World's most unique photo or video set is now available - a perfect recreation of RMS TITANIC

Feb. 8, 2011 - PRLog -- KNOXVILLE, Tennessee – Professional photographers, videographers and filmmakers can now use the world’s most authentic recreation of the Titanic as a set or backdrop in Tennessee.  The Titanic Museum Attraction, which opened in April 2010, is owned by John Joslyn and Mary Kellogg – both longtime entertainment industry professionals.  

The Titanic Museum Attraction was built according to the actual blueprints for the Titanic from Harland & Wolff, the engineering company that built RMS Titanic a century ago.  Inside, the museum features 100-percent, full-size, exact recreations of third class cabins, third-class hallways, the Captain’s bridge, the promenade deck, first class suites, and – the centerpiece of the museum – the Titanic’s amazing Grand Staircase (which alone cost well over $1 million to create).  All areas of the one-of-a-kind museum are available for professional photo and video shoots through Cedar Bay Entertainment.

Joslyn had a long stint in TV before opening the Titanic Museum Attraction. Joslyn is best known as the executive producer of more than a dozen high-profile television documentaries and specials including “The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vault” with Geraldo Rivera and the series of documentaries that gave the world its first look at the Titanic two and a half miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic.  He was a network executive with NBC in Chicago and CBS in Los Angeles before forming his own production company, Westgate Entertainment Corp., in 1980.  John Joslyn later worked for Universal Pictures.

"The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults" (1986) and "Return to the Titanic LIVE" (1987) – both produced by John Joslyn – are two of the highest-rated syndicated television specials of all-time. The shows were viewed by a combined 50 million U.S. households.

Kellogg has an extensive background in entertainment, marketing and production having served as Executive Vice President Television for The Walt Disney Company for 20 years. During this period, she worked directly with Disney CEO, Michael Eisner and Studio Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, contributing to their successful effort to revitalize the Walt Disney Company with creative energy and evolutionary concepts. In her operations capacity, she worked closely with Don Ohlmeyer, former President of NBC’s West Coast Division, in overseeing production of Disney LIVE Event Specials.

As an executive director in both marketing and programming at CBS, Inc. for 10 years, Kellogg Joslyn negotiated exclusive sports packages with Los Angeles Rams owner, Georgia Frontiere; entertainment packages with King World, Paramount Television and with legendary movie/TV director and producer John Landis. She shared multiple Emmy honors during her tenures at both Disney and CBS.

At Disney, Kellogg was responsible for bringing to television the highly successful “Live with Regis and (Kathie Lee) Kelly” show for twenty years and served as the executive-in-charge of this show. She helped create, develop, and served as the executive-in-charge of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (both on television and as an attraction at Walt Disney World and Disneyland), plus over 75 weekly and daily shows during her career at Disney.

Joslyn and Kellogg combined their unique entertainment backgrounds to bring the Titanic to life through the Titanic Museum Attraction.  

The new Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. has been open for just two months and already more than 135,000 “passengers” have toured the painstakingly authentic recreation of the world’s most famous ship.  

The Titanic Museum Attraction opened in April with a star-studded weekend-long Grand Opening hosted by Regis Philbin.  The event also featured numerous descendants and family members of those on board the Titanic and included a christening of the ship by Captain Edward J. Smith.

Titanic Museum Attraction is a half-scale, permanent, three-deck recreation of the Titanic.  The museum houses 20 galleries to display nearly 400 authentic, priceless Titanic artifacts that were either carried from the ship and into lifeboats by passengers and crew, or were found afloat soon after the sinking and quickly salvaged by rescue boats.

Inside the Titanic Museum Attraction, visitors find full-size recreations (built to actual Titanic blueprints) of Third-Class quarters, a First-Class suite, dining rooms and – the museum’s centerpiece – a $1 million exact reproduction of the Titanic’s Grand Staircase.  The First-Class suite in the Titanic Museum Attraction, which is dedicated to Isidor and Ida Straus who co-owned Macy’s Department Stores, was also the cabin used in James Cameron’s blockbuster movie Titanic as Rose’s suite.

“What we have created is special in so many ways,” said John Joslyn, co-owner of the Titanic Museum Attraction.  “It is truly a museum – with hundreds of priceless artifacts from the Titanic, but it is also an overall experience for our guests.  They get to talk to crew members and maids who know the detailed story of the ship and her passengers.  Visitors are able to touch an iceberg and feel the 28-degree water exactly as it was on that fateful night.

“While you’re visiting the Titanic Museum Attraction, you truly become a passenger on board the Titanic.  It’s a complete experience that honors and respects the ship and its passengers by keeping their stories alive.  It’s a one-of-a-kind place that you have to experience to fully understand.”

In addition to being a world class museum in the truest sense of the word, Titanic Museum Attraction is also highly interactive and offers a hands-on experience for children, teenagers and adults.  The ship is anchored in water to create the illusion of Titanic at sea, and a two-hour self-guided tour gives guests the sensation of sailing on the original ship’s 1912 maiden voyage. Upon entry, each guest receives a boarding pass bearing the name of an actual Titanic passenger or crew member whose fate is revealed on the Memorial Wall at tour end. Along the way, powerful emotions surface as guests:

•   Walk Titanic’s Grand Staircase
•   Touch the frozen surface of an “iceberg”
•   Feel the chill of that fateful “Starry Night”
•   Study some of the largest, most detailed Titanic models ever built
•   Grip the ship’s wheel and follow the Captain’s commands
•   Tour world-class galleries and the rare historical artifacts they hold
•   Sit in a Titanic lifeboat and listen to actual survivors tell their stories
•   Send an SOS from the Marconi Wireless Room
•   Test their balance while standing on mini-decks built to show the ever-steeper slope of Titanic as she sank
•   Watch children eight years and younger explore the special interactive Tot-Titanic Play-and-Learn Room
•   Dive to Titanic’s wreck site via spectacular underwater camera footage

The Titanic Museum Attraction – which is conveniently located to all areas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville – is now open every day beginning at 9 a.m. ET.  Tickets are available online at www.TitanicPigeonForge.com and visitors are strongly urged to purchase tickets in advance or make reservations by calling 1-800-381-7670.  

Cedar Bay Entertainment, which owns and operates Titanic Museum Attraction, is a privately owned entertainment and development company headquartered in Branson, Missouri, the site of Cedar Bay’s first Titanic Museum Attraction. Since its April 2006 grand opening, it has welcomed more than 2,200,000 guests.

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