Waxing Nostalgic

George, Kramer, Elaine and Jerry pose in a set reminiscent of the final “Seinfeld” episode. The only thing missing is the New York traffic noise, canned laughter and any sign of a pulse.

The latest exhibit at the Hollywood Wax Museum, “Seinfeld” may give Pamela Anderson, and the rest of her sculpted-wax “Baywatch” buddies, a run for their money.

Los Angeles’ most renowned kitsch palace is located in the heart of Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame. Founded by Spoony Singh in 1965, the museum is now run by his three sons. But most of the 170 figures that line the winding halls of this family-run business were created by Logan Fleming. A former billboard artist who made the switch to sculpture in 1962 as a figure maker for Buena Park’s Movieland Wax Museum, Fleming is now on staff at the Hollywood Wax Museum.

Over the course of 35 years, Fleming has rubbed elbows with Hollywood’s top celebrities and rubbed the noses on their wax reincarnations in an effort to make them appear more lifelike.

His first job was to fix a poorly constructed Alan Ladd. “He was a pretty bad likeness,” Fleming says. “He had a long, skinny nose [and] a dark complexion.”

Making improvements to the sculpture, Fleming wasn’t immediately comfortable with wax, so he turned to a more familiar medium.

“I used to work on cars and thought that auto body putty would work well. Sure enough, it did,” the artist says. “John Wayne, Brigitte Bardot and Marilyn Monroe were all made with auto body putty.”

But over time, Fleming learned to work with wax and rebuilt every one of the 180 figures in the now defunct Movieland Wax Museum.

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Only Heads and Hands Are Made of Wax

Fleming isn’t the only sculptor working in wax. Fellow designer Kenneth Horn, a former professional makeup artist on such films as “Conan the Barbarian” and “Superman,” is the Hollywood Wax Museum’s curator in charge of the day-to-day goings-on at the museum.

“Every wax figure artist has to make his own way,” explains Horn, who’s worked at the museum for more than 17 years. “There’s no how-to book.”

The wax used in the figures is limited to head and hands. “Wax is heavy,” Horn says. “To move a pure wax figure takes four or five people.”

A typical figure can take three to four weeks to create. Sculpting breasts and adding muscles takes even more time, as the beefcake-and-bosom spectacle that is the new “Baywatch” set proves.

The first step in building any wax figure is getting accurate measurements, either from personal sittings or from the star’s wardrobe department. Using photographs as a guide, the head is sculpted in clay and plaster molds are cast. Wax is then poured into the molds and pieced together to form a hollow shell. While the eyes are glass, the bodies are generally made out of fiberglass parts pieced together from mannequins.

“Pamela Anderson has a larger chest than any mannequin, so her breasts needed to be created,” says Pamela’s maker, Fleming. He added wax to a hot foil base and blended them with fiberglass to create Anderson’s famous chest. Her head was then attached to the body and the whole figure was oil painted.

“Baywatch’s” lead lifeguard, David Hasselhoff, was even more time-consuming to create than his busty companion.

“David Hasselhoff took nearly two months to complete,” says Fleming. “He’s an outdoor guy who’s in great shape. His chest had to be built up and muscles added. Each hair was individually sewn into his arms and chest.”

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Some Stars Are Happy to Help

Extra care was taken with Hasselhoff. Not only did the actor-producer allow Fleming to measure his face, he came to the museum to pose with his wax imitation.

“It’s always white-knuckle time when a star shows up to see his figure,” says Fleming. “But if I’m fortunate enough to meet the people, I can always put a little more into it. Subtle things, like a smile or how the eyes wrinkle, can create a more realistic representation.”

Some stars, like Jay Leno--who allowed the museum to cast his head--are more than happy to cooperate.

“I think Jay did it to make sure we didn’t exaggerate his chin,” says Horn. “When we made the cast, he held his chin into his neck to de-emphasize its size. It didn’t matter, though. We pulled his chin back out anyway.”

Certain stars devote their personal wardrobes to dress their figures, as Ann-Margret did for hers. Latin stars Celia Cruz and Lucia Mendez, though, take it a step further.

“Whenever they’re in town, they come by the museum and personally change the gowns on their figures,” says Horn.

As certain celebrities change their looks surgically, they encourage the museum to follow suit with their figures.

“When we created Roseanne, she had a nose job and wanted us to give the same treatment to her wax figure,” Horn recalls. “We said no, because we felt that nobody would recognize her with a little nose.”

To lessen headaches, sometimes a figure is removed and the head is put in storage.

“The last two we put away were Charo and Hitler,” says Horn. “Charo was removed because nobody could recognize her anymore. She would come into the museum every so often and demand changes on her face, and eventually nobody knew who the hell she was.”

Hitler was a different story. “People were always spitting on him,” explains Horn. “We got tired of having to clean him up.”

Apparently, the museum has its share of problems with the viewing public. For one, people always want to touch and test the sculptures.

“The hands are generally pretty delicate and the fingers tend to break off,” says Horn. The wax arm of Robin Williams in the “Hook” set has been rubbed and picked so many times by passers-by that the museum is replacing it with a fiberglass one.

But some of the visitors are more mischievous.

“People are always pulling the hair away that covers Catherine Zeta-Jones’ breasts on the ‘Zorro’ set,” says Horn, “And Pamela Anderson’s top is always coming down.”