RETAIL/TOURISM : California’s Second Ripley’s Museum Due in Buena Park

San Francisco may still be the only place in California with a Bay Bridge, but Orange County is about to follow San Francisco’s lead and become the state’s second site of a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum.

Fong & Paul Associates, operator of the Movieland Wax Museum on Beach Boulevard, has acquired a franchise from Ripley International Inc., in Toronto, Canada, and plans to open for business in Buena Park in June.

The operators will invest about $250,000 to set up the museum, said marketing director Barry Muszik.

Fong & Paul has retained Irvine’s Jordan-Valli Architects Inc. to develop an 8,500-square-foot facility across the street from Movieland.

There are 13 Ripley’s museums worldwide and five more are being planned, including one each in Japan and Europe, Muszik said.

Ron Fong, president of Fong & Paul Associates, said he is searching for more Hollywood memorabilia to be featured in a special area at the Orange County Ripley’s. In addition to the Hollywood collection, the museum will showcase cultural, political and scientific oddities.