Movieland Wax Museum is auctioning off their statues!

I just heard about this tonight. Movieland Wax Museum (MWM) that used to be in Buena Park will be selling off their collection of wax statues.

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=110235

What is particularly amazing to me is that I hadn't thought about this museum for many years, then just found out this week that it had closed recently (along with Magic Mountain, Van Nuys Busch Gardens, and a few other major theme parks I knew from the past but was unaware they had closed), and just last night I had been wondering what they did with all their wax figures. For anyone interested in that museum or such things, this auction should be a once-in-a-lifetime event. I visited MWM only once, in 1976, and since it was one of the last places I ever visited with my dad before he died, that place has some indirect significance for me even though I'm not particularly interested in movie memorabilia.

Ableauctions to Host Movieland Celebrity Wax Museum Auction on eBay Live Auctions -- Take Advantage of This Event, and Take Hollywood Home

BUENA PARK, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 02/16/2006 -- Ableauctions.com (AMEX: AAC), through their subsidiary iCollector.com, announced today it will host the Movieland Wax Museum auction for Asset Reliance, Inc. on March 11, 2006. This promising event holds the opportunity to bring movie stars such as Marilynn Monroe, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Mae West, John Travolta, the Little Rascals, "Star Trek" crew members, and Burt Reynolds to your home.

Asset Reliance and the Movieland Wax Museum will also auction movie props, wax figures, autographed celebrity photos, and the opportunity to purchase exact marble carved replicas of Michelangelo's "the David" and "the Pieta."

Movieland Wax Museum opened their doors in 1962 showcasing nearly 300 wax figures, proving to be the largest wax museum in the United States for 43 years while hosting 10 million visitors. Sadly they closed their doors October 31, 2005 to be replaced by an entertainment centre and pizza parlor.

Asset Reliance, as a full service valuation research and asset disposition firm, has been in the business of providing services such as: liquidations and auction services, remarketing, surplus equipment buying, asset brokerage, and inventory and business appraisals for almost 15 years. Asset Reliance has, in this time, developed one of the world's largest proprietary databases of equipment costs and remarketing sources.

For more information on this auction visit http://www.icollector.com

About iCollector.com

iCollector.com is the pre-eminent supplier of live online auction technology and services to some of the world's most prestigious galleries and industrial auction houses and operates one of the largest eBay Live Auction sales and support centers in the world. It is the only auction technology company to be endorsed by the National Auctioneers Association (NAA) and has partnered with eBay Live Auctions in streamlining the process of broadcasting auctions real-time on the Internet. iCollector's technology enables auction houses to open their establishments to the world by allowing online bidders to participate in real-time on the auction floor.

Visit http://www.icollector.com or (www.icollector.com/ourTechnology.aspx)

One of the items being sold in the Movieland Wax Museum auction is a tiki set - a couple of tiki poles, fake palm tree, and backdrop of a setting sun.

It was formally used to display a Tom Selleck wax figure, which is not included in the sale.

http://www.icollector.com/viewCatalogItem.aspx?auctionSessionid=10798&itemlotid=5425317¤tPage=1&pageSize=25

Vern

Those are defiately "Movieland" Tikis.

Finally! I now have a space for my Popylop wax statue!

That's great JV!

Today's the day of the auction...I've been watching the bidding off and on...an Elizabeth Taylor figure sold for $25,000, and the David statue from out front sold for $120,000. I just wonder where that's going to go...it's 18 feet tall and weighs 10 tons.

Kinda makes me sad, to something classic go by the wayside...I did go on the next to last day that it was open, to see it all one last time. :(

I wonder how much they want for OJ Simpson's head! I don't have much space left in my bar, but I DO think I could make room for that. Plus it's wax. I could make a candle out of it. What a great conversation piece...wha'.

O.J. Simpson's head was sold for $500.

Leonard Nimoy only got $450 for his head.

The ones that sold for a higher price than O.J. were
John Travolta ($750),
Tom Cruise ($800),
Frankenstein ($700),
the Wolfman ($1100),
the possessed girl from the Exorcist($650),
an anonymous horror grotesque head ($700),
and scariest of all, the head of Carl Karcher, the founder of Carl Jrs Restaurants ($650)

The head of Jayne Mansfield was not up for sale.

Vern

So, has anybody ever disclosed whether all those statues are anatomically correct? Disneyland's figures are not, I hear, but I suspect a lot of buyers are going to find out firsthand, soon. :)

But seriously, I really lament the passing of any longstanding attraction like that. One thing that strikes me, though, is that a number of the films whose scenes they depicted are not even available on DVD, notably "Trader Horn," which was the forerunner of the Tarzan movies. You would think that the movies they chose would be all classics that would be the first to be reproduced in any new medium. Another such example is "The Singing Nun," whose scene I remember from my 1976 visit, and whose movie I never saw.

There is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel...some of the wax figures have been purchased by people who will be putting them on public display. Newport Beach's developer Burnham USA Equities, who has submitted plans to transform the Movieland site into a restaurant and retail center, purchased the figures of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Christopher Reeve, Michael Myers and the 18 foot tall David statue. Their bidder, Bryan Ward, stated "By preserving a component of Movieland to the people who experienced that sort of bittersweet departure in something that's been in the city for so long, we can blend the old and the new."

Movie theater chain owner George Krikorian also purchased a number of figures as well (Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, George Burns, Mary Pickford, WC Fields and the entire Wizard of Oz set) for display in his movie theaters.

At least now Movieland fans will still be to visit some of the figures...

Nothing like digging up a thread that has been inactive for 2 years. But there is stuff from Movieland Wax Museum still being sold out there.

It's not a wax figure but a Harley.

Ebay Motors: Wild Angels Harley

Duplicate of the Dragon Bike used in the movie "Wild Angels"

Wax statue of Nancy Sinatra is not included.

[ Edited by: KING BUSHWICH THE 33RD 2009-03-08 00:05 ]

Ah - I remember that auction - I almost won an Eddie Murphy head. Glad I didn't get it because I don't know what the heck I would have done with it!

On 2009-03-10 00:08, Fres-tiki wrote:
Ah - I remember that auction - I almost won an Eddie Murphy head. Glad I didn't get it because I don't know what the heck I would have done with it!

You could recreate the "head used as a bowling ball" scene from that classic animated feature film "Mad Monster Party".

YouTube: Mad Monster Party

However, I don't know where you would find 4 skeletons wearing Beatle wigs.