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There’s a place in Florida that just exudes romance.

It’s not a pretty sunset. It’s not a beach full of beautiful women. It’s a museum. But this museum is not a stuffy, musty place filled with artifacts of the past.

This museum, billed as the largest celebrity museum in Florida, extols the career of the first actor to be paid a million dollars for a movie. That actor is Burt Reynolds, and can you believe Florida’s best-known male sex symbol is past 70?

It seems like only yesterday that Reynolds was discovered by Joanne Woodward (Mrs. Paul Newman) and wound up playing the blacksmith on TV’s ‘Gunsmoke’, one of the more popular series of the 1960s.

The 5,000-square-foot Burt Reynolds and Friends Museum in Jupiter displays what you might expect of a movie celebrity: Memorabilia from unforgettable films (‘Deliverance’ – 1972), a few forgettable films that I won’t mention, and parts of his life that he would not want me to mention.

The 1970s were Burt’s heyday. After ‘Deliverance’, he became the biggest box-office attraction for several years, aided by his 1972 nude centerfold in Cosmopolitan Magazine. Who can forget ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ (1977), ‘Gator’ (1976) and ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’ (1982)?

Most actors who worked with him on movies, many of whom came to Jupiter to help him teach younger wannabes, liked Burt. His website gives two examples:

Frank Sinatra: ‘Burt Reynolds is everyman. He is the one the ladies want to dance with and their husbands like to drink with. He is the larger-than-life actor of our time.’

Elizabeth Taylor: ‘Burt Reynolds is one of the most considerable actors of today. His sense of wicked wit mixed with vulnerability equals pure enchantment.’

With profits from his heyday, in 1978 Reynolds built the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater near his Jupiter ranch. He was born in Lansing, MI, and grew up in Riviera Beach, where his half-Cherokee father was police chief, but he has always called this place in Florida home. He lives in nearby Tequesta now.

Reynolds’ career (and his love life) has had a lot of ups and downs. His romances are legendary (Dinah Shore – 19 years his senior, Judy Carne, Chris Evert and another he’d like to forget: Pam Seals).

The roller-coaster ride in his career started with the tumultuous breakup of his marriage to Loni Anderson, sending his career into a nosedive leading to his filing for bankruptcy in 1996, declaring $10 million in debts. Along the way, the ranch fell by the wayside.

Through all the ups and downs, Reynolds won a 1991 Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (‘Evening Shade’), and in 1997 was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in ‘Boogie Nights’. The collection of memorabilia in the museum includes an award he is especially proud of: No. 1 Box Office Star for five consecutive years, a record unmatched in Hollywood.

Reynolds parlayed his 1992 Emmy into a $500,000 one-year contract to promote Florida citrus, but a year later the bitter Loni Anderson divorce killed that contract, as well as one with Quaker State Motor Oil Corp.

When financial problems forced Reynolds to move from the ranch in 1998, all of his memorabilia was placed in storage. It stayed there until 2002, when Jupiter – always proud of its famous resident, despite his ordeals — offered him an old bank building for a museum at the major intersection of U.S. 1 and Indiantown Road ‘in recognition of his cultural contributions’.

No surprise. No other celebrity has brought more attention to this place in Florida, including the late Perry Como, who also called Jupiter his home. During the 1980s and ’90s, when Burt was living on his ranch, he was bringing in millions in movie revenue to Palm Beach County.

More change is on the horizon. His museum may be displaced by a new upscale development called Harbourside. Burt and the developers have been talking about relocating the museum in the development, but no decision has been reached.

Mike Daniel, the museum’s manager, says Burt is determined to stay in Jupiter. That’s partly because the museum is such an ego trip for him. He thinks he owes a lot to this place in Florida, even though the museum attracts only about 100 visitors a week.

That’s too bad, because there’s a lot to see. The walls are full of pictures of movie stars Burt has worked with. There’s even a full-sized stagecoach; a replica of a saddle worn by Trigger, Roy Rogers’ horse; and scads of high school football and acting trophies.

Sports have long been one of Burt’s passions. He played football at Florida State University (all-conference halfback) and in 1955 was drafted by the Baltimore Colts before an accident ended his sports career. Historical tidbit: His FSU roommate was Lee Corso of ESPN fame.

Reynolds’ loyalty to Florida State’s theater program is unsurpassed. He donated $1 million to Florida State’s theater program at Asolo Theater in Sarasota.

‘If I hadn’t been an actor,’ Reynolds says, ‘I would have been a coach. And I would have been a good one.’

“2009 Gene Ingle” You may reprint this article on your site, blog, autoresponder, etc., so long as you leave all the links in place” including the link to http://www.gipublications.com – and do not edit or modify the content.

Gene Ingle, an expert on places to see in Florida, is an award-winning writer-cartographer who has driven nearly a million miles in Florida researching places on maps you probably never heard of. This place in Florida is one of 213 featured in ‘The Famous Florida Trivia Game’ available at http://www.ebookserendipity.com – Test your knowledge. It’s fun and it’s free.