Movieland Wax Museum

The Movieland Wax Museum opened in Buena Park in nineteen sixty-two, just as Southern California tourism was exploding alongside Disneyland seven miles to the east. Founder Allen Parkinson filled a converted building with wax figures of Hollywood's biggest stars posed on elaborate studio-style sets, complete with fog machines, dramatic lighting, and authentic costumes donated by the studios themselves. At its peak the museum housed more than three hundred figures, from Marilyn Monroe to Charlton Heston to the cast of Star Trek, making it one of the largest wax museums in the world.

For four decades it was a required stop on the Southern California family vacation circuit. But by the early two thousands attendance had collapsed as newer theme parks took their toll. Movieland closed quietly in October two thousand five.

The figures were auctioned off; some were acquired by competing attractions, others vanished into private collections.