You can now take a tour of the Mob Museum with a robot
We all know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
But you don’t have to stay in Vegas to know what happens at the Mob Museum.
Not with Moe-Bot the robot on the scene.
Moe-Bot doesn’t sport a fedora or a “fuhgeddaboutit” accent. Indeed, such “Star Wars” stalwarts as R2-D2 and BB-8 might recognize Moe as a distant relative. (Although, truth be told, he more closely resembles “WALL-E’s” title trash-compactor robot.)
For wannabe Mob Museum visitors, however, he’s their eyes and ears — and wheels. Wherever they happen to be.
Technically, Moe’s a BeamPro telepresence robot, under the command of a virtual visitor operating him via a computer keyboard or mouse.
And his (its?) presence makes the Mob Museum, more formally known as the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, the only museum in Las Vegas — and one of the few around the world — equipped to offer virtual robotic tours. (Others include the American Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of Australia, Britain’s Tate Museum and San Francisco’s de Young Museum.)
“We’re one of three museums in the U.S. doing this,” says Brenda Hengel, the Mob Museum’s public relations and marketing manager. “And we’re the only ones doing consistent tours.”
Consistent in terms of scheduling, that is: two Moe-Bots are ready to go at 7:30 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays, provided you reserve a tour two weeks in advance.
Each 90-minute tour is customized to the specifications of the virtual visitor.
Curious about Chicago gangster days of yore? Want to concentrate on the Kansas City mob connection?
“You have the ability to ask for that,” according to Ashley Miller, the museum’s director of marketing and public relations. (After you schedule your tour and download the program enabling you to control Moe, that is.)
For example, one recent virtual visitor — a Chicago hospital patient — put the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre wall on his itinerary, Hengel says. (In case you’ve forgotten, that’s the wall of the Chicago garage where seven members of mobster Bugs Moran’s gang were allegedly gunned down by Al Capone’s associates.)
While the virtual visitor controls the Moe-Bot, an on-site educator serves as tour guide, commenting on more than 1,000 mob and law enforcement artifacts displayed at the downtown museum.
Upstairs in the “Wide Open” gallery that details the mob’s influence in Las Vegas during the 20th century, educator Teresa Torres instructs the Moe-Bot operator (in this case, it’s Misha Ray, the museum’s digital marketing manager, demonstrating the device) to take a 360-degree view of the entire gallery.
Following Torres’ request, Ray signals Moe-Bot to spin around; the robot pirouettes silently, effortlessly, then stops again, awaiting Torres’ instructions to zoom in on displays devoted to Vegas pioneer Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, a 40-pound headdress from the Tropicana’s long-running “Folies Bergere” (on display thanks to the mob connections of producer Joe Agosto), and former Clark County sheriff Ralph Lamb.
Continuing through the gallery, Torres introduces Moe-Bot — or, more precisely, the virtual visitor operating him — to exhibits explaining the Nevada Black Book, the skim (in which the mob took its cut of casino cash) and business tycoon Howard Hughes’ casino buying spree, which triggered corporate control of the Strip.
All the while, Moe-Bot’s video screen — located where his face should be — features the image of the virtual visitor touring the museum with the designated educator.
“At first, it was kind of weird,” Torres says of guiding a visitor via Moe-Bot. “It’s something I’ve never done before.” Now, however, “I’m pretty used to it,” she adds, noting how “quiet” Moe-Bot is as it zooms alongside her. “You don’t hear it at all.”
The 7:30 a.m. tours mean virtual visitors won’t hear in-person museum attendees either.
“It’s a better experience if the museum is not full of guests,” Hengel comments. Even so, “if you’re inside the Moe-Bot, you’re not aware” of crowds. “And you can ask any questions you want.”
Moe-Bot’s path to the Mob Museum began about six months ago, when Miller “read about a few museums doing this,” she recalls. “It opens the museum to the homebound or the disabled.”
It also enables friends and relatives of Vegas visitors to experience the Mob Museum, even if they can’t travel to Las Vegas.
In addition, school groups will be able to make virtual visits to the museum, with teachers directing Moe-Bot as it navigates the museum while the video feed is projected to classrooms.
Touring the Mob Museum via Moe-Bot represents “a different type of experience” than a live, in-person visit, Hengel acknowledges. “This is not less, nor more. It’s a one-on-one exclusive experience.”
Read more from Carol Cling at reviewjournal.com. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.
Preview
What: Moe-Bot Tours
When: Two tours available Mondays-Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. Pacific time; book 14 days in advance
Where: The Mob Museum, 300 Stewart Ave.
Admission: $79 (www.themobmuseum.org/plan-your-visit/moe-bot)
