Wax Wonder: Plan Ready for Life of Christ Museum

In Christian circles, the Crystal Cathedral put Orange County on the map. A flock of popular televangelists have helped spread the word.

And now a local amusement industry figure wants to build another kind of shrine--a wax museum that would depict the life of Jesus Christ.

Allen Parkinson, the founder of Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, wants to convert an industrial building here into “The Life of Christ Historical Wax Museum,” along with a separate gallery featuring Latino history and a souvenir shop.

“It’s going to be a lot better than people imagine,” said the 58-year-old Parkinson, who also founded the Japanese Village and Deer Park in Buena Park. Movieland is still open but the Japanese Village has closed.

At this point, however, it may take a few miracles to raise the roof.

First, there’s the matter of money. Parkinson said that, since issuing a prospectus for limited partnership two months ago, he has raised only about $100,000 of the $6 million he needs.

Then there’s the location. Parkinson said that while he has a building picked out on Kraemer Boulevard, he does not plan to try to lease it until he raises the financing.

Lastly, there is his last project--which created controversy and never got off the ground. Two years ago, he proposed a “War and Peace Wax Museum,” including a section on the life of Christ. That wax gallery would have displayed Nazi military leaders of World War II, scenes of Adolf Hitler’s suicide and a concentration camp complete with a soundtrack of moans of dying Jews. Parkinson dropped plans for the museum after local Jewish leaders objected.

But Parkinson, who sold Movieland and the Japanese Village to Six Flags in 1970, dismisses the non-believers and is convinced that the Life of Christ wax museum is a winner.

Featuring almost 350 figures, the new attraction would be the largest wax museum in the world, he said. While the Life of Christ wax figures will be stationary, he said the project will include such special effects as water changing into wine, a thunder and lightning storm, and the sight of Jesus walking on water.

Parkinson emphasizes that the new museum will be an historical account of the life of Christ, rather than religious. He said he plans to make it nonsectarian.

Parkinson said he has put 250 figures for the museum in storage until he can raise enough money by selling limited partnerships to go ahead with the project. With the money in hand, he said he can open the museum in six to seven months.

He said the Kraemer Boulevard site is centrally located near the Orange and Riverside freeways, about 20 minutes from Disneyland. While Movieland draws almost entirely from tourists nowadays, Parkinson said that with the new museum he would try to appeal to locals as well.

Asked about the market for such a museum, Parkinson said the churches are filled on Sundays and the Crystal Cathedral, the massive, glass-walled church built by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller in Garden Grove, packs its pews with hundreds of thousands who turn out for the annual Christmas and Easter series of shows at $10 to $25 a ticket.

“Very few people know the life of Christ,” said Parkinson, a non-practicing Mormon who said he is developing the museum for investment purposes rather than out of any religious conviction. “I don’t think anyone knows the chronological life of Christ.”

To help them along, Parkinson said he plans to sell “The Book of Scenes” in the gift shop that describes each of the 58 wax scenes at the museum. The book, he said, would be easier to read and understand than the Bible.

The gift shop itself would be something of a showplace, he said, with chandeliers and marble floors.

For his latest undertaking, Parkinson said he hopes to capitalize on the Latino market by building the Latin Historical Wax Museum adjoining the Life of Christ galleries. He said that museum would be advertised in the Spanish media only and would feature figures ranging from Mexican hero Benito Juarez to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Movieland owner Ronald M. Fong said he admires Parkinson’s fertile imagination and added that he does not believe a Life of Christ museum would cut into Movieland’s patronage.

“I think it is two completely different markets,” he said. “Some people want to see movie stars and others want to see religious (figures).”

He said he believes the Life of Christ museum could be successful. “It’s the closest thing to being in church without being in church,” he said.