Wax Museum Comes to Life

The 32 wax figures on display at Don Presley’s auction house in Orange tell two historical tales: One set in 19th century Mexico, the other in the Orange County of the 1970s.

The life-size figures were part of the unrealized dream of Allen Parkinson, founder of the Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, who wanted to open a “Latin Historical Wax Museum” to complement Movieland.

According to Presley and documents written by Parkinson, the figures were meant to illustrate the end of the Battle of Puebla in 1862 when Mexican soldiers defeated French troops. The figures depict Mexican soldiers as well as Benito Juarez, the president of Mexico at the time, and Archduke Maximilian and his wife Carlota, who were sent to Mexico by Napoleon III to rule the country.

But the figures were never displayed--until now. When Parkinson sold the wax museum in the early 1970s, the Puebla project was halted. Parkinson had the figures placed in an Irvine storage facility, where they sat in crates for 30 years.

Parkinson, tired of paying for storage, decided this year to get rid of the figures, allowing them to be auctioned, Presley said.

Presley, owner of the Antiques Plus Auction Mart, bought them moments after he saw them, for a sum he declined to disclose.

“I just took them and put them back together, and once I started doing the research into what story they told, I was hooked,” Presley said.

He has spent the last few months restoring the figures. And in the coming weeks, Presley plans to sell them on Ebay, the online auction site.

But before they are sold, he will showcase them at his shop on Katella Avenue.

“I’m hoping a museum or collector will buy them and keep them all together,” Presley said as he touched the coat of a Mexican soldier.

“I didn’t know anything about Mexican history until now. I thought, until they are sold, people should have the opportunity to see them together. There’s a lot to learn.”