Movieland Wax Museum - Chamber of Horrors

Since Halloween is less than two weeks away, let's do another SCARY Movieland Wax Museum post!

The museum's Chamber of Horrors used to feature Elvira greeting guests at it's entrance.

Elvira even appeared in person at the unveiling of her wax likeness.

Her hand and footprints still exist in the cement out in front of the old museum building.....or what's left of the building. (As of today, the facade is still standing, but a large portion of the building behind the facade is currently being demolished. I'm not sure if any part of it will be kept, or if it is all going to be coming down. Hopefully, the celebrity hand and footprints out front will be preserved!)

I took that first Elvira photo during a visit to the museum back in 1991. I took the following two pics during my next visit which was in October of 2005, just a few days before the museum closed forever. At some point during those 14 years between my visits, Elvira was removed from the museum altogether (why?) and replaced with Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolfman.

During a visit back in 1976, I had my picture taken with the Wolfman in the museum's "Monster Photo Gallery".

I found a similar shot for sale on eBay.

During that same visit back in 1976, my brother had his picture taken with the Frankenstein figure. Unfortunately, he can't find it, but a friend of mine gave me permission to post his souvenir photo of him with his brothers. I actually posted this one previously in my Movieland Wax Museum's Haunted House & Frankenstein post from last October.

Dracula "meets" the Mummy (Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, respectively). These next two photos were taken in the Chamber of Horrors in 2005.

Dracula and his victim had originally appeared in a different setting as seen in this vintage postcard.

This photo of the Phantom of the Opera (Lon Chaney Sr.) and actress Mary Philbin as "Christine," was also taken in 2005.

Here's the official postcard shot of the same scene.

Vincent Price from House of Wax, taken in 2005:

Notice how the set had changed from when this professional shot was taken.

Norman Bates isn't quite himself today! This is how the Anthony Perkins figure appeared in 2005.

The scene was quite different back when this postcard shot was taken. Note the Psycho House up on the hill outside the window, and also the stuffed bird under glass on the table.

Michael Myers from the movie, Halloween:

And last but not least, we have Linda Blair (not credited on the clap board) from The Exorcist. The head on this figure rotated 360 degrees. Too bad it didn't also spew pea soup out of it's mouth!

Movieland has now been closed 11 years this month. The old sign is still standing (for now) out front. As you can see, a Starbuck's sign has been added to it. Starbuck's moved into the former Movieland gift shop (Starlite Gifts) long before the museum closed and it is still open for business today.

A theater complex and a butterfly pavilion are supposedly going to replace the former museum building. As mentioned earlier, this facade is also still standing at the moment. However, the letters on top of the building were recently removed. Last weekend, I shot some photos and video footage of certain parts of the museum being demolished. I will try to get those posted in the near future, if anyone is interested.

If you are an Elvira fan and want to watch a pretty funny clip of her interacting with her wax figure live at Movieland Wax Museum, you can click on the link below. It is from her official "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" Facebook page, so you will probably need to be a member of Facebook in order to view it: Elvira on TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes.

1967 Universal Studios - The Psycho House

Lately, it seems that one post leads me to an idea for my next post. In my last post, I ended with a photo of "Bates Motel" matchbooks that were sold in the early '90s at Universal Studios. This reminded me that somewhere among my family's slides, I had a couple shots of the Psycho house on the Universal backlot. The photos above and below were taken by my dad in 1967, only 3 years after Universal began their backlot tram tour.

Here is a close-up of the Psycho house from the photo above.

The Psycho house exterior originally only consisted of two walls....the left wall and the front of the house. After the filming of Psycho (1960), the house was used in many other movies, television shows and commercials. In 1964, a third wall on the right side of the house was added for the filming of the western film, "Invitation to a Gunfighter." In this film, the house was the home of one of the film's characters (Sam Brewster.) The house did not get a fourth/rear wall added until 1982 when the filming of Psycho II began. At this time, the house was also moved to a new location, where it currently remains today. Prior to 1982, the house sat on the edge of the backlot's "western town" and above what was then called Singapore lake (now used as the Amity set for the "Jaws" portion of the tram tour).

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In addition to the matchbooks mentioned earlier (and pictured here), Universal sold other "Psycho" related merchandise in the '90s. The "Do Not Disturb" sign below was one such item. There were also white bathroom towels with "Bates Motel" embroidered on them which I did not purchase, but now I wish I had!