The Wisconsin Historical Museum kicked off its seven-month
exhibit capturing the life of comedian Chris Farley Tuesday, displaying
artifacts his family has kept since the Madison native died in 1997.

Leslie Bellais, curator of costume and textiles, said the
museum was going to do an exhibit on famous actors who have their roots in
Wisconsin but decided to focus on Chris because it was able to purchase items
his family kept in his remembrance.

The museum purchased a jacket Chris wore in the 1996 movie,
“Black Sheep” in an auction last year, and the family lent a costume
he wore in the Matt Foley skit on Saturday Night Live and items ranging from a
jacket and hat from the film “Tommy Boy” to his Edgewood High School
football jersey.

Chris was born and raised in Maple Bluff near Madison. He
attended Edgewood High School on Monroe Street and graduated from Marquette
University in 1986 with a degree in communications and theater. He is best
known for his role on Second City, Saturday Night Live and motion pictures like
“Wayne’s World” and “Tommy Boy.” He died at the age of 33
from a drug overdose in 1997.

“The main point we are trying to make about Chris is he
was a Madison and Wisconsin boy through and though,” Bellais said.
“The way (his oldest brother) Tom puts it is he kind of represented
Wisconsin’s zeitgeist. He brought Wisconsin to the general public.”

Tom Farley is currently on a book tour promoting a newly
released biography he co-wrote on his younger brother Chris, titled “The
Chris Farley Show.”

Tom Farley said the book is an oral history of the man who
started his career at the Ark Improv Theater in Madison and is compiled of
countless stories and recollections from Chris’ good friends from all stages of
life.

“You got this picture of who Chris really was … some
funny stories and some tough stories about his struggles,” Tom Farley
said. “There’s a lot of stuff that reflects on this special culture and
place that’s our hometown, Madison.”

From Madison, Farley hit the main stage in Chicago,
appearing in Second City, and was then discovered by Saturday Night Live in
1990.

The exhibit distinguishes different periods in Chris’s life,
starting with growing up in Madison, his Second City and SNL era and his work
with films, concluding with an epilogue with programs from his funeral in
Madison.

“We feel like there’s a very strong connection between
Chris and Wisconsin, and out of all the celebrities that came out of Wisconsin
we picked Chris,” Bellais said. “He continued to love where he came
from even after he became famous.”

Bellais said Chris Farley came back for University of
Wisconsin football games and “loved to party on Regent Street.”

Tom said he has been speaking for 10 years on behalf of the
Chris Farley Foundation, traveling to middle and high schools around the
country talking to teenagers about substance abuse. He said to this day people
approach him saying what a great guy Chris was.

“A new generation is discovering him, so I don’t think
his legacy is going to die very quickly,” Bellais said, referencing the
group of 4th graders who went through the exhibit Tuesday enamored with the
film clips and artifacts from Chris’s life.

The exhibit, located at 30 N. Carroll St., will run through
Nov. 15.