Thursday, January 22, 2009

Niagara Falls' Movieland Wax Museum of the Stars: Wacky and waxy

Martin Lombard Senescu, a gentle man, a dedicated curator of "Murder's Row" in Ferguson's Wax Museum. He ponders the reasons why ordinary men are driven to commit mass murder. But Mr. Senescu does not know that the ground work has been laid for his own special kind of madness and torment in... the Twilight Zone. -- Rod Serling

Jim Carrey

Forest Gump

Brad Pitt


Harry Potter



Austin Powers



Kenny Rogers



Barbra Streisand


Some things are so deliciously awful, they're exquisite. This is usually the case with wax museums. Even really good ones usually seem just a little bit off. Like, how come so much painstaking attention is given to facial detail when the wax figure is only 4 and a half feet tall? I mean, I know Tom Cruise is short, but he's not that short. The Canadian side of Niagara Falls has a good bad wax museum called Movieland Wax Museum of the Stars. You want stars? They got 'em, all staring weirdly out at you with unlifelike hair and a yellow pallor. Wax museums also remind me of the scariest episode of the Twilight Zone I've ever seen. It's called "The New Exhibit" and it's the one with Martin Balsam where he's a wax museum curator and his museum is going to be demolished. He can't bear the thought of his wax "friends" being thrown out like so much summer squash, so he takes his chamber of horrors home with him to his nagging wife. They're broke but he keeps them in an air-conditioned basement and one by one they come to life and kill people. Now, I was about six years old when I saw this episode. My mom, the parent with good judgement, must have been out of the room and my dad, being a true dad, let me stay up way past my bedtime and watch the scariest show ever broadcast on television. I literally had nightmares about that one, and I'm sure Dad got an earful from Mom about it, too. Here's the Movieland wax museum's website: http://www.cliftonhill.com/niagara_falls_attractions/movieland_wax_museum/

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Gunnar and Sherry,
How can I get in touch? Do you have an email address? I've had a look on the site without much luck. I am writing from a TV company in the UK and would like to speak to you about the images on the site.
Would be great to hear from you ASAP.
Thanks,
Niki

Niki Xeno said...

Hi Gunnar and Sherry,

I posted a message yesterday. Do the above photos belong to you? If not, please could you let me know where they are from? We want to feature them on a TV show called Frank Skinner’s Opinionated – to air in the UK on the BBC – so I am trying to trace the source. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

You can email me at frankskinneraudience@avalonuk.com.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Thanks,

Niki

Avalon TV