When it comes to wax museums, people typically love 'em or hate 'em. I’m in the former camp, as I believe they are (if done properly) an art form. Creating a life-like representation of someone in wax is not easily done, and includes not only the face, but body, hands, clothing, and setting. Overall, the now defunct Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park did a damn good job. This batch of November 1976 images show you some of their finer work. Here is their depiction of W.C. Fields as he looked in the movie “Poppy.”
Good job on the face!
Look at the detail on the bottle which also includes a poppy:
Even the clapboard is accurate in the information that it provides:
The Marilyn Monroe figure isn’t too bad; definitely successful with the hair, costume, and the body:
The face is just a bit off though; I can’t quite put my finger on it but her face looks a little manly to me.
“The Beverly Hillbillies” tableau is a complete winner:
Granny (Irene Ryan) was captured to perfection!
Last but not least is the Shirley Temple area of the museum. The scenery provides a whimsical background for the most popular child star ever with a nod to her hit song “On the Good Ship Lollipop.” Maybe someone should have told the set designers that the ship was referring to an airplane.
As far as Shirley herself goes, they truly did an outstanding job with the face, body, hair (and that’s not an easy hairdo to successfully recreate!), and clothes:
See more vintage Movieland Wax Museum photos at my main website.
