Taking inventory of rock-and-roll legends

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is a glitzy mecca for the rock-and-roll faithful. The legends that defined rock-and-roll are celebrated with room after room of icons. Just about anything they touched, wore or strummed a note on comprise this shrine on the banks of Lake Erie. To date, an estimated six million people have come to “worship.”

In stark contrast, many floors below some of the brightest exhibits in the building is a plain, white and gray room, tucked off a narrow, cluttered hall. Only five people have card access to the cold, temperature-controlled space.

Her duties would impress the most ambivalent rock fan. The 29-year-old with a personality as laid back as a Nat King Cole 45 is responsible for the meticulous, white-glove handling of everything that comes into the music museum that might end up in an exhibit for public viewing.

Yes, the 2000 graduate with a popular culture degree has intimate contact with the silver star-studded black leather jacket Bruce Springsteen wore on the 1975 “Born to Run” album. You know, the one that rocketed him to pop stardom.

Elvis’ long, black overcoat with brown fur collar also waits to be tagged by Gittins. It’s hanging right beside Bob Marley’s brown silk shirt with a cigarette-like burn hole in the right sleeve–not far from one of Elton John’s outfits and very near the American flag-lined jacket Bono wore at Superbowl XXXVI. There are long metal lockers full of the wardrobes to the stars. The studded, glittering, gilded and fringed “wrappings” of rock history.

Click here to http://www.rockhall.com/