The Plaza Wax Museum and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum in San Antonio combine for a tour of the weird and unusual. Visitors come face to face with realistic wax reincarnations of celebrities in one museum and then wander the corridors of Ripley’s Odditorium that makes the guests on The Sally Jessy Raphael Show look normal.
If the legend of the African fertility statues in the museum’s lobby is true, then San Antonio might be seeing an increase in the number of births in a few months. Through Dec. 31, the pair of 5-foot-tall wooden sculptures will be freely available to the public. Hundreds of women around the world have credited the statues, at least in part, in helping them get pregnant since the two began traveling to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museums. “A couple is traveling from Florida just to touch the statues in hopes of becoming parents,” says Janie Droemer, marketing director of the San Antonio museum.
It seems that the primary audience for these two museums would be visitors between 9 and 18 years old, but all ages will find something of interest in the hundreds of displays and exhibits. In fact, some of the figures like Mae West and W.C. Fields might not be recognizable to the younger crowd. It’s a great way to spend a couple of hours when the weather outside is too cold, too wet, or even too hot.
The museums are conveniently located across the street from the Alamo in downtown San Antonio. This makes for a perfect combination of Texas history and history as entertainment. It could be a good way to occupy restless students during school holidays.
Making wax models is an intricate art form, Droemer says. First the face is sculpted in clay and a plaster mold is made. Real hair is inserted one at a time in the wax figure. To give the models a lifelike appearance, the glass eyes used are the same as those sold by prosthetics companies. With only a couple of exceptions, the famous figures are only head and hands; the bodies are wire frames beneath the clothes.
With more than 250 wax sculptures in the collection, all of the usual suspects are present, from Sandra Bullock to Teddy Roosevelt. The Freedoms Journey section chronicles the march of time in the U.S. from the Pilgrims to President Clinton’s impeachment trials. Some of the figures look remarkably real while others look … well, waxen.
For the small children there is the Land of Make Believe section with characters from their favorite nursery rhymes. For the older kids the horror section is a series of wax monsters behind doors and in sets that are more apt to amuse than frighten anyone who has seen any of the Halloween movies.
Of course, the wax museum has more than its share of Texas history exhibits. There is a section on the Alamo. The section of statues of Mexican heroes might actually educate those not familiar with history from south of the border. With murals painted by local artists Wendy Carter and Connie Brenner, some of the exhibits are exceptionally beautiful and well executed.
Robert Ripley spent more than 40 years searching the globe for the facts and artifacts that would amaze and astound. After a failed professional baseball career, Ripley landed a job as a sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Beginning in 1918, his “Believe It or Not!” cartoon made him a household name. At its peak the feature appeared in more than 300 newspapers around the world and in 17 different languages.
From newspapers, books, and comic books, Ripley’s empire migrated to radio and then television. In 1949, the explorer and cartoonist was given one of the first weekly live television slots. He died of a heart attack on the air during the 13th episode.
The first Ripley’s Odditorium appeared at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933. He soon opened six museums around the country to display his vast collection of unusual items. The first franchised museum opened in Newport, Oregon, in 1986, and the San Antonio facility opened in 1987 with more than 500 Ripley artifacts. Today there are 25 Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museums in 10 countries.
The Plaza Wax Museum and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum are at 301 Alamo Plaza. The attractions open daily at 9am with closing times varying according to season. Tickets to both museums are $15.95 for adults and $7.95 for children ages 4-12. Single museum tickets are $11.95 and $4.95. For more information call, 210/224-9299 or go to www.plazawaxmuseum.com.
547th in a series. Day Trips, Vol.2, a book of Day Trips 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
This article appears in November 30 • 2001.
