BRANSON — Nearly 2,000 people lined sidewalks and hillsides Friday to see TV icon Regis Philbin and help christen the new ship-shaped Titanic: The Legend Continues interactive museum.

Norma Burch, who drove from Danville, Ill., was one of the fans who came to see Philbin. The retired grocery store service manager is a member of his fan club and got a mailing about the grand opening and a concert put on by Philbin and his wife, Joy.

The museum, she said, "is awesome. I had seen a traveling Titanic display in Tampa, but they didn't have nearly the artifacts they have here."

The attraction features more than 400 artifacts including deck chairs, jewelry, dinnerware, life jackets, menus and personal letters.

The artifacts were not recovered from the sea floor but were taken off the ship by passengers or crew members, saved while the ship was being built or were found floating in the debris field by other ships.

The museum is designed as both attraction and memorial. Visitors are assigned the name of a passenger when they enter. Only when they leave do they learn whether their counterpart survived when the ship sank.

TITANIC FASCINATION

The new attraction was designed to celebrate the people on the ship, organizers said. It also has interactive exhibits to give children a sense of the ship.

One of the visitors didn't need much help. Fourteen-year-old Dylan Neal has been interested in the Titanic since he was 4 years old and saw his first book about the ship, said his mom, Donna Neal. The family traveled from Indianapolis to see the display.

"We think maybe he was on it because he knows too much about it," she said.

"It's because of its enormous size," Dylan said, quoting statistics on the ship's length. "And because it was an enormous tragedy."

He'd like to get a job at the new attraction: "I would gladly move here," Dylan said.

Dylan said he also was thrilled that Regis Philbin — who stood in the sun and wind for 30 minutes signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans — autographed his Titanic T-shirt.

TITANIC IMPACT

Philbin and his wife, Joy Philbin, are longtime friends of the attraction's owners, John and Mary Kellogg Joslyn. Mary Joslyn retired two years ago after 20 years with the Walt Disney Company, where she was executive in charge of "Live with Regis and Kelly" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."

Her husband, John Joslyn, introduced several collectors who loaned memorabilia for the museum. Joslyn has produced TV specials for 30 years. In 1987, he said, his life was forever changed when he went on an expedition to the site of the Titanic shipwreck and later produced "Return to the Titanic ... Live."

"This has been a 10-year dream, and today that dream came true," Joslyn said.

Also on hand were Muffet Brown and Helen Benziger McKinney, great-granddaughters of Titanic survivor Margaret Brown, who became famous as "the unsinkable Molly Brown" in a movie by that name.

"Almost exactly 94 years ago on a sunny day like today, the citizens of Southampton (England) came out to see the first sailing of the Titanic," Brown said. "The next day in Cherbourg, France, a 44-year-old woman born in Hannibal, Missouri, boarded that ship. She had wonderful expectations of an exciting trip. And she was eager to get home to see her grandson — my father — who had just been born and was sickly.

"She also had the spunkiness from growing up on the Mississippi to take control of her lifeboat, and that's why she became known as 'unsinkable.'"

Brown said, "This is the best of the best collection all in one place. Please, as a community, just treasure this exhibition."

Benziger McKinney said she is often asked why people are still fascinated with the Titanic.

"It's the historical and human factors," she said. "The Titanic crossed national and social boundaries."

Although she never knew her great-grandmother, the saga has touched her as well, she said.

"What I've learned from the Titanic is to hold my husband's hand just a little tighter."

Engineers can build anything, she said. "But what is true is that in the blink of an eye, it can all be gone. Friends and family are the most important thing and really endure."

'HELLO, BRANSON'

Along with christening the museum, the Philbins performed in concert Friday at the Grand Palace with Les Brown's Band of Renown.

"It'll be fun to see who's watching our show in the Midwest," Philbin said.

He said he wasn't certain whether he'd return for future concerts. "I always had the feeling that the country-western folks had it pretty locked up there," he said.

But Philbin may change his mind after the crowd cheered when he and Joy came onto the stage. Some waved signs reading "Tucson Loves Regis," "Whitefish, Montana," and "I wanted to be a millionaire."

"Hello, Branson people," Regis Philbin called to the crowd. "It's great to be back. I enjoyed the drive in from Springfield and to see how the town has expanded so wonderfully."

In 1995, Philbin and his then- co-host Kathie Lee Gifford broadcast live from the Grand Palace, taped two more shows and performed a sold-out concert.

On Friday morning, "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson filled in for Philbin on "Regis and Kelly," and issued a challenge to the absent host who has released two successful albums in the past two years including "When You're Smiling" and "The Regis Philbin Christmas Album."

"Why don't you come on 'American Idol'?" Jackson asked. "You got the albums out now."

Chatting before the grand-opening ceremonies, Philbin answered Jackson's challenge.

"I've just had a better idea," Philbin said. "They should have a celebrity 'American Idol.'"

And he'd try out, he said.

"And if I don't win it, there's something wrong," Philbin said, with his trademark bluster.

Philbin said he'd toured the new attraction and "it's wonderful. It exceeded all my expectations, and it's a great idea. The movie was such a big hit, and the star of the movie was the ship. People fell in love with the ship."

Kathryn Buckstaff