughed it off. But believe it or not, nature tends to work in mysterious ways.”

A year later, his boss called him up and said they wanted to donate it for Daniel’s museum.

So when Good Night, and Good Luck needed a Moviola for the stage set, they reached out to Daniel. And since the play opened on April 3, the Museum’s impact has reached an extraordinary fanbase, from museum attendees to Broadway audiences.

When it’s not on Broadway, the antique’s home is the museum’s East Village headquarters on Broadway and 8th Street, where Daniel typically keeps larger items that can be visited by appointment.

Committing to the creative historian within, Daniel has expanded the museum to include a SoHo speakeasy every week, live or on Zoom. In addition to the antiques, original and rare 16mm short films from the 20th century are played. There will be refreshments, too, of course.

“The only thing you leave behind are the people you inspire,” he said, proudly running an interactive museum with a lasting purpose.