• By GEORGE MORRIS
• Advocate News Features staff
• Published: Nov 22, 2009

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NEW ORLEANS — Since opening nine years ago, the National World War II Museum has been a magnet for anyone interested in the 20th century’s defining conflict. Now, it gives people even more reasons to go — or go back.

And not just during the day.

With the opening of the Solomon Victory Theater, Stage Door Canteen and The American Sector restaurant, the museum has not only expanded into a second block of the Central Business District, it has added an entertainment component to what has been a popular but fairly traditional museum.

The centerpiece of the expansion is Beyond All Boundaries, a multimedia cinematic presentation that tells the story of World War II. Executive Producer Tom Hanks and Producer Phil Hettema created a unique “4-D” format for audiences in the Solomon Victory Theater.

Snow falls on viewers during the Battle of the Bulge. Their chairs shake as tanks pass by in North Africa, or as German antiaircraft fire buffets a B-17 bomber, whose forward fuselage lowers from the ceiling and extends from the movie screen into the theater. A concentration camp guard tower rises from the stage, and searchlights pan through the seats. And a blinding flash of light introduces the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, followed by a shock wave of wind.

“I’m not exactly sure what the fourth dimension is that they’re talking about, but when you do see it in 4-D — or 5-D or 9-D or whatever it is — it fills up the room,” Hanks said at the grand opening on Nov. 6. “Phil and everybody were talking about a one-of-a-kind sensory experience that would envelope you and engage all of your senses, and even though I was not eating at the time, I had a distinctive taste in my mouth. It works substantially well and is even bigger than what was promised.”

Like the original museum, Beyond All Boundaries tells some of its story through the oral histories collected by the late Stephen Ambrose, the museum’s co-founder. The overall effect seemed to please World War II veterans who viewed it at the grand opening. Chalmette resident Edgar Quillan, 82, served on the aircraft carrier USS Essex.

“If you didn’t know about World War II, after this you would,” Quillan said.

That is the point, not only of Beyond All Boundaries, but of the entire facility, which opened as the National D-Day Museum on June 6, 2000, and changed its name as its scope expanded. The most recent expansion (more expansions are in the works) also gives visitors a taste life for soldiers and civilians away from the bullets and bombs.

The American Sector is a restaurant by noted New Orleans chef John Besh. Both the food and drink menus give a nod to the popular items of the time, with a bit of Besh’s creativity. Many of the drinks come from what was served in 1942 in the Blue Room in New Orleans.

“I didn’t know what half of them were,” Besh said. “We started researching them, and it’s really something else.”

Black-and-white photos of celebrities including Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong adorn the walls of the American Sector, which is open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sandwiches range from $9-$12.50, and main courses from $13-$26, with $7 kids’ meals.

The Stage Door Canteen recreates the kind of entertainment venue popular to military personnel during the war. The original Stage Door Canteen opened in 1942 in the Broadway theater district, offering servicemen nights of dancing, entertainment, food and nonalcoholic drinks. The concept spread to other cities.