Born and raised in Indiana, Jimmy Stewart figured that when talks were being made about a museum for his legacy, he figured it would be best to have it in his hometown. Now, as the Jimmy Stewart Museum is celebrating the 75^th anniversary of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ a heartwarming Christmas story all its own has taken shape in the renovation of the museum’s aging theater and AV equipment.

“It was probably great when it was new,” said Tim Hood, of Professional Audio & Video who performed installation and technical fine-tuning of the equipment. “But the speakers were crackling. The quality just wasn’t there anymore. After 27 years, it more than lived its life.”

“The projector had been finicky for the last few years, the sound system had a crackling sound to it and the screen was so old we couldn’t clean it anymore,” Janie McKirgan, the museum’s president and executive director stated in an article from the Indiana Gazette.

Another sign of its age was that the screen itself was full of holes! Not that it had deteriorated to the point of perforations; instead, the holes were a functional aspect of the older screen to allow sound to come through from the speakers behind it. Such a screening medium certainly wasn’t intended to try and hold the high-fidelity video that today’s formats can produce.

The only issue in all of this was that the museum simply didn’t have the funds to upgrade the everything themselves.

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AV Donations Come to the Rescue at the Jimmy Stewart Museum

It would make sense to bring the man who did the original install onto the project, just for the sake of familiarity and expertise. However, this time around, when Frank Viggiano, of Professional Audio & Video show up at the Jimmy Stewart Museum, he brought all of the contacts he had made in the industry up to that point, and they made sure the museum could deliver an incomparable viewing experience.

Through his list of contacts, Viggiano was able to procure $50,000 worth of donated video and sound equipment. Epson donated a 4K digital laser ceiling projector, Stewart Screen Co. provided the screen, Martin Logan/Paradigm handed over nine speakers, and Viggiano himself gifted a digital Blu-Ray player and universal remote.

Additionally, the Indiana County Endowment fund provided a grant to cover construction costs, while CeCe and Ed Mackey donated to cover installation expenses. Don Huey Construction even joined in to help install left, right and center speakers as well as hanging the four speakers on each side of the museum’s theater walls.

The result is, in Viggiano’s own words, a cross between a residential and commercial theater. And, in my own words, it’s one that would make Jimmy Stewart himself proud. Every one of the museum staff was both stunned and grateful with the results.

During a demonstration playing the movie ‘Vertigo’—the 1958 film starring Stewart—it didn’t take long before the crisp video and immersive audio wrapped itself around the room. And not a moment too soon, as the Jimmy Stewart Museum was able to start doing screenings of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ right on schedule.

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