Hot Springs, AR is very special and unique tourist town. One of its premier attractions (in my opinion) is the Josephine Tussaud Wax Museum.
JT's Wax Museum is a perfect time capsule. It is definitely part of the dieing breed of old school Wax Museum that used to dot the tourist roadside, however, where many Wax Museums of this ilk are in fairly rough shape, JT's Wax Museum looks to be in the same condition it did in its hay day. The figures appears fairly well maintained. The displays are logical and professional, and the glass sooooooooo clean. That fact that the glass is clean may seen like an odd compliment, but all to often the Wax Museums I visit have glasses cases that are clouded with weird fog and grease. The windex budget of JT's must be through the roof. While so many of these classic Wax Museums are now found in severe disrepair, JT's appears as though it did in the golden days.
While Tussaud is the name in the Wax Museum industry, Josephine's is not associated with the much larger corporate Madame Tussauds chain of museums. Josephine is a relative of the Madame, so I guess Wax talent runs in the blood.
The museum is immediately dated when the first thing you see walking in is Jimmy Carter.
On the opposite side of the lobby is eternal icon of manliness Steve McQueen.....
So, you pay your admission and walk past Jimmy Carter and head your way up the stairs. While walking up the stairs you are flanked by a broken escalator with a parade of Stars of the Past, that set the tone for rest of the museum.
We see such celebrities as Clark Gable...
Louis Armstrong....
This.....nice lady......
And this other nice lady............
These people....
And one of the Popes.....
Hanging about the archway at the top of the escalator is Mr. Jesus himself.....
There are several other Jesuses as well.....
One of the more Unique displays is a tableaux of radical prohibitionist Carrie Nation wrecking a bar with her trademark hatchet.
Scaring the dickens out of this poor showgirl....
We have Jesse James and the Garfunkel to his Simon: Frank James......
The Wright Brothers...........
Then there is this guy, who much to my shock was NOT Pounce De Leon.......
That's actually Hernando DeSoto. I guess Pounce De Leon wasn't the only guy to discover a spring while wearing a weird old timey metal hat.
Then of course we have our normal gang of Wax Museum regulars......
Albert Einstein.....
Elvis Presley......
This fat guy that's in every Wax Museum....
Mark Twain.....
and his little buddies Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn............
Napoleon stands above the Hall of Battles............
The Civil War exhibit features a rotating tent that features both Grant and Lee, a nice artistic choice.
Like most old school Wax Museum LT's has a Chamber of Horrors....
Their Chamber is extremely old school. Instead of focusing of scenes from movies, instead they focus on acts of torture, which harkens back to the earliest days of wax works.
Check out the gruesome "Algerian hook"
Which I admit, gave me a little chuckle when I saw the expression on this poor guys face....
There is a sprinkling of monsters to keep horror fans happy....
Of course a Wax Museum wouldn't be complete without a look at the presidents.....
Lincoln is featured here in the classic "assassination pose".....
Because of the fact the Bill Clinton actually grew up in Hot Springs, he is featured prominently.....
A sparkling new Obama shows that the museum does have some interest in keeping things modern....
The museum's final section is the World of Make Believe.....
The section features some unique Wax Figures from Fairy Tales.......
Check out Geppetto's Shack.....
No one tell Disney's lawyers............
The Mad Tea Party display is pretty awesome....
Then we have Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.......
The Dwarves are actually mounted on a rotating carousel. Check it out.
Overall, I strongly recommend this Wax Museum. There may be a day in the near future where you will not be able to find an old school wax museum in this condition.
The Carpetbagger
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