Motown museum spruced up

DETROIT, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- The Motown Museum in Detroit is looking good these days, having been given a bit of a make-over in anticipation of the record label's upcoming 50th anniversary.

While Motown Records, which turns 50 next year, moved out in 1972, first heading west to Los Angeles and then east to New York, the house has been holding its own as a museum since 1985.

The museum's gift shop, in particular, was jazzed up during a monthlong renovation -- with fresh paint, lighting, shelving and new lines of merchandise, The Detroit News reported Saturday.

Museum Chief Executive Officer Audley Smith and Director Robin Terry are anticipating a busy fall and winter. There is the museum's 2008 fundraiser Nov. 13, at Arturo's jazz club in Southfield, where the Velvelettes will perform, and Smith said "there will be something happening here on Jan. 12," which is the date in 1959 that Berry Gordy got an $800 loan from his family to buy the house that became Motown Records.