Collection of 900 movie cameras awaits Guinness acclaim

Richard LaRiviere, 64, is literally a film buff, owning Riverboat Nudist Club in Land O'Lakes and hundreds of movie cameras collected since 1964. Now he's shooting for Guinness World Records fame, displaying more than 900 movie cameras — no duplicate models — this weekend at the reborn Beaux Arts gallery, 709 S. Missouri Ave. in Clearwater. The current record is 600. The official count will be taken tonight at 8 p.m., with results sent to Guinness for verification and possible inclusion in its next annual roundup of records. The camera exhibit — along with props from such films as The Corpse Bride and Cleopatra — is part of a weekend celebration of Beaux Arts reopening. Doors open today and Saturday at 6 p.m.; Sunday at noon to 6 p.m. Admission is $10 for a three-day ticket. Beaux Arts used to be a St. Petersburg cultural institution where artists including Jim Morrison, Jack Kerouac and Marilyn Monroe hung out, ironically, to escape cameras.