BEYOND Unsinkable

The Molly Brown House Museum offers histories of Denver (+ Colorado), the unsinkable” Titanic, and an inspirational local and national political leader. I was very interested to learn that Historic Denver, which runs the museum, has managed to locate and buy back a third of the Brown's original household belongings. It was a three-story, Victorian-style house made of Colorado lava stone with sandstone trim. MGM turned the musical into a 1964 film starring Debbie Reynolds as Margaret "Molly" Brown and Harve Presnell as J. J. Brown.

Margaret Tobin Brown died of a brain tumor on 26 October 1932, at the Barbizon Hotel in New York where she had been working with young actresses. To get the story straight, we were directed to the Molly Brown House Museum on Pennsylvania Street, about nine blocks southwest of the hotel.

That's Molly Brown aka Margaret Tobin Brown. Museum entry is by guided tour only; purchase first-come first-served tickets from the carriage house out back or get limited presale tickets online. To mark the Titanic anniversary, the museum is hosting a six-course meal, like first-class ship passengers might have had, on April 14 at Denver's historic Oxford Hotel.

Open for more than 43 years, the Museum serves nearly 50,000 people every year, including 10,000 youth, successfully achieving its mission to enhancing the city's unique identity by telling the Titanic story of Margaret Molly” Brown's activism, philanthropy and passion through educational programs, exhibits and stewardship.

Known today as ‘Molly' Brown, Margaret Tobin Brown was actually called ‘Maggie' by family and friends. Off-Broadway and regional: Two Gentlemen of Verona (NYSF), Saturday Night (Second Stage), Love's Labor's Lost (Old Globe), My Paris (Long Wharf), Ever After (Paper Mill), Diner (Signature Theatre), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Denver Center Theatre).

So many wonderful tid-bits about Margaret Brown were offered during the tour. Only recently have they agreed to cooperate with the efforts of a historian, Kristen Iversen, and allowed access to letters, scrapbooks, photographs, and many personal effects of Margaret Tobin Brown that had previously been unavailable.

In 1895 the Browns took their family on a tour of Europe, and Maggie found a new world opened up to her. However, once tourists and other fans have been drawn to the buildings, both organizations work hard to present a historical portrayal of the life and homes of Margaret Brown.