HORROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM

The ultimate Disney collectable ––– DISNEY!

Some people are happy with a stuffed toy of Mickey Mouse, but if you crave something more memorable – something that is totally, utterly and ultimately DISNEY – then this, surely, is it! 

Pop along to the upcoming Hollywood Extravaganza Famous Movie Props and Costumes auction on 27 June, at Premiere Props, 128 Sierra Street, El Segundo, California, USA, you have the opportunity to bid on the chance to have a legendary movie-maker living in your home!

Here's what the catalogue says about this unusual auction item...

Description: WALT DISNEY WAX FIGURE BY KATHERINE STUBERGH

This one-of-a-kind life-size piece was made by famed wax figure artiste Madame Katherine Stubergh, likely in the 1950s. Stubergh was a celebrity in her own right and it was considered a huge honor to be immortalized in wax by her.

This figure, which stands 5'9" (exactly Disney's height), was sculpted by Stubergh herself using an actual life mask cast from Disney's face. (Fans have been desperately searching for a life mask of Disney and now at last it has been found.) After the mold was pulled from his face, Stubergh used all her skills to recreate the studio mogul in exacting detail.

Once the sculptures were finished and approved, Mr. Disney sat live with the artist in Stubergh's Studio as she meticulously painted the face and hands to exactly match Disney's skin tones, then hand-punched the exact shades of human hair one at a time into the wax head to complete the sculpture. 

Estimated Price: $20,000 - $40,000

And everyone always used to say Disney was frozen! Ha!

Prospective buyers click here

CELEB-SPOTTING FOR DUMMIES

I hadn't been to Madame Tussauds for years. How can anyone (who actually lives in Britain) ever go to Madame Tussauds? I mean, joining an interminable queue of Overseas Tourists in order to be able to gawk at wax effigies of the famous and the infamous...

Preposterous!

Out of the question!

However, when one happens to be an Overseas Tourist in Holland and one happens to have a coupon for €3 off the admission price to Madame T's place in Amsterdam and (best of all) there happens not to be an interminable queue, then why not stop by for a quick gawk...

So that's what we decided to do.




There was, I admit, some trepidation amongst our party that it might turn out to be full of waxwork likenesses of newsmen and weather girls from Dutch TV (and I think there may have been one or two) or - a personal fear - that we'd be staring at rather too many footballers, golfers and tennis players, but not so!

By and large, it proved reasonable easy to spot Who's Who --- or, for those who have seen better days (or have gone in for a little too much cosmetic surgery), Who Used To Be Who...



Mind you, one would have thought that, theoretically, it ought to be relatively easy (and certainly painless) for a waxworks to have plastic surgery! But I digress...

There were a couple of mild shocks to the old British Ego when we discovered that not only was our Own Dear Queen nowhere to be found within the hall of International Leaders but that the House of Windsor was solely represented by Diana, the late and former Princess of Wales.

Also, while a whole slew of European leaders were busily jostling with one another for preeminence, the most recent British politician on duty was this one...


Anyway, enough carps and cavils. There were two things which made Mme Tussauds' Amsterdam salon especially worth a visit: firstly it was a lot smaller and more intimate than the vast, exhausting mausoleum on London's Baker Street; and, secondly, it was possible to get very Up Close and Personal with the stars and celebrities - in fact many of them were posed to be posed with. So, once you get the hang of that and realise that Everyone is Doing It, you just join in...

And we did!

Since contemporary singers habitually seem to record duets with deceased singing legends, I decided to sing-along with Pavarotti...


(Notice how my hand looks rather more waxy than Luciano's... Strange!)

And I also took the Mona Lisa Smile Test...


David spent most of his time being our personal paparazzi, so didn't get photographed as much as some other people, but he did have a stare-out contest with Tom Hanks...


...and reacquainted himself with Kylie...


(And here's where to look if you happened to miss their first *magical* meeting.)

But, without doubt, it was BUTTONS who had the best time of all, seen here meeting  another larger-than-life personality...

Buttons posed with (nearly) everyone and his personal blog is simply stuffed with More Photos of his time with the stars! So, check it out!

Images: © David Weeks & Brian Sibley, 2007

WAXING PATHETICAL

THE ROYAL SCANDAL YOU NEVER READ ABOUT...

A few years ago, my good friend, Donald, achieved a moment of unexpected - nay, unprecedented - intimacy with Her Majesty the Queen, while the late Queen Mother looked on with evident amusement, possibly even delight...


Yes, well, as you probably guessed this photo was actually taken during a royal audience at that London emporium run by Madame Tussaud.

Now, I'm aware that Vincent Price knew all about the horror of the wax museum, but I doubt even he would have credited some of the horrors I recently ran across on a site devoted to the inhabitants of Josephine Tussaud's Royal London Wax Museum in Victoria, British Columbia.

This remarkable attraction - not to be miussed next time you're in Victoria, BC - offers several fascinating revelations: such as the fact that attendees at The Last Supper had place names...


...that Churchill told FDR exactly what he thought of him...


...that the cast of Bonanaza were actually aliens...


...and that Walt Disney wore a 'Walt Disney' tie - presumably in case you didn't recognise him by the stuffed mice on his shoulders!